Commission of Holy Works

Claus Sluter (1395-1406 A.D.)
'Well of Moses' in the Chartreuse de Champmol

  This piece was commissioned by Philip the Bold as a central fountain-piece for his Carthusian monastery. Sluter paid special attention to detail and realism in his rendering of the life-like statues of prophets around the base.It originally supported a towering scene of the crucifixion; leading the monks of the monastery to dub it a "fons vitae" (living fountain) as the blood of Christ symbolically flowed from his body on the cross, down the bodies of the prophets (David, Daniel, Isaiah, Zachariah, and Jeramiah) which encircle its base, to the well below--which served as the main source of water for the monastery itself.