VERY IMPORTANT HEAD OF LOUIS XIII CHILD in limestone of Tonnerre carved in the round. The head is crowned with a high royal crown of flowers and gold and a laurel wreath worn on the hair; face with full cheeks, prominent eyeballs, eyes with hemmed and...
VERY IMPORTANT HEAD OF LOUIS XIII CHILD in limestone of Tonnerre carved in the round. The head is crowned with a high royal crown of flowers and gold and a laurel wreath worn on the hair; face with full cheeks, prominent eyeballs, eyes with hemmed and hollowed tear-circles, small mouth with loose lips; the medium-long hair forms around the face a series of wavy and curly locks in the center drilled with a drill bit.
Paris, attributed to Simon Guillain (Paris, 1581 - Paris, 1658), circa 1610
Height: 43.5 cm - Width: 27.5 cm - Depth: 28 cm
Foundation (some accidents and missing parts)
Provenance: former Jacques Pouillon collection (1935-2011), sculptor and antique dealer, Versailles
Following the assassination of his father Henri IV, the young Louis was crowned in Reims on October 17, 1610 at the age of nine and took the name of Louis the thirteenth.
We still have a few engravings and drawings of this event, including one by François Quesnel, kept at the Bnf (fig.a), as well as tokens and medals (fig.b). The other figurations of the young king at the same age show us a child with rounded cheeks as in the engraving by Léonard Gaultier or the painting by Pourbus in the Pitti Palace (fig.c and d). In addition to the "puffy cheeks" characteristic of the young monarch, this imposing stone head also features protruding eyeballs with thick eyelids, another physical feature shown in the portraits of the sovereign as an adult, such as the bronze bust made around 1643, long attributed to Jean Varin and now given to Bordoni (fig.e).
However, none of these figures shows him wearing the two crowns, the royal crown and the laurel wreath. We are thus in the presence of an image to the glory of the young Louis XIII at the age of his coronation. It is difficult to imagine what kind of memorial could belong to this imposing head, more than forty centimetres high. The will to create such a statue could only come from a high public authority or one close to power, such as the regency of Marie de Medici or the council of a large provincial town. Nowhere in the archives does it seem to mention a similar commission.
The limestone, analyzed by Annie Blanc, geologist, is a "mitritic white limestone of thunderstone type. Although widely used in Burgundy as far as Champagne, this stone was also worked in Paris and the Paris region as well as in Versailles in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
For an effigy of this importance of the young king, the client had to turn to an artist who enjoyed a certain renown or had received serious training. Some names come to mind of sculptors who were able to respond to this type of commission in 1610: Barthélémy Tremblay (Louves-en-Parisis, circa 1568 - Paris, 1636), Guillaume Bertelot (Le Havre, circa 1583 - Paris, 1648) or Simon Guillain (Paris, 1589 - Paris, 1658). The latter, however, seems most likely to correspond to the author of this astonishing sculpture. Born in Paris in 1589, he was the son and pupil of the sculptor Nicolas Guillain dit
Cambrai, who died in the capital in 1639. Founder among other artists of the Academy in 1648, Simon Guillain is notably known for being the author of the royal monument of the Pont au Change erected to the glory of the young Louis XIV, between 1639 and 1647, which represented in bronze statues the sovereign - at the same age of 9 years - between Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, a monument considered to be the pinnacle of his career. All of these sculptures are now in the Louvre Museum. This was not the first representation of this king, having previously made a full-length statue of Louis XIII to decorate the carriage entrance of the consular judges' building in rue du Cloître Saint-Merri, demolished shortly after the Revolution. This stone sculpture represented him "with lions at his feet, an allusion to his advantages over Spain". It is also known that he had portrayed Saint Louis as Louis XIII in the altarpiece of Saint-Eustache.
