GIRARDON, FRANÇOIS. - French sculptor, b. at Troyes on 16 March 1628 and d. at Paris on 1 September 1715. His first works (a Virgin and a Louis XIII in the habit of the Order in the Church of the Holy Spirit) date to about 1645. From 1648 to 1650 he was in Rome with the engraver Ph. Thomassin; but in 1650 he is again at Troyes and in 1651 in Paris.
From this period are the statues of St. Francis and St. Anthony for the church of the Capucins-St-Honoré and some medallions for the Hôtel de la Ville: all works, like those for the Louvre, 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 the head of a group of artists and sculptors, he began to populate the famous park of Versailles with fountains, statues, and vases. Among the other works, mention should be made of the decoration of the Porte St-Denis (1672); the mausoleum of the princesse 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 at Troyes (1691); the tomb of Louvois at the Capucins (in collaboration with Desjardin, 1696); as well as the sculptures for the Dôme des Invalides 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, among them that of the Place Vendôme (1683-99), pulled down during the Revolution. For his tomb he sculpted a Calvary (1705-1709), which is today in the church of St. Margaret in the Faubourg St-Antoine in Paris; other religious works are in the Museum of Troyes.
G. was perhaps harmed by having often to work in collaboration or under the direction of others, but his work, which could not fail to be influenced in some manner also by Bernini, nevertheless stands out among the most important expressions of French sculpture of his time.
Bibliography4 works
Gilberto Ronci