Jean Goujon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Four Seasons (c.1547) (Musée Carnavalet, Paris)

Jean Goujon (Normandy? c.1510–Bologna 1565?), French sculptor and architect, is one of the major figures of the French Renaissance. His early life is little known; he may have traveled in Italy. He worked in Rouen, where he executed the monument to Louis de Brézé, seigneur d'Anet, before arriving in Paris, where he collaborated with the architect Pierre Lescot at the church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois about 1544. He became "sculptor to the king" (Henri II of France) in 1547. His most famous works are the sculptural decorations made in collaboration with Lescot for the western extension of the Louvre, in the 1550s. A fine representative of Mannerism in France, Goujon's figures are elongated, sensual and fluid; his drapery work reveals knowledge of Greek sculpture, though certainly not at first hand. He is also responsible for engravings for Jean Martin's 1547 translation of Vitruvius and for work on the Château of Ecouen, for the Montmorency family. In 1562, Goujon left France for religious reasons (he was a Huguenot).

The purity and gracefulness of his style were disseminated throughout France by engravings by artists of the School of Fontainebleau and had an influence in the decorative arts. His reputation was slightly eclipsed at the end of the century by more mannered tendencies, but was appreciated by French Classicism.

His most famous works include:

Cour carrée of the Louvre

Fountain of the Innocents (1547-1550) - Goujon sculpted the six nymphs that decorate this public fountain. The fountain is currently located - in a much truncated form - in the Les Halles section of Paris; original bas-reliefs are located at the Louvre
Caryatids (1550-1551) - for the musician's platform in the Louvre, these are highly reminiscent of the Erechtheum in Athens.
Allegories on the facade of the Louvre (1549-155) - these are found in the Cour carrée (or "square courtyard") of the Louvre
The Four Seasons (illustrations) made for the courtyard façade of the hôtel of Jacques de Ligeris, now housing the Musée Carnavalet, Paris.

To Goujon is usually attributed the engravings of the French version of Francesco Colonna's Songe de Poliphile (1546), based on the engravings of the original edition (which may be due to the studio of Mantegna).

His workshop is responsible for: