THE CHURCH OF BROU

The church of Brou, near the town of Bourg en Bresse, was built by Margaret of Austria in the beginning of the sixteenth century, as a monument to her husband, Philibert of Savoy, and in fulfilment of a vow made by Duke Philibert's mother, Margaret of Bourbon, in 1480.

The first stone was laid by Margaret in 1506, and the building finished in 1530; but the work did not really begin until 1513, and the interior decoration was not completed before 1532.

Whilst in Flanders Margaret carefully watched over and superintended the progress of the work, but she did not live to see it finished, and after her death Charles V. took little interest in the completion of the building.

The church was consecrated on the 22nd of March 1532 by Bishop Jean Joly de Fleury and dedicated to Saint Nicolas de Tolentin.

The church of Brou is of the latest, and not the best, period of Gothic architecture, but the genius of Margaret is visible in all its details, harmonising the work, whether Gothic or Renaissance, and creating a building of extraordinary beauty. French, Italian, and German artists helped in building this princely monument, which remains a fitting memorial to one of the most cultivated women of her time.

The plan of the church is very simple. A Latin cross with five naves; the transept and sanctuary separated by a rood screen. The length is about 225 feet, and its greatest width, in the transept, 120 feet. Outside, the central building is divided into three distinct stories. The façade, with its great door decorated with devices and emblems. An Ecce Homo in the centre, on either side Philibert and Margaret kneeling between two angels, and accompanied by their patron saints. A statue of Saint Nicholas de Tolentin guarding the entrance.

On the second story are three pointed windows between two galleries. Above the upper gallery is a triangular gable with a rose window in the centre, surrounded by three triangular windows, a symbol of the Trinity. Inside, the carved woodwork of the choir stalls is remarkable for its beauty of detail, variety of design, and delicacy of carving. The stalls are the work of Bressian artists, foremost amongst whom was Pierre Terrason of Bourg. They were finished and put up in 1532. There are seventy-four stalls on each side, in two rows—twenty-one above and sixteen below. The design on each stall is different.

But the tombs in the choir are the most interesting features of the church of Brou.

Jean Perréal (called Jean de Paris) had been commissioned by Margaret to prepare the plans, and after years of work he presented her with a design which she considered perfect, and gave orders to have it carried out. But soon after Perréal was dismissed, and Van Boghen presided over the work. There is little doubt that he made use of the French architect's designs, which Margaret possessed,[149] but he evidently made important modifications, as the work bears distinct traces of Flemish influence. The best Belgian, French, Italian, and Swiss workmen were employed on these monuments. The principal work was given to a Swiss, Conrad Meyt, who undertook to make the five large statues. The three monuments are placed in the positions Margaret desired in her will of 1508—Duke Philibert in the centre, his mother on the right, and her tomb on the left.

Margaret of Bourbon's monument is built into the thickness of the wall. The princess's statue rests on a slab of black marble, her head on an embroidered cushion, her feet on a greyhound. Four white marble children support shields with her initials and the arms of Bourbon. On the pillars on either side are five exquisite statuettes. Saint Agnes and Saint Margaret stand near her feet, between them a symbolical female figure, whilst near her head are Saint Andrew with his cross, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria dressed as a maid of honour of Francis I.'s Court. The sarcophagus is decorated with nine niches containing five cherubs and four 'pleureuses,' or weeping women, whose faces are almost hidden by their drooping hoods, sprays of marguerites being scattered everywhere in great profusion about the moulding of the pillars.

In the centre of the choir, facing the high altar, is the tomb of Philibert the Handsome, Duke of Savoy. It is divided into two sections. Underneath is the 'gisant,' or naked body, a little larger than life. Twelve pillars, ornamented with niches containing statues of saints in the dress of the period, surround the dead prince and support a slab of black marble on which the figure of Philibert rests in armour, with his coronet on his head, an embroidered surcoat covers his cuirass, the collar of the Annunciation (composed alternately of fifteen enamelled roses and the letters F.E.R.T.) round his neck, the mantle of the Order wrapt round him, his feet resting on a lion. His face is turned towards his wife on the left, his praying hands towards his mother on the right.[150]

Margaret of Austria's tomb under the arcade which separates the choir from the chapel of the Virgin is much larger than the other two. The princess is represented twice; underneath lies her dead body in the habit of the Annunciation, her beautiful hair covering her like a mantle, and her feet bare, showing the wound on the sole of the left foot which caused her death. Above she lies as though on a state-bed, wearing her coronet and embroidered robes, her arms folded on her breast. Four beautiful cherubs bear her armorial ensigns, two at her head and two at her feet (the work of Thomas Meyt, the brother of Conrad). Four columns richly moulded spring from the base of the tomb and support the heavy canopy overhead, around which runs her motto: 'Fortune. Infortune. Fort. Une'; whilst everywhere in the richest profusion are carved her emblems, marguerites twining round a palm branch, and the Briquet of Burgundy in the form of a B interlaced with a St. Andrew's cross resting on three stones.[151] And in the niches of the pillars figures of Saints and Virgins, marvels of beauty, stand grouped around, as if guarding her last sleep.

