BOUCHARDON, Edme

Bouchardon carved several remarkable portrait busts. That of Philipp Stosch was the earliest and in some ways the most remarkable. It was completed in 1727 and is consciously revolutionary in its cold, pure classicism.40 Not only the portrait of an antiquarian, albeit a shady one and a spy, it is deliberately antique in concept and execution, it is completely neo-classical.

When in 1730 a Corsini pope was elected as Clement XII, the Bouchardon’s friendship of the art-loving papal nephew Cardinal Neri Corsini brought Bouchardon the important commission for a bust of the new pope. In this bust Bouchardon aims at the natural and actual, with virtuoso treatment of the cape, the cap, and the fur trimmings, all enhancing the dignified portrait likeness itself. Attention has been paid particularly to the sitter’s eyes, the pupils being only lightly incised: perhaps to suggest the pale colour of them (they were blue) and also the milky gaze of incipient blindness.

The royal project for a monument of Cardinal Fleury was not realized. Judging from the surviving maquettes, it seems likely that he would there have achieved an indisputable masterpiece. The death of the aged minister in 1743 was quickly followed by the king’s expressed desire to build a worthy tomb for him. Among the competitors Bouchardon, Lemoyne, and Adam stood out; it was Bouchardon who received the commission, but for reasons never made explicit he did not execute the tomb. When it was finally carved by Lemoyne, the cardinal’s family — not the king - paid.

Bouchardon designed four models for the monument, the picture shows the second maquette representing Fleury expiring in the arms of Religion.

The royal project for a monument of Cardinal Fleury was not realized. Judging from the surviving maquettes, it seems likely that he would there have achieved an indisputable masterpiece. The death of the aged minister in 1743 was quickly followed by the king’s expressed desire to build a worthy tomb for him. Among the competitors Bouchardon, Lemoyne, and Adam stood out; it was Bouchardon who received the commission, but for reasons never made explicit he did not execute the tomb. When it was finally carved by Lemoyne, the cardinal’s family — not the king - paid.

Bouchardon designed four models for the monument, the picture shows the second maquette representing Fleury expiring in the arms of Religion.

Bouchardon, during his nine years in Rome, paid much closer attention to the statues of antiquity than to Baroque ones. Recalled to Paris in 1732, he protested unceasingly, both in words and by example, against the baroquism of the sculpture of his period, and produced works which harked back to those of Girardon yet appear Classical before their time.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 4 minutes):

Francesco Gasparini: The Meddlesome Cupid, aria

Bouchardon’s style falls within the trend of the classical reaction against Rococo excesses. The Roman-style equestrian statue of Louis XV, commissioned by the City of Paris in 1748 for the Place Louis XV, was preceded by a number of preparatory drawings. Cast in 1758 and inaugurated in 1763 after the death of the sculptor, it was destroyed in the Revolution in 1792. It is known to us, however, through engravings and such small bronze models as one in the Louvre, made by Louis Vass�. The original pedestal was completed by Pigalle.

The first contract for the Rue de Grenelle fountain was signed between the city of Paris and Bouchardon on 6 March 1739. And in that year Bouchardon exhibited at the Salon his terracotta first model for the Cupid.

In the final fountain there is a startling contrast between the white marble figures of Paris, with the reclining Seine and Marne, and the honey-coloured stone against which they are set. Only the central group is in marble, so that the statues of the Seasons tend to merge into their niches, and even the famous bas-reliefs below play only a minor part in the scheme as a decorative whole.

When the new Place Louis XV was planned in Paris, Bouchardon was given the responsibility for the equestrian statue that the aldermen of Paris had commissioned in 1748. Few monumental works were executed with so much care - hundreds of accomplished drawings exist in the Louvre.