GIRARDON, FRANÇOIS. — French sculptor, born in Troyes on 16 March 1628 and died in Paris on 1 September 1715. His first works (a Virgin and a Louis XIII in the habit of the Order of the Holy Spirit) date from around 1645. From 1648 to 1650 he was in Rome with the engraver Ph. Thomassin; but in 1650 he was again in Troyes and in 1651 in Paris.
The statues of St Francis and St Anthony for the church of the Capucins-St-Honoré and several medallions for the Hôtel de la Ville belong to this period: all these works, like those for the Louvre, were carried out in collaboration with other artists. With N. Le Gendre, under the direction of Le Brun, he worked on the sculptures of the château of Vaux, and in 1666, as head of a group of artists and sculptors, he began to fill the famous park of Versailles with fountains, statues, and vases. Among his other works, mention should be made of the decoration of the Porte St-Denis (1672); the mausoleum of the princess de Conti (1672–75); the tomb of Richelieu at the Sorbonne (1675–94); the decoration of the high altar of the church of St John in Troyes (1691); the tomb of Louvois at the Capucins (in collaboration with Desjardin, 1696); as well as the sculptures for the Dôme des Invalids and for the Bâtiments du Roi. He was also superintendent of the decoration of the ships of the arsenal of Toulon and erected various equestrian statues, including that of the Place Vendôme (1683–99), which was demolished during the Revolution. For his tomb he sculpted a Calvary (1705–1709), now in the church of St Margaret in the Faubourg St-Antoine in Paris; other religious works are in the Museum of Troyes.
G. may perhaps have suffered from having to work frequently in collaboration or under the direction of others, but his work, which could not fail also to reflect in some manner the influence of Bernini, nevertheless ranks among the most important expressions of French sculpture of his time.