Tomb of Philippe Pot

The Tomb of Philippe Pot is a life-sized 15th-century funerary monument commissioned in 1477 by Philippe Pot, some 13 years before his death, to stand over his planned burial place in the chapel of Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Cîteaux Abbey, near Dijon, France. His effigy shows him recumbent on a slab with his hands joined in prayer, wearing armor and a heraldic tunic. He is carried by eight pleurants (mourners), dressed in black hoods and act as pallbearers carrying Philippe towards his grave.

Philippe was around 49 years when he comissioned the tomb. He was a godson of Philip the Good and became a Knight of the Golden Fleece and the Grand Seneschal of Burgundy. He served under both of two the two last Dukes of Burgundy: Philip the Good and Charles the Bold, until the latter's defeat by the French king Louis XI at the battle of Nancy in 1477, after which he served under both Louis XI and Charles VIII. The detailed inscriptions running along each sides of the slab detail his importance as a military leader and diplomat.

The tomb is made of limestone, paint, gold and lead and was completed in 1480. There are no records of it's designers and craftsmen. Art historians generally cite Antoine Le Moiturier as the most likely designer of the pleurants, but this is based on circumstantial evidence including similarities to his other works.Jugie (2019), p. 41 The monument was stolen during the French Revolution, and after changing hands a number of times was placed in the 19th century in a private garden in Dijon. It has been in the collection of the Musée du Louvre since 1899, where it is on permanent display in room 210. Between 2016 and 2018 it underwent a major technical examination and restoration.

Life and death of Philippe Pot

Philippe Pot was born in 1428 at the 12th-century feudal castle Château de la Rochepot, outside Beaune in eastern France.Panofski; Panofsky (1968), p. 289 As a godson of Philip the Bold, he was raised and educated at the Burgundian court. He became a ''seigneur'' of La Roche and Thorey-sur-Ouche, a Knight of the Golden Fleece, and a Grand Seneschal of Burgundy. He served under the two last Dukes of Burgundy: Philip the Good and Charles the Bold. After the latter's defeat by Louis XI at the Battle of Nancy in 1477, the dynasty died out. Philippe was expelled from the Citadel of Lille in 1477, having been tried for perjury amongst other charges, but there-after served under two French kings: Louis and Charles VIII.

Philip the Bold's tomb was comissioned in the late 14th century as the first of the Burgundian style tombs. He hired the Dutch sculptor Claus Sluter, whose distinctive style in placing mourners around effigy was often copied over the following centuries. Philippe's tomb follows the style of Philip the Bold's tomb, which was comissioned in the late 14th century as the first of the now well known Burgundian style tombs.Sadler (2015), p. 22

The first record of the tomb is dated August 28, 1480, when Philippe paid the abbot of Cîteaux Abbey, Jean de Cirey, one thousand livres for a burial place . Although the dates of its construction are not known, it is generally assumed to have been between 1480 and 1483, given that the inscriptions mention events after the January 1477 death of Charles the Bold at the battle of Nancy, and mention Louis XI as king.Jugie (2019), p. 20 It was placed in the chapel of Saint-Jean-Baptiste, at the corner of the south transept and the ambulatory.

Philippe's motto "Tant L. vaut, était" was painted in several locations within his chapel, and the tomb was positioned to the left of the altar so that his feet would point towards the east, as was customary for a secular burial. The date of death would have been left blank during its construction. The current date was probably added in the 19th century, but erroneously gives the year of death 1494 (rather than 1493), and does not give the month.

Description

The tomb is made of painted limestone, paint, gold and lead. The mourners measure between and in height,Jugie (2019), p. 11 that is slightly smaller than life-sized.
This allows the slightly larger than life recumbent figure to be low enough to be clearly visible to the viewer.Jugie (2019), p. 14

Effigy

Philippe Pot reposes on a limestone plate or slab. His face and face and hands are portrayed in a naturalistic manner,Jugie (2010), p. 40 and he is dressed in a tunic, silver armor covered with a gilded breastplate and a knightly helmet. His head rests on a cushion, his eyes are open and his hands clasped in prayer. A sword lies to his side while his feet rest on an unnatural looking animal that maybe either a lion or dog.Jugie (2010), p. 52

The coat of arms on his shield, like those of the mourners carrying him, are painted in gold, red and the black, and are his ancestral families of Pot, Courtiamble, Anguissola, Blaisy, Guénant and Nesles et Montagu. Unusually the effigy does not contain any of the angels usually seen in contemporary Northern European tombs where they guide the deceased to the afterlife.

Pleurants

Eight mourners In the lower register carry Philippe's slab on their shoulders.Jugie (2019), p. 38 They are carved in black stone and dressed in full-length black-hooded cloaks. TheIR hoods are shoulder-length and almost fully cover their faces, indicating that the mourners are laity and playing a ceremonial role rite that lasted in the region between the 13th and 16th centuries. Although such figures do not often appear in art from the period, similar figures be seen in such works as the tomb of Philippe Dagobert (d. 1235) at the Maubuisson Abbey at Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône in northern France, and the c. 1452–1460 "Office of the Dead" miniature from Jean Fouquet's illuminated manuscript the "Hours of Étienne Chevalier".

