importance the dukes attached to the magnificence of 
     their household. A splendid court could, better than 
     anything else, convince rivals of the high rank the dukes 
     claimed to occupy among the princes of Europe. “After 
     the deeds and exploits of war, which are claims to glory,” 
     says Chastellain, “the household is the first thing that 
     strikes the eye, and which it is, therefore, most necessary 
     to conduct and arrange well.” It was boasted that the 
     Burgundian court was the richest and best regulated of 
     all. Charles the Bold, especially, had the passion of 
     magnificence.

     It was the new middle-class wealth and skill that 
translated the chivalric dream into the visual panorama. Surely 
we have here an early phase of “know-how” and practical 
applied  knowledge such as in centuries to come was to create