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Source Description
In a remarkable expression of realism, the artist conveys the "weight" of personal grief through the rhythmic interplay of heavy folds of drapery. The mourner's face is carved, but it would not have been visible to the contemporary viewer. In honoring the dead, funeral monuments of the late Middle Ages often re-created funeral processions through a cloister by placing figures of mourners in an arcade around the sides of the tomb. The tomb carved by the sculptor Claus Sluter (active 1375-1405) for the Burgundian duke Philip the Bold (1342-1404) in Dijon was the first featuring freestanding figures within a three-dimensional arcade. The Walters mourning monk must come from a slightly later tomb influenced by Sluter's new realism and monumentality.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
16689
label
Mourner
core
obj
dtoType
sculpture
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
16689
sourceUrl
contentType
sculpture
stage
normalized
title
Mourner
description
In a remarkable expression of realism, the artist conveys the "weight" of personal grief through the rhythmic interplay of heavy folds of drapery. The mourner's face is carved, but it would not have been visible to the contemporary viewer. In honoring the dead, funeral monuments of the late Middle Ages often re-created funeral processions through a cloister by placing figures of mourners in an arcade around the sides of the tomb. The tomb carved by the sculptor Claus Sluter (active 1375-1405) for the Burgundian duke Philip the Bold (1342-1404) in Dijon was the first featuring freestanding figures within a three-dimensional arcade. The Walters mourning monk must come from a slightly later tomb influenced by Sluter's new realism and monumentality.
provenance
Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co., New York; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1919, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
ca. 1450 (Late Medieval)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Sculpture
sculpture (visual works)
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
44.5
height
16.5
depth
12.4
dimensionsRaw
Overall: H: 17 1/2 × W: 6 1/2 × D: 4 7/8 in. (44.45 × 16.51 × 12.38 cm)
style
Gothic
Source extras
cul
Burgundian
med
alabaster
creator_ids
6229
collection_ids
REN
MED
exhibition_ids
13
2289
316
2963
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
417fde903acd4801