Girardon, François

Girardon, François (b Troyes, 10 Mar. 1628; d Paris, 1 Sept. 1715). French sculptor. He ranked with Coysevox as the outstanding sculptor of Louis XIV's reign, but his style was more restrained and classical, embodying the ideas of the Académie Royale (see academy). Much of his work was done for Versailles, where he collaborated with Le Brun; it includes a marble group of Apollo Tended by the Nymphs (1666–75) that is regarded as one of the most purely classical works of French 17th-century sculpture. (The group was originally in a grotto room, but is now in the palace gardens.) His other work includes the marble monument to Cardinal Richelieu (1675–94) in the church of the Sorbonne, Paris. He also made a bronze equestrian statue of Louis XIV (1683–92) for the Place Vendôme in Paris, but this was destroyed during the French Revolution. Girardon died on the same day as Louis XIV.