The Well of Moses (French: Puits de Moïse) is a monumental sculpture recognised as the masterpiece of the Dutch artist Claus Sluter (1340–1405–06), assisted by his nephew Claus de Werve. It was executed by Sluter and his workshop in 1395–1403 for the Carthusian monastery of Chartreuse de Champmol built as a burial site by the Burgundian Duke Philip the Bold just outside the Burgundian capital of Dijon, now in France.
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Sluter, Well of Moses
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Claus Sluter: Puits de Moïse / Mosesbrunnen / Well of Moses in Dijon
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Moses is Saved from The Pharaoh I Stories of Moses I Animated Children's Bible Stories
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(piano playing) Dr. Zucker: We're standing on a wooden walkway suspended over water, which is actually fairly deep. Dr. Harris: Well, this is a well after all. We are looking at a beautiful monument by Claus Sluter called The Well of Moses. It got that title fairly recently, it was originally known as The Great Cross. Dr. Zucker: Of course the cross is no longer here. Let's give this a little bit of context. Dr. Harris: There's a lot of things that are no longer here, right? This monument stood in the middle of a cloister surrounded by the cells of Carthusian monks, the rooms where they would meditate and this cloister was in a monastery established by Philip the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy. Dr. Zucker: So we're talking about the late 14th Century. We're in Burgundy, in Dijon, or rather I should say just outside of the old walls of the city. This was a place that the Duke had commissioned in order that monks could continuously say prayers over his soul. Dr. Harris: It also was intended by Philip, and became his burial place and the burial place of his family. Dr. Zucker: It's important to remember that the Carthusians are a closed society. That is they dedicate themselves entirely to solitary prayer. Dr. Harris: What better environment to ensure the salvation of your soul for eternity. Dr. Zucker: It's interesting that Philip the Bold, the Duke actually seems to have really loved the Carthusians. In fact, he specified that he would be buried in a Carthusian robe and of course he wanted to be buried here. Dr. Harris: We're looking at a very well funded monastery, the most brilliant artists of Europe are working here including Claus Sluter. We're looking up at a hexagonal structure. On each side is a Prophet standing in front of a niche. Dr. Zucker: Interestingly and importantly, this is breaking with the Medieval tradition of having those figures completely embedded within the architecture. Dr. Harris: Each figure of the Prophet is separated by a lovely column with a Capital and standing on those Capital's are Angel's in positions of grieving and prayer with their wings outstretched. Above them we see a base and on the base would have stood a very tall and narrow cross with Christ on it and at the base of that cross the single, kneeling figure of Mary Magdalene. All of this was painted, you can see blue, there would have been gold and green. It really would have come alive and the monks would have been inspired in their prayer when they looked at this monument. Dr. Zucker: Sluter is able to give an individual life to each figure. The drapery really does give a sense of the movement of the body within it, maybe not so much the structures of the body but at least its engagement with the space around it. Dr. Harris: And look up at the figure of King David. First of all, a figure that would have been very important to the Duke of Burgundy, of David, himself, a King. He's so specific, so individualized. There's a depth and sense of wisdom in his personality. There's a recent suggestion that that figure next to King David, who is the Prophet Jeremiah is also a portrait of Philip the Bold. Dr. Zucker: In fact, if we look at contemporary portraits of Philip they look awfully similar. Dr. Harris: They do. Dr. Zucker: Moses is looking out past us, above us as a seer, but Zachariah looks down. Dr. Harris: And almost offers us his prophecy. Dr. Zucker: But also challenges us, challenges the monks that would have lived with this sculpture, "Do you see as I see? "Do you understand the importance of the tragedy "of the spiritual and miracle that transpires above?" Dr. Harris: We have these Angel's all in different positions, some with their arms folded on their chest, some with their arms raised, some clutching their drapery or touching their face. There's a depth of emotion in the figures of the Prophets and a real depth of emotion in the Angel's, all of which, I think, would have been inspiration to the monks. Dr. Zucker: That's important to remember. I mean, here we are at the well, the center of life of the monastery. The monastery itself was meant to continuously pray for the soul of the Duke, so in some ways this sculptural group of what we now call The Well of Moses was the engine in the center of the monastery that was meant to power, in a sense, inspire the prayer of the monks. It is one of the most spectacular late Medieval sculptures that certainly I've ever seen. (piano playing)
