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The content of this manuscript is a prose romance written in northern France between 1215 and 1235. It is an adaptation of the original Celtic legend on the basis of 12th-century literary precursors in verse form. The prose of Tristan unites three cycles of legends: the Arthurian legend, the fictional history of the Holy Grail and the legend of Tristan.
The Tristan manuscript in Chantilly combines the story of Tristan and Isolde with Arthurian episodes of Lancelot and the Round Table. It was commissioned by Jean du Mas, Seigneur de l'Isle, who was a great enthusiast of chivalric novels. The painter appointed for the miniatures (3 large and 130 smaller miniatures) was Evrard d'Espinques, a competent provincial specialist.
This page is at the beginning of the manuscript (folio 1r). The author is seated to the left of a lavishly decorated room, working on his Tristan romance. He is depicted as a Late mediaeval copyist with a small-scale original above his desk acting as a model for the larger-scale commissioned work below. To the right of this interior scene, the three main heroes of the romance have assembled in their suits of armour as if for a group portrait: Tristan, Galahad and Lancelot.
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