Pierre Bontemps (c. 1505–1568) was a French sculptor known for his funeral monuments; he was, with

Germain Pilon Germain Pilon (c. 1525 – 3 February 1590)Connat & Colombier 1951; Thirion 1996. was a French Renaissance sculptor. He is, along with Jean Goujon, one of the most important sculptors of the French Renaissance. Best known as the creator of ma ...

, one of the pre-eminent sculptors of the

French Renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define ...

. He executed most of the bas-reliefs on the tomb of King

Francis I of France Francis I (; ; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law Louis&nbs ...

, representing the French victories at the

battle of Marignano The Battle of Marignano, which took place on 13–14 September 1515, near the town now called Melegnano, 16 km southeast of Milan, was the last major engagement of the War of the League of Cambrai. It pitted the French army, composed of t ...

and the

battle of Ceresole The Battle of Ceresole (; also Cérisoles) took place on 14 April 1544, during the Italian War of 1542–1546, outside the village of Ceresole d'Alba in the Piedmont region of Italy. A French army, commanded by François de Bourbon, Count of ...

. His also are the statues of the king,

Queen Claude Claude of France (13 October 1499 – 26 July 1524) was Queen of France from 1 January 1515 as the wife of King Francis I and Duchess of Brittany in her own right from 9 January 1514 until her death in 1524. She was the eldest daughter of King ...

, the Dauphin, and

Louis XII Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), also known as Louis of Orléans was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples (as Louis III) from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Cleves, he succeeded his second ...

and

Anne of Brittany Anne of Brittany (; 25/26 January 1477 – 9 January 1514) was reigning Duchess of Brittany from 1488 until her death, and Queen of France from 1491 to 1498 and from 1499 to her death. She was the only woman to have been queen consort of Fran ...

on Louis' tomb in the

Basilica of Saint-Denis The Basilica of Saint-Denis (, now formally known as the ) is a large former medieval abbey church and present cathedral in the commune of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. The building is of singular importance historically and archite ...

. The figures from the tomb of Charles de Maigny (c. 1556) now reside in the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. In 1936, a sale of contents from the chateau of

Monchy-Humières Monchy-Humières () is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. History The original Chateau de Monchy-Humières was destroyed during the 1337 to 1453 Hundred Years War and rebuilt in the 16th century. In 1595, it passed into the ...

included a full-length marble tomb which had been used as a garden ornament. Originally thought to be of Louis, duc d'Humières (1628–1694), it was in fact Jean III d'Humières (died 1553), executed by Bontemps. This is also in the Louvre.

References

1500s births 1568 deaths 16th-century French sculptors French male sculptors {{France-sculptor-stub