(b Mazan, Vaucluse, 15 Dec 1650; d Mazan, 25 Mar 1728). French sculptor. He came of a Comtat Venaissin family of sculptors of varying degrees of talent and was trained by his father, Noël Bernus (d 1702), and later by Nicolas Levray, director of the sculpture workshop at the Arsenal, in Toulon. Refusing Levray’s offer to appoint him as his successor, Bernus preferred instead to settle in his native province. He likewise declined an offer from Laurent Buty, bishop of Carpentras from 1691 to 1710, to send him to Rome to perfect his art. The period from 1692 to 1708 was the most fruitful of his career. Buty commissioned him to decorate the choir and the sanctuary (mostly preserved in situ) of the cathedral of St Siffrein in Carpentras: this work included the high altar, the tabernacle with adoring angels, a Glory imitating that executed by Bernini for the high altar of St Peter’s in Rome, the panelling for the choir and Buty’s own tomb in marble. At the same time Bernus sculpted a considerable number of statues and ecclesiastical furnishings for neighbouring churches. Little is known about his activities between 1713 and 1722, but between 1722 and 1725 he sculpted three statues of the Virgin, including one in marble at Bedarridès, Vaucluse, parish church (in situ). His abundant production, only partly preserved, consisted mainly of works in wood and was essentially of a religious nature. The Musée Calvet in Avignon has some 20 of his terracotta sketch models. Bernus was endowed with unfailing artistic invention and a very sure decorative sense. Without ever leaving his native province, he developed an elegant line, a delicate sense of form in his modelling and a highly finished manner of execution, together with an energetic style inspired by Roman Baroque sculpture and displayed in the light, swirling draperies that followed the contours of his figures and in the spontaneous and lively energy of their attitudes.