Accounting for the Status of Artists at the Chartreuse de Champmol

Abstract

This article draws upon the extensive accounting records associated with the construction of the Chartreuse de Champmol in Dijon in order to reconsider traditional assessments of the status of late medieval artists associated with the Burgundian court. Analysis of representative documents reveals a complex bureaucratic structure in which intermediary administrators played important roles. In the frequent absence of the patrons Philip the Bold and Margaret of Flanders, ducal officers, master craftsmen, and Carthusians shared authority in supervising artistic production. For the most part, image-makers at Champmol do not fit the conventional profile of the court artist who established a personal relationship with patrons and was rewarded for artistic successes. In fact, documents recording gifts emphasize loyalty to the duke and duchess rather than, as is sometimes claimed, approval for favored works; the gifts thus functioned to reinforce the seigneurial relationship between lord and subject. Even so, the ...