The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 25, 2022

Mourner from the Tomb of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (1364-1404)

1404–10

This object has related works. See related series Mourner from the Tomb of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (1364-1404); related series Mourner from the Tomb of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (1364-1404); Mourner from the Tomb of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria

Claus de Werve

(Netherlandish, 1380-1439)

Netherlands, active Dijon, 15th century

Vizille alabaster

Overall: 41 x 12.7 x 15 cm (16 1/8 x 5 x 5 7/8 in.)

Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1958.66

Location

109 Gothic Painting and Sculpture

Fun Fact

A plaster cast of this mourner decorates the empty niche in the Tomb of Philip the Bold in Dijon, France.

Description

Throughout most of their history these alabaster mourners have evoked a sense of awe and mystery as well as curiosity and admiration. They were originally arranged in processional order around the sides of the ducal tomb within a marble arcade in the Chartreuse de Champmol. The realistically carved mourners remain the most famous elements from Philip the Bold’s tomb. Carved by Claus de Werve, no two are alike. They retain minute details of costume and features, and the faces of some are nearly portrait-like in their depiction of facial creases and expression, suggesting actual individuals, while the faces of others are partly obscured by their cowls.

Claus de Werve

active in Burgundy (mostly Dijon) from 1396 until his death.
Provenance
M. M. Hocquart, Dijon, France
-1875
Vicomte Edouard de Broissia & son, Georges, (d. 1875) Dijon, France
1875-?
(M. Legley, Nancy, sold to Charles Stein)
(Charles Stein, Paris, France)
Baron Arthur de Schickler, Paris, France
Count de Pourtales, Paris, France
1919-?
(Duveen Bros., Paris, France)
by 1922-1939
Clarence Mackay (d. 1939), New York, NY
1939-1940
(Jacques Seligmann, New York, sold to Leonard C. Hanna)
1940-1958
Leonard C. Hanna, Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1958-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Musée Des Beaux-Arts, Dijon France mba-collections.dijon.fr
Beaulieu, Michèle. 1949. "Deux pleurants de Jaume Cascalls provenant des sépultures royales de Poblet: Musée du Louvre". Musées De France. 96-98. no. Iv
Parker, Clifford S., and Paul L. Grigaut. Initiation à la culture française. New York: Harper & Row, 1963. p. 63
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 64 archive.org
Wixom, William D. Treasures from Medieval France. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 256-257; cat.no. VI-21 archive.org
Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland). "Selected Works." 1967. no. 97
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 64 archive.org
Martí-Ibáñez, Félix. The Adventure of Art. New York: C.N. Potter; distributed by Crown, 1970. p. 280
Musée des beaux-arts de Dijon, and Pierre Quarré. Les pleurants des tombeaux des ducs de Bourgogne. 1971. pl. 38
Clasen, Karl Heinz. Der Meister Der Schönen Madonnen: Herkunft, Entfaltung Und Umkreis. Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1974. pp. 91, 203, abb. 13
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 72 archive.org
Alsop, Joseph. The Rare Art Traditions: The History of Art Collecting and Its Linked Phenomena Wherever These Have Appeared. 1982. pl. 2, No. 4
Schreckenberg, Hella, and Claus Sluter. Claus Sluter. Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1987. p. 32, fig. 53
De Winter, Patrick M. "Art from the Duchy of Burgundy." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 10 (1987). pp. 411-424 www.jstor.org
Petrusevich, N. B., I︠U︡. S. Pamfilov, Ljudmila Brylenko, and E. B. Georgievskai︠a︡. Five Hundred Years of French Painting: The Hermitage, Leningrad, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. Leningrad: Aurora Art Publishers, 1990. p. 56, no. 20
Journées internationales Claus Sluter, and Claus Sluter. Actes des Journées internationales Claus Sluter: Septembre 1990. Dijon: Association Claus Sluter, 1992. fig. 6, p. 186
Morand, Kathleen, Claus Sluter, and David Finn. Claus Sluter: Artist at the Court of Burgundy. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991. p. 359, no. 35, pls. 134-35
Gibson, Walter S., and Laurinda S. Dixon. In Detail: New Studies of Northern Renaissance Art in Honor of Walter S. Gibson. [Lieu de publication non identifié]: Brepols, 1998. p. 179, fig. 26
May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. no. 25, pp. 28-9 & 117
Fliegel, Stephen N., Sophie Jugie, and Virginie Barthélémy. Art from the Court of Burgundy: The Patronage of Philip the Bold and John the Fearless 1364-1419 : Musée Des Beaux-Arts De Dijon, May 28-September 15, 2004, the Cleveland Museum of Art, October 24, 2004-January 9, 2005. [Dijon]: Musée des beaux-arts, 2004. Cat. No. 83, p. 233
Fliegel, Stephen. "Patronage and the Burgundian Court, 1364-1419" The Magazine Antiques (October 2004). pp. 142-151, pl. XII
Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 202-205, no. 73
Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550. München: Hirmer, 2007. p. 188-9, no. 68
Baron, Françoise, Sophie Jugie, and Benoît Lafay. Les tombeaux des ducs de Bourgogne: création, destruction, restauration. Paris: Somogy, 2009. p. 132, cat. no. 5
Kemperdick, Stephan, and Friso Lammertse. The Road to Van Eyck. Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, 2012.
. Cat. No. 24B; pp. 164-165
Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. pp. 134-5
Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 272
Mikolic, Amanda. Fashionable Mourners: Bronze Statuettes from the Rijksmuseum. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2017. Reproduced: p. 1, fig. 1
Freundeskreis des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums. Hommage: Renate Eikelmann. München: Sieveking Verlag, 2018. Reproduced: p. 60
Exhibition history

Deux Pleurants de Jaume Cascalle Provenant des Sepultures Royales de Poblet, Musées de France, Paris, France (May 1949).

Gothic Art 1360-1440. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 6-September 15, 1963).

Treasures of Medieval France. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 16, 1966-January 29, 1967).

Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975).

Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).

Dukes and Angels: Art from the Court of Burgundy (1364-1419). Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, Dijon, France (May 27-September 15, 2004); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24, 2004-January 9, 2005).

Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. National Museum of Bavaria, Munich, Germany (May 10-September 16, 2007); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (October 30, 2007-January 20, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 13-June 7, 2009).

The Mourners: Medieval Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (March 1-May 23, 2010).

Johan Maelwael from Guelders. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (organizer) (October 6, 2017-January 7, 2018).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1958.66