Each mourner bears a gilded heraldic shield, each individually designed and referring to Philippe's lineage, making the monument of the "Kinship tomb" type. When identifying the heraldry, the art historian Sophie Jugie names the mourners in order of those on Philipp's left (from his head down - mourners 1–5) and his right mourners 5–8. Using this annotation, the shields represent (1) the combined shields of Guillaume III Pot and Raguenonde Guénant (2) the Cortiambles family (3) the Anguissola family (4) de Blaisy (5) de Montagus (6) de Nesle (7) unidentified
and (8) unidentified.

The mourner's weighty and austere poses give the impression of the slow movement of a funeral procession.Mayade, Stéphanie.
Tombeau de Philippe Pot – Musée du Louvre, Paris
. ''Musardises en dépit du bon sens'', 5 January 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2019 Although their faces are covered and they thus do not have individualised facial characteristics, they have different poses, heraldic shields and folded drapes.Marcoux (2003), p.125 The folds of the clothing are angular and rigid, and seem influenced by the works of mid-15th century Early Netherlandish painters such as Rogier van der Weyden, likely through engravings known to have been circulating through Dijon at the time. Other potential sources include the relief of four monks with covered heads on a short side of the tomb of Pierre de Bauffremont (d. 1472), commissioned in 1453 for his planned burial in Dijon,Marcoux (2003), p. 122 and a near contemporary tomb in Semur-en-Auxois likely known to Phillipe.

File:Dijon (Côte-d'Or) - Musée des Beaux-Arts - Tombeaux des ducs de Bourgogne (cénotaphe de Jean-sans-Peur et Marguerite de Bavière) - Pleurants (14922500276).jpg, Mourners in a niche, tomb of John the Fearless, attributed to Juan de la Huerta, c. 1406
File:Les funérailles d Étienne Chevalier (cropped) (cropped).jpg, ''Office of the Dead'' from the Hours of Étienne Chevalier, Jean Fouquet, c. 1452–1460
File:Semur-en-Auxois-Mise-au-tombeau-de-la-chapelle-Saint-Lazare-collégiale-dpt-Cote-d'Or-DSC 0318 (cropped).jpg, ''Entombment'', Notre-Dame Collegiate Church of Semur-en-Auxois. Attributed to Antoine Le Moiturier, 1490.Jugie (2019), p. 39

Inscriptions

The extensive carved inscriptions on the edges of the slab are written in Gothic script. They are written in three rows, and begin
on the right side of the head of effigy, and ends behind his head. They describe his career with Philip the Good and Charles the Bold and his reasons for switching sides and serving under Louis XI and Charles VIII following Charles the Bold's defeat by Louis XI.Jugie (2019), p. 16

Attribution

In his long preparation for his death, Philippe (who died in 1493), and had by 1477 planned a monument to stand over his grave Cîteaux Abbey. It is probable that he would have first worked with an artist, likely a painter, to agree an overall design, and then hired stonemasons, sculptors and craftsmen to build the tomb.Marcoux (2003), p. 121

Art historians have not identified the artists or craftsmen responsible for designing or building the tomb. Moiturier (active 1482–1502) is often suggested as likely to have created the pleurants, given similarity of their facial types and their solid and rigid clothing to the Mourners of Dijon." Guillaume Chandelier has been suggested as involved, but there is little supporting evidence.

Art historians generally distinguish the conventional design of the effigy, and the expressive form of the mourners and the inventive placing of the slab on narrow points above each of their shoulders.Jugie (2019), p. 42 While it is possible that an artist who was both a painter and sculptor oversaw the tomb's completion, the variation of degree in the quality of sculpture indicates a number of hands. The art historian Robert Marcoux notes that parts of the sculpture are so vaguely described that it is unlikely that a master painter was involved in their completion.Marcoux (2003), pp. 124, 125

Provenance

The tomb's provenance is complex and has only been fully pieced together since the mid-20th century.Panofski; Panofsky (1968), p. 289 It is first mentioned as completed in 1649 by Pierre Palliot, a bookseller and printer in Dijon, when he described the coats of arms and the inscriptions. The antiquarian and collector François Roger de Gaignières made a number of drawings between 1699–1700, which are lost and known only from copies by Louis Boudan ( fl. 1687–1709) but contain a number of inaccuracies. The tomb was nationalised during the French Revolution when all church property was transferred to the French State. Sometime between 1791 & 1793 François Devosge, an artist and director of the Dijon School of Drawing, was charged with moving it to the Benedictine abbey in Saint-Bénigne.Jugie (2019), p. 25

It is next mentioned in September 1808 when it was acquired for fifty-three livres by count Richard de Vesvrotte, lord of Ruffey-lès-Beaune, following a legal case against the French state. De Vesvrotte placed it under trees in the garden of the Hôtel de Ruffey, his townhouse o
33 rue Berbisey
Dijon.

Richard's son Pierre sold the Hôtel in 1850 and relocated the tomb to his Château de Vesvrotte in Beire-le-Châtel, Côte-d'Or

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