This magnificent monument was the work of many skilled sculptors, amongst others Jean de Louhans, Jean Rodin, Amé de Picard, and Amé Carré. Close to Margaret's tomb, behind the altar of the Virgin, is a beautiful bas-relief deeply cut in white marble, divided into scenes representing the seven joys of the Virgin Mary, a masterpiece of carving. In the choir are the original stained-glass windows, happily uninjured by time. The figures of Philibert and Margaret appear in their robes of state with their patron saints, and are represented kneeling and adoring the Saviour. Love-knots and marguerites abound in the mouldings round the windows.

TOMB OF MARGARET OF AUSTRIA
IN THE CHURCH OF BROU
[View larger image]

In the princess's chapel the stained glass is particularly rich in colouring, and represents the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin by her Divine Son and God the Father. The apostles below stand round the empty tomb gazing upwards at the glorification of the Mother of God. In the lower lights Philibert and Margaret, richly dressed, kneel at their prie-dieus, supported by their patron saints.

On the pavement round Margaret's tomb a few of the enamelled tiles may still be seen with which formerly the entire chapel and choir were paved. Behind the princess's chapel is her private oratory, which was divided into two stories, with a fireplace above and below. From her apartments in the monastery she could enter the church by a passage across the screen and a hidden staircase, and thus hear mass and see the elevation of the Host on both altars, without being seen by those who attended the services in the church. All these details had been carefully thought out by the architect, as a letter to Margaret from her secretary, Louis Barangier, shows. In November 1512 he wrote to her from Brou: 'As to your chapels, madame, ... he (Van Boghen) will make them opposite this building (the monastery), and intends to construct one which will be a real work of art, for you will be able to descend from above the screen ... into your chapel, from which you will see the high altar over your tomb.' Margaret had also intended to build a similar oratory in the prince's chapel, but the executors of her will omitted to carry out this wish, and the chapel was never finished, and is now the sacristy.

Beyond Margaret's oratory is the chapel of her Councillor, Laurent de Gorrevod, Governor of Bresse, which is dedicated to Our Lady of Pity. It contains the tombs of Laurent de Gorrevod and his two wives, Philiberte de la Palud, and Claude de Rivoire, and several members of their family. The beautiful recumbent bronze figures of Gorrevod and his wives were destroyed at the revolution, and only the slab on which the statues rested remains, with the founder's motto—Pour jamés (jamais), and the initials L. F. and L. C. (the letters of his and his wives' names) joined by the girdle of St. Francis.

Near the south door is the Chapel of Our Lady of seven sorrows, founded in 1516 by Antoine de Montécuto, Margaret's confessor and almoner. A fine painting on a wooden panel, by a Flemish artist, hangs over the altar, and was one of the sacred pictures sent by Margaret from Flanders. On the ground outside the church is a curious sun-dial, composed of twenty-four stones arranged in a huge oval, on which are engraved numbers from one to twenty-four, representing the hours of the day. In the centre of the oval are twelve stones arranged in two rows of six each, bearing the initial letters of the twelve months of the year. In order to tell the time, the spectator must stand on the letter of the current month, and his shadow then falls on the hour of the day, he himself being the index. This interesting dial dates from the building of the church, and was probably made for the use of the workmen. It was formerly placed a little further from the edifice, and composed of tiles, but, as it was in danger of being worn away by the constant traffic which passed over it, Lalande had it moved nearer to the church, and the worn tiles replaced by slabs of stone, but carefully preserved the original size and dimensions of the dial.

