Burgundy

BORGOGNA. – French historical region, whose name perpetuates the memory of the Burgundians (a Germanic population that entered France around the 5th century) and of the feudal state they established there, definitively united with the French monarchy in 1497.

After 1790, B. comprised the three departments of Yonne, Côtes-d'Or, and Saône-et-Loire, that is, an area of 24,075 sq km, extending from Champagne to the Jura and from the Vosges to the Rhône.

The landscape is fairly varied, alternating areas of upland (from the Plateau de Langres to the Chalonnais, resting against the crystalline heights of the Morvan), cut by valleys

(Combes) tributary to the Seine and the Saône, with plains partly reclaimed for cultivation, partly still filled with ponds (Bresse) or covered with forests (liteaux). Overall, this is an agricultural region, especially suited to the cultivation of vines (the Burgundian vineyards climb the slopes of the hills, or côtes, which from Dijon to Lyon close off to the west the trough through which the Saône flows) and cereals (wheat and maize), which also serve livestock raising (cattle and poultry). But the importance that B. acquired in history derives above all from its geographical position, as a zone of passage from Mediterranean France (the Rhône basin) to northern France (the Paris basin), and from eastern France (Lorraine) to the west (the Loire basin), as indicated by the development of the roads and navigable canals that cross the region.

The population of B. recorded, between 1921 and 1946, the usual decline observed throughout France; in 1946 it amounted (in the three departments mentioned above) to 1,108,365 inhabitants (46 per sq km). There are no large urban concentrations; the most important, which is also the region’s historical center, is Dijon (100,664 inhabitants), essentially an agricultural market and communications hub. The other two departmental capitals are: Auxerre (Yonne, 24,000 inhabitants) and Mâcon (Saône-et-Loire, 21,000 inhabitants).

HISTORY OF THE DUCHY OF B. — B. was a territory whose boundaries were not clearly defined in the Middle Ages, owing to the frequent changes in political frontiers; even present-day Savoia and the Valle d’Aosta formed part of II. Christianity must have penetrated there from Lione and Vienne, where it was flourishing in the 2nd century. It received its name from the Burgundi, who settled there in the 5th century and established a kingdom, which the Franks incorporated into their own in 534. Under the Merovingian kings it had its own administration, at times with princes in hereditary succession. Carlo il Calvo created the duchy of Borgogna and bestowed it upon his brother-in-law Riccardo il giustiziere (877–921), who freed it from the Normans. Subsequently, although in 1038 the duchy entered the Empire, with which it maintained only weak ties, it remained always in the hands of persons related to the Frankish royal family and was therefore closely bound to it, until in 1032, with Roberto, of the Capetian family, a true dynasty began, transmitting the duchy by inheritance until 1361.

Of particular interest for the history of the Church are the two Citeaux (v.) and certain of its dukes, who distinguished themselves especially in the Crusades. Odone detto Borel (1079–1102), who protected the monks of Citeaux, recently founded in B., while opposing those of Cluny, for which he received excommunication, died in Cilicia during the Crusade; his successors as well, Ugo II il Pacifico (1102–43) and Adone II (1143–82), became involved in difficulties between the Cluniacs and the Cistercians. Ugo III (1182–93) died as a crusader at Tiro, and his son Odone III (1193–1218) supported

King Philip Augustus in the struggle against the Albigensians. Ugo IV (1218–72), with s. Ludovico IX (v.), was taken prisoner by the Arabs at Mansurah and obtained from Baldwin I of Constantinople the purely honorary title of king of Thessalonica. Roberto II, his brother and successor (1272–1305), supported Philip the Fair against Boniface VIII. When the Capetian ducal family died out in 1361 with Filippo di Rouvre, who died without heirs, the duchy easily passed into the hands of Giovanni II of France, who in 1363 granted it as an apanage to his son Filippo l’Ardito. From this moment it became part of the French monarchy (v. FILIPPO L'ARDITO).

