On New Year's, I was fortunate enough to catch the last day of the Legion of Honor's exhibit, "The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures From the Court of Burgundy". The mourning figures of Burgundy are considered "the most profound expression of mourning in art". The mourners, called pleurants in France or 'weepers' in England, are doll-sized figurines who wander for eternity under stone arches beneath a marble slab supporting an effigy of the deceased.
Burgundy was a powerful area throughout the early history of Western Europe. There were two Kingdoms of Burgundy, first around the 6th century and then around the 11th century. By the mid 1300's, it had been subdivided amongst heirs. The remnant was the Duchy of Burgundy ruled by Dukes from the Valois line. This period lasted from 1364 to 1477. Their territory included large parts of Belgium and the Netherlands, Luxembourg and part of France, with their court centered in Dijon.
The first Duke was Philippe le Hardi/Philip the Bold, so named because of his performance during battle. He married Margaret of Flanders, who inherited Holland, Belgium and Franche Comté on the death of her father, the Count of Flanders, thus enlarging Philip's territory. Philip loved the arts. He commissioned paintings, gold-threaded tapestries and sculpture. He brought the sculptor Claus Sluter to Dijon from the Low Counties. Sluter has been compared to Michelangelo.
Philip selected Champmol as a dynastic burial place, intending it to rival Saint-Denis where the Kings of France were buried. He founded a Carthusian monastery there. The Carthusians (also known as the Order of San Bruno) were a community of hermit-like monks who traditionally spent most of their time praying alone in their cell. But at Champmol, visitors and pilgrims were encouraged, all expenses paid by the Dukes.
Philip appointed Claus Sluter in charge of building a funeral monument for himself (his wife Margaret wanted to buried with her parents in Lille). But Claus was busy designing other works and when Philip died only the slab and two mourning figures had been completed. Philip's son gave Sluter 4 years to finish to sculptures, but Sluter died 2 years later and never finished the job.
Philip's son was Jean sans Peur/John the Fearless. He acquired his name after fighting on a Crusade in 1396 where he was taken hostage by the Turks for a year until he was ransomed. While his father, Philip, spent his time traveling around Europe and holding 4 day knightly tournaments and parties, John spent his days hatching plots and conspiracies against other rulers. Was this because his father died land rich but cash poor? His sons had to pawn the ducal silver to pay for the funeral.
John had the King of France's brother assassinated and plotted against the Armagnac's as well, creating civil war in France. The English saw this as an opportunity and the Hundred Years War was rekindled. John was himself assassinated by the dauphin of the King, the future Charles VII. John had commissioned Sluter's nephew to continue work on the tomb, including a double tomb for himself and his wife, but no work was done on the tombs during John's lifetime. Eventually Jean de la Huerta and Antoine le Moiturier completed the figurines.
John's son was Philippe le Bon/Philip the Good. This Philip was married 3 times, had 24 mistresses, 3 legitimate sons and 17 illegitimate but recognized children. His court traveled from palace to palace, feasting and jousting and surrounding itself with luxury: silks, tapestries, illuminated manuscripts, gold, jewelry, song, music, paintings. Philip the Good is responsible for capturing Joan of Arc and handing her over to the English for a ransom of 10,000 gold crowns.
Philip's son was Charles le Téméraire/Charles the Bold. He continued feuding against the King of France and continued spending a fortune on luxury and extravagant living until he exhausted his wealth and died in battle in 1477. Charles' daughter, Marie, had married a Hapsburg Duke, Duke Maximilian. The Duchy was divided between the Hapsburg Empire and the Kingdom of France and the Golden Age of Burgundy was over, leaving the pleurants to mourn its passing.
The Carthusian monastery, Chartreuse de Champmol, continued to operate after their deaths. It contained a monumental sculpture, the Well of Moses, a large crucifixion scene. The pope granted indulgences (time off in Purgatory) to pilgrims who visited the statue. The monastery also contained paintings and other works of art. Only two tombs were ever built, that of Philip the Bold and the double tomb of John the Fearless and his wife, Margaret of Bavaria. These weren't true tombs, but cenotaphs: bodiless monuments. Their effigies are atop a marble slab with winged angels on guard at their heads. Beneath the slabs are ornate arcades (in a style called Flamboyant Gothic) and the mourning figures are in an eternal procession underneath the tombs around the arcades. They are sculpted in alabaster and amazing in the fluidity of their drapery which is almost liquid in appearance. You see hooded monks with faces obscured, cantors, deacons, bishops, acolytes, servants, family members. Their posture and gestures evoke sadness, mourning and grief and they seem very much alive, as if they could restart their procession at any moment.
After the French Revolution, the monastery was sold and the tombs were moved to the Dijon Cathedral. However, the cathedral was then converted to a 'Temple of Reason' and the tombs were mutilated and disassembled. Some sculptures were stolen and disappeared, others went into storage. Today, the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy houses the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon and its here that the tombs and mourners reside. The museum in Dijon is undergoing renovation and while the mourners of Philip the Bold remained in place, the mourners of John the Fearless traveled to exhibitions in New York, Saint Louis, Dallas, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Richmond and San Francisco,before traveling back to France. There will be an exhibit in Paris at Musée de Cluny before they return home to Dijon.
Go to www.mourners.org and click on a mourner to learn more.
