Patronage and the Burgundian court

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 2004 by Stephen N. Fliegel

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Wear on many of the manuscript's miniatures as well as the imprints of religious medals, which were sometimes sewn into books of hours, suggest that the Grandes Heures received intense devotional use from its original and subsequent owners. The manuscript was clearly revered by the first duke's successors for its associations with the founder of the dynasty.

Burgundian court artists were often directed to supply ducal religious foundations and private chapels with sculpture, panel paintings, altarpieces (both carved and painted), liturgical vessels, and illuminated manuscripts. The central focus of the current exhibition in Cleveland is the foundation of the Carthusian monastery of Champmol and the ducal tombs that once occupied its choir. The museum possesses four exquisite statuettes, known as pleurants, or mourners, from those tombs (see Pls. X-XII), and a panel painting of a Calvary from a monastic cell by the court painter Jean de Beaumetz (Pl. VII).

The founding of the monastery was foremost among Philip the Bold's grand artistic projects (see Pl. XV). It contained some of the finest examples of Burgundian court sculpture by Claus Sluter and his nephew Claus de Werve, as well as by Antoine Le Moitourier and Jean de la Huerta. Altarpieces and private devotional diptychs were commissioned from the painters de Beaumetz, Jean Malouel, Henri Bellechose, and Melchior Broederlam, all of whom were court painters at various times.

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It was for the solemn task of protecting and sanctifying the ducal resting place that Philip chose the most austere of the religious orders. The Carthusians embraced the strictest separation from the world, characterized by total dedication to contemplation through silence, prayer, penance, and almost continuous occupancy of a solitary cell, each with a devotional painting by de Beaumetz. (15) Each of these small paintings portrays a Calvary scene with a kneeling Carthusian, recognizable by his white full-length scapular, fitted with a cowl (see Pl. VII).

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To decorate the Church of the Chartreuse in the monastery, the duke ordered many painted panels and carved altarpieces from chiefly Netherlandish artists. The Calvary and Martyrdom of Saint Denis (Musee du Louvre, Paris) was painted by Malouel in 1416 for the high altar of the church. Malouel had succeeded de Beaumetz as court painter to Philip the Bold in 1397, and carried out a considerable amount of work on the church. He also painted a tondo of the Pieta bearing Philip's coat of arms on the back (Pl. II), and he painted and gilded Sluter's statues.

Two large polychromed and gilded wood altarpieces commissioned by Philip the Bold and carved by Jacques de Baerze survive in the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Dijon. Their subjects are the Crucifixion (Pl. VI, VIa) and saints and martyrs, respectively. On their frames are the initials "P" and "M" for Philip and his wife, Margaret. In 1392 the duke ordered the altarpieces sent to Ypres in Flanders to be gilded and painted by Broederlam, who began work in February 1393 and finished in the summer of 1399. (16) By August the altarpieces were in place in Dijon. The saints and martyrs altarpiece was intended for the Chartreuse de Champmol. Unfortunately, the painted decoration on the back has now disappeared. The Crucifixion altarpiece, on the other hand, was commissioned for the duke's chapel and survives with its painted panels intact (see Pl. VIa). It is the only known work by Broederlam, but it is so far ahead of its time that he is generally considered to be one of the greatest Flemish painters before Jan van Eyck (c. 1395-1441).