A FAMILY MERRY CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY CARD ... Jean (Jehan) Fouquet (About 1420 - 1481) painted this Nativity Scene ... Adoration of the Magi some time between 1452 or 1453 (The end of the Hundred Years War) and before 1461 ... It was originally painted for a prayer book for Étienne Chevalier the treasurer to the French King Charles VII .This book was called Heures d'Étienne Chevalier. The painting title is L'Adoration des Mages. Heures d'Étienne Chevalier. Later the illustrations were removed from the book and mounted on wood panels and sold. This work was a bit smaller than 6 inches by ten inches. Jean Fouquet is my great great great great great great great great great great great great great (13 greats) grandfather. His direct descendant Amelia Jane Fuqua (one of 14 children and in the 4th generation in America born with name spelled Fuqua from the French Fouquet) was the paternal grandmother of my Great Grandpa Roswell Evans Johnson. Jean Fouquet was about 8 years younger than Catholic Saint Joan of Arc ... so he was about age 11 when she was burnt alive as a witch by the English forces in Northern France at her age 19. Just two years before her death she had pushed back the English enough to allow the French Prince to be crowned King Charles VII at Reims Cathedral. My 13 great grandfather Jean Fouquet became court painter to King Charles VII and his son King Louis XI. In this painting scene he painted the Three Magi as the King Charles VII and his two sons (including King Louis XI). The king is kneeling upon the French banner of a field of gold fleurs de lis upon the azure blue background. Behind him are his sons and behind them is the Scottish-archer personal-guard to the king who were required to be with the king at all times even his most intimate moments. Behind them are three trumpeters trumpeting the end of a battle possibly meaning the end of the Hundred Years War in France. (King Charles VII inherited the throne in huge part by the help from Saint Joan of Arc.) Behind them is a ruined French castle surrounded by men in battle. The Star of Bethlehem is shown in the sky as a shooting star. In the words at the base you can see the word for Bethlehem and for Herod the king. ... Mark Edward Westerfield. edited 2023, original version 2020