The Road Goes Ever On: 17th-19th Century French Sculpture At The Louvre

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

17th-19th Century French Sculpture At The Louvre

Our normal habit at the great museums is to look at the paintings. We do look at sculptures, especially the really great ones, but, mostly, it's the paintings. We bring more understanding to the paintings and rather less to the sculptures. I'm sure I toured the National Gallery of Art (London) a dozen times before it occurred to me there were no sculptures. So on May 17th, we began to remedy this defect, vowing to stick to the sculpture halls, starting with French sculpture from the 17th century. We got through several halls and rooms in the Richeliu, then tired, and resolved to come back for more at a later date. At least the sculpture halls are not as crowded as the painting galleries. Quite a few people were sleeping peacefully on the benches until the cruel guards woke them. The guards are very woke. Alas, I was unable to get any pix to document all this wokeness. Next time. Anyhow, we tried.

Pierre Puget, Alexander and Diogenes, Carrara marble,
1671-1689; a relief depicting the moment, according to
Plutarch, when the philosopher says to the conqueror
"You're blocking my sun"; intended for Versailles; an
odd compliment to Louis XIV

Claude Bertin, Cleopatra Dying, 1697; don't play
with snakes

Michel Monier, Why Are Pedicures So Expensive in Paris?, 1672

Desjardins, Four Captives, 1679-1685, originally gilded; celebrating
Louis XIV's victories over Spain, the Dutch Republic, Brandenburg,
and the Holy Roman Empire; huge, larger than life

Puget, Milo of Croton, 1671-1682; "don't bite my ass!"

Antoine Coysevox, Crouching Venus [riding a tortoise],

1686; "yeah, he's slow, but he gets me where I want to go"

Jean Baptiste Lemoyne, Not Until You've Showered, 1760

Jean-Baptiste Theodin, Is Anyone Else
Cold In Here?", 1730

Antoine Coysevox, Not Me, 1683

Mezzanine floor view of the Four Captives; really impressive

Francois Rude, Jeanne D'Arc, Listening to Her Voices, 1852:
"go home...clean the guns...raise an army..."

Hippolyte Maindron, Velleda, 1871: "not so sure about that girl"

Francois Rude, Napoleon Awakening to Immortality, 1846; note,
eagle attribute is not awakening

Francois Frederic Lemot, Napoleon in Triumph, 1808;
one of many, many statues of Napoleon...

Edme Bouchardon, Full Body Tan, 1726

Rene Ssance, No, no, no...you put your left foot in/
you take your left foot out, 1727

Louis Petitot, Always Wear High Ankle Boots in the Woods,
1741; maybe some clothes too

Seriously impressive: Antoine-Denis Chaudet and Louis-
Jean-Baptiste Cheret, Peace, 1803, silver, gold, bronze;
huge, larger than life; placed in Napoleon's apartments by
the Senate; peace didn't last long...

Even more impressive...Francesco Belloni, Minerva, Peace, and Abundance,
1810, gigantic mosaic; Napoleon apparently didn't get the memo

Now in the Hall of Great Men (still looking for the
Great Women): Claude Michel aka Clodion, Montesquieu,
1783; the great American experiment in Democracy, now
paused, owes much to this guy, and Locke, and Voltaire, et al.