Monument to Valentine Balbiani (detail)

In a detailed contract executed with Germain Pilon in 1574, Chancellor Ren� de Birague stipulated exactly how he wanted the sculptor to depict his wife, Valentine Balbiani (1518-1572), who had just died. Originally in Sainte-Catherine-du-Val-des-�coliers in Paris, the tomb was dismantled in 1793, only a few fragments survive (now in the Louvre).

Reclining on her elbow in a daybed, Valentine is pensive, a book in her hand and her little dog by her side. Her elegant mien and dress and the whiteness of the marble must have produced a striking effect when combined with the black marble framing elements of the tomb. But the more telling contrast was with the relief depicting her body “in a deceased state” that the chancellor directed be set into its sarcophagus. His intention may have been to convey the brutal suddenness of his lost.