Germain Pilon

Monument containing the heart of Henry II of France.

Germain Pilon (c. 1525 – 3 February 1590)[1] was a French Renaissance sculptor.

Biography

He was born in Paris and trained with his father, André Pilon. Documents show that he and his father executed several religious statues and tomb effigies in collaboration. Since Connat & Colombier established that Germain was born c. 1525[1] (rather than about ten years later, as previously believed[2]), several early works have been reattributed to him, including the marble grouping Diana with a Stag (originally at the Château d'Anet, Eure-et-Loire; now at the Louvre).[3] Later he worked with Pierre Bontemps.[4] Pilon became expert with marble, bronze, wood and terra cotta. From about 1555 he was providing models for Parisian goldsmiths.[5] He was also skilled at drawing.

His works - with their realism and theatrical emotion - show the influence of the School of Fontainebleau, Michelangelo and Italian Mannerism. Much of Pilon's work was on funerary monuments, especially the Valois Chapel at the Saint Denis Basilica designed by Francesco Primaticcio (never completed). He was the favorite sculptor of queen Catherine de' Medici.

Works

Pilon's most famous works include:

Gallery

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference AnetDiana was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 Connat & Colombier 1951; Thirion 1996.
  2. Babelon reports that in 1583 Germain Pilon said he was "forty-six or thereabouts" and gives c. 1537 for his year of birth (Babelon 1927, p. 33). Connat & Colombier say that Babelon's date of 1583 is incorrect; the cited document is dated 15 May 1581, from which his year of birth would be calculated as c. 1535.
  3. Diana with a Stag was formerly attributed to Jean Goujon, but Anthony Blunt conclusively rejected that attribution in 1953 and argued the statue is very likely an early work of Germain Pilon (see Blunt & Beresford 1999, pp. 80–81). Thirion considers Blunt's reattribution to be relatively convincing (Thirion 1996, p. 812).
  4. Thirion 1996, p. 812.
  5. Babelon 1927.
  6. Victoria L. Goldberg, "Graces, Muses, and Arts: The Urns of Henry II and Francis I" Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 29 (1966), pp. 206-218.

Bibliography

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External links

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