Leaf from Jehan de Courcy's "Chronique Universelle": King Priam Meets Helen and Paris outside the Gates of Troy (c. 1470): Art, History and Details

Leaf from Jehan de Courcy's "Chronique Universelle": King Priam Meets Helen and Paris outside the Gates of Troy (c. 1470) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This miniature depicts the event that started the Trojan War. Helen, a Greek princess famous for her beauty, was loved by the Trojan prince Paris, who carried her off to Troy. Here she is presented to Priam, the King of Troy and father of Paris, outside the city gates. The leaf comes from Jehan de Courcy’s History of Greece and Rome, which relates the events of human history from the Creation to the birth of Christ. This work is also known as the Chronique Universelle (History of the World) de la Bouquechardière, a name that derives from the lands owned by Jehan de Courcy. Secular histories in the late Middle Ages were in great demand among aristocratic patrons.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from Jehan de Courcy's "Chronique Universelle": King Priam Meets Helen and Paris outside the Gates of Troy
• Date: c. 1470
• Culture: Northeastern France, 15th century
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Sheet: 36.3 x 27.2 cm (14 5/16 x 10 11/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1945.16

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Brummer Gallery Records. Cloisters (Museum), n.d.
• Milliken, William. "The 'Matter of Troy.'" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 32, no. 7 (September 1945): 135-137.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.