FRENCH SCULPTURE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Since the death of Michelangelo no school of sculpture in Europe has been more important than that of France. It is well known that French sculpture in the thirteenth century—combined, like most true sculpture, with architecture—was full of dignity and beauty. Some of the statues of that period have scarcely been equalled in the suc ceeding ages. In the two following centuries French sculpture was in the decline and then in a transition state, and bloomed into fresh beauty with such sculptors as Jean Gonjon, whose Diana reclining by a Stag (pl. 26, fig. 2) is one of the noblest plastic works of the Renaissance period. (See p. 83.) Other artists, such as Maitre Ponce, demonstrated the fact that the French possessed high talent for this art. Then came a de cline, distinguished here and there by a few sculptors of moderate ability, such as the two Coustons, who aided to keep alive the national feeling for sculpture.
Charles Antoine Coysevox, born in 1640 and died in 172o, served as a link between the effete art of France in the seventeenth century and the new school of plastic art in the eighteenth. He produced some fine portrait-busts.
Augustin Pajon, born in 1730 and died in 1809, was a sculptor of some merit who preceded Claude Michel Clodian, who was born in 1745 and died in 1814. Clodian was one of the first to inaugurate the new school. He modelled in terra-cotta with much spirit, but in a sensuous, sensa tional style opposed to the classic repose of antique art, although it is a prominent characteristic of French sculpture to the present day.
Jean Antoine Iloudon, who was born in 1741 and lived until 1828, is the founder of modern French sculpture, and ranks among the greatest artists since the Renaissance. Like David in painting, Houdon based his style on that of the Greeks. Yet such imitation was more effective in the plastic than in the pictorial art, and Houdon had a spark of genius that imparted originality to his works.
At Rome, in the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, is a statue of St. Bruno by this artist which is an impressive example of portraiture in marble. His statue of Voltaire (p1. 42, fig. 4) in the ThtSatre Fran sais is greatly admired, as are also his busts of Napoleon and Josephine. He excelled in the representation of female beauty. In America,
Houdon will long be gratefully remembered for his portrait of Washing ton—still the best executed of him—and for a bust of Lafayette at Rich mond. Iloudon made a very careful study of the anatomy of the human figure, and this has ever since been a distinguishing trait of French sculpture.
Franris Jost-ph Rosio, born at Monaco in 1769 and died in 1S45, a pupil of Pajou, belonged to the school of Houdon, being a votary of the antique. Antoine Denis Cliaudet, born in 1763 and died in ISro, adopted a similar style, and achieved celebrity in his time. Both executed many elegant works for public buildings and monuments, but neither produced any thing of marked originality or grandeur.
fan Rapist,' enjoyed at one time great renown; a prominent street in Paris still perpetuates his name. He was born in 1714 and died in 17S5. The style of Pigalle was the reverse of classic: he occupied a position resembling that of Roubilliae in England. His art was devoted chiefly to mortuary monuments, in which allegory is the chief element, told in a pictorial rather than in a sculpturesque manner. Such art is interesting for the technical difficulties overcome, but naturally falls short of what is termed high art, as it is not based on a correct understanding of the limitations and legitimate aims of art.
The masterpiece of Pigalle is the tomb of Marshal Saxe, at Stras burg. The soldier is boldly represented entering the tomb in full uniform; at the door of the sepulchre stands the skeleton Death; opposite stands Hercules, mourning; a genius attends with inverted torch, while the allegorical figure of France seeks to withhold the hero from the grasp of Death. Numerous accessories add to the richness of this elaborate group. It cannot be denied that the general effect is impressive; yet the intelligent critic must reserve his unqualified approbation for works of greater merit. It was with the distinct purpose of opposing such a school that Ilondon sought to revive classicism. While he failed of full success, his aim was noble. He appears not to have recognized that it is one thing to study classic art and literature sufficiently to appre hend their principles, and quite another to imitate the works of past ages under altogether different conditions.