In the so-called "Matter of Brittany", the melting pot of Arthurian legends, the idyll of Tristan and Iseo shines with its own light. Of possible Persian origin, the legends that will be composed in France in the 12th century around these legendary figures, such as Celinde, Tristan's grandmother, will always revolve around the unbreakable bond of love.

Celinde traverses the world of fantasy and the real world, always encircled by mystery; and her legend, one of the most exalted and courageous manifestations ever told, sounds, as in a perfect chord, the high passionate note of love that imposes itself on everything, and the grave note of the rules that govern human life and honor.

The archetypal figure of Celinde gives continuity to the lineage of the Grail, to which she will grant legitimacy over the kingdoms of Cornwall and Leonis in the figure of Tristan, and allusively and prophetically announces by way of eternal return the tragedy and fatality that will befall for courtly love in the Tristanian fable.

The earliest versions of the Tristan romance were for centuries the object of desire of the most prestigious illumination workshops. In particular, the illuminated manuscript of the Tristan in prose (15th century), sponsored by John of France, Duke of Berry, which is preserved in the national library of Vienna under the nickname Codex 2537, is considered a real jewel for the beauty of its miniatures.

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Sador, on horseback, follows a path over a cliff at the edge of the sea. Behind him the waves break and in the distance, a ship seems to be drifting. The knight drawn from the front turns his head with the intention of descending towards the sea. As he usually does in seascapes, the artist paints the sky in two tones: ultramarine in the upper part and very bright white in the lower part to highlight the horizon and give depth to the scene.

Among the wreckage, Sador discovers a beautiful lady who, clinging to a wood, struggles exhausted among the waves. The knight rescues the mysterious lady, being immediately enchanted by her singular beauty, and takes her to his brother Nabuzadan's castle.

The lady claims to be a pagan princess, daughter of the King of Babylon, and tells how the ship that was to take her to the King of Persia, to whom she had been promised in marriage, is shipwrecked in a storm, being pushed to the shores of England. After recovering from the dramatic experience, the princess corresponds to the love of Sador; and, after embracing Christianity and being baptized with the name of Celinde, they both marry.

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The scene is represented in a modest way. The bed is not unmade and Celinde is lying on it, dressed; her head rests on a pillow whose whiteness stands out against the red bedspread. The architecture of the bedchamber is purely symbolic; it is open to the outside through a window through which, instead of a landscape, we can see a colored and golden grid background, very frequent in the miniatures of the first decades of the 15th century.

Arriving at the court of Cornwall, Celinde is presented to King Thanor who, captivated by her unparalleled beauty, forces her to marry him. Soon after, Queen Celinde gives birth to Apollo, the son of Sador, whom Thanor abandons in the forest next to a fountain to be devoured by wild beasts, as a result of a soothsayer who predicts that when the child is older he will kill him by usurping the throne.

One day, King Pelias of Leonis, a neighboring kingdom of Cornwall, meets the beautiful Celinde when he is invited to the court of Thanor. Upon seeing her, he falls madly in love with her and unsuccessfully tries to kidnap her by breaking into the royal bedchamber.

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In a forest, Sador is recognized by Celinde. The scene takes place near a spring represented by a rectangular vessel from which a stream flows. Celinde is accompanied by a lady-in-waiting and two knights, and Sador by a rider holding his horse.

After overcoming several tests in the form of riddles to which the giant subjects them, Sador and Celinde manage to escape, taking refuge in the castle of Triadan, an old magician. There, they will remain for more than fifteen years, enjoying their infinite love.

"Ma belle amie, ainsi est de nous:

Ni vous sans moi, ni moi sans vous".

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Apollo the Adventurer, son of Sador and Celinde, defies his own father without recognizing him. He knocks him out of the saddle and deals him a mortal blow. The face of the dying man, with closed eyes and open mouth, the horse's head and especially the helmet which, although it covers Apollo's face, shows his cruel expression, are truly representative of the fierceness and cruelty of the scene.

Celinde represents the pagan influence in the Matter of Brittany, imbuing the protohistory of the Arthurian romance of Tristan and Iseo with an unearthly beauty and oriental sensuality. Her voluptuousness, eroticism and power of seduction evoke Isthar, the mountain star, goddess of beauty, love and fertility.

Celinde symbolizes ancient Babylon. She embodies feminine attributes typical of her Mesopotamian origin, treasuring a paradigmatic and timeless beauty thanks to the arts of the Adwiyat al-Zinah or "Medicine of Beauty", in the form of ointments, make-up and perfumed oils.

Celinde is the betrothed shipwrecked woman, the kidnapped bride, the raped wife, the polyandrous consort, the oedipal mother, the incestuous queen; but she is also the quintessence of tragic love, the white rose. Invoking the "traslatio regni et imperii", Celinde's inheritance in the imaginary of the Arthurian legend makes her forever a "unique lady among the unique".