GUILLAIN, SIMON

(1589-1658)

   The French sculptor Simon Guillain was born in Paris and trained with his father, Nicolas Guillain. He is known to have visited Italy where he remained for a while, returning to Paris in 1612. Very few works by Simon have survived. Of these, the most important is the royal monument he erected on the Pont-au-Change, Paris, in 1647 to serve as statement of French monarchic succession. Now dismantled, its principal figures housed in the Paris Louvre, the monument depicted the deceased Louis XIII of France ceding the regency to his wife, Anne of Austria, their young son Louis XIV standing between them and being crowned by Fame. The heavy draperies worn by the figures and the varying textures that add richness to the work are characteristic of Guillain's style.