(b Hamoir, 13 Aug 1631; d Liège, 4 April 1707). Flemish sculptor. He was the son of a cabinetmaker and brother of the painter Jean Gilles Delcour (1632–95), and was a pupil of Robert Arnold Henrard. He left Liège in 1648 and travelled to Rome. His later works indicate his admiration for Bernini, with whom he may have studied, probable contact with Ercole Ferrata and an inclination for the classicism of Alessandro Algardi and François Du Quesnoy. He returned to Belgium via France in 1657 and settled in Liège c. 1660–63. He travelled briefly to Paris in 1665, where he may have renewed his acquaintance with Bernini. Delcour worked largely for Liège patrons. Commissions for bronze work from the city of Liège included the fountain of the Perron in the Place du Marché, the fountain of the Virgin (1695–6) at Vinave d’Ile, the monumental well (1667) in the Rue Hors Château, with its figure of St John the Baptist, and the magnificent bronze Christ (1663; Liège, St Paul) for the Pont des Arches. His polychrome wooden figures (c. 1691) of St James the Less, St Hubert, St Benedict, St Scholastica and St Rock, all originally in the Benedictine monastery (Liège, St Jacques) are executed in a mannered, somewhat nervous, dramatic style reminiscent of Bernini. The marble Entombment (Liège, St Paul), signed and dated 1696 and perhaps his best work, and his silver figure of St Adalbertus (c. 1700; Liège, St Jean) reveal his technical skill. His work for the chapel of the Holy Sacrament in St Martin, Liège, in 1704 included a marble relief of the sacrament of Unction (terracotta; Liège, Mus. B.-A.). He executed the marble high altar for the abbey church at Herkenrode (1680; Hasselt, Onze-Lieve-Vrouw) and the impressive marble wall tomb of Eugène d’Allamont, 9th Bishop of Ghent (1667–72; Ghent, St Bavo; see BELGIUM, fig. 24).

• Delcour, Jean (1631-1707)
  • Algardi, Alessandro, §2: Working methods and studio organization