COLOMBE, MICHEL

COLOMBE, MICHEL. - Sculptor, born in Brittany around 1430–40, died before 1519. From 1491 he settled in Tours, where in 1500 he received the commission to execute a medal in honour of Luigi XII.
In 1507 he completed the monument to Francesco II, of Brittany, in Nantes Cathedral, perhaps conceived on the suggestion of G. Perreal, recently returned from Italy, and executed with the collaboration of Guglielmo Regnauld, G. di Chartres, and Italian marble-workers. In 1508 he carved for Card. Giorgio d'Amboise the relief of St George slaying the dragon, now in the Louvre. Whereas the medal of Luigi XII is still closely bound to Gothic taste in every respect, both in the monument to Francesco II and in the relief of St George the importations of Italian Renaissance fashion are most evident, reflected especially in the architectural and decorative elements, which nevertheless are superimposed upon or intertwined with, rather than fused with, the traditional ones. Thus C.'s merits as a sculptor should be sought above all in the delicate modelling of his figures, in which the acute realism of the Gothic tradition seems veiled by a gentle sense of melancholy poetry.