The Three Graces (Monument of the Heart of Henry II) by Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Description

Three young women standing back to back with their hands clasped seem to be slowly performing a round dance. On their heads they bear an urn which once contained the heart of Henry II, king of France. The very embodiment of grace, these figures were carved by Germain Pilon, considered, together with Jean Goujon, as the greatest 16th-century French sculptor. The monument was commissioned by Catherine de Médicis for her deceased husband. Commissioned in 1561 by Queen Catherine de Médicis to pay tribute to her late husband, King Henry II, who died after being wounded in a tournament in 1559, it was also intended to receive the queen's heart on her death. It was placed in the church of the Celestine monastery, Paris. Germain Pilon carved the Three Graces and the Italian sculptor Domenico del Barbiere executed the triangular pedestal and provided the model for the bronze urn (melted down during the Revolution, replaced by a gilded wood copy). According to a custom practiced by the French monarchy since the 13th century, the king's heart was placed in a separate tomb in the church of his choice, while his body was laid to rest in the basilica of Saint-Denis. The tradition was revived in the 16th century when King Henry II commissioned sculptor Pierre Bontemps to execute the Monument of the Heart in honor of his father, Francis I, to be placed in the abbey of de Hautes-Bruyères (Yvelines); it is now in Saint-Denis. instead of carving a recumbent effigy of the deceased, Bontemps…