Michel Bourdin

(b ?Orl?ans, c. 1580; d Paris, Nov 1650). French sculptor. He was established in Paris by 1609 and was described in this period as a 'sculptor in wax': he modelled a head in wax of Henry IV after his assassination in 1610 (perhaps the head of the King in Mus. Carnavalet, Paris). He is best known, however, as a sculptor of tombs and altar decorations, though little of his work survives intact. From 1618-21 he worked on the high altar at Saint-Sulpice, Paris, providing four black marble columns, four statues of Angels Holding the Instruments of the Passion (wood painted to imitate bronze parcel gilt) and two large polychromed wood statues of St Sulpice and St Peter (all untraced). At this time he also constructed the high altar (untraced) of the abbey of Saint-Sulpice-les-Bourges, paid for by Henry II of Bourbon, Prince de Cond?; a terracotta Piet? (Salbris, Loir-et-Cher, parish church) may be a fragment from this. From 1622 onwards he was intermittently involved with works at Orl?ans Cathedral: he supplied drawings and models for the screening of the choir (destr.) and sculpture and decorative panelling in black and white marble for the apsidal chapel commissioned by Anne de Caumont, Comtesse de Saint-Pol. At the time of his death Bourdin seems only to have roughed out the marble figures of Faith, Hope and Charity for the latter project, and it was probably finished on a less ambitious scale than planned by his son, also named Michel (1609-78), with a central figure of the Virgin of Sorrows inspired by Germain Pilon.

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