Scène de Tard-Venus ou de Grandes Compagnies

This medieval miniature depicts a scene of military violence generally associated with the Tard-Venus or the Great Companies, armed bands that devastated several regions of the kingdom of France in the fourteenth century during the Hundred Years’ War. On steep ground, armed fighters are shown hurling stones and projectiles against an organized troop, while several bodies already lie on the ground. The composition emphasizes the disorder of combat, the brutality of the clash, and the chronic insecurity created by these routier companies, which often lived by plunder. As is often the case in medieval illumination, the image does not aim at exact realistic reconstruction, but at a clear and striking representation of the violence accompanying the military unrest of the fourteenth century.