Intimacy with the prince was a sign of social status and for everyone, whether high or low ranking, it represented a source of informal power, which aroused jealousy and was constantly under threat....

. Further refinements and degrees /p. 84 of hierarchization were introduced: not only were various colours and materials laid down for the robes of the various ranks of nobility and courtly office on ceremonial occasions, but individuals were also assigned to different ante-chambers arranged one after another. Direct access to the prince, whose public and private persona were now becoming more clearly differentiated than before, came to be reserved for the highest ranks

It appears that every type of court/p. 73 duty underwent a revaluation of this kind under Philip the Good and especially under Charles the Bold. The gap between offices and their functions began to close again, as the person of the prince became increasingly sacralized, to the extent that he could be approached only on bended knee and his subjects had to kiss respectfully everything he touched.

Traditionally the royal house, or rather houses, for there were many of them, were divided into two main areas: the service side of the Hall and Kitchens and so on, under the Lord Steward; and the king's apartment or Chamber, under the Lord Chamberlain. The Lord Steward's 'side' handled accounting and household management; while the Chamberlain and his department both staged public ceremony and provided the king's private service. The developments of the fifteenth century put a strain on these arrangements. There was a general seeking for privacy amongst the upper classes, in which the king fully shared. ...
The result was that in probably 1495 Henry VII divided the ceremonial and personal aspects of the Chamber. The most private of his new apartments, the Privy Chamber, was cut off from the rest; closed to all but a handful and given a small and humble staff of its own. Henry VIII kept broadly to this outline, but transformed the Privy Chamber's personnel. He filled the apartment with high-born favourites and boon companions, and gave it an elaborate and largely French structure of office. These changes were more or less complete by 1518, and eight years later they were embodied into a new corpus of household regulations, the Eltham Ordinances. These contrast in every way with the last major set of household ordinances, the Black Book of Edward IV. Instead of being traditionalist and discursive they were bold and innovatory; and instead of dividing the household into two departments, the Household and Chamber, they divided it into three, Household, Chamber, and Privy Chamber.

Georges Chastellain: "After the deeds and exploits of war, which are claims to glory, the household is the first thing that strikes the eye, and that which it is therefore most necessary to conduct and arrange well." [Georges Chastellain, Oeuvres, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove (8 vols., Brussels, 1863-66) V, p. 364]

p. 20: André Beauneveu, after entering the service of Jean de Berry, enjoyed the duke's particular trust; Froissart recounts how he once found the duke in earnest conversation with Beauneveu about painting (Froissart, IV, 14; cf. also Bottineau, Yves, 'L'Architecture des premiers Valois,' GBA 82 (9173 , pp. 237-62, p. 260 n. 42)

p. 40: Classical literature supplied a perfect model for the close relation between the prince and the artist --that between Alexander and Apelles-- which was for centuries to reflect the court artists' perception of themselves. It was the prototype of the court artist's ideal, and every comparison with Apelles was aimed, tacitly or avowedly, at securing a position at court. Petrarch has already compared Simone Martini with Polyclitus, Zeuxis, Praxiteles, and Phidias; he even credited him with 'still higher skill.' Yet on reading Pliny's account of Alexander's close friendship with Apelles, he remarked that something similar had happened in the case of Simone Martini. Describing Giotto's sojourn at the court of Napels, Vasari for the first time drew upon his fund of anecdotes to describe the genial and intimate relations between King Robert and Giotto in terms resembling the ideal realtions between Alexander and Apelles. In Burgundy [sic], where Jean Froissart had found the Duc de Berry on familiar terms with Beauneveu, the brothers Limbourg gave their prince a New Year gift of 'a piece of wood which was painted like a book, but contained no leaves and no writing."

