Tomb of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany, Saint-Denis Basilica

This monumental tomb, carved in the sixteenth century by Juste de Juste, houses the recumbent effigies of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany in the basilica of Saint-Denis, the traditional necropolis of the kings of France. A work of transition between the medieval tradition of the gisant and the new forms of the Italian Renaissance, the monument combines the depiction of the sovereigns in glory, kneeling in prayer, with the starker representation of their naked bodies lying beneath, in the so-called transi style, recalling the fragility of the human condition even at the summit of power. Listed as a historic monument, the tomb reunites for eternity the two spouses whose union, celebrated at Nantes in 1499, had sealed the definitive incorporation of Brittany into the crown of France.