Shortly after the canonization of his grandfather Louis IX in 1297, King Philip IV the Fair undertook the construction of a Dominican priory in Poissy, the birthplace and baptismal site of the future Saint Louis. The Priory of Saint Louis of Poissy was erected under the supervision of the master sculptors Pierre d’Hérouville and Guillaume de Berry. Archival sources attest that construction advanced rapidly: payments are recorded as early as 1298, a clock was installed by 1301, and several major buildings were completed by 1304, the year in which the foundation was officially ratified. In the following decades, the priory became one of the most important religious establishments in France, richly endowed and lavishly decorated, notably with monumental stained glass windows commissioned in the 1320s and installed in 1331. Its treasury contained prestigious objects, including the Royal Breviary of Saint Louis of Poissy, illuminated by Richard de Verdun at the king’s request. The church of the priory, the only space accessible to the public, was conceived as a vast and imposing structure with a wide nave, side aisles reserved for nuns, a transept, and a choir surrounded by radiating chapels. It also housed an ambitious sculptural program intended to glorify the royal lineage: a drawing by François Roger de Gaignières, preserved in Paris, records a series of six life size statues installed on the wall at the back of the nave, near the choir. These sculptures represented the six children of Louis IX and Margaret of Provence - Louis, Philip, John, Isabella, Peter, and Robert -and were arranged, according to François Roger de Gaignières, from the tallest to the smallest. With the exception of Robert, who died in 1317, all were already deceased when the statues were commissioned, likely around 1304. Through this ensemble, Philip IV the Fair affirmed his direct filiation from the sainted king and celebrated the memory of his ancestors. The priory suffered severe damage in 1695 when a violent fire caused extensive destruction. Rebuilt in large part by Jules Hardouin Mansart under Louis XIV, the complex was later converted into a hospital during the French Revolution, sold in 1791, and ultimately demolished in 1808. Only the gatehouse survives today, now housing the Jouvet Museum. Despite this loss, the statues of Isabella of France (intact, still in Poissy today) and Peter I of Alençon (headless, held in the Musée Cluny in Paris) are preserved, as well as a few sculpted angels (Paris, Musée Cluny).

Within this historical and artistic context, the present limestone bust of a young nobleman carved by a highly skilled French sculptor in the early 14th century assumes its full significance. Slightly larger than life, the sculpture depicts a young man with individualized facial features -plump cheeks, a prominent chin, protruding eyes with swollen lower eyelids, a wide mouth with thin lips, and a flat nose with a pointed tip. His hairstyle, with bangs and curled locks framing the ears, corresponds to fashions around 1300. Rediscovered in the collection of the renowned French painter Maurice Denis, who apparently acquired it from an antique dealer in Saint Germain en Laye and who was said to have found it in a demolished house in Poissy, the bust quickly drew scholarly attention. Marcel Aubert, dean of curators of the national museums of France and specialist of Medieval sculpture, was the first to state that the present bust is no other than the bust of Philip III the Bold, second son of Saint Louis, originally belonging to the sculptural series of Saint Louis’ six children in the Priory of Saint-Louis of Poissy. His hypothesis is mainly based on the sculpture’s provenance and on morphological similarities with the funerary effigy of Philip III at Saint Denis. This identification was quickly accepted by art historians Michèle Beaulieu and Suzanne Moreau Rendu, and the work was even exhibited in Paris in 1960 under this identification.

This identification was contested by Alain Erlande Brandenburg, who questioned the sufficiency of the evidence. He underlined that the present bust’s size seems too large in comparison with Isabella of France’s statue, that the morphological similarities with the funerary effigy of Philip III at Saint Denis are not convincing, and that the present bust does not show some details present in François Roger de Gaignières’ drawing. Although the identification of the present bust with Philip III the Bold seems to be mostly rejected nowadays, it remains plausible and it is an integral part of the history of the bust at hand. Moreover, it is worth noting that this identification is the only hypothesis that has been proposed and that it has managed to convince (though not unanimously) art historians.

Central to the debate is the reliability of François Roger de Gaignières’ drawing: the bust lacks certain elements shown in the drawing, such as a rosary on the head or a mantle collar. Yet comparisons between the drawing and the surviving statue of Isabella demonstrate that François Roger de Gaignières’ representations are not always perfectly precise. Questions of scale further complicate this identification. While the bust appears larger than Isabella’s statue, this discrepancy may reflect the hierarchy recorded in François Roger de Gaignières’ drawing, raising the alternative possibility that the fragment represents Louis of France rather than Philip III the Bold (in François Roger de Gaignières’ drawing, the statue of Louis of France is the tallest). Physiognomic comparison with the effigy of Philip III at Saint Denis yields similar ambiguities: while the resemblance is not exact, parallels in the treatment of the eyes, mouth, and chin remain striking. Stylistically, the sculpture has been compared both to works associated with Poissy and to major early 14th century productions such as the Virgin and Child from Salins du Jura, underscoring the high quality of the present bust.

Whether identifiable as Philip III the Bold (or Louis of France?) or not, this poignant bust is a truly remarkable and rare example of a secular work from the dawn of the 14th century. The seven centuries of age and history that this unique bust carries have certainly taken with them any decisive arguments that might have allowed us to identify this young man. He is, nevertheless, an outstanding figure immortalized in stone by a leading French sculptor of the Middle Ages