The earliest means that was employed to distinguish the artist from other court servants was the conferment of the title of familiaris or valet de chambre. As a rule these were honorary titles that brought the holder into close contact with the prince, setting him apart from the court as whole and drawing him into the familia domestica that attended to the prince's personal well-being....

p. 115: The title of familiaris has a long tradition and probably still retained its presitigious association when it began to be betowed on commoners about 1300. Charters conferring it are couched in grandiloguent language. Those who were 'nostrae familiaritatis decoratii' were distinguished by special favor, being granted special privileges already enjoyed by the prince's exclusive familia. The fact that lawyers, advisers, poets and humanists were familiares introduced an intellectual element into their circle and associated the prince's entourage with the educational ideal of the day.

p. 116: The other common titles by which the artists could be differentiated from other members of the court was that of valet de chambre or kammerdiener /p. 117. For artists it was used only at northern European courts/ It has no obvious intellectual connotations, but indicates a relationship of personal service founded on trust. In accordance with court ceremonial it afforded the holder easy access to the prince. He was provided with superior clothes so that he could cut a better figure in public. The title was bestowed on him "pour lui aider à s'entretenir son estat, en son service'-- in other words, so that he could hold himself in readiness for service. Appointments as a valet de chambre entailed a special oath and carried special emoluments over and above the painter's regular salary.

p. 124: Like all other court servants, the artist was usually paid a guaranteed salary. Through this the prince met his responsibility for the welfare of his servant, who was bound to him by oath.

p. 125: Once received into the court family, the artist might enjoy benefits adequate to all his material needs, being remunerated in money and in kind. As regards payment in kind, it was of some consequence for the history of art that when the artist became a member of the household the prince had to provide him with suitable accomodation. In Burgundy about 1400 a house was made available not far from the castle and inhabited in turn by Jean de Marville, Claus Sluter, and Cluse de Werve. The artist's right to accomodation, which was met by the gift of a house or contributions towards the purchase or building of one provided him with domestic security.
In 1369 Jean de Bondol received a house in Paris from the king (Meiss, 1969, 22) as did "Pol", the 'peintre du Duc" (perhaps to be identified with Paul Limbourg) from the Duc de Berry in 1409 (ibid, 44).

p.128: Among thebenefits in kind was a regular allocation of clothing. Even where court etiquette did not prescribe specific forms of dress, a member of the court household was expected to be recognizable as such in the world outside. In Burgundy in 1378 thirty france were allocated to Jean de Beaumetz, "paintre et vallet de chambre", "pour lui vestir et estre honorablement en service de Mgr."

p. 130 The court's responsibility for the artist's well-being included the service of the ruler's apothecaries and physicians, as he was notionally a member of the family. By the same token the prince gave him presents when he married, was godfather to one of his children and provided a dowry for /p.131 his daughter on her marriage.{The duke of Burgundy was godfather to a child of van Eyck in 1426}

p. 134: Lifelong provision gave court service a special character that had significant consequence for the court artist. He was paid, not for services rendered, but for his readiness to serve whenever he was required to. A cook or a tailor could be expected to five daily evidence of his skill. But artists had no regular tasks to perform. If they were granted a salary, their only obligation was to hold their talent in readiness until it was called upon. Deeds of appointment did not lay down the artist's obligation to carry out particular tasks, but expressed the expectation that his services would be available when required and that he would perform his task "to the best of his ability, as a diligent and loyal subject';

Van Eyck was given a salary "affin qu'il soit tenu de ouvrer pour lui [the duke] de painture toutes les fois qu'il lui plaira'; in 1427 "tant pour considéracion des bons et agréables services qu'il luy a faitz, tant au fait de son dit office, comme autrement, et pour l'aidier et soustenir et avoir ses nécessitez, afin plus honorablement il le puist servir" {note the parallel of the wording of this document to the burgundian account referring to cleres femmes and jacque raponde}

P. 135: A long-term or lifelong appointment at court combined the servant's personal talent with his bond of loyalty to the prince. The provision he received was a reward for his skill (virtù), not ofr services rendered.

p. 136: The salary was given ex gratia, for no one could claim it as of right. The decision to grant it lay wholly within the prince's discretion, and it would have been improper for the artist to try to influnce his decision.

p. 138: The artist's salary, together with his bond of personal loyalty, ceased upon the prince's death and had to be renewed by his successor. This was the reason for Dürer's journey to the Netherlands. Since the level of provision lay within the prince's discretion, it could be reduced or even cancelled in times of crisis, though this did not release the recipient from his duties. As a kind of compensation, court servants had a right of supplication entitling them to solicit ex gratia payments on special occasions or under special conditions.