Germain Pilon was a French Renaissance

French Renaissance

French Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in northern Italy in the fourteenth century...

  sculptor

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

.

Biography

He was born in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. Trained by his father and (perhaps) Pierre Bontemps

Pierre Bontemps

Pierre Bontemps was a French sculptor known for his funeral monuments, was, with Germain Pilon, one of the pre-eminent sculptors of the French Renaissance....

, Pilon was an expert with marble, bronze, wood and terra cotta; from about 1555 he was providing models for Parisian goldsmiths. He was also skilled at drawing.

His works - with their realism and theatrical emotion - show the influence of the School of Fontainebleau

School of Fontainebleau

The Ecole de Fontainebleau refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late Renaissance centered around the royal Château de Fontainebleau, that were crucial in forming the French version of Northern Mannerism....

, Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...

 and Italian Mannerism

Mannerism

Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...

. Much of Pilon's work was on funerary monuments, especially the Valois Chapel at the Saint Denis Basilica

Saint Denis Basilica

The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Denis is a large medieval abbey church in the commune of Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris. The abbey church was created a cathedral in 1966 and is the seat of the Bishop of Saint-Denis, Pascal Michel Ghislain Delannoy...

 designed by Francesco Primaticcio

Francesco Primaticcio

Francesco Primaticcio was an Italian Mannerist painter, architect and sculptor who spent most of his career in France.-Biography:...

 (never completed). He was the favorite sculptor of queen Catherine de' Medici

Catherine de' Medici

Catherine de' Medici was an Italian noblewoman who was Queen consort of France from 1547 until 1559, as the wife of King Henry II of France....

.

Works

Pilon's most famous works include:

• Eight subsidiary statues for the Tomb of Francis I (contracted with Philibert de l'Orme
  Philibert de l'Orme
  Philibert DeLorme was a French architect, one of the great masters of the French Renaissance.He was born at Lyon, the son of Jean Delorme, a master mason. At an early age Philibert was sent to Italy to study and was employed there by Pope Paul III...
  
  , 1558).
• Monument containing the heart of Henry II of France
  Henry II of France
  Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.-Early years:Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany .His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by his sworn enemy,...
  
  (1561-1562) Louvre
  Louvre
  The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
  
   - made in collaboration with Domenico del Barbieri
  Domenico del Barbieri
  Domenico del Barbieri was a Florentine artist of the Renaissance period, also referred to as Domenico del Barbiere, Domenico Fiorentino, and, in France, Dominique Florentin. He settled and married at Troyes in France between 1530 and 1533. He joined the studio of Italian artists who worked with...
  
   (who designed the pedestal), Pilon was responsible for the eloquent sculpture of the Three Graces
  Charites
  In Greek mythology, a Charis is one of several Charites , goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility. They ordinarily numbered three, from youngest to oldest: Aglaea , Euphrosyne , and Thalia . In Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae, the "Graces"...
  
  , executed from a single block of marble.
• Tomb of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici (1561-1573) Abbey Church of Saint Denis Basilica
  Saint Denis Basilica
  The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Denis is a large medieval abbey church in the commune of Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris. The abbey church was created a cathedral in 1966 and is the seat of the Bishop of Saint-Denis, Pascal Michel Ghislain Delannoy...
  
   - Pilon was responsible for the kneeling bronze figures on top of this monument (depicting the king and queen alive and praying) the moving and realistic recumbent figures of the queen and king in death at the center and the four Virtues at the corners of the monument, the construction of which was supervised by Francesco Primaticcio
  Francesco Primaticcio
  Francesco Primaticcio was an Italian Mannerist painter, architect and sculptor who spent most of his career in France.-Biography:...
  
   (who sculpted the four corner figures). (Catherine de' Medici is reported to have fainted at the sight of these figures.)
• Effigies of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici in coronation dress (1583) Abbey Church of Saint Denis Basilica
  Saint Denis Basilica
  The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Denis is a large medieval abbey church in the commune of Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris. The abbey church was created a cathedral in 1966 and is the seat of the Bishop of Saint-Denis, Pascal Michel Ghislain Delannoy...
  
   - this later pair lacks the emotional intensity of the previous work
• Resurrection of Christ and recumbent figures of the guardians of the tomb, reunited in 1933 at the Musée du Louvre.
• Virgin of Pity (c.1585) (terra cotta) Louvre
  Louvre
  The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
  
  
• Tomb of Valentine Balbiani (1574) Louvre
  Louvre
  The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
  
  
• Descent from the Cross (1580-1585) (Bronze bas-relief) Louvre
  Louvre
  The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
  
  
• Three Fates (Hôtel de Cluny, Paris).

Further reading

• Babelon, J. Germain Pilon (Paris) 1927.