The Tomb of Philip the Bold is a funerary monument commissioned in 1378 for Philip II the Bold, who served as Duke of Burgundy. He chose the Chartreuse de Champmol, a Carthusian monastery on the outskirts of Dijon, France, as his burial place. Jean de Marville designed the tomb and oversaw work at Champmol from 1384 to 1389, after which Claus Sluter took over the design of the monastery and the tomb. Philip died in 1404 while the monument was still incomplete, and Claus de Werve finished it in 1410 after Sluter’s death.
The tomb shows Philip recumbent on a black marble slab with his eyes open and hands clasped. His helmet is held by two angels, and a lion rests at his feet. Below the figure, pleurants, or mourning figures, walk in alternating double archways and triangular niches. Sluter designed these figures, which later inspired the Mourners of Dijon. The tomb is housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon.
Design and Completion of the Tomb
The Tomb of Philip the Bold was commissioned in 1378 as a funerary monument for Philip II the Bold, who served as Duke of Burgundy. He chose the Chartreuse de Champmol, a Carthusian monastery on the outskirts of Dijon, France, for his burial. Jean de Marville designed the tomb and oversaw the building of the Chartreuse de Champmol, working on the monument from 1384 to 1389. In 1389, Claus Sluter took over the design of both Champmol and the tomb. Philip died in 1404 while the funerary monument was still incomplete. After Sluter's death, Claus de Werve finished the tomb in 1410.
The Tomb Monument and Its Mourning Figures
The tomb monument shows Intro recumbent on a black marble slab with eyes open and hands clasped. His helmet is held by two angels, and a lion rests at his feet. Below him, pleurants, or mourning figures, walk in alternating double archways and triangular niches. Claus Sluter designed these pleurants for Intro's tomb, and his work later inspired the Mourners of Dijon.
The tomb also became part of a broader family and courtly tradition of burial monuments. Intro's son, John the Fearless, commissioned a similar tomb and figures for himself and Margaret of Bavaria. Although John the Fearless died in 1419, the monuments were not completed and installed until 1470. The pleurants designed for John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria surpassed those in Intro's tomb. Jean, Duke of Berry, who died in 1416, also commissioned a similar work for his burial.
Intro's tomb is housed in the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, as is John the Fearless's tomb.
Champmol and the Tomb Project
The tomb of Philip II the Bold was tied to the creation of the Chartreuse de Champmol, a Carthusian monastery on the west outskirts of Dijon. In 1378, the domain of Champmol was acquired, and the site was developed as a place for tombs that would express religious devotion and provide sanctified resting places for the ducal dynasty. The project also reflected a wider ambition for Champmol, which was intended to become the ducal palace of Dijon. Construction began with the laying of the cornerstone in 1383, followed by a foundational charter dated 1385. Champmol was dedicated to the Virgin and the Trinity in 1388, the same year the first monks took up residence there. Over time, successive artists worked on the site, making Champmol a major medieval artistic achievement.
Commissioning and Completion of the Tomb
The tomb of Philip II the Bold was commissioned in 1380, when Jean de Marville was asked to make an alabaster sepulcher in Dijon. In 1386, the patron also requested burial in the choir. By that time, the project already involved at least thirteen fully qualified craftsmen, including two polishers from Paris. Work progressed slowly, and by 1404 the mourners and framework were still incomplete, even though the arcade around the tomb base was largely complete and assembled by 1387. Preparatory work was brought to Champmol in Paris for final masonry, and the project took more than 20 years to finish, being finalized in 1410.
The tomb passed under the control of John the Fearless, who gave Sluter four years to complete it. Sluter had been associated with the work since 1397 and designed the mourners, cherubs, and niche arch details. He died within two years of assuming control, and Claus de Werve completed the sculptures in 1410. The polychrome effigies were painted by Jean Malouel, while Van Eram added outlines to the capitals above the mourners.
Afterwards, Champmol was destroyed and the tomb was damaged by revolutionaries and looters. It was restored in the first half of the 19th century.
Materials, Figures, and Later Restorations
The tomb of Philip II the Bold is made from alabaster, marble, gilt, and paint. Its upper reliefs present Philip's sarcophagus effigy against a highly polished back of Tournai stone, which Sluter purchased in 1391. The effigy shows Philip in repose, with his eyes open and his hands upright and clasped in prayer. An angel with gilded wings holds a cushion made from a black marble slab beneath his head, while a lion rests at his feet. A silver plate with a painted bright red overtones helmet was probably designed by de Werve and finished by Sluter. Inscriptions on the sides of the slabs record Philip's name, position, and date of death, stating that he died at Halle in Brabant on the XXVIITH day of April, year 1404.
The monument also included a large number of small figures, with a total of 40 figures measuring between 39 and 42 cm in height. Three pleurants were lost when Champmol was plundered by Napoleonic troops in 1793, and other pleurants were later returned in the following century from the French state or private collections. Two mourners, numbered 18 and 35, are assumed to have been lost, while mourner 17 is thought to have survived in a private collection. Angels were placed at either side of the arcade in the original arrangement. Philip's effigy itself was destroyed by Napoleonic troops in 1793 and recreated in 1825 based on portrait prints; only the hands of the original effigy remain intact.
Later History and Influence
The charterhouse at Champmol was sacked and burned during the French Revolution, and the tomb itself was dismantled, with some of its parts destroyed. Today, the tombs of Philip and John are housed in the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. The slabs and effigies were already in poor condition, with parts around the feet lost. In 1819, the effigies were reconstructed under architect Claude Saint-Pere, and they were in the Salle des Gardes, Paris, from 1827. They were restored again in the early 21st century. The tomb's arcade style, with near life sized pleurants carrying a royal effigy, became highly influential. It can be seen in the monument for Philip's son John and in the tombs of Isabella of Bourbon, Marguerite of Bourbon, Philippe Pot, and John, Duke of Berry.