Note 265 — Chapter VIII · Gothic in the Midi (continued 2)

While the popes ruled in Avignon, churches rose from end to end of the city. In St. Didier (XIV century) is the bas-relief N. D.-du-spasme made for King René in 1476 by Francisco Laurana, one of the earliest Renaissance sculptors to work in France. He made the tomb for King René’s brother in Le Mans Cathedral. The Gothic-Renaissance façade (1512) of St. Pierre is of singular grace; the date of its carved doors is 1551. There is a XV-century pulpit, and a retablo (1461) by Antoine Le Moiturier, born in Avignon, who finished the celebrated tomb of Jean Sans Peur now in Dijon’s Museum. Congrès Archéologique, 1909, p. 17; A. Chaillot, Les œuvres d’art dans les églises et chapelles d’Avignon; G. Bayle, Notes historiques sur l’église de St. Pierre d’Avignon (Avignon, 1899).