mourner

France, 1406 – 1410 / 1443 – 1470

The mourners on the tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy in Dijon.

During the Late Middle Ages, the Burgundian dukes, originating from a cadet branch of the French House of Valois, ranked among the most powerful rulers of north-western Europe. The mourners (pleurants) from the tomb of Philip the Bold (1342–1404), and later that of his son John the Fearless (1371–1419), produced between 1406 and 1470, bear witness to the exceptional wealth and enduring dynastic prestige of the Burgundian court.