Tour: Marble Sculpture from France
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Overview
The works in the East Sculpture Hall span some 250 years of French history, from before the birth of Louis XIV to the Second Empire. During those years, both artistic styles and the sources of patronage changed dramatically. Voltaire maintained that "sculpture reached perfection under Louis XIV." At Versailles alone, more than 36,000 laborers and 6,000 horses worked for almost fifteen years to transform the king's small hunting chateau into Europe's most magnificent and influential palace. Their efforts were unified by the artistic supervision of Charles Le Brun, whose grandiose classicism stamped the entire output of French art in the late 1600s. (continue)
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