In the years around 1500, Paris was a thriving market for art and an important point of entry for artists settling in France, especially those coming from the north. Its many parish churches pursued active building campaigns, commissioning new stained glass and liturgical furnishings. Paris was the center of the book trade, both for manuscripts and printed books, and its production catered to the different levels of the market offered by the university, the professions, and the court. The workshop of the d'Ypres family, established in Paris from the 1450s, was one of the most active. Tapestries, stained glass, printed books, and single-leaf woodcuts all show evidence of a connection to the repertory of angular figures with cramped posture and slightly mannered gestures that was passed down in this workshop. All these works have been linked to the so-called Master of the Very Small Hours of Anne of Brittany, perhaps Jean d'Ypres, a member of the third generation to work in Paris. More recent arrivals from the Netherlands included the Master of Saint Giles, who probably worked in Paris only for a few years, and Gauthier de Campes, who worked there for three decades producing designs for tapestry and glass. Complex networks of collaboration linked designers, craftsmen, and purveyors of finished works within Paris and between Paris and other cities, such as Rouen, Amiens, and Antwerp, whose workshops were also finding new ways to produce for rapidly expanding markets.

_{Narcissus at the Fountain, Cartoon: Paris, c. 1500. Weaving: Probably Paris or Flanders. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Charles Potter Kling Fund, 68.114.}