| The Mourners: Medieval Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy
Review by STAN PARCHIN
March 25, 2010
| | Jean de la Huerta (d. after 1462) and Antoine le Moiturier (b. about 1425-d. 1494). Tomb of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria (1443-70). Polychromed and gilded alabaster and marble. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. Photograph provided by Flickr. | 
| | Mourners from Tomb of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria on Display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photograph provided by Flickr. | 
| | Jean de la Huerta (d. after 1462) and Antoine le Moiturier (b. about 1425-d. 1494). Mourner No. 45, Bishop (1443-57). Alabaster. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. © FRAME (French Regional and American Museum Exchange) by Jared Bendis and François JAY. | 
| | Jean de la Huerta (d. after 1462) and Antoine le Moiturier (b. about 1425-d. 1494). Mourner No. 55, Mourner with Head Covered, Wiping His Tears on His Cloak with His Right Hand (1443-57). Alabaster. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. © FRAME (French Regional and American Museum Exchange) by Jared Bendis and François JAY. |
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Medieval Sculpture Hall is the spiritually evocative setting for the debut of The Mourners: Medieval Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Bungundy (March 2-May 23, 2010). Thirty-seven of the special exhibition's recently restored alabaster statuettes belong to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon. While the building undergoes extensive renovations, the funerary works join six others from various collections for this unprecedented presentation. Visiting seven American cities, the show concludes its tour in Paris, France.
Art and Death in Late Medieval Burgundy
Philip the Bold (1342-1404), the first Valois Duke of Burgundy, was the youngest son of King John II of France (1319-1364), the brother of Jean Duke of Berry (1340-1416) and the father of John the Fearless (Jean sans Peur, 1371-1419). His luxurious court at Dijon included numerous architects and artisans commissioned to build, decorate and maintain his residences and a monastic complex at Champmol. Among Philip's cadre of artists was the talented Dutch sculptor Claus Sluter (b. 1340s-d. 1405/6), entrusted with the creation of the duke's magnificent marble and alabaster tomb. Sluter and his assistants set the standard of artistic sophistication for Jean de la Huerta (d. after 1462) and Antoine le Moiturier (b. about 1425-d. 1494), responsible for the sumptuous tomb of the assassinated John the Fearless. The astonishing realism of their works rivaled that of their Italian contemporaries.
Both extraordinary monuments were designed with figures of the wealthy dukes and their wives resting atop black marble slabs over fully carved Gothic arcades. The statuettes of grief-stricken monks and others, each an expression of late medieval piety in a state of remorse, comfortably occupy the architectural spaces. The procession of pleurants perambulates perpetually beneath the rulers' cold marble effigies, mourning and praying eternally for the royal couple's salvation. The sculptures' intense religiosity is typical of art in the Late Middle Ages, a bleak period marked by the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) between England and France, outbreaks of the virulent Black Death, famine and social discontent.
The Tomb of John the Fearless
It took Jean de la Huerta and Antoine le Moiturier more than 25 years to complete the grand tomb of John the Fearless and his wife, Margaret of Bavaria (1363-1423). Its 40 highly individualized mourners' faces and gestures reveal emotions ranging from sadness to despair. At The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the statuettes are presented in two long rows as members of a funeral cortège, allowing the visitor to view them in the round. Among the eloquently attired participants are a choirboy, a deacon, a bishop, monks, clergy and lay mourners, some with their faces shrouded by their garments' hoods. One weeping figure wipes away a tear with his cloak while another tries to conceal his grief with his hand. Some carry a prayer book and a rosary. All are a testament to the lavish funerals of the richest and most powerful aristocrats of early 15th-century northern Europe.
The New York installation is supplemented by three mourners and a fragment of the architectural arcade from the tomb of Philip the Bold. Related works from the Met's collection, including a limestone enthroned Virgin and Child (ca. 1415-17) carved by Claus de Werve (ca. 1380-1439), the successor and nephew of Claus Sluter, are also exhibited. De Werve's monumental sculpture was probably commissioned by John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria as a gift for the convent at Poligny they founded for the Franciscan Order of Poor Clares, a contemplative society of nuns.
After its appearance at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the exhibition travels to the St. Louis Art Museum (June 20-September 12, 2010), the Dallas Museum of Art (October 3, 2010-January 2, 2011), the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (January 23-April 17, 2011), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (May 8-July 31, 2011), the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (August 21, 2011-January 1, 2012), the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (January 20-April 15, 2012) and the Musée du Cluny, Paris, France (May 20-Summer 2012).
Sources
Fliegel, Stephen N., Sophie Jugie, et al. Art from the Court of Burgundy: The Patronage of Philip the Bold and John the Fearless, 1364-1419 (exh. cat). Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2005, 223-236, 251-258.
Jugie, Sophie. The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy (exh. cat.). New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010.
Klein, Holger A. (ed.), et al. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art (exh. cat.). Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007, 202-207. | | | |