A Monumental Exhibit of French Bronzes at the Met

– By Arthur Stampleman –

“Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution”, a special exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is one for the ages. There hasn’t been a major exhibit of French bronzes for 40 years and you won’t want to miss this one. Ten years in the making, the exhibit was organized by the Louvre, where it first opened, the Met, and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where it goes next.

Beginning in the 16th century, the French, inspired by the Renaissance, became masters in bronze. The 120 statuettes, portrait busts, and life-size monuments on display, dating from 1560 to 1790, give the viewer a sense of the larger-than-life characters of rulers from Henry IV to Louis XIV. Among the artists represented are Germain Pilon, Barthélemy Prieur, Michel Anguier, François Girardon, Antoine Coysevox, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, and Jean-Antoine Houdon.

The highlights are too numerous to list, but here are a few: a tomb effigy by Jean Goujon in “The Renaissance”; two almost life-sized nudes by Prieur for a tomb, reminiscent of the figures on the Michelangelo Medici tomb in “Funerary Art”; and from “The Period of Louis XIV”, statuettes by Anguier displaying rigorous analysis of anatomy, character and subject.

Among the “Monuments to Louis XIV”, is the king’s huge left foot, which is all that remains from a grand equestrian sculpture by Girardon, destroyed during the French Revolution. Dramatic, detailed scenes from classical mythology can be found in “Theatrical Baroque Groups”. Several works by Houdon are in the gallery devoted to the “Age of Enlightenment”. Winter is a wonderful representation of the female form, and his bust of Rousseau captures the philosopher perfectly.

Many works were made for the French crown but were melted down during political upheavals. We are lucky to have what was untouched or reductions of many that were destroyed.

Most of these works were produced using the “lost-wax” process. In that technique, a wax model is encased in a heat-resistant mold and molten bronze is poured into the mold through channels displacing the wax and assuming the general form of the final composition. When the mold and metal are cool, the channels are cut off and the surface finished. Of particular interest is an unfinished early 18th century statuette of Louis XIV on horseback, with the channels into the mold remaining uncut and the pouring cup for the molten bronze still in place. It provides better insight into the process than any diagram could.

“Cast in Bronze” is in the Met’s Special Exhibition Galleries until May 24. The museum is closed most Mondays and open Sunday through Thursday from 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. and until 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.