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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.
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The Marly Horses
Also employed by French King Louis XIV,
Guillaume Coustou's greatest works are the two marble horses with grooms
("The Marly Horses"). Reinterpreting the theme of the colossal
Horse Tamers in the Piazza Quirinale in Rome, each of these classic
Baroque sculptures consists of a rider trying to tame a wild horse, allowing
us to marvel at Coustou's portrayal of spirited impetuosity and tangible
realism. Designed initially for the Terrace de l'Abreuvoir (horse trough)
at the King's chateau at Marly, to replace Coysevox's Mercury and
Fame sculptures, which had been relocated to the Tuileries Gardens
in 1719, these beautiful equestrian works were transferred in 1794 to
the Place de la Concorde at the entrance to the Champs Elysees, where
they have stood ever since, although they have been replaced by copies
while the originals have been moved to the Louvre.
Other Sculptures by Guillaume Coustou
Other works by Coustou include the colossal
groups The Ocean and The Mediterranean, for the park at
Marly; also for Marly, Daphne chased by Apollo (1714, Louvre),
a collaboration with his brother Nicolas; the bronze sculpture Rhone,
which formed part of the statue of King Louis XIV at Lyons; and in Paris,
the bas-relief depicting Louis XIV mounted and accompanied by Justice
and Prudence and the bronze figures of Mars and Minerva
(1733-34), at the entrance of the Hotel des Invalides.
Other notable figurative sculptures by
Guillaume Coustou include: the running figure of Hippomenes, positioned
in the middle of one of the carp pools at Marly; a pair of life-size marble
sculptures of King Louis XV as Jupiter and Marie Leszczynska
as Juno for the chateau de Petit-Bourg, next to Versailles; a bronze
Diana and a Hind, for the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, and a marble
Bust of Samuel Bernard (1735, Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Guillaume Coustou I was survived by two
sons, both of whom were artists. Guillaume Coustou II (1716-1777)
became a sculptor and was noted for works like the marble Apotheosis
of St Francis Xavier (1743, Bordeaux, Church of St Paul), Apollo
(1753, château de Bellevue), Mars and Venus (1769, Schloss
Sanssouci, Potsdam) and others. The younger Charles Pierre Coustou
(1721-97) was active as an architect.
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