NOTICE OF GERMAIN PILON. Germain Pilon was born about 1530, at Loué, a little town near Mans. A son to a good sculptor he began his first studying in the paternal house, and had already performed in his country many notable works, when he came to Paris, in 1550. His abode in that city soon made him a worthy competitor of Jean Goujon, and he was soon entrusted with the perfor mance of several mausoleums. We are indebted to him for the statues and bas-reliefs which adorn the tombs of the Valois, constructed in Saint Denis-abbey; from the design of Philibert de l'Orme. This monument 14 feet high, 12 long and 10 broad is in white marble, decorated with 12 dark-blue marble columns. What is most remarkable in this mausoleum are the statues of Henry II and Catherine de Médicis, lying down naked. This painter knew how to unite in his work the severity of Michel-Ange with the grace of Francis Primatice, who then directed in France every thing relating to the arts w drawing. A very astonishing thing is, that, according to the court accounts, Germain Pilon received only the trifling sum of 3,172 livres 4 sous for that great and magnificent foork. Germain Pilon died in 1590, and not in 1606 or 1608, some biographers have printed. as |