43 - After JEAN-BAPTISTE PIGALLE (Paris, 1714-1785).

After JEAN-BAPTISTE PIGALLE (Paris, 1714-1785). "Mercury". Patinated bronze (double patinated) and marble base. Measurements: 62 x 36 x 30 cm (total). This work is modeled after Jean-Baptiste Pigalle's sculpture "Mercury putting on his wings" of 1740, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Jean-Baptiste Pigalle was one of the most prominent French sculptors of the 18th century and a key figure in the transition between late Baroque and Neoclassicism. Born in Paris on January 26, 1714, he grew up in a family of artisans; his father was a carpenter, an environment that facilitated his first contact with materials and manual trades. At an early age he entered the workshop of Robert Le Lorrain, master sculptor of the French Baroque style, where he developed the basics of modeling and carving. After his initial training, Pigalle entered the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, although he failed to obtain the prestigious Prix de Rome, the absence of which marked the beginning of a more autonomous professional path. Even so, he traveled to Rome on his own in 1734, with great economic difficulties, but with a determination that impressed his contemporaries. His stay in Italy, where he studied classical sculptures and Renaissance art, was decisive for the evolution of his style. On his return to France in 1739, he presented the work that would make him a member of the Academy: "Mercury tying his sandals" (1744), a sculpture that revealed a synthesis of baroque dynamism and classical sobriety. In the following decade he achieved recognition with one of his masterpieces, "Venus Untying Her Sandals" (1750), now in the Louvre Museum. These two figures, conceived as a pair, consolidated his fame as one of the most refined sculptors of his generation. Pigalle enjoyed the protection of influential personalities, among them Madame de Pompadour, a favorite of Louis XV. Thanks to this support he received important commissions, such as the famous funerary monument of Marshal Maurice de Saxe for the church of Saint-Thomas in Strasbourg, a monumental composition in which he combined Baroque theater, complex allegories and a renewed sense of pathos. Later he would also create the monument to the Dauphin Louis of France and other sculptures for the Crown, consolidating his prestige at court. From 1760 his style evolved towards a greater classicism, in accordance with the intellectual trends of the Enlightenment. He was appointed professor at the Academy and later elected rector, roles from which he influenced the new generations of French sculptors. Jean-Baptiste Pigalle died in Paris on August 20, 1785, recognized as one of the masters of French sculpture of the 18th century. His work, marked by the combination of Rococo grace, study of the human body and renewal of the classical ideal, represents one of the high points of sculptural art prior to the French Revolution.