ART. - Twice in the course of history, the art of B. rose to European importance: during the period of the highest flourishing of the Cluniac and Cistercian Orders, that is, respectively, during the Romanesque and late Romanesque periods; and during the duchy of Filippo l'Ardito (1363-1404) and his successors, when, after Filippo’s marriage to Margherita di Fiandra (1384), the political union of the two countries brought about a very lively cultural exchange and made Digione the artistic centre of France.

In the Romanesque and late Romanesque art of B., architecture and sculpture were of predominant importance: the former, in comparison with the other regions of France, followed entirely distinctive paths, deriving above all from classical art its vaulted basilicas and its wall systems, which recall those of the Roman arches. Two earlier phases of the same monument, as well as other churches of lesser importance, such as S. Benigno in Digione and S. Filiberto in Tournus, preceded the definitive construction of the church of the abbey of Cluny. But a true Burgundian school manifested itself only in the final construction of the church of Cluny (vaulted and with five naves, only slightly smaller than the ancient basilica of S. Pietro, with five bell towers; begun in 1089; the choir was consecrated by Urbano II in 1095; completed in 1125, it was largely destroyed during the French Revolution); this school developed and established itself in buildings derived from the Cluniac model, such as the churches of Paray-le-Monial, Beaune, Autun (beginning of the 12th century), La Charité-sur-Loire, and Langres (second half of the 12th century). Another type, perhaps displaying Eastern influences, arose at Vézelay, in the church of La Maddalena, at Ancy-le-Duc, and at Avallon. While the churches of the centres of the Cistercian reform, Clairvaux (Chiaravalle) and Cîteaux, have not been preserved, their type is reflected in those of Fontenay and Pontigny, as well as in certain Italian abbey churches (Casamari, Fossanova, etc.).

In sculpture, classical influences were quite weak in comparison with the passionate vitality of its original, slender forms. The older current nevertheless remained somewhat heavy; for example, the capitals of the choir of Cluny and Ancy-le-Duc, and the portals of Charlieu (1094) and Mâcon. Sculpture then became exceptionally animated and subsequently stylized, as shown by the portals and capitals at Autun and Vézelay (c. 1120-30, under the influence of the destroyed portal of the church of Cluny from the third phase), at Paray-le-Monial (second half of the 12th century), and at Avalon. Cîteaux was also the centre of a flourishing school of miniature painting, especially under the abbot Stefano Harding; a large part of the codices is now in the library of Digione, and the so-called «Bibbia Harding» of 1109 is particularly famous.

Painting and sculpture held predominant importance in the second period of the art of B., that is, at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century. The court painters of Filippo l'Ardito were Jean d'Arbois (1373-75), Jean de Beaumetz (d. 1397), Jean Malouel (d. 1415), and Henri Bellechose (d. c. 1440), paintings by most of whom are found in the Louvre; the most Broederlam (v.), who, like almost all the others, was Flemish.

Of the old building of the charterhouse of Champmol, founded by Filippo, there survives, besides the altar by Jacques de Baerze and Broederlam in the museum of Digione, the portal with sculptures by Jean de Marville and Claus Sluter (1390-97). Sluter (v.), present in Digione in 1385, became in 1398 the successor of Jean de Marville (d. 1404) as «valet de chambre»; he was a sculptor of the highest importance for the so-called «courtly-international style»: he executed the celebrated Well of Moses (Champmol, commissioned in 1395) and began the tombs of Filippo l'Ardito and Giovanni Senzapaura, now in the museum of Digione, the former completed in 1411 by Claus de Werve (d. 1439), and the latter in 1469 by Jean de la Huerta and Antoine le Moisturier. From Cîteaux comes another of these famous tombs of B., that of Filippo Pot (d. 1494), now in the Louvre. For the subsequent periods, it will suffice to mention the late Gothic church of Brou (beginning of the 16th century) and the elements derived from the Italian Renaissance that became established in the churches of S. Michele in Digione and N.-Dame in Bourg, and in the portal of Tonnerre. The same development from late Gothic to the Renaissance can be observed in secular architecture, especially in the fine castles of Ancy-le-Franc, Tanlay, St-Fargeau, Sully, etc. - Vedi Tav. CXIII.