Monument for the Heart of Henri I d'Orleans, Duke of Longueville
Francois Anguier (1604-1669) · Seventeenth century, contract of 1661
A tall obelisk of dark marble, its faces carved with trophies of arms, rises from a pedestal where standing female figures personifying virtues keep watch beside a relief in bronze. The monument once held the heart of Henri d'Orleans, Duke of Longueville, who lived from 1564 to 1593 and died young, a soldier and governor in the service of Henry the Fourth. Heart monuments of this kind, separate from the tomb of the body, allowed a family to honour its dead in the church it favoured, and here the theme is treated as a triumph rather than a lament: look at the armour and weapons piled up the shaft of the obelisk.
The monument was made for the Orleans chapel in the church of the Celestine convent in Paris, under a contract of 1661, decades after the duke's death, and is attributed to Francois Anguier. Its original arrangement is known from a drawing in the Gaignieres collection and an engraving published by Millin. Seized at the Revolution, the pieces entered the Petits-Augustins depot in 1791 and 1792, were displayed in the Museum of French Monuments until 1816, and entered the Louvre on 20 June 1817.
Did You Know? The monument was commissioned nearly seventy years after the duke died, by descendants keen to glorify the family.
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