Tomb of the Dukes of Orleans

As a result of the French occupation of Genoa (1499-1508), Viscardi received a number of important commissions from French patrons and was therefore instrumental in introducing the Italian Renaissance style into France. There is, however, no evidence that he himself ever visited France. In 1502 Louis XII commissioned a tomb in honour of his ancestors the Dukes of Orl�ans from Viscardi and Michele d’Aria in association with the Florentines Donato Benti and Benedetto da Rovezzano. The marble monument, now in the abbey church of Saint-Denis, was originally set up in 1504 in the Celestine Church (destroyed), Paris; it combines a typically Italianate base in the form of a sarcophagus surrounded by small statues of apostles in niches with a more French style for the four reclining figures of Louis, Duke of Orl�ans (1372-1407), his wife Valentina Visconti (1366-1408) and two of their sons, Charles, Duke of Orl�ans (139-–1465) and Philippe, Comte de Vertus (1396-1420).