Barthélemy Prieur

Place: Berzieux

Death: 1611

Biography:

Barthélemy Prieur was a French sculptor born in Berzieux, Champagne, France in 1536. He traveled to Italy from 1564 to 1568 and worked for Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy in Turin. Upon his return to France, he worked on funerary monuments, busts, and small bronzes. In 1571, he began employment under Jean Bullant at the Palais du Louvre and created the monument to Christophe de Thou in 1585. He was named sculptor to king Henry IV in 1591 and restored the Roman marble now called the Diana of Versailles in 1602. Several of his bronzes are preserved in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, and his bronze busts of King Henry IV and his wife Marie de' Medici are in the Ashmolean Museum. His Monument du coeur du connétable Anne de Montmorency is on display in the Louvre. He died in 1611.