MOREAU, Robert

Flemish sculptor of French origin. He became a citizen of Antwerp in 1532-33 and in 1533 entered the Guild of St Luke, to which wood-carvers belonged. Evidently he also worked in stone, for on 2 July 1536 he received a contract from the emissary of the Bishop of Dunkeld, Scotland, to supply six pieces of black polished marble to frame the Bishop’s copper tomb plaque (destroyed). On 17 June 1537 he received a prestigious commission from the wealthy abbey of Gembloux to produce a large carved wooden altarpiece (destroyed) with ten scenes from the Lives of Sts Peter and Paul and including a donor portrait of the abbot, Antoine Papin (d. 1541), all to be carved within two years for a fee of 800 gold florins.

Moreau is last documented in 1540, when he offered as surety for a debt a wooden pulpit in antique style.