Mary of Burgundy Alive or Dead
Authors: Eörsi Anna 
Published: April 2022

Three depictions of Mary of Burgundy seated on horseback were made soon after the duchess’s death.

The drawn copy of a lost work by Hugo van der goes commemorates the negotiations held in Trier in 1473 between frederick iii and Charles the Bold, when they made their first agreement on joining their children in marriage. The composition is strikingly reminiscent of the theme of The Meeting of the Three Living and the Three Dead; the high-born female rider arriving behind Maximilian is Mary of Burgundy, depicted after her death. The man confronting the riders with their mortality probably refers to Charles the Bold (d. 1477). The original work was likely to have been commissioned by Maximilian sometime between the death of the duchess and that of the painter, that is between March and December 1482.

Like the drawing, the allegorical poem completed in 1483 by olivier de La Marche is a commemoration of the recently deceased dukes and duchess of the House of Burgundy. for the edition of the poem published by the Brethren of the Common Life in gouda, the drawing associated with Hugo van der goes was utilised to illustrate the chapter on the death of Mary of Burgundy.

The protagonist of The Meeting of the Three Living and the Three Dead in the manuscript known as the “Berlin Hours of Mary of Burgundy and Maximilian of Austria” is Mary of Burgundy, who died in a riding accident. i refute all the arguments suggesting that the miniature preceded the duchess’s death. The double letters “M” on the harness of Mary’s horse (which are also found several other times in the book of hours) refer not only to the names of the ducal couple, but also to words associated with death. The miniature itself was probably commissioned by Maximilian, after his wife’s death. With its softer brushwork, the decorative frame around the miniature – as well as the entire recto of folio 221 – was probably made when the manuscript was in the possession of Margaret of Austria. The personification of Death differs from the verso in many respects (scale, background, style); iconographically it can be considered an afterthought. The green parrot and golden dove in the left margin are also afterthoughts. The two birds appear in the Épîtres de l’Amant vert (1505), the consolatory poem composed for Margaret by Jean Lemaire: one bird was the mother’s favourite, the other her daughter’s favourite; both ended their lives in the mouths of dogs (which had been barking on the verso of folio 220 for a few years before). Here and now, in the margin of the recto of folio 221, the birds representing the souls of mother and daughter are inhabitants of Paradise. The protagonist in the verso of folio 158 of the London rothschild Hours – the image is a copy of the Berlin Meeting – is the commissioner of the manuscript, and also the owner of the Berlin manuscript: Margaret of Austria, identifying with and commemorating her mother Mary of Burgundy. The depiction facing it in the recto of folio 159 alludes to the series of events (the two funerals) that followed the death of Margaret’s husband, Philibert ii, with a proleptic depiction of st. nicolas’s Church in Brou (their future common tomb). Besides the riding ladies, the illustrations of the office of the Dead in the Berlin and London Hours share numerous similarities.