Fragment from the Tomb of John the Fearless and Margaret of Austria
ca. 1443–55
Medium
Alabaster
Dimensions
Overall: 5 1/2 × 5 1/16 × 2 1/16 in. (14 × 12.8 × 5.2 cm) with base: 7 7/8 × 5 1/16 × 2 7/8 in. (20 × 12.8 × 7.3 cm)
Classification
Sculpture-Architectural|Sculpture-Stone|Sculpture-Alabaster
Culture
French
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Brimo de Laroussilhe, in honor of the 75th anniversary of The Cloisters, 2013
Accession Number
2013.460
Art Historical Context
This delicate alabaster fragment once formed part of the magnificent tomb of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Margaret of Austria, created between 1443 and 1455. Commissioned decades after the duke’s assassination in 1419, the monument stood as a powerful statement of Burgund prestige and dynastic continuity. The work reflects the refined courtly taste of the period, when elaborate funerary sculpture served both to honor the deceased and to impress visitors to the ducal mausoleum at the Chartreuse de Champmol. Sculptors Jean de la Huerta and Antoine Le Moiturier, both active ...