2-735-560 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Mourner from the Tomb of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria, 1443-45. Shortly after Philip the Bold's death in 1404, his son John the Fearless moved much of his court to his Flemish territories, only occasionally returning to Burgundy. However, when his father's tomb was finally installed at the Chartreuse de Champmol in 1410, John expressed his wish to be interred there in a similar tombstone. Before any work could begin, John was murdered in 1419. It was not until 1443 that John's only legitimate son, Philip the Good, commissioned Jean de La Huerta to construct the tomb, modified to include an effigy of the Duke's wife Margaret of Bavaria who died in 1423. Following the wishes of both John the Fearless and Philip the Good, de la Huerta's design is only a slightly more elaborate version of Claus Sluter's tomb for Philip the Bold. De la Huerta worked on the tomb consistently for about two years; the rest was completed by Antoine Le Moiturier. The tomb was installed at Champmol in 1470. After its completion no further tombs of comparable magnificence were built for the Valois dukes in Burgundy.