The obelisk is 4 meters tall.
The Louvre's website (
visit link) translated to English by Google, informs us:
"This impressive monument dominated by an obelisk over four meters high is the tomb of the heart of the Duke of Longueville, comrade of King Henry IV. This is the masterpiece of Francis Anguier, who went with his brother to Rome to study antiquity. It combines the serene balance of antique statuary with a search animated flexibility.
Historical
This tomb was erected in 1661 in the chapel of the Church of Orleans Celestine of Paris, in memory of Henri de Longueville, who died in 1595. His son (who is also buried) entrusted the construction to François Anguier , who lived in Rome where he studied ancient and peaceful art of Algardi (1595-1654). On his return to France in 1643, the sculptor renewed the design of monuments. It was completed in 1647 the tomb of historian Jacques de Thou (LP 404, LP 405, LP 406). He later realized the tomb of Jacques de Souvré (LP 550).
The Antique reinterpreted
The iconography of the mausoleum is inspired by antiquity. Anguier erects an imposing obelisk, pyramid called in the seventeenth century because of its funerary. It is placed on a marble pedestal decorated with arched pediments, antique motif reintroduced by Italian artists during the Renaissance. At the corners are four statues, the cardinal virtues: Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Strength. Despite their Christian meaning they have a secular character by their cannon, their drape and certain attributes: Justice is holding a lictor bundle and Force Hercules figure, wearing a Roman breastplate, armed with a club and wearing head the skin of the Nemean lion. It rests on a base decorated with four bas-reliefs illustrating each virtue: and Janus, the Roman god with two faces, corresponds to Prudence.
The serenity of attitude, inherited from the Greco-Roman statuary, is reconcilable with a research flexibility of body and sweetness of expression. Prudence and combines supple figure and nonchalant to full restraint charm downcast eyes, she tilts his handsome regular face to the mirror.
The assertion of a family
The four sides of the black marble obelisk are decorated with white bas-reliefs. Both are decorated with the family coat of arms and trophies, glorifying the military virtues of Longueville. Two others carry the attributes of Sciences, Arts and Letters, celebrating their culture. Sculpture is busy carving the bust of the Duke; it crushes the head of a gorgon, a symbol of Art triumphant Vice.
On the pedestal, two bronze reliefs evoke glorious episodes of military life of the Duke, comrade in arms of Henry IV in the reconquest of the kingdom. At the Battle of Senlis (1589), he defeated the Duke of Aumale: Longueville, on a rearing horse, charging the center of a melee armed horsemen in the antique, while a forest of lances bristling back -blueprint. The Relief in Arques, the duke is depicted from behind, but the center of the composition: a groom holds his restive horse while he talks to Henry IV on horseback.
Cartel
François Anguier (Eu, 1604 - Paris, 1669)
Funerary monument from the heart of Duke Henri I of Longueville (1564 - 1593)
Marble, stone and gilded bronze
H: 4.35 m. ; L. 0.70 m. ; Pr. 0.70 m.
From the Museum of French Monuments. Entered the Louvre in 1824, 1824
MR 1749 MR 1750 MR 1751 MR 1752 MR 2669, MR 2670, MR 2671, MR 2672, MR 3101 A, MR 3373, MR 3374, MR 3101 B, 3101 C MR, MR 3099, MR 3100
Sculptures
Richelieu wing
Ground floor
Anguier
Room 18 has
Practical information
Musée du Louvre, 75058 Paris - France
+ 33 (0) 1 40 20 53 17
Hours:
Open daily from 9am to 18pm except Tuesday
Nocturnes until 9:45 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday
Closures:
1st January, 1st May and 25 December"