OF SIX MEDIEVAL WOMEN 



representing Etienne Chevalier himself, in the 

 attitude of prayer, his patron saint, St. Stephen, 

 beside him. There seems reason, however, to 

 suppose that this offering of Etienne's was in 

 fact a triptych, and that the missing wing 

 pictured his young wife, then lately dead (1452). 

 If this was so, Etienne and his wife would have 

 appeared in adoration on either side of the 

 Queen of Heaven, here personated by Agnes 

 Sorel, thus bringing the panel with Etienne's 

 portrait into harmony with the central panel, 

 which otherwise it fails to be. 



Of the miniatures at Chantilly, the whole 

 series of which forms a most tender and rare 

 tribute to wife and friend, only brief mention 

 can here be made of those concerning Agnes. 

 The most simple and beautiful in sentiment and 

 design is that of the Annunciation , in which the 

 seated Virgin, in the likeness of Agnes Sorel, 

 with bowed head receives the angel's message. 

 The scene is laid in a Gothic chapel (perhaps 

 the Sainte Chapelle with slight adaptations to 

 suit the artist's fancy), 1 with statues of the 

 Prophets all around, and Moses, holding the 

 Books of the Law, as the central figure of the 

 group. This assemblage of Old Testament 

 seers certainly typified the Old dispensation, 

 whilst the Annunciation prefigures the New, 

 and to us the whole may not unfitly form an 

 allegory of the new order which Agnes Sorel 

 was to help to bring about. In another minia- 



1 Cf. Grandes Chroniques de France, fol. 292, Bib. Nat. 

 162 



