Jacques de Baerze

Jacques de Baerze (active before 1384, died after 1399) was a Flemish sculptor in wood, two of whose major carved altarpieces survive in Dijon, now in France, then the capital of the Duchy of Burgundy.

De Baerze probably came from Ghent, and lived in Dendermonde (Termonde in French) some thirty kilometres away, which is also not far from Antwerp and Brussels. He was clearly a well-established master before the death in January 1384 of the local ruler, Louis II of Flanders, Duke of Brabant, as two commissions from Louis to produce carved altarpieces are recorded, though the works have not survived. These were for the chapel of the castle of Dendermonde, and the hospice of the Cistercian abbey of Bijloke, then just outside Ghent.

These works were noticed by Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Louis' son-in-law and successor as Count of Flanders. In 1385 Philip had founded a Carthusian monastery, the Charterhouse of Champmol, then just outside Dijon, as the dynastic burial-place of the Burgundian Valois, and was filling it with impressive works of art. In 1390, he commissioned de Baerze to create two similar altarpieces for Champmol: one, now known as the Altar of Saints and Martyrs for the chapter house, and the larger, now known as the Retable of the Crucifixion, for the main altar of the church. Both are triptychs with hinged wings, carved on the interior, but the exterior panels, showing when the wings were closed, were to be painted by his court artist Melchior Broederlam (another Fleming who also previously worked for Louis) — a common arrangement for a grand altarpiece. These painted outer panels only survive for the larger of the two retables. The triptychs would normally be shown closed, displaying the paintings, but opened to show the carvings for feast days.

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