The desire expressed on the scroll for a child was fulfilled. Their daughter married a member of the illustrious Medici family of Florence. Her own daughter successfully returned to France as the wife of the future King Henri II. Known as Queen Catherine de Medici, she played a dominant role in the French politics and culture of her time.
Despite Flemish and Italian influences, the style of the painting seems to indicate that the work is a rare example of French provincial painting of the late fifteenth century, probably painted locally for the owners. An eighteenth-century inscription painted in gold on the backs of the shutters and another one written on paper and attached to the back of the central panel contribute to an unusually complete history of its ownership. After the Count's death the Countess kept the painting in her castle in Vic-le-Comte. She later bequeathed it to the Franciscan monks of that town, who retained possession of it until 1703 when it was returned to the Latour d'Auvergne family.
There is a remarkable attempt at realism in the figures as well as in the landscape. The faces of the Count and Countess appear to be true likenesses, and those of the Virgin and the angel seem closer to observed models than to idealized conceptions. While the anatomy of the figures is not completely successful, the size and heaviness of the hands of the Virgin display the efforts of the painter to reproduce hands as he had seen them. A mallard duck is clearly the model for the markings on the angel's wings.
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