ABSTRACT
This study compares court ordinances, chronicles, and state portraits from the Duchy of Burgundy and the Kingdom of Castile to explore the relationship between the sovereigns of these two courts and the painters in their employ. Indeed, the surviving sources that describe the court structure and hierarchies affirm that court painters were among the courtiers who could access the sovereign’s chamber. Since creating the ruler’s image would most probably have required direct contact and interaction with the ruler, there was a practical aspect to painters being granted permission to access the royal apartments and the monarch’s private spaces. Together with court culture and the state portrait, the practice of privacy spread from the Burgundy towards Castille in the last decades of the fifteenth century.