His reputation as a great portraitist was also well established, since many commissions had entrusted him with the creation of prayer statues of several tombs between 1620 and 1630, including the marble statues of Chrétienne Leclerc († 1628) and Charlotte-Catherine de la Tremoille († 1629), both of which can be seen in the Louvre (inv. LP 414 and 400, figs. f and g). The drill bits all around the face of the latter with the toupee raised above the forehead, a toupee unfortunately mutilated on the royal child, can be compared, as can the use of the drill bit. Finally, if for these prestigious commissions he was able to work in bronze or marble, the archives indicate of course that he commonly used stone for Parisian churches; it is even stated that for the Sorbonne "he made eight large statues in Tonnerre stone", a material he also used in the Carmelite church. Apart from a stay in Italy, unfortunately little is known about the first part of the career of Simon Guillain, also an architect, engraver and painter. It thus seems plausible to attribute to him this first monumental portrait of Louis XIII, commemorating the coronation, which he could have painted before his departure for the peninsula; this portrait, imposing with its double crown, could later legitimize all his other representations of the sovereign.
Works consulted: A.-N. Dezallier d'Argenville, Vies des célèbres sculpteurs, Tome second, Paris, 1787, p 143; J.A. Dulaure, Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris, Paris, 1826, p 417; J. Dulaure, Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris, Paris, 1826, p 417; J. Dulaure, Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris, Paris, 1826, p 417; J. Dulaure, Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris, Paris, 1826, p 417; J. Dulaure, Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris, Paris, 1826, p 417. de Marlès, Paris ancien et moderne ou Histoire de France, Tome 2, Paris, 1838, p 70; Comte de Clarac, Manuel de l'histoire de l'art chez les anciens, Première partie, Description des Musées de sculpture antique et moderne du Louvre, Paris, 1847, notice 43, p 416; G.
Guillet de Saint-Georges, "Simon Guillain" in Mémoires inédits sur la vie et les ouvrages des membres de l'Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture,
Paris, 1864, Tome I, pp.184-194.; S. Lamy, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'Ecole française du Moyen Age au règne de Louis XIV, Paris, 1898, pp. 250-253;
C. Maumené and L. d'Harcourt, Iconographie des rois de France, T 1, Paris, 1928, pp. 248-274; G. Bresc-Bautier and G. Bresc-Bautier. Scherf sous la dir. de, Bronzes français de la Renaissance au Siècle des lumières, Paris, 2008, pp. 194-197. Automatically translated by DeepL. To see the original version, click here.
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VERY IMPORTANT HEAD OF LOUIS XIII CHILD in limestone of Tonnerre carved in the round. The head is crowned with a high royal crown of flowers and gold and a laurel wreath worn on the hair; face with full cheeks, prominent eyeballs, eyes with hemmed and hollowed tear-circles, small mouth with loose lips; the medium-long hair forms around the face a series of wavy and curly locks in the center drilled with a drill bit.
Paris, attributed to Simon Guillain (Paris, 1581 - Paris, 1658), circa 1610
Height: 43.5 cm - Width: 27.5 cm - Depth: 28 cm
Foundation (some accidents and missing parts)
Provenance: former Jacques Pouillon collection (1935-2011), sculptor and antique dealer, Versailles
Following the assassination of his father Henri IV, the young Louis was crowned in Reims on October 17, 1610 at the age of nine and took the name of Louis the thirteenth.
We still have a few engravings and drawings of this event, including one by François Quesnel, kept at the Bnf (fig.a), as well as tokens and medals (fig.b). The other figurations of the young king at the same age show us a child with rounded cheeks as in the engraving by Léonard Gaultier or the painting by Pourbus in the Pitti Palace (fig.c and d). In addition to the "puffy cheeks" characteristic of the young monarch, this imposing stone head also features protruding eyeballs with thick eyelids, another physical feature shown in the portraits of the sovereign as an adult, such as the bronze bust made around 1643, long attributed to Jean Varin and now given to Bordoni (fig.e).
However, none of these figures shows him wearing the two crowns, the royal crown and the laurel wreath. We are thus in the presence of an image to the glory of the young Louis XIII at the age of his coronation. It is difficult to imagine what kind of memorial could belong to this imposing head, more than forty centimetres high. The will to create such a statue could only come from a high public authority or one close to power, such as the regency of Marie de Medici or the council of a large provincial town. Nowhere in the archives does it seem to mention a similar commission.
