French
XVIIth Century
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Nicolas Coustou was one of the leading sculptors of the late reign of Louis XIV. Born in Lyon into a family of woodcarvers, he received his earliest training from his father, François Coustou, before moving to Paris to enter the workshop of his maternal uncle, Antoine Coysevox, one of the foremost sculptors of the French court. This close relationship placed him at the heart of the artistic programmes developed for the monarchy. |
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After winning the Prix de Rome in 1682, Coustou studied at the French Academy in Rome from 1683 to 1686. His study of antiquity, reflected in works such as his copies of the Borghese Gladiator and Commodus as Hercules, gave his sculpture a monumental clarity and classical discipline that remained central to his mature style.
On his return to France, Coustou was received into the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1693. He subsequently became professor, rector and, in the year of his death, chancellor of the institution. His distinguished academic career paralleled his rise as a sculptor employed on the most prestigious royal and religious projects of his time.
Working both independently and alongside Coysevox and his younger brother Guillaume Coustou, he contributed to the decoration of Versailles, the Hôtel des Invalides and the royal estate of Marly. His reputation also brought him important aristocratic commissions, including works for Henri-Jules de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, for the gardens of the Château de Chantilly. His sculptures combine the grandeur of the official style of Louis XIV with increasingly natural poses, animated draperies and a more graceful treatment of the human figure.
Coustou was equally accomplished in religious and commemorative sculpture. Among his most important works are the monumental Descent from the Cross for Notre-Dame de Paris, completed in 1725 as part of the ensemble known as the Vow of Louis XIII, and the relief of the Passage of the Rhine, celebrating one of the military triumphs of Louis XIV.
Balancing classical restraint with Baroque movement and expressive vitality, Nicolas Coustou played an important role in the evolution of French sculpture from the monumental court style of the seventeenth century towards the greater freedom and elegance of the early eighteenth century.