Achievement: Pilon, Germain (Paris (75), 1535 - Paris (75), 1590) (Sculptor)
Portrait of Jean de Morvilliers, Bishop of Orléans (1506-1577)
Portrait of Jean de Morvilliers, Bishop of Orléans (1506-1577)
Production: 1578 - 1579
Area: Sculpture
Technique(s) : Bronze
Dimensions : H. 58 cm ; W. 64 cm
Inventory no.: S.1784
Photo credit(s) :
Lauginie, François
Cartel
The background to the creation of this bust is provided by the contract awarded in 1578 for the construction of a funerary monument for Jean de Morvillier, who died in 1577, in the Cordeliers church in Blois. In November 1578, Pomponne de Bellievre, first president of the Paris parliament and executor of the deceased's will, commissioned Germain Pilon to create his tomb. The artist was to design a cenotaph with a black marble niche to house the bust. The effigy was to be surrounded by books, spheres and mathematical instruments, testifying to Jean de Morvillier's erudition.
He was born in Blois in 1506. He became Lieutenant General at Bourges, then King's Counsel, thanks to the protection of the Guise family. In 1546, he was appointed Maître des requêtes ordinaires de l'Hôtel du roi François I, then left on an embassy to Venice, from where he returned in 1550. Appointed Bishop of Orléans in 1555, he resigned in 1563, succeeding Michel de l'Hospital as Keeper of the Seals in 1568. He resigned again in 1571 to retire to his abbey of Saint-Pierre in Melun, and died in Tours in 1577.
His bust, a rare surviving fragment of the tomb dismembered during the Revolution, is one of the most moving figures in the art of Pilon, a major sculptor of the second half of the 16th century in France. At the time of its creation, Pilon was at the height of his fame, having produced his masterpiece, the tomb of Henri II and Catherine de Médicis for Saint-Denis. Here, the artist demonstrates his renowned talent for bronze effigies. The model's features were probably obtained by making a death mask shortly after death. The face was probably originally painted, a process that appears in other busts by Germain Pilon.
Provenance
Commissioned by Pomponne de Bellièvre (1529-1607) for the funeral monument of Jean de Morvilliers in the Cordeliers church in Blois, 1578.
Revolutionary seizure, 1793.
Deposited with the bishopric of Orléans, circa 1807.
Deposit by the State to the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, 1911.
School
France
Location
Museum of Fine Arts
2nd floor
Room: An amateur cabinet around 1600