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The Grandes Chroniques de France de Charles V (The Great Chronicle of France of Charles V) was recognised as the standard official history of the French monarchy. By the late 13th century it had become the custom of the monks of Saint-Denis to record remarkable contemporary events. This habit was then systematically continued by court historians, and ultimately developed into a historical project unique in the whole of Europe. Like his predecessors, Charles V was strongly concerned to have a lavish, historically updated new copy of the chronicles made, based on the old repertoire of text. This luxurious manuscript actually consists of two volumes illuminated by numerous anonymous artists in very different styles.
The famous miniature on folio 473v shows a festive banquet held by Charles V in honour of the Emperor Charles IV and his son on Epiphany. The feasting party watches a play about the capture of Jerusalem by Godfrey of Bouillon. The figures in the foreground are on a smaller scale than those in the middleground, in order to show differences of caste and rank. This hierarchical perspective is among the many old-fashioned features of this miniature.
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