Slodtz

Slodtz. Family of French artists. The head of the family was Sébastien (1655–1726), a sculptor and designer, who was Flemish by birth. He had three sculptor sons: Sébastien-Antoine (1695–1754), Paul-Ambroise (1702–58), and René-Michel called Michel-Ange (1705–64). All four of them worked for the Menus Plaisirs (the office that designed costumes, festivities, etc. for the court), as did another son of Sébastien, the painter Dominique Slodtz (1711–64); a fifth brother, Jean-Baptiste (1699–1759), was also a painter. Michel-Ange was the only member of the family to attain great distinction. From 1728 to 1747 he lived in Rome, where his admiration for Michelangelo won him his nickname. His best-known work is the marble St Bruno (1744, St Peter's, Rome), which shows the nervous sensitivity of his style. In France he made several major tombs, notably that of Languet de Gergy (completed 1753, St Sulpice, Paris), which shows the influence of Bernini in its Baroque rhetoric and use of different coloured marbles. Houdon was Slodtz's most important pupil.