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MEDIEVAL SCULPTURE
For details of the plastic arts during
the Middle Ages, see these resources:
Medieval Sculpture (c.400-1000)
From Late Antiquity to Romanesque
Romanesque Sculpture (1000-1200)
Rounded-arch Architecture/Sculpture
Gothic Sculpture (1150-1280)
Cathedral Art, Ile de France.
Renaissance Sculptors
From Italy, France & Spain.
BEST SCULPTORS
For a list of the world's most
talented 3-D artists, see:
Greatest Sculptors.
SCULPTING MEDIA
For different types of carving,
and modelling, see:
Stone Sculpture
From igneous, sedimentary,
and metamorphic rocks.
Marble Sculpture
Pentelic, Carrara, Parian marbles.
Wood Carving
Chip carving, relief carving of
softwoods and hardwoods.
Bronze Sculpture
Lost-wax casting method,
sandcasting, centrifugal casting.
BEST WORKS OF SCULPTURE
For a list of the world's top 100
3-D artworks, by the best sculptors
in the history of art, see:
Greatest Sculptures Ever.
EVOLUTION OF SCULPTURE
For details of the origins and
development of the plastic arts
see: History of Sculpture.
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Versailles & Portraits
By the late 1670s Coysevox was employed at Versailles, tasked with other
sculptors to create fountains and statues for the gardens. He also became
renowned for his decoration of the Galerie des Glaces, Salon
de la Guerre and Escalier des Ambassadeurs. Although Coysevox
never travelled to Italy, his personal style was more Italian Baroque
- animated and lively - after the great Bernini. He created an exquisite
bronze bust Louis XIV (c.1686, Wallace Collection) which shows
a serious, almost weary king, who is somewhat enlivened by his decadent
dress. Coysevox's later works show a marked tendency towards Rococo
art, a style which dominated arts in the first half of the 18th century.
An example of this can be seen in his statue of Duchesse de Bourgogne
as Diana (1710, Musee du Chateau, Versailles). The Duchess is shown
as a light-hearted Goddess of the hunt - her features and dress are finely
etched, her pose animated.
Coysevox's other portrait busts included:
Antoine Coypel (Louvre), Marie Serre (1706); bronze of the Grand
Conde (1688, Louvre); and Robert de Cotte (1707, Bibliotheque
Ste Genevieve, Paris).
Tombs
There are over 200 sculptures, statues,
busts, reliefs and tombs remaining from Coysevox. His most important tomb
was for that of Cardinal Mazarin (1692, Louvre). Contrary to the
Italian Baroque style, Coysevox created the main figures in marble and
the lower sitting figures in bronze. The cardinal's gesture is dramatic,
and vibrant. The long flow of his cloak flows behind him in dramatic twists.
Coysevox also sculpted the Tomb of Colbert (1685-87), an exquisite
marble funeral monument still housed at Saint-Eustache, Paris.
Coysevox died in 1720 in Paris. He left
behind a busy and industrious workshop. Among his pupils were the sculptors
Nicolas Coustou (1658-1733) and Guillaume Coustou (1677-1746), with whom
he collaborated on a Lamentation Group with Kings Louis XIII and Louis
XIV (1715) for the high altar of Notre-Dame, Paris.
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