ROMAN SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY

The Virgin Mary stands on a crescent moon and John the Evangelist, with a quill in his hand and accompanied by an eagle, sits below her on a cloud. In the foreground Saint Louis (1214-1270) kneels on a gold cushion, clothed in a splendid ermine-lined robe and with a helmet, sword and shield beside him (alluding to his having led a Crusade in 1248-50). Louis was crowned King of France at the age of twelve and reigned for almost half a century. In the Medieval period he was hailed as the ideal Christian ruler and remains the only French king to have been canonized (in 1297). He died in present-day Tunisia, after contracting the plague during his second Crusade. Saint Louis is remembered not only for his devout Catholicism, but also for his liberal legal reforms: under his rule, trial by ordeal was outlawed and the idea of presumption of innocence was introduced into the French legal system.