The sculpture of the day that I propose to you today is the portrait carved in marble of Jean de la Fontaine, created by the French sculptor Pierre Julien to pay homage to the famous writer.
Born in 1621, La Fontaine lived during the reign of King Louis XIV. That was a period of great cultural and artistic flowering in France. He didn’t always have an easy life and ran into significant financial difficulties.
His name became famous above all for his fairy tales that have become a cornerstone of French literaturein which the protagonists were animals.
Wit and satire they were never missing from his stories, often created to impart moral teachings and teachings to adults and children.
The work was commissioned from Pierre Julien in 1781 to enrich the series of sculptures of the Great Men of France commissioned by the Count of Angivillerat the time general manager of the King’s Buildings.
The sculpture was presented to the public for the first time at the Paris Salon of 1785 and from 1971 it was made official within the Louvre collections.
Julien created a very precise and similar portrait of the writer, paying extreme attention and care to every detail.
Observe carefully with with what care the sculptor even created the stitches of the sewing of the dressthe fox’s fleece as well as the texture of the covers of the books present in the work.
The expression halfway between dreamy and melancholy it was precisely the one that best characterized the soul of the narrator who still today continues to enthuse crowds of readers of all ages about his tales.
The thing that fascinates me most about this sculpture are the obvious references to the fairy tales written by La Fontaine.
On the plinth, from left to right, you can appreciate a series of bas-reliefs that evoke some of the writer’s most famous stories: from the frog that would like to be as big as an ox to the wolf with the stork, from the monkey and the dolphin to the two bulls with the frog passing through the terracotta vase and the iron vase and the crow and the fox.
There is also no lack of more direct references to fairy tales with the various engravings such as the one found on the sheet held in the poet’s hands “The fox and the grapes / Certain Gascon fox”.
For the moment, your always Michelangelo Buonarroti greets you and will meet you in the next posts and on social media.
The sculpture of the day that I propose to you today is the portrait carved in marble of Jean de la Fontaine, created by the French sculptor Pierre Julien to pay homage to the famous writer.
Born in 1621, La Fontaine lived during the reign of King Louis XIV. That was a period of great cultural and artistic flowering in France. He did not always have an easy life and ran into significant financial difficulties.
His name became famous above all for his fables which became a cornerstone of French literature, in which the protagonists were animals. Wit and satire were never lacking in his stories, often created to impart moral lessons and teachings to adults and children.
The work was commissioned to Pierre Julien in 1781 to enrich the series of sculptures of the Great Men of France commissioned by the Count of Angiviller, at the time general director of the King’s Buildings.
The sculpture was presented to the public for the first time at the Paris Salon of 1785 and in 1971 it was made official within the Louvre collections.
Julien created a very precise and similar portrait of the writer, paying extreme attention and care to every detail. The expression halfway between the dreamy and the melancholic was precisely the one that best characterized the soul of the narrator who still today continues to enthuse crowds of readers of all ages about his fairy tales of him.
The thing that fascinates me most about this sculpture are the obvious references to the fairy tales written by La Fontaine. On the plinth, from left to right, you can appreciate a series of low-reliefs that evoke some of the writer’s most famous stories: from the frog who would like to be as big as an ox to the wolf with the stork, from the monkey and the dolphin to the two bulls with the frog passing the ril the clay pot and the iron pot and the crow and the fox.
There is also no shortage of more direct references to fairy tales with the various engravings such as the one found on the sheet held in the hands of the poet “The fox and the grapes / Certain Gascon fox”.
For the moment, your always Michelangelo Buonarroti greets you and will meet you in the next posts and on social media.
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The Casa Buonarroti Crucifix exhibited among my drawings at the British Museum
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