Short answers, pulled from the story.
Ligier Richier was a French sculptor active in Saint-Mihiel in Northeastern France, born around 1500 and died in 1567. He is best known for the "Transi de Rene de Chalon", a life-size sculpture depicting a flayed corpse holding its own heart, and for the "Groupe de la Passion", a group of thirteen life-size figures in the Church of St. Etienne.
The Transi de Rene de Chalon is in the church of Saint-Etienne in Bar-le-Duc, France. The sculpture stands 1 metre 74 centimetres high and depicts Rene of Chalon, Prince of Orange, who died on the 15th of July 1544.
Richier preferred pale, soft limestone extracted from quarries around Saint-Mihiel and Sorcy. The stone had a fine grain with few veins, and Richier developed polishing techniques to give it a marble-like appearance.
Richier left France after an unsuccessful petition in 1560 to practice the Protestant religion in Saint-Mihiel. In 1564 he moved to Geneva, Switzerland, to join his daughter Bernadine, who had married a Protestant named Pierre Godart and had already left Lorraine for the same reason.
Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, was Richier's primary patron from 1530 onward. The Duke commissioned Richier's work throughout much of his career in Saint-Mihiel.
Richier's works are held in several locations, including the Church of St. Etienne in Saint-Mihiel, the Church of Saint-Etienne and the Church of St. Pierre in Bar-le-Duc, a church in Etain, Saint-Michel's church in Saint-Mihiel, Pont-a-Mousson, and the Louvre in Paris.