This sculpture is located in the Louvre.
The Louvre's website (
visit link) translated by Google informs us:
"This imposing statue of Birague is one of the peaks of the bronze sculpture in France. With the dazzling effervescence of Cardinals coat, Germain Pilon, at the height of his art, gives a striking monumental sculpture. He realizes at the same time a remarkable portrait of the man.
A powerful figure
Born in Milan, while French duchy, René de Birague made a great career in the service of the kings of France, as a director, forensic and military man. He was appointed Chancellor of France at the death of Michel Hospital in 1574. He entered the orders to the death of his wife in 1572 and obtains the dignity of cardinal in 1578. His personality is very controversial. In 1573, he commanded the tomb of his wife Valentine Balbiani (Louvre) to Germain Pilon, artist dominates his personality, French sculpture from the late sixteenth century. He had chosen his funerary chapel in the church of Saint Catherine du Val des Routes to School in Paris. In 1584 Birague heirs asked Pilon to make his tomb, but it seems that such a project already existed in his lifetime, in 1577 to 1578.
A work of stunning magnitude
Pilon designed a simple and monumental tomb, centered on the statue of the cardinal praying framed and marble architecture and bronze. The praying had become a popular representation to express the eternal prayer, following effigies of the royal tombs of Saint-Denis. Begging him Birague also derives from that of Henry II that Pilon had made for the Valois mausoleum, but the sculptor breathes unprecedented scale, making it a top of the bronze art. The imposing mantle ends in a bubbling bend which extends FIG profile over the entire width of the monument. The concentrated, expressive face as both hands firmly clasped detaching mantle have an intense presence. The decorative details (which could harm the overall impression) have been eliminated, except for the indication of fur. Perhaps because of the poor lighting in the chapel, the statue was then painted, dominated by the red of the cardinal's coat. The figure carries a slight bias movement, which in the space of the chapel, praying allowed the look to the altar. This light pulse can be enough to conquer space of the viewer.
A penetrating portrait
Author of many medallions and a series of busts of the Valois kings, Pilon was renowned for accurate scoring of physical characteristics and psychological penetration of his portraits. It gives a vivid reality here aged face of a great of this world: cropped hair, prominent cheekbones, authoritarian nose, veined forehead, accused wrinkles, bags under the eyes. The accuracy of the portrait is that the artist had executed the portrait of the Chancellor in his lifetime, in 1577, for a medallion kept at the National Library. The tomb was dismembered in the eighteenth century, moved to St. Louis of the Jesuits, during the destruction of the Church of St. Catherine in 1783 and dismantled during the Revolution. The praying escaped melting, through the ingenuity of Lenoir."
And Wikipedia (
visit link) adds:
"René de Birague (original name: Renato Biragro; 2 February 1506 – 24 November 1583) was an Italian patrician who became a French cardinal and chancellor.
Biography
Born at Milan, he was the son of Giangiacomo Galeazzo Birago, ambassador of the duke of Milan in France, and Anna Trivulzio. Sent to papal Avignon, he cut his studies short to take up family duties at the unexpected death of his father. As a doctor of law he was admitted to the Collegio d'avvocati of Milan in 1536. After the battle of Pavia (1525), when the French and their sympathizers were expelled from Milan, he and his three brothers, Louis, Pierre and Charles, escaped to France to avoid the vengeance of Francesco II Sforza, duke of Milan. Declared a traitor by the Spanish government in Milan, his properties were confiscated in 1536 (they were partially restored in 1556).
Francis I of France named him counselor of the parlement de Paris. Later, during French control of Piedmont, he was Maestro delle Richieste of the Parliament of Turin, (1539) and its president in 1543.
He married Valentina Balbiano (1518–1572), with whom he had two children, but after her death he took minor orders in Milan. Made president of the Superior Council of Pinerolo on 9 January 1563, then French ambassador to the Council of Trent in April, he was appointed Francis's ambassador to Emperor Ferdinand I in June and then to Maximilian, king of the Romans.
He obtained a brevet of naturalization, September 1565, taking the name René de Birague, and his political career at the court of Charles IX advanced rapidly. He accompanied the king in his trip to Guyenne and served as procurator and lieutenant general in Lyon and other places September 1565 until 1568. Lyon, the scene of violence Protestant and Catholic clashes, was largely controlled by a deeply resented Italian economic elite.
Closer to the court, he became Superintendent of Finances, 1568–1570. Knight of the Order of Saint-Michel, and eventually Commander of the Order of Saint-Esprit, (1579).
In 1570, Charles IX named him keeper of the seals, a post that gave him a seat in the secret council. Thus, by virtue of his post, he attended the secret meeting of the council that decided upon the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Huguenots on 24 August 1572; he was in the King's chamber with the dukes of Guise and Nevers, Tavannes and Retz, when Queen Catherine de' Medici arrived to determine the king, who was undecided. Birague was named chancellor of France as a reward for his participation on 17 March 1573; he was also promoted to the cardinalate on 21 February 1578 under the insistence of Henry III, though he never went to Rome to receive the red hat. He is alleged to have said that he was a cardinal without a title, a priest without benefices and a chancellor without the seal (Berton, Dictionnaire des cardinaux, quoted),
He died at Paris in 1583. His tomb included his portrait as a kneeling figure by Germain Pilon, who also executed the funeral cadaver portrait of his wife (both now in the Louvre Museum)."