Splendour of the Burgundian Court and Charles the Bold
http://www.karlderkuehne.at/en/who-is-charles-the-bold/the-exhibition/exhibition-catalogue
Marti, Susan, Till-Holger Borchert, Gabriele Keck, eds. Splendour
of the Burgundian Court: Charles the Bold (1433-1477). Brussels:
Mercatorfonds (distrib. in N. America by Cornell University Press),
2008. Pp. 382. ё 45, $80.00. ISBN: 978-0-8014-4853-9.
Reviewed by D'A. J. D. Boulton
University of Notre Dame
www.karlderkuehne.at/en/who-is-charles-the-bold/the-exhibition/exhibition-catalogue
The very splendid book reviewed here is the catalogue of an exhibition
of works of art of every sort associated with the court of the fourth
of the Dukes of Burgundy of the Valois line established in 1364.
The exhibition, called simply Charles the Bold (1433-1477), and
organized by a scientific committee of eleven distinguished
specialists (including Till-Holger Borchert, Christian Beaufort-
Spontin, Peter Jezler, and Werner Paravicini), was a particularly
ambitious one, involving four museums in three cities and countries
with historical connections to the court in question: the Historisches
Museum of Berne (where it was open to the public from April to August
2008); the Bruggemuseum and Groeningenmuseum in Bruges (to which it
moved from March to July 2009); and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in
Vienna (where it was held from September 2009 to January 2010). It
also included works from sixty-six public collections in forty-one
cities in ten countries, and an additional set borrowed from unlisted
private collections.
The book Splendour of the Burgundian Court is the latest in a
long line of catalogues of comparable exhibitions on the arts of the
Burgundian court
The work here in question resembles most closely the last of these
catalogues, covering the reigns of the first two Valois dukes, and
like the exhibition it records and explains, it could reasonably be
viewed as a successor (though not the chronologically immediate one)
to that work. It is divided into four major parts: (1) an historical
introduction in seven sections, including a genealogy of the dukes, a
series of maps of their domains augmented with contemporary portraits
and representations of their arms, and brief biographies of the later
dukes and one duchess and their wives or husband, similarly
illustrated (20-34); (2) a set of four thematic essays, on the
policies, curial culture, and visual images of Charles the Bold, and
the liturgical vestments of his Order of the Golden Fleece: "an
undisputed masterpiece of European textile art" (38-81); (3) eighty-
four (unnumbered) pages of plates, most with one image to a page,
accompanied by captions including full identification and a brief
commentary (82-167); and (4) a thematically-organized catalogue,
itself divided into six chapters, four of which are in their turn
divided into from four to six sections, and all of which include an
introductory essay and a series of more or less extensive, numbered
entries on the objects represented (168-361). Parts 1, 2, and 4 are
scarcely less lavishly illustrated than the pages of plates, and
images (including maps and charts, among the latter a very useful one
of the organization of Charles' court) probably occupy twice as much
space as text throughout. The catalogue is followed by a bibliography
of works cited, a topographical index of cited works, and other lists,
but lacks a general index.
plan http://www.karlderkuehne.at/html/flash/en/topflash.swf
In addition, I can say without any reservation
that the selection of objects represented and examined in the
catalogue is extremely impressive not only in its extent but in its
variety, and that the quality of both the photography of these objects
and its reproduction in print is superb. It is true that photographs
of a substantial number of the objects have been published in earlier
works on Burgundian, Netherlandish, and Flemish art--including the
catalogues I listed above--but many others had not. In any case, the
comprehensive character, revealing thematic organization, and
generally superior quality of all of the images published in this
volume makes it the new touchstone for the arts of the court of Duke
Charles the Bold (or Rash, as his cognomen is more
accurately rendered, and distinguished from the cognomen le
Hardi, normally translated 'the Bold', borne by the first Valois
duke).
It will be useful to conclude with a brief survey of the range of
artistic forms and contexts for their display represented and examined
in the catalogue. In the order in which they are presented, the forms
include embroidery, parade armour, luxury fabrics, paintings
(specifically altarpieces and donor portraits), tapestries, book-
illustrations (including fine pen-drawings with and without colored
washes as well as densely-painted illuminations) and various luxurious
items created in gold, silver, crystal, and steel, for use in the
ducal chapel or table, or in the context of knightly games and serious
warfare. The contexts separately examined themselves include political
meetings (especially that between Duke Charles and the Emperor held at
Trier in 1473, at which the former sought from the latter a royal
crown); festive banquets (and the theatrical
Click to viewperformances and dances
given at them); equally theatrical tournaments, pas d'armes, and
jousts; and courtly pastimes (especially hunting, dancing, and board
games). The composition and performance of musical works for both
chapel and hall is also examined, albeit briefly, and like all of the
other subjects, beautifully illustrated.
In short, the catalogue presents a vivid picture of the arts of
magnificence of the fifteenth century as practiced for one of the most
magnificent of European princes in that period, along with a
remarkable collection of representations of the splendid ceremonial
life of his court. It also includes an impressive variety of portraits
in various media, including portrait-medals by Giovanni Candida and
others (224-229); of which the full-page painted portraits of the
Duchess Marie (Pll. 79, 80) and those of her husband, Maximilian (Pl.
81, 82) are particularly striking. The only real criticism I might
make is a very minor one: namely, the use of the word "chain" (e.g.,
in the caption of Pl. 3) to refer to what in Middle French was always
called the colier and in Modern English is normally called
(like the comparable insignia of other orders) the "collar" of the
Order of the Golden Fleece.