Alabaster
M Leuven has joined forces with the Louvre Museum to exhibit alabaster in all its glory. More than 130 masterpieces carved out of alabaster will be on display, exploring the materiality and immateriality of works by masters such as André Beauneveu, Jean Mone, Étienne Bobillet, and many others. Find out more about this exhibition on the M Leuven website!
We are tremendously honored to have contributed to this exceptional exhibition with no less than six alabaster loans, two of which are pleurants. Pleurants are figures who mourn the death of their duke and serve as grave ornaments. In this case, they mourn John of Berry, a prince from the house of Valois, a French dynasty that ruled during the Middle Ages. As an art lover, John of Berry wanted to make sure his tomb would be as magnificent as possible, so the pleurants became the perfect ornament to adorn his grave.
Want to know more about Jean de Berry’s pleurants? Read our Phoebus Focus XXVI Pleurants, Alabaster figures for the Tomb Monument of Jean de Berry (1340-1416), available in our web store!
