Burghers of Calais, Jean d'Aire nu

Gift of the Pepper Family

The history of the 1347 siege of Calais by King Edward III of England was well known in Rodin’s time. French court historian Jean Froissart’s (1335-1400) firsthand history of the Hundred Years War between England and France, Chroniques, immortalized the story of the burghers of Calais: King Edward III offered to end the siege if six of the town’s “burghers” (a Medieval class of city officials and bourgeoise) surrendered their lives and the keys to the city. Froissart described the moment when the mayor of Calais publicly announced King Edward III’s conditions:

"They all began to cry and weep, so much and so bitterly that there is no heart in the world so hard that having heard and seen them would not have pitied them…A moment later there arose the richest burgher, Sir Eustache de Saint-Pierre, who said: 'Lords, it would be a great misfortune to let such a people die here of famine when one can find another means. I have such hope of finding grace and pardon from Our Lord if I die in order to save these people, that I want to be the first: I will willingly strip to my shirt, bare my head, put the rope around my neck, at the mercy of the king of England.'"

In the process of completing his largest public commission, Monument to The Burghers of Calais Rodin made many studies of the models. He sculpted both nude and clothed figures, isolating body parts such as hands and heads, sometimes making enlarged or reduced copies, such as this full-body, larger-than-life nude study of Jean d’Aire. In this version, Jean d’Aire appears gaunt and mournful, yet his jaw and forward gaze depict his determination and commitment to his actions – and his impending death – for the sake of Calais. In the final sculpture, Jean d’Aire holds an enlarged key to the city in his clenched fists.

According to Froissart's story, the burghers expected to be executed but all six were ultimately spared by Queen Philippa of Hainault. Pregnant at the time, she persuaded her husband to spare the men, fearing their deaths would be a bad omen for their unborn child. Unfortunately, their son, Thomas of Windsor, only lived for one year after his birth.

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E. H. Little Library Research Guide

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