| After a hard early life, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle achieved widespread recognition and became one of the greatest sculptors of the 18th century. His style of sculpture which incorporates elements of Baroque sculpture as well as conventional Neoclassical art, closely reflected the shifts in taste of the Ancien Regime under Louis XV (reigned 1715-74), while he also cultivated the friendship of the Philosophers and tried to reflect their ideas in sculptural form. Pigalle made his reputation with his acclaimed marble sculpture of Mercury (1741-2, Louvre; the terracotta model is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY), which was shown at the French Academy of Fine Arts in 1744. After this, his rise was swift: in 1752 he was made Professor of Sculpture at the Academy, and received a number of royal commissions. |
