HTA-0610: John the Fearless — Duke of Burgundy and the Burgundy Wine Legacy

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Summary

Henry narrates the story of John of Valois, the second Duke of Burgundy, and the wine region's historical legacy.

Full Transcript

00:01
His name was John of Valois. They called him John the Fearless. He was the second Duke of Burgundy. He was one of the most powerful men in the world. That was a while ago, okay. It was about 600 years ago.

00:14
And he died at the age of 58, married at the age of 14.

00:19
When he died, he decided that he wanted to make darn sure that he was going to go to heaven.

00:24
So as a patron of the arts, he arranged to have a couple of sculptures come to his, I guess, palace or castle or whatever,

00:33
and create these amazing pieces that you can now see on display here in the Bay Area.

00:39
They are the mourners.

00:40
Let me introduce you to the local curator for this exhibition, Lynn Hoare.

00:45
Thank you very much for joining us.

00:46
Delighted to be here.

00:47
So we're going to look at these amazing figures.

00:49
Tell us about them, what they're made of, how big they are, and why they're so beautiful and fascinating.

00:53
These are 37 alabaster sculptures, about 16 inches tall, that decorated the tomb of the Duke of Burgundy.

01:03
And he decided that he wanted these around his tomb.

01:08
Why?

01:09
Well, his family created a monastery that was going to celebrate the life and the soul of the Dukes of Burgundy in perpetuity so that they would be assured of their salvation.

01:23
And they're very small.

01:26
Yes, but after the first object or two that you look at, the size just falls away and you become just entranced by the detail and their monumentality.

01:38
They are, there's something universal about them.

01:42
There's something incredibly modern about them.

01:44
Indeed.

01:45
They're very restrained, but very detailed.

01:48
And they speak to this profound human experience of loss and grief across the centuries to us.

01:56
So in creating an exhibition like this with art that's been brought over from France,

02:04
How do you help people to get close and understand the concept of these pieces?

02:10
In their original context, they're in a procession through an arcade.

02:15
And what we've done is to break the procession apart so that you can get really close to a number of them and look at them in the round.

02:25
And that helps us really understand and appreciate the individuality of each one of these sculptures.

02:32
Now, John the fearless was actually, he had a brutal life.

02:38
I mean, he assassinated a rival apparently and was assassinated when he died at the age of 58.

02:43
How is it possible you have this sublime beauty connected to this brutal life?

02:49
In the Middle Ages, one of the ways that you demonstrated your power was to have a very rich, elaborate court

02:56
and to be a major patron of the arts

02:58
and demonstrate to your rivals

03:01
the amount of money you could just waste on the arts.

03:05
So you can go to the Legion of Honor and see this,

03:06
but for a preview, you can go to a website called mourners.org

03:11
and you can actually see in three dimensions using glasses,

03:16
you can actually see these individual pieces

03:18
and you can get them to rotate,

03:19
you can look at them in close detail.

03:22
That's mourners.org.

03:23
And after you've done that,

03:24
You will definitely want to go to the Palace of the Legion of Honor

03:29
and see the actual exhibit, which is taking place through December 31st.

03:34
And for more information on that, go to legionofhonor.org.

03:37
Thank you so much for joining us.

03:39
Pleasure to be here.

03:41
I cut that video and just had a joy cutting it.

03:43
It was a pleasure.

03:44
Thank you.

03:45
We're going to take a break.

03:47
We're coming back.

03:47
You know how bad traffic is?

03:48
Guess what?

03:49
It's gotten worse.

03:50
Surprised?

03:51
Nah.

03:52
You're watching Cronfort News weekend.

04:22
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