SLUTER, CLAUS. - Sculptor, probably b.
at Haarlem during the first half of the 14th cent.,
d. at Digione between September 1405 and January 1406.
He appears as one of the masters of the late-Gothic French manner in the sculptures he executed at Digione, whither
he moved, like Jean de Marville, from his native Paesi Bassi,
before 1385. His most important works are, besides the famous Pozzo di Motè in the charterhouse of
Champmol, where the theme of the Fountain of Blood
and Redemption is developed, the tomb of Filippo l'Ardito, now in the
Museo di Digione, begun by him but completed
after his death by Claus de Werve, and the portal of the
same charterhouse of Champmol. This is one of the most outstanding monuments
of Burgundian sculpture of
that age, on account of the plastic realism of its figures, animated by a sense of fiery oratory
that attains the heights of the most inspired lyricism.
The influence exerted by S. on contemporary sculpture was immense and spread beyond
the borders of Borgogna, then among the most vital
centres of sculpture in central Europe. -
Vedi tav. LI.