This year marks the 600th anniversary of the death of Charles III the Noble King, peaceful and conciliatory by nature. He was born in Mantes/France on July 22, 1361 and died in Olite on September 8, 1425. He sought out and settled at his court a renowned artist, Johan Lome de Tournai, whom he made his master builder for several lustrums. Navarre and especially Pamplona and Olite, among other places of the kingdom, are witnesses of his good work.

"Here lies he of good report, don. Karlos iiii King of Navarre and Duke of. Nemours, descendant in the straight line of the emperor Saint Karlos Magno and Saint Louis King of France.... This in his time, ennobled and exalted in dignities and honors to many rich men, Knights and noblemen natural his own. And made many notable buildings in his kingdom..."

These words appear on the epitaph of the mausoleum of King Charles III, Prince of Valois blood, located in the cathedral of Pamplona, made by the sculptor Johan Lome de Tournai, an artist who has an extensive bibliography by various authors such as professors R. S. Steven Janke, C. Fernández Ladreda, C. Martínez Álava and J. Martínez de Aguirre.

Originally from Tournay, a Belgian city near France, which since the 12th century had been an important sculptural center, although it is also suggested that he was from the town of Lomme, near Liège. After a possible training in Tournay, he went to Dijon, as Prof. Fernández Ladreda points out, where he possibly knew the work of Claus Sluter, main representative of Burgundian sculpture in the second half of the 14th century, as well as the work of Claus Werve, nephew and disciple of Sluter.

It seems that Charles III brought him to Navarre at the beginning of 1411, when he returned from his third trip to France in the years 1408-1411. In fact, his first documented work in Navarre, currently unknown, is a bas-relief of St. John the Baptist for the Palace of Olite, whose credit is dated August 1411. The proper name is Juan and generally appears as Johan, using Lome or Lomme as a nickname.

In any case, we can consider that the sculpture made in Navarre during the first decades of the 14th century, revolves around his figure, one of the most important artists of the time, main sculptor during the reign of Charles III of Navarre (1387-1425) whose activity is documented, with some interruptions, between 1411 and 1449, directing part of the royal works, including his tomb.

The cathedral of Pamplona was a place of coronation and funerals, where the remains of several previous monarchs rested, at least since the 12th century, including the father and grandfather of Charles III himself. The tomb, with the recumbent figures of the monarch and his wife, reflects the effective presence of the kings in their cathedral, whose vaults bear the arms of the house of Evreux, the fleurs-de-lis and the initials of Queen Blanca, daughter of Charles III, who became position of the continuity of the patronage of the cathedral work.

Charles II, his father, was buried in the choir of the cathedral in 1387, but the collapse of the cathedral in 1381, influenced the placement of burial of Charles III, who could not see his testamentary mandate to rest in the choir of the cathedral until 1509, taking into account the funerary destination of the choir, that is to say, the choir as a privileged place of burial, given the importance that the physical proximity of the mortal remains with the voices of those who sang in their anniversaries, made more effective the intervention of the praying Church, as the Professor and Academician P. Navascués Palacio points out in his work, "The Church is a privileged place of burial. Navascués Palacio in his work on the Choirs in the Spanish Cathedrals.

The master director of the tomb and author of its most important elements was Lome de Tournai, who made one of the most representative works of Navarrese Gothic sculpture and funerary art of the fifteenth century and the best studied and documented of all Gothic cathedral sculpture. It had a large workshop composed of various French masters from Champagne, Picardy, Burgundy and other places. The tomb was made in Olite, where work began in 1413 and was moved for its final assembly in the cathedral of Pamplona in 1419.

In 1415 Queen Leonor died in Olite, ordering in her will that she be buried in the cathedral. In 1416, the king decided to resume work on the tomb, so that seven tons and average of alabaster were taken to Olite, where the tomb was being built, from the Aragonese town of Sástago. The last payment related to the tomb was made in 1420.

Although the effigy of the queen was made some time after her death, the image of Carlos III was carved during the monarch's lifetime, so that Carlos III is the only king of Navarre of whom a true portrait is preserved. In fact, the monarch's interest in commissioning a monument of these characteristics, by settling a renowned artist at the court, is indicative of a series of political conceptions linked to the royal majesty.

The tomb is currently located under the vault of the second section of the cathedral's central nave, in front of the presbytery, adopting the typology of a free-standing bed, with the recumbent statues and their heads resting on pillows and covered by canopies of openwork tracery, while at their feet are a lion for the king, symbol of courage, and two hounds for the queen, symbolizing fidelity. If the ceremonial robes of the royal couple are a hymn to the elegance and taste of the time, the truthfulness of their faces and their distinction denote the mastery of their maker. Doña Leonor's physiognomy shows a careful idealization, while her husband's energetic features are evidence of a study of nature by the author, who portrayed his model five years before his death.

Epitaphs in praise of both kings appear on the large baldachins and on the edge of the tomb slab. The decoration is completed by a series of luxurious arcades, design, which surround the tomb on its four sides, under which are placed twenty-eight figures of hooded plorants, cardinals, bishops, canons, monks of different orders and laymen in mourning attire, carved in high relief and placed on individual shelves. The light color of the alabaster in which the sculptures were carved contrasts with the dark green imitating marble with which the sandstone that forms the tomb was painted.

In addition, there are several artistic works by Lome and his workshop in various locations in Navarra, as Prof. Fernández Ladreda points out, which has effectively expanded the Catalog of works by the artist and his workshop.

We have seen in the cathedral of Pamplona the mausoleum of Carlos III and his wife, but there are other works in the Pamplona cathedral attributed to Lome and his workshop, such as the tomb of Sancho Sánchez de Oteiza, commissioned when he became bishop of the Pamplona see. Previously, the workshop had made another tomb of arcosolium, like the previous one, for the same Sánchez de Oteiza when he was dean of the collegiate church of Tudela; Also noteworthy is the tomb of the nobleman Pere Arnaut de Garro and Juana de Beunza, his wife, located in the cloister protected by a grille and of a similar typology to the previous tomb, and also the door of the north Wayside Cross or of San José open to the place of San José between the Redín and the Cathedral, the only medieval door in the cathedral enclosure.

It will be in Olite, the most common seat of the royal court of Charles III, where there are several works by the artist and his workshop, since it must be taken into account that he sought out and settled in his court Lome de Tournai, who together with his workshop worked on the works of the Royal Palace, of which we have left the decoration of the large windows of the Old Palace. In the convent of San Francisco of the locality there are several works such as the cover, and two sepulchers that correspond to an unidentified marriage decorated with the coats of arms of Garai, Zuría, Añues and Asiain, with a beautiful Virgin suckling the Child of alabaster presiding over the niche. The other tomb, more deteriorated, belongs to Pedro Perez de Andosilla and his wife. Also of note in the town are a statue of Santiago and the funerary relief of Enequo Pinel in the church of San Pedro, as well as the images of a Virgin and Child and a delicate sculpture of Doña Blanca in the atrium of Santa María.

They are also the work of the Lome workshop, the statue of Saint Sebastian in Tafalla, from the disappeared Franciscan convent and currently in the parish of Santa Maria, whose lower quality may be due to continuous restorations. The tomb of Gonzalo Baquedano and his wife in the church of Santo Domingo de Estella, of similar typology to the previous tombs and new pieces such as another seated Virgin suckling the Child in Liédena, various corbels or the image of the Virgin of the Good News in the Pamplona church, as well as the sculpture of an angel in Santa María de Viana, possibly the last work made by the artist.

Johan Lome de Tournai, who died in Viana on January 1, 1449, is one of the few medieval artists whose date of death is known.