It should be noticed that the first growth of portrait painting in Western Europe seems to have arisen out of this custom of introducing portrait figures of patrons and donors at the beginning of important manuscripts. In French and Burgundian manuscripts especially we find many very interesting portraits of Kings and Princes together with those of the authors or the illuminators of richly decorated manuscripts. _Altar-pieces._ Donors' portraits are also commonly introduced into votive altar-pieces, usually in the form of small kneeling figures. As time went on these figures of donors gradually became more important in scale and position. Thus, for example, the magnificent altar-piece in the Brera Gallery in Milan, painted by Piero della Francesca about the year 1480[120], has, in the most conspicuous place in the foreground, a kneeling figure of the donor, Duke Federigo da Montefeltro of Urbino, which is actually larger in scale than the chief figures of the picture--the Madonna and attendant angels. During the fourteenth century, both in altar-pictures and in manuscript illuminations, the portraits of living people are treated in a more subordinate way. _Portrait of Richard II._ A fine example of portraiture in a manuscript is to be seen in the _Epistre au Roy Richard II. d'Angleterre_ (Brit. Mus. _Royal Manuscripts_ 20 B. vi) written by a Hermit of the Celestin Order in Paris. The upper half of the first page is occupied by an exquisite miniature of Richard II. on his throne, surrounded by courtiers, accepting the bound copy of the manuscript from the monastic author, who kneels on one knee, presenting his book with one hand, while in the other he holds a sacred banner embroidered with the Agnus Dei. The background is of the sumptuous chess-board pattern in gold, blue and red, and the whole page is surrounded with the so-called ivy-leaf border. _Portraits of Henry VI. and his Queen._ The _Shrewsbury manuscript_, containing a collection of chivalrous _Romances_ (Brit. Mus. _Royal Manuscripts_ 15 E vi), has another beautiful example of miniature portraiture. The first painting represents John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, for whom this interesting manuscript was illuminated, kneeling to present the book to Queen Margaret of Anjou on the occasion of her marriage with Henry VI. The King and Queen are represented side by side on a double throne, and around is a group of courtier attendants. The kneeling figure of Earl Talbot is interesting for its costume; the mantle which the Earl wears is powdered (semée) with small garters embroidered in gold; an early but now obsolete form of state robe worn by Knights of the Order of the Garter. Both these manuscripts, though executed for English patrons, are of French workmanship.