If you had the ability and years of training to take a block of wood or stone and turn it into a sublime piece of art, you too could have been employed by the church, the royal court or by a monied patron. Talented sculptors were usually in high demand and one could count on regular and continuing employment if one had the skill and techniques required. Here are many who did.
an English painter, well known for his paintings of animals—particularly horses, dogs and stags. However, his best known works are the lion sculptures in Trafalgar Square.
a French sculptor whose output was largely absorbed by the decoration of the château and the gardens of Versailles, often working to designs provided by Charles Le Brun (like for L'Eau (the Water)) and collaborating with other sculptors of the Bâtiments du Roi. His son, Pierre Le Gros the Younger worked almost entirely in Rome.
a French sculptor, active almost exclusively in Baroque Rome. Nowadays, his name is commonly written Legros, while he himself always signed as Le Gros; he is frequently referred to either as 'the Younger' or 'Pierre II' to distinguish him from his father, Pierre Le Gros the Elder, who was also a sculptor. The "ardent drama" of his work and its Italian locati...
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a French sculptor, active almost exclusively in Baroque Rome. Nowadays, his name is commonly written Legros, while he himself always signed as Le Gros; he is frequently referred to either as 'the Younger' or 'Pierre II' to distinguish him from his father, Pierre Le Gros the Elder, who was also a sculptor. The "ardent drama" of his work and its Italian location make him more an Italian, than a French, sculptor. Despite being virtually unknown to the general public today, he was the pre-eminent sculptor in Rome for nearly two decades, until he was finally superseded at the end of his life by the more classicizing Camillo Rusconi.
an English painter and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subject matter. Leighton was bearer of the shortest-lived peerage in history; after only one day his hereditary peerage ended with his death. Leighton remained a bachelor and rumours of his having an illegitimate child with one of his models in addition to the supposition...
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an English painter and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subject matter. Leighton was bearer of the shortest-lived peerage in history; after only one day his hereditary peerage ended with his death. Leighton remained a bachelor and rumours of his having an illegitimate child with one of his models in addition to the supposition that Leighton may have been homosexual continue to be debated today.
a French sculptor and among the greatest French portraitists. Lemoyne's more important works have for the most part been destroyed or have disappeared. In his portrait busts we have a remarkable series of important portraits, of which those of women are perhaps the best.
an Italian polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of paleontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest pain...
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an Italian polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of paleontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter and tank, his genius epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal.
an Italian sculptor of international outlook who travelled in Italy, Germany, Austria, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Leoni is regarded as the finest of the Cinquecento medallists. He made his reputation in commissions he received from the Habsburg monarchs. His usual medium was bronze, although he also worked in marble and alabaster, carved gemstones an...
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an Italian sculptor of international outlook who travelled in Italy, Germany, Austria, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Leoni is regarded as the finest of the Cinquecento medallists. He made his reputation in commissions he received from the Habsburg monarchs. His usual medium was bronze, although he also worked in marble and alabaster, carved gemstones and probably left some finished work in wax (in which many of his sculptures were modelled), as well as designing coins. He mainly produced portraits, and was repeatedly used by the Spanish, and also the Austrian, Habsburgs.
Italian late Renaissance sculptor and medalist who, like his father, Leone, was known for his expressive sculpture portraits. In 1556 Pompeo went to Spain to help his father. He produced a large-scale sculpture for the wedding of King Philip II and Anna of Austria in 1570. Also in that year, under the patronage of Philip II, he produced his most famous work,...
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Italian late Renaissance sculptor and medalist who, like his father, Leone, was known for his expressive sculpture portraits. In 1556 Pompeo went to Spain to help his father. He produced a large-scale sculpture for the wedding of King Philip II and Anna of Austria in 1570. Also in that year, under the patronage of Philip II, he produced his most famous work, the bronze effigy portraits of the Holy Roman emperors Charles V and Philip II and their families, which now stand on either side of the main altar of the church of the monastic palace at El Escorial.
a Venetian sculptor, bronze founder and architect. Leopardi worked between 1503 and 1505 on the chapel of Cardinal Zeno at St. Mark's, which was finished by 1515 by Antonio Lombardo and Tullio Lombardo. In 1505 he designed and cast the bronze bases, decorated in high relief, for the three great mast-like flagpoles in the Piazza San Marco. His model for the r...
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a Venetian sculptor, bronze founder and architect. Leopardi worked between 1503 and 1505 on the chapel of Cardinal Zeno at St. Mark's, which was finished by 1515 by Antonio Lombardo and Tullio Lombardo. In 1505 he designed and cast the bronze bases, decorated in high relief, for the three great mast-like flagpoles in the Piazza San Marco. His model for the rebuilding of the Scuola Vecchia della Misericordia in Venice was provisionally accepted by the Scuola in 1507. Later, he was engaged on the new church of Santa Giustina in Padua.
a French sculptor in a Parisian family that included four generations of court artists, who in 1637 inherited the court position caring for the Antiquities and Marbles of the King, which had become hereditary in his family. He trained in the atelier of Simon Vouet, recently returned from Rome; there he met the sculptor Jacques Sarazin.
an Italian Mannerist sculptor active in Florence and Pisa. Born 1534 in Settignano, Tuscany, close to Florence. He was born the son of Gino Lorenzi, of a family of renowned stone-carvers (scalpellini), and had a brother Antonia, at least 10 years his senior. Among his best known works are the Annunciation in Santa Maria della Spina, Pisa (1561), the Fountain...
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an Italian Mannerist sculptor active in Florence and Pisa. Born 1534 in Settignano, Tuscany, close to Florence. He was born the son of Gino Lorenzi, of a family of renowned stone-carvers (scalpellini), and had a brother Antonia, at least 10 years his senior. Among his best known works are the Annunciation in Santa Maria della Spina, Pisa (1561), the Fountain of Neptune 1565–1568) placed in the Boboli Gardens, Florence, and the bronze angel holding a candelabra which he executed for the Duomo di Pisa.
an English sculptor known for his funerary monuments and a variety of portrait sculpture. He also produced ideal classical male and female figures. Lough produced many ideal works on classical, historical and literary themes, including a series of marble statues of Shakespearean subjects for his chief patron Matthew, 4th Baronet Ridley.
an Italian sculptor. Ludovisi participated in several prominent sculptural projects of his day, such as the Trevi Fountain, the ongoing sculptural works of St Peter’s, and the façade of St John Lateran. He was one of six Italian sculptors allotted subsidiary tasks to the French masters Pierre Le Gros and Jean-Baptiste Théodon working on the Chapel of St ...
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an Italian sculptor. Ludovisi participated in several prominent sculptural projects of his day, such as the Trevi Fountain, the ongoing sculptural works of St Peter’s, and the façade of St John Lateran. He was one of six Italian sculptors allotted subsidiary tasks to the French masters Pierre Le Gros and Jean-Baptiste Théodon working on the Chapel of St Ignatius in Il Gesù. He was also one of the sculptors commissioned by King João V of Portugal to supply sculpture to his palatial complex at Mafra.