Creation
The work was executed for Philip the Bold[1] in a style combining the elegance of International Gothic with a northern realism, but with a monumental quality unusual in either. It was carved from stone quarried in Asnières, near Dijon, and consisted of a large crucifixion scene or "Calvary", with a tall slender cross surmounting a hexagonal base which was surrounded by the figures of the six prophets who had foreseen the death of Christ on the Cross (Moses, David, Jeremiah, Zachariah, Daniel and Isaiah). Standing on slender colonnettes on the corners between these prophets are six weeping angels. All the figures, including the lost Calvary group, were painted and gilded by Jean Malouel, and some of this paint remains. Thanks to the survival of the ducal accounts, the commission and ongoing work is unusually well documented.[2] It was traditionally assumed that the Calvary scene would have included the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalen, and St. John, though recent research (based on a close reading of the archives and an examination of the fixing-points on top of the base) suggests that there was only one figure, the Magdalen, embracing the foot of the Cross.[3]
The work also contains a crypto-portrait of Philip the Bold as Jeremiah, the favoured prophet of the Carthusian order. When compared with the sculpture of Philip the Bold in the portal of the church, the two sculptures bear a striking resemblance to each other: prominent, rounded chin, large nose, deep set eyes with distinctive arched eyebrows. Also, Jeremiah is the only figure not depicted in blue or gold, he wears purple and green, the colours of Burgundy.
The structure originally consisted of four elements: the well itself around four meters deep and fed by water channelled from the nearby river Ouche, the hexagonal pier, sunk in the center of the well (adorned with the prophets and angels), a terrace measuring 2.8 meters across sitting atop the pillar, and the cross which rose from the center.[4]
Conservation
Situated in the central courtyard of what was then the main cloister, the building enclosing the well was added in the 17th century, when the upper parts of the work were already suffering from weather damage. The work was further damaged in 1791, during the French Revolution. The name "Well of Moses" (Puits de Moïse in French) appears during the 19th century.[5]
Only fragments of the Crucifixion survive, including the head and torso of Christ; they are now housed in the Musée Archéologique in Dijon. The hexagonal base with its sculptures remains in what is now the Hospital de la Chartreuse, and can be seen by tourists.[6]
Images
See also
References
- ^ Nash (2005), p. 801
- ^ Frish (1987), pp. 126-27
- ^ Nash(2005), pp. 798–809
- ^ Nash (2005), pp. 798–799
- ^ Prochno (2002), p. 217
- ^ Art from the Court of Burgundy, The Patronage of Philip the Bold and John the Fearless, 1364–1419, ed. Stephen Fliegel and Sophie Jugie, exhibition catalogue (Cleveland and Dijon, Paris: RMN, 2004); Kathleen Morand, Claus Sluter, Artist at the Court of Burgundy (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991); Renate Prochno, Die Kartause Von Champmol. Grablege Der Burgundischen Herzöge (1364–1477) (Munich: Akademie Verlag, 2002).
Sources
- Frish, Teresa Grace. Gothic Art 1140-c. 1450: Sources and Documents. University of Toronto Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8020-6679-8
- Nash, Susie. "The Lord’s Crucifix of Costly Workmanship: Colour, Collaboration and the Making of Meaning on the Well of Moses" in Circumlitio. The Polychromy of Antique and Late Medieval Sculpture, ed. V. Brinkmann, O. Primavesi and M. Hollein (Frankfurt am Main, 2010), pp. 356–381, full PDF
- Nash, Susie. "Claus Sluter's 'Well of Moses' for the Chartreuse de Champmol Reconsidered: Part I". The Burlington Magazine, Dec 2005. Volume=147, issue=1233
- Renate, Prochno. Die Kartause von Champmol. Grablege der burgundischen Herzöge 1364-1477. Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 2002. ISBN 978-3-0500-3595-6
External links
47°19′17″N 5°01′00″E / 47.32125°N 5.01665°E
- ^ "Sluter's Well of Moses". Smarthistory at Khan Academy. Retrieved 18 January 2013.