Ligier Richier's tomb of René de Chalon as a decaying skeleton in Bar-le-Duc

Perhaps one of the most extravagant monuments of the French Renaissance: the tomb of René de Chalon, Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland, who died in 1544. It is not entirely clear whether the 25-year-old René himself left instructions for a rotting tomb to be raised to him, or whether this was solely the idea of his widow, Anne of Lorraine, but Ligier Richier, a Frenchman and pupil of Michelangelo, was commissioned to carve a full-length sculpture corresponding to the body of a man who had been decomposing in the grave for three years: on the skeleton one can see peeling pieces of flesh and skin. In its outstretched hand the skeleton holds a heart; originally this was a reliquary containing the heart of the deceased, but it was lost during the French Revolution. The sculpture stands in the church of Saint-Étienne in the French town of Bar-le-Duc

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

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Ligier Richier's tomb of René de Chalon as a decaying skeleton in Bar-le-Duc

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

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