Gilles de Rais , Joan of Arc 's comrade-in-arms, Marshal of France and confessed child murderer, has inspired a number of artistic and cultural works.
As early as the 15th century, the character appeared in a mystery play and a prose poem. He then underwent a long eclipse in cultural representations, before folklore transfigured him into Bluebeard. Finally, comics and anime illustrate contemporary visions of the Marshal de Rais. All effigies of Gilles de Rais are posthumous and imaginary. Whether in the fifteenth-century Laval illumination or the eighteenth-century engraved "Gilles de Laval" copy, the knight's facial features in armor are concealed by his closed helmet, while his shield and mount cover prominently display the arms of the Counts of Laval - not those of the Barons of Retz.
Although Dom Bernard de Montfaucon believes he recognizes Rais in the illumination, the equestrian figure cannot be identified with certainty since it's an "abstract" representation of the Counts of Laval, a heraldic image rather than an individual portrait. In addition, Rais is depicted as beardless, with medium-length hair and "dressed in an anachronistic Renaissance costume" [ 8 ] in two miniatures depicting his trial and execution respectively.
The first miniature adorns a copy of the ecclesiastical trial, and the second a copy of the civil trial. Stamped with the Bouhier family coat of arms, the two illuminations and their manuscript supports were once kept by the jurist and historian Jean Bouhier, president at the parlement of Dijon.
Dating back to the 16th century, the miniature of the execution depicts the repentant criminal, hands bound and joined in a gesture of prayer, head and eyes humbly lowered in contrition. The other miniature, dating from the 17th century, depicts Rais, holding his headdress in hand and addressing the mitred bishop who presides over the officiality during the ecclesiastical trial. Like the other full-length portraits of this gallery, the oil on canvas depicts Rais "on a battlefield with [his] attributes of command".
