MEDIEVAL SCULPTOR, French
(active around 1400)

Tomb of Jean sans Peur

c. 1400
Painted alabaster
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon

The first important funeral monuments in the 13th century had been fairly simple. By the later 13th century, and increasingly during the 14th, ancillary sculptural devices, such as angels supporting the head of the deceased came to play a prominent part. Ultimately, in later examples such as the tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy at Dijon, major artists created important works of sculpture in which the tomb element is almost secondary. So the way was paved for the development of the secular monument, which, as church carving declined, became the principal outlet for sculpture right through to the 20th century.




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