History portrays Charles V as a good, wise king. He was an astute monarch (1338-1380) and showed a surer taste for and keener interest in the arts than any other medieval ruler. His support for art and culture enhanced France's influence throughout Western Europe. He substantially enriched the royal library. A confirmed esthete, he collected jewels and illuminated manuscripts, putting together a treasure that also served as a cash reserve. He followed the lead of his immediate predecessors in building, altering and restoring a large number of monuments - churches and chapels, abbeys and convents, castles and palaces, all symbolic of royal power, such as the Louvre and other Paris residences, Saint Pol with its menagerie, including lions, and the Château de Vincennes and its chapel, ramparts and bridges. These major projects were often left unfinished and have now vanished, especially his civil and military architectural achievements.
Charlemagne, an emperor and a symbol
The scepter is listed in the 1379-1380 inventory as one of the items prepared by Charles V and entrusted to the abbot of Saint Denis on 7 May 1380 for the coronation of his son, the future Charles VI. The scepter may have been made for Charles V's own coronation in 1365 and redesigned and embellished for his son. Charles V chose the figure of Charlemagne, who was crowned emperor in 800 and canonized in 1165, to surmount a fleur-de-lis at the top of the scepter. Charlemagne was already worshipped as a saint and the first Valois kings sought legitimacy by venerating him as a political figure. Charles V and his son both bore the first name of their mythical ancestor, Carolus, who had given his name to the Carolingian dynasty to which these kings wished to attach their lineage. The recent accession of the Valois to the crown (Philip VI in 1328) began a new era of art in the service of power.
Portraiture
In Western Europe, the taste for portraiture grew steadily stronger throughout the 14th century. Although in the previous period more importance had been put on the representation of power than on physical likeness, efforts were now made to capture personal features in a recognizable way. Charles V understood the value of communication and had his portrait circulated through various media - manuscripts and sculptures. Christine de Pisan, the royal biographer, described him as having "a longish face", a "high, broad forehead", "quite a haughty nose" and "not too small a mouth". After his death, his three brothers Jean, duke of Berry, Louis of Anjou, and Philip the Bold, governed the kingdom until the dauphin came of age in 1380 and was crowned Charles VI, King of France (1380-1422).
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In Europe, from the 5th to the 15th century, artists and craftsmen perfected a wide variety of techniques in fields such as enameling, ivory work, and tapestry. The Louvre's collection of medieval decorative arts provides compelling evidence of the importance of this period of artistic innovation.
