page_title: Henri Bellechose
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Henri Bellechose / Career
caption_attribution_description: Completed by 1416 for the Carthusian monastery of Champol, Burgundy, France.
context_page_description: Henri Bellechose was a painter from the South Netherlands. He was one of the most significant artists at the beginning of panel painting in Northern Europe, and among the earliest artists of Early Netherlandish painting.
context_section_description: Almost all of Bellechose's documented work was commissions from the Dukes of Burgundy, with some works for churches in Dijon.  However the number of works recorded in the meticulous Burgundian accounts greatly exceed the number that survive; and only two may possibly fall into both categories.
  His famous Martyrdom of Saint Denis in the Louvre, like other panel paintings by him, was commissioned by the Duke for the Chartreuse of Champmol in Dijon, founded by Philip the Bold as a dynastic burial place.  The pigments to "parfaire" (literally "perfect" - a word much argued over) an image of the "Life of St Denis", but not any gold for the background, were advanced by the Duchy in May 1415.  This has led to the suggestion that the work had been left incomplete by Malouel, who had been given wood for five altarpieces as long ago as 1398.  According to this theory, Bellechose simply completed a work with underdrawing and gold background already in place.  Snyder and Chátelet support Malouel's participation, but this is disputed, especially in an article of 1961 by Nicole Reynaud (in French).  For Chátelet this and the Louvre large tondo usually attributed to Malouel are two of the five altarpieces commissioned in 1398; however he suggests the tondo is by Bellechose when he was Malouel's assistant, thus reversing the traditional attributions of these works. - against Malouel's involvement are the Concise Grove, and it is not mentioned on the Louvre website. Chátelet, 16-18 discusses the issues most fully. He feels the St Denis painting would have been painted from the top of the image downwards, so the upper portions are by Malouel.
  In April 1420, when John the Fearless died, Bellechose was retained by his successor, Philip the Good. The works recorded in the accounts of the Duke were mostly decorative, including commissions such as coats of arms for funerals, as was normal for court artists, but two altarpieces, neither apparently surviving, were commissioned in 1425 and 1429.  A court appointment by no means precluded outside work.
  Bellechose had a large studio which at its peak consisted of eight assistants and two apprentices.
caption: Detail. Note the Pseudo-Kufic inscriptions on the garments of the Gaulish pagan priests, shown in exotic Middle Eastern costume.
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