Molins

Moulins, on the Allier, became the capital of the dukes of Bourbon. Their castle and collegiate church gave form to a court that attracted artists and craftsmen, while the town grew into the centre of their extensive lands in central France. The dukes embellished their residence with some of the earliest Renaissance architecture in France.

The court's patronage reached a high point under Pierre II of Bourbon and Anne of France. They appear as donors in the celebrated triptych of the Master of Moulins, kneeling beneath the protection of their patron saints. The painting, made around the beginning of the sixteenth century for the collegiate church, joined the splendour of the ducal court to the devotional life of its church.