Jean-Baptiste Pigalle

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(b Paris, 26 Jan 1714; d Paris, 21 Aug 1785). French sculptor. He was, along with Etienne-Maurice Falconet and Augustin Pajou, one of the most eminent sculptors in mid-18th-century France. His best-known work is the statue of Mercury Attaching his Winged Sandals, and he produced many other works on mythological themes. His monument to Maurice, Mar?chal de Saxe (marble and bronze; Strasbourg, St Thomas) is one of the most spectacular mausolea of its century. Although he was not a prolific portrait sculptor, his busts are notable for their naturalness and delicacy of technique.

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Pigalle, Jean-Baptiste (1714-85). The greatest and most successful French sculptor of the 18th c. Employed by Madame de Pompadour and the crown, Pigalle was one of the first to explore dramatic forms of naturalism in monumental commissions. His most famous works are the Tomb of the Maréchal de Saxe (1753-76), showing the young hero striding confidently to his death, and the shocking, life-size, gaunt nude of Voltaire (1776).

[Patsy Campbell]

Statue of Jean-Baptiste Pigalle on the Hôtel de Ville of Paris

Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (January 26, 1714 – August 20, 1785^[1]) was a French sculptor.

He was born in Paris, the seventh child of a carpenter. Although he failed to obtain the Grand Prix, after a severe struggle he entered the Académie Royale and became one of the most popular sculptors of his day.

His earlier work, such as Child with Cage (model at Sèvres) and Mercury Fastening his Sandals (Berlin, and lead cast in Louvre), is less commonplace than that of his more mature years, but his nude statue of Voltaire, dated 1776 (initially in the Institut de France, purchased by the Louvre in 1962), and his tombs of Comte d'Harcourt (c. 1764) (Notre Dame de Paris) and of Marshal Saxe, completed in 1777 (Saint-Thomas Lutheran church, Strasbourg), are good examples of French sculpture in the 18th century.

His name is most commonly known because of the Pigalle red-light district in Paris, located around the square of the same name.

References

1. ^ Barton, Eleanor Dodge Barton (1976). "Pigalle, Jean Baptiste". in William D. Halsey. Collier's Encyclopedia. 19. New York: Macmillan Educational Corporation. p. 43. 

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

• Media related to Jean-Baptiste Pigalle at Wikimedia Commons
• Virtual Gallery

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