Jean II, Duke of Bourbon, at Prayer

Duke Jean II "the Good" of Bourbon (1426-88), wearing the collar of the French order of St. Michael, is shown kneeling in prayer. This figure may have been the work described in later documents as being accompanied by a statuette of the duke's wife kneeling. Both works were placed at the base of a small stone cross on the altar of a chapel devoted to a relic of the True Cross, located in the crypt of the Sainte-Chapelle at Bourbon-l'Archambault, the ancestral seat of the dukes of Bourbon.

Colombe was an important French sculptor who worked on many commissions for the French nobility, often involving portraiture, to which his conservative and observant manner was well suited. In his travels, he was influenced by local styles; here, we see the soft, loose drapery associated with Burgundy. Damage to the face, where an artist's style can be distinctive, makes a firm attribution difficult.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

[Found at Bourbon l'Archambault, France]; Oscar Homberg, Paris, by purchase; Sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, May 16, 1908, no. 677; Fauchier-Delavigne, Paris, 1908, by purchase; Arnold Seligmann, Paris, by purchase; Henry Walters, New York, by purchase; Sadie Jones (Mrs. Henry Walters), New York, 1931, by inheritance; Sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, May 1, 1941, no. 1083; Frederick A. Stern, New York, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1944, by purchase.