Royal Monastery of Brou
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Royal Monastery of Brou is a religious complex located at
Bourg-en-Bresse Bourg-en-Bresse (; frp, Bôrg) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Ain Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in Eastern France. Located northeast of Lyon, it is the capital of the ...
in the
Ain Ain (, ; frp, En) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where ...
''
département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...
'', central
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. Made out of monastic buildings in addition to a church, they were built at the beginning of the 16th century by Margaret of Austria, daughter of the
Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...
Maximilian I and
Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands The governor ( nl, landvoogd) or governor-general () of the Habsburg Netherlands was a representative appointed by the Holy Roman emperor (1504-1556), the king of Spain (1556-1598, 1621-1706), and the archduke of Austria (1716-1794), to administ ...
. The complex was designed as a dynastic burial place in the tradition of the Burgundian
Champmol The Chartreuse de Champmol, formally the ''Chartreuse de la Sainte-Trinité de Champmol'', was a Carthusian monastery on the outskirts of Dijon, which is now in France, but in the 15th century was the capital of the Duchy of Burgundy. The monast ...
and
Cîteaux Abbey Cîteaux Abbey (french: Abbaye de Cîteaux, links=no ) is a Catholic abbey located in Saint-Nicolas-lès-Cîteaux, south of Dijon, France. It is notable for being the original house of the Cistercian order. Today, it belongs to the Trappists ...
, and the French Saint-Denis. The church is known as the Église Saint-Nicolas-de-Tolentin de Brou in French. The church was built between 1506 and 1532 in a lavishly elaborate
Flamboyant Flamboyant (from ) is a form of late Gothic architecture that developed in Europe in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, from around 1375 to the mid-16th century. It is characterized by double curves forming flame-like shapes in the bar-tr ...
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
style, with some classicizing Renaissance aspects. The tall roof is covered in coloured, glazed tiles. Margaret, her second husband
Philibert II, Duke of Savoy Philibert II (10 April 1480 – 10 September 1504), nicknamed the Handsome or the Good, was the Duke of Savoy from 1497 until his death. Biography Born in Pont-d'Ain, Philibert was the son of Philip (Filippo) the Landless and his first wife ...
, and his mother, Margaret of Bourbon, are all buried in tombs by
Conrad Meit Conrad Meit or (usual in German) Conrat Meit (1480s in Worms; 1550/1551 in Antwerp) was a German-born Late Gothic and Renaissance sculptor, who spent most of his career in the Low Countries. The royal tombs that were his largest works still ha ...
within the church, which have avoided the destruction that most royal tombs in France have suffered. The monastery is the property of the town of Bourg-in-Bresse, which installed the municipal art collection in the buildings in 1922. The museum presents religious statues of the 13th to 17th centuries on the ground floor, and a collection of paintings of the 16th to the 20th centuries on the upper floor. The church and monastery have been classed as a ''
monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...
'' since 1862. The buildings are in the care of the French state, and are managed by the ''
Centre des monuments nationaux The Centre des monuments nationaux (CMN) (French, 'National monuments centre') is a French government body (Établissement public à caractère administratif) which conserves, restores and manages historic buildings and sites that are the propert ...
''.


Meit's tomb group

Conrad Meit's career led him from his birthplace at Worms on the Rhine, to the Wittenberg court and finally to Cranach's workshop in
Mechelen Mechelen (; french: Malines ; traditional English name: MechlinMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical contex ...
. There he is recorded as court sculptor for Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands from 1512 to 1530. For her Meits completed his most famous masterpieces, the group of monumental royal tombs for Margaret, her husband
Philibert II, Duke of Savoy Philibert II (10 April 1480 – 10 September 1504), nicknamed the Handsome or the Good, was the Duke of Savoy from 1497 until his death. Biography Born in Pont-d'Ain, Philibert was the son of Philip (Filippo) the Landless and his first wife ...
and his mother Margaret of Bourbon, produced from 1526 onwards. These are at the then newly built Royal Monastery of Brou, today in France, but then in the province of
Bresse Bresse () is a former French province. It is located in the regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté of eastern France. The geographical term ''Bresse'' has two meanings: ''Bresse bourguignonne'' (or ''louhannaise''), whi ...
, part of the
Duchy of Savoy The Duchy of Savoy ( it, Ducato di Savoia; french: Duché de Savoie) was a country in Western Europe that existed from 1416. It was created when Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, raised the County of Savoy into a duchy for Amadeus VIII. The duc ...
. Philibert had died at the age of 24 in 1504, so Meit's images of him are based on other portraits. His majestic grave monument is placed in the middle of the Abbey's choir, with the two female tombs set against the wall on either side of it. The three aligned figures are turned towards each other, as though in communication. Though to the side, Margaret's tomb is the largest. Philibert's tomb consists of two levels and two effigies, one above the other. The upper part, in expensive imported white
Carrara marble Carrara marble, Luna marble to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara in the province of Massa ...
, represents the Duke in ceremonial costume, surrounded by Italian-style angels (''putti''). Below this, ten little female figures, the ''
sibyl The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local traditi ...
s'' point towards the effigy. To the north, the tomb of Margaret of Bourbon consists of a single effigy placed within an ''enfeu'' and lying upon a piece of black marble, with
pleurants Pleurants or weepers (the English meaning of ''pleurants'') are anonymous sculpted figures representing mourners, used to decorate elaborate tomb monuments, mostly in the late Middle Ages in Western Europe. Typically they are relatively small, ...
beneath, a traditional Burgundian feature. The princess is dressed in an ermine cloak and her feet rest on a
greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurge ...
, symbol of loyalty. Behind the effigy, ''putti'' bear etuschons with the initials of Margaret and her husband. Margaret of Austria's tomb also has an upper effigy in marble and a lower one in alabaster. In the upper one she is shown as an older woman in dress of state, wearing the crown-like
archducal hat The archducal hat (german: Erzherzogshut) is the insignia of the Archduchy of Austria, mostly apparently symbolic and used in the heraldry and some portraits of Austrian archdukes rather than routinely worn. One late example is kept in Klost ...
. Below she is shown in her youth, wearing a loose robe with her long hair unbound, and somewhat idealized. The two lower figures of the married couple vary the normal "transi" or cadaver tomb iconography, where a lower figure is shown as decayed remains, and connects to a broader theme of Resurrection in the abbey's art. Below their formal effigies, the couple are shown in their most perfect state, as they would be at the
resurrection of the dead General resurrection or universal resurrection is the belief in a resurrection of the dead, or resurrection from the dead ( Koine: , ''anastasis onnekron''; literally: "standing up again of the dead") by which most or all people who have died ...
.Burk, 11-18


Notes


References

*Burk, Jens Ludwig, "Conrat Meit, Margaret of Austria's Court Sculptor in Malines and Brou"
PDF version
Centre des monuments nationaux (France) - part of the online book below * *Gelfand, Laura D. “Margaret of Austria and the Encoding of Power in Patronage: The Funerary Foundation at Brou.” In ''Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern'' Europe, edited by Allison Levy, 145–165. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.


External links


Official website
* {{Authority control 16th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in France Roman Catholic churches completed in 1532 Christian monasteries in Ain Monuments historiques of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Churches in Ain Museums in Ain Historic house museums in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Landmarks in France Gothic architecture in France 1532 establishments in France Monuments of the Centre des monuments nationaux