François Girardon Biography
François Girardon, born in Troyes on 17 March 1628 and died on 1 September 1715, was a French sculptor at the court of Louis XIV. Initially, he was trained as a carpenter and wood carver. His talent caught the attention of Pierre Séguier, the Chancellor of Louis XIV, who was a great patron of the arts. From 1648 to 1650, Girardon was an apprentice in Rome, where he was introduced to the baroque sculpture of Bernini, but he oriented himself towards classicism and the models of ancient Roman sculpture.
Returning to France in 1650, he became a member of the group of artists led by Charles Le Brun, the king's official painter, and was commissioned to decorate the new royal park of the Castle of Versailles. Among his most important works we must mention the groups of: "Apollo served by the Nymphs", which symbolizes the Sun King, the "Saturn or Winter Basin" and, finally, "The Abduction of Proserpina", a statuary group characterized by the use of contorted figures and a particularly marked sense of movement, but balanced by the clarity and classical symmetry of the composition.
Girardon became a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1657, and in 1695 he was elected chancellor of the Royal Academy. He died in Paris on 14 September 1715.
