The future Louis XI isolated Charles VII from the court, and the king feared poisoning

The Parlement of Paris, or the Supreme Royal Court of France, in solemn session in the presence of King Charles VII. Miniature by Jean Fouquet from the Hours of Étienne Chevalier, 1450s.

From about the summer of 1461, the future King Louis XI effectively isolated his father, Charles VII, in the last months of his life, keeping him away from the court and from any part in royal affairs. The old king, kept under external control, developed a persecution mania and a fear of poisoning, so that he all but stopped taking food on his own, having every morsel checked by tasters. He is believed to have died in a state of severe emaciation. Surviving the Hundred Years' War proved easier than managing court intrigues

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The Betrothal Feast in Vlas Doroshevich's Satirical Novel “Mu-Xiang”

They were served stewed spoiled eggs, roast suckling pig, seaweed, ginger preserve, goose livers, shark-fin soup with crab roe, toasted almonds, soup with pigeon eggs, ham and chicken, boiled young bamboo, green peas, boiled chicken with bamboo shoots, bird's-nest soup with eggs and ham, fried frogs

Madonna with Cherubim in Milan's Brera: from Bellini to Mantegna

"Madonna with Cherubim" was long considered the work of Giovanni Bellini, until in 1885, during restoration, features characteristic of his chief rival, and incidentally his relative, Andrea Mantegna, came to light. What misled viewers was a softness uncharacteristic of Mantegna. Despite the established title, the Madonna and Child

Pushkin Museum refused the Ludwig collection over the branch name

The silliest thing about this renaming is its poor timing. For when the Pushkin Museum was offered, as a gift, the greatest collection of contemporary art of the second half of the twentieth century, the collection of Peter Ludwig, the very reason for the refusal was the condition that the

The future Louis XI isolated Charles VII from the court, and the king feared poisoning

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The Betrothal Feast in Vlas Doroshevich's Satirical Novel “Mu-Xiang”

Madonna with Cherubim in Milan's Brera: from Bellini to Mantegna

Pushkin Museum refused the Ludwig collection over the branch name

Yeeeehaw!