SLODTZ, Paul-Ambroise - b. 1702 Paris, d. 1758 Paris

French sculptor, son of Sébastien Slodtz (1655-1726). He frequently collaborated with his elder brother Sébastien-Antoine (1694-1754), whom he succeeded in the office of Dessinateur de la Chambre et du Cabinet du Roi in 1754. In 1743 he was received as a member of the Académie Royale with a marble statue of the Fall of Icarus (Louvre, Paris), a work of considerable distinction in conception and execution. However, his work, apart from that on which he collaborated with Sébastien-Antoine, is not extensive. It included a marble statue of Joan of Arc as Pallas Athena (1753-5; destroyed), made for the city of Rouen, where he was a member of the Académie. His charming bas-relief Angels in the graceful Communion Chapel at Saint-Merry, Paris are effective and completely uniform in style - although separated in execution by more than a decade. In the porch at Saint-Sulpice the bas-reliefs are more serious and less purely charming.

The decorative emphasis of Paul-Ambroise’s work ultimately robs it of much individuality or robustness; he might indeed feel some jealousy of his younger brother, René-Michel.