[2] De Birague commission the funerary monument shortly after her death in 1572, and hired the French Mannerist sculptor Germain Pilon (1535–1590) for its design and construction.

[9] The upper effigy shows her as if alive: still relatively young and sitting upright in the "sweetly sad" pose,[5][9] Her face is thought to be an accurate, unidealised depiction of how she looked.

[5][9] In contrast, the imagery on the long sides of the tomb's chest is much smaller than life-size, in bas (flat) relief, and shows her as a skeletal gisant (or transi) after death, naked except for a shroud around her waist.

[9] According to the writer Jeffrey Meyers, the chest shows her "frightening change from elegant beauty to emaciated cadaver.

The cushions now support Valentine’s bare skull, and her skeletal hands clutch the cerements to hide her private parts.