GOUJON, JEAN (c. 1566), the greatest French sculptor of the French Renaissance. In 1541 he was employed at the cathedral of Rouen where he added to the tomb of Cardinal d'Amboise a statue of his nephew Georges, afterwards removed, and possibly carved portions of the tomb of Louis de Breze, executed some time after 1545. On leaving Rouen, Goujon was employed by Pierre Lescot, the celebrated architect of the Louvre, on the restorations of St. Germain l'Auxerrois; the build ing accounts—some of which for the years 1542-1544 were dis covered by M. de Laborde on a piece of parchment binding— specify as his work, not only the carvings of the pulpit (Louvre), but also a Notre Dame de Piete, now lost. In 1547 appeared Martin's French translation of Vitruvius, the illustrations of which were due, the translator tells us in his "Dedication to the King," to Goujon, nagueres architecte de Monseigneur le Con netable, et maintenant un des votres. This statement shows not only that Goujon had been taken into the royal service on the accession of Henry II., but also that he had been previously em ployed under Bullant on the château of Ecouen. Between and 1549 he was employed in the decoration of the Loggia ordered from Lescot for the entry of Henry II. into Paris, which took place on June 16, 1549. At the Louvre, Goujon, under the direction of Lescot, executed the carvings of the south-west angle of the court, the reliefs of the Escalier Henry II., and the Tribune des Cariatides, for which he received 737 livres on Sept. 5, 15 5o. Between 1548 and 1554 rose the château d'Anet, in the embel lishment of which Goujon was associated with Philibert Delorme in the service of Diana of Poitiers. We should probably ascribe the work attributed to him in the Hotel Carnavalet (in situ), together with much else executed in various parts of Paris—but now dispersed or destroyed—to a period intervening between the date of his dismissal from the Louvre and his death.
See A. A. Pottier, Oeuvres de Goujon (1844) ; Reginald Lister, Jean Goujon (London, 1903) .