When Francis I. visited Brou on the 1st of October 1541, he was struck by the unique beauty of the church, though he observed that the white stone of which it was built was too soft to stand frost, and would in time crumble away. Paradin, in his Chronique de Savoie, mentions the king's visit:—'Je me souviens aussi,' he says, 'avoir veu descendre le feu roy François, quand il vint à Bourg, qui après avoir veu cette esglise restoit ravy en admiration, disant n'avoir veu ny savoir temple de telle excellence, pour ce qu'il contenoit. Vray est qu'il se print garde (comme il esttoit prince excédant en bon esprit tous les rois de son temps) que ceste pierre blanche, dont est l'esglise bastie, ne seroit de durée à la gelée, pour estre trop rare et tendre. Et s'est trouvé depuis qu'il disoit vray: car long temps après, tombèrent du quarré du clochier aucuns de ses grans bastions ou gargoles, qui conduisent les eaues sur le couvert de l'esglise, du costé des cloistres, chose qui fit grand dommage au bastiment.'

On the 17th of September 1856 (326 years after Margaret's death) the entrance to the vault at Brou was accidentally discovered in raising some flagstones near Philibert's monument, and on December the 1st of the same year it was opened in the presence of a committee of ten persons. Count E. de Quinsonas, who was present, gives an interesting account of the visit of inspection. The vault, which had not been opened since Margaret's coffin had been placed there in 1532, was entered by a flight of steps from the choir. The three coffins were found exactly under their respective monuments in the church above; Duke Philibert of Savoy's in the centre, Margaret of Bourbon's on the right, and Margaret of Austria's on the left. Philibert's coffin was intact, and of a great length, but those of the two princesses had broken open, and their remains were scattered on the floor of the vault. The three coffins rested on iron trestles.

Margaret of Bourbon's coffin was of lead, shaped like an elongated square, but had originally had an outer coffin of oak, the remains of which lay on the ground. The princess's skull was intact, and showed a tress of chestnut hair. The inscription on the leaden coffin was in French as follows:—

IHS MARIA S

Marguerite de Bourbon
1483
ce 27 Avril fut esevelie.

Philibert's coffin was found in a perfect state of preservation, in shape similar to that of Margaret of Bourbon, but of gigantic size. The duke's body had been placed in an oaken coffin enclosed in lead, which probably accounted for its preservation; whilst the two princesses had been laid first in lead and then in oaken shells, the outer cases of which had rotted away from the damp, and the inner coffins had broken open. The following is the inscription on Duke Philibert's coffin:—

✠ IHS MARIA S

Cy gist, tres excellent et tres puissant prince Philibert.
Due de Savoye IIe de ce nom. tres vertueux le quel
trespassa et rēdist lesperit a Dieu lā mil Ve et
quatre le Xe jour de Septembre au chasteau
du Pont Deyns et fust enterre ceans le
XVIe du dit mois. pries Ntre
Seignr pour luy.

Margaret of Austria's leaden coffin had also originally been enclosed in one of oak, and was shaped like a mummy case to the form of the body. The inscription on the coffin was as follows:—

Hic jacet corpus Dn̄e Margarete Archiducisse Austrie
Comitisse Burgūdie et qdam Maximiliāi Cesarie filie Caroli
vero Quinti Imperatoris et Ferdinādi Romāōrum Regis
fratrum amite Philiberti Ducis Sabaudie vidue huius
mō̄sterii Sancti Nicolai de Tolletino patroe et
fūdatricis que kalendis Decembris in suo
Mechliniensi op̄īdo Cameracensis diocesis ano
Dn̄īmillesimo quengentesimo tricesimo
diem suam clausit extremam anima
eius in pace quiescat.

From the bones found in the coffin it was evident that Margaret, though not tall, was above middle height. Her skull, with its well-developed forehead, was covered with bright golden hair, which showed no trace of grey. The bones of both feet and legs were intact, proving that no amputation had taken place.

After reverently collecting the scattered bones of the two princesses, and placing them in new oaken coffins, they were temporarily removed until the necessary cleaning and restoration had been made in the vault, which had suffered much from damp. On the 5th of July 1858 they were enclosed in outer coffins of lead and, with Philibert's coffin, replaced in their former positions, but on a stone slab which had been erected to support the three caskets instead of the iron trestles, which had suffered much from decay. When all was accomplished a solemn service was held before the final closing of the vault, conducted by Cardinal Donnet, Archbishop of Bordeaux:—

'So rest, for ever rest, O princely pair!

In your high church, 'mid the still mountain air,

Where horn, and hound, and vassals never come.

Only the blessed Saints are smiling dumb,

From the rich painted windows of the nave,

On aisle, and transept, and your marble grave;

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The moon through the clere-story windows shines,

And the wind washes through the mountain-pines.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And, in the sweeping of the wind, your ear

The passage of the angels' wings will hear,

And on the lichen-crusted leads above

The rustle of the eternal rain of love.'

(The Church of Brou, Matthew Arnold.)