Claus Sluter: Difference between revisions

{{short description|Dutch then Burgundian sculptor}}

'''Claus Sluter''' (1340s in [[Haarlem]]<ref>[https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/203655 Claes Sluter] Netherlands Institute for Art History</ref> &ndash; 1405 or 1406 in [[Dijon]]) was a Dutch sculptor, living in the [[Duchy of Burgundy]] from about 1380.<ref>{{cite book | author = Murray, P. & L. | year = 1997 | title = Penguin dictionary of art and artists | edition = 7th | pages = 492 | location = London | publisher = Penguin Books | isbn = 0-14-051300-0 }}</ref> He was the most important northern European sculptor of his age and is considered a pioneer of the "northern realism" of the [[Early Netherlandish painting]] that came into full flower with the work of [[Jan van Eyck]] and others in the next generation.

Sluter's most significant work is the so-called ''[[Well of Moses]]'' (1395–1403), or the Great Cross. It was created for the [[Carthusian]] [[monastery]] of [[Champmol]], which was founded by Philip the Bold right outside Dijon in 1383. For many years, the top portion was thought to have included (along with Christ on a cross), sculptures of the Virgin and John the Evangelist. However it was more likely just Christ, with Mary Magdalene kneeling at the foot of the cross.<ref name=sn>{{cite journal|last1=Nash|first1=Susie|title=Claus Sluter's 'Well of Moses' for the Chartreuse de Champmol reconsidered: part I|journal=The Burlington Magazine|date=Dec 2005|volume=147|issue=1233|pages=798–809}}</ref> The cross, and whatever was on the terrace below, was destroyed at some point after 1736 and before 1789, probable because the roof of the building protecting the monument collapsed.<ref name=sn/> Some fragments from the original Cross are preserved in the [[Musée Archéologique de Dijon]]. Life-sized figures representing Old Testament prophets and kings (Moses, David, Daniel, Jeremiah, Zachariah, and Isaiah) stand around the base, holding phylacteries and books inscribed with verses from their respective texts, which were interpreted in the Middle Ages as typological prefigurations of the sacrifice of Christ. The work's physical structure, in which the Old Testament figures support those of the New Dispensation, literalizes the typological iconography. The pedestal surmounts a hexagonal fountain. The entire monument is executed in limestone quarried from Tonnerre and Asnières.

The portal of the former mortuary chapel of Champmol is positioned a few feet away from the Well of Moses. It consists of three sculptural groups by Sluter: a standing Madonna and Child at the [[Trumeau (architecture)|trumeau]]; the duke and St. John, his patron saint, at the left jamb and the duchess and her patron saint, Catherine, at the right one. Sluter was also responsible for the main part of the work on [[Champmol#Tombs of the Dukes|Philip's tomb]], which (restored and partly reconstructed) has been moved to the Museum of Fine Arts which is housed in the former ducal palace in Dijon.<ref>{{cite web|title=Claus Sluter and Claus de Werve, Mourners, from the Tomb of Philip the Bold|url=http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/claus-sluter-and-claus-de-werve-mourners-from-the-tomb-of-philip-the-bold.html|work=[[Smarthistory]]|publisher=[[Khan Academy]]|access-date=13 January 2013|author=Beth Harris|author2=Steven Zucker|archive-date=15 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141015190833/http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/claus-sluter-and-claus-de-werve-mourners-from-the-tomb-of-philip-the-bold.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Category:Gothic sculptors]]

[[Category:Northern Renaissance]]