The limestone, analyzed by Annie Blanc, geologist, is a "mitritic white limestone of thunderstone type. Although widely used in Burgundy as far as Champagne, this stone was also worked in Paris and the Paris region as well as in Versailles in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
For an effigy of this importance of the young king, the client had to turn to an artist who enjoyed a certain renown or had received serious training. Some names come to mind of sculptors who were able to respond to this type of commission in 1610: Barthélémy Tremblay (Louves-en-Parisis, circa 1568 - Paris, 1636), Guillaume Bertelot (Le Havre, circa 1583 - Paris, 1648) or Simon Guillain (Paris, 1589 - Paris, 1658). The latter, however, seems most likely to correspond to the author of this astonishing sculpture. Born in Paris in 1589, he was the son and pupil of the sculptor Nicolas Guillain dit
Cambrai, who died in the capital in 1639. Founder among other artists of the Academy in 1648, Simon Guillain is notably known for being the author of the royal monument of the Pont au Change erected to the glory of the young Louis XIV, between 1639 and 1647, which represented in bronze statues the sovereign - at the same age of 9 years - between Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, a monument considered to be the pinnacle of his career. All of these sculptures are now in the Louvre Museum. This was not the first representation of this king, having previously made a full-length statue of Louis XIII to decorate the carriage entrance of the consular judges' building in rue du Cloître Saint-Merri, demolished shortly after the Revolution. This stone sculpture represented him "with lions at his feet, an allusion to his advantages over Spain". It is also known that he had portrayed Saint Louis as Louis XIII in the altarpiece of Saint-Eustache.
His reputation as a great portraitist was also well established, since many commissions had entrusted him with the creation of prayer statues of several tombs between 1620 and 1630, including the marble statues of Chrétienne Leclerc († 1628) and Charlotte-Catherine de la Tremoille († 1629), both of which can be seen in the Louvre (inv. LP 414 and 400, figs. f and g). The drill bits all around the face of the latter with the toupee raised above the forehead, a toupee unfortunately mutilated on the royal child, can be compared, as can the use of the drill bit. Finally, if for these prestigious commissions he was able to work in bronze or marble, the archives indicate of course that he commonly used stone for Parisian churches; it is even stated that for the Sorbonne "he made eight large statues in Tonnerre stone", a material he also used in the Carmelite church. Apart from a stay in Italy, unfortunately little is known about the first part of the career of Simon Guillain, also an architect, engraver and painter. It thus seems plausible to attribute to him this first monumental portrait of Louis XIII, commemorating the coronation, which he could have painted before his departure for the peninsula; this portrait, imposing with its double crown, could later legitimize all his other representations of the sovereign.
Works consulted: A.-N. Dezallier d'Argenville, Vies des célèbres sculpteurs, Tome second, Paris, 1787, p 143; J.A. Dulaure, Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris, Paris, 1826, p 417; J. Dulaure, Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris, Paris, 1826, p 417; J. Dulaure, Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris, Paris, 1826, p 417; J. Dulaure, Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris, Paris, 1826, p 417; J. Dulaure, Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris, Paris, 1826, p 417. de Marlès, Paris ancien et moderne ou Histoire de France, Tome 2, Paris, 1838, p 70; Comte de Clarac, Manuel de l'histoire de l'art chez les anciens, Première partie, Description des Musées de sculpture antique et moderne du Louvre, Paris, 1847, notice 43, p 416; G.
Guillet de Saint-Georges, "Simon Guillain" in Mémoires inédits sur la vie et les ouvrages des membres de l'Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture,
Paris, 1864, Tome I, pp.184-194.; S. Lamy, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'Ecole française du Moyen Age au règne de Louis XIV, Paris, 1898, pp. 250-253;
C. Maumené and L. d'Harcourt, Iconographie des rois de France, T 1, Paris, 1928, pp. 248-274; G. Bresc-Bautier and G. Bresc-Bautier. Scherf sous la dir. de, Bronzes français de la Renaissance au Siècle des lumières, Paris, 2008, pp. 194-197. Automatically translated by DeepL. To see the original version, click here.
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