Sluter, Claus

(ca. 1380-1406)

   The most important non-Italian sculptor of the International Gothic style. A native of the Netherlands, which was ruled by the dukes of Burgundy, he spent most of his ca-reer working for Duke Philip the Bold in the old Burgundian capital at Dijon. His most famous works were done for the Carthusian church at Champmol near Dijon. Most of his other work was on a less mon-umental scale, including portions of churches such as tombs and pul-pits; most notable of these, also at the Carthusian monastery, is the Moses Well, a remarkable artifact depicting Old Testament prophets such as Moses and Isaiah. Sluter's figures are individualized persons, precise not only in the texture of costume and skin but also in the pres-entation of a unique personality, as if they were portraits. Although his work is more reminiscent of 13th-century French cathedral sculpture than of 14th-century Italian Gothic classicism, its skill in depicting personality is quite different from earlier Gothic sculpture.