1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Slodtz, René Michel

SLODTZ, RENÉ MICHEL or MICHEL ANGE (1705–1764), French sculptor, was born at Paris. He passed seventeen years at Rome, where he was chosen to execute a statue of St Bruno, one of the best modern works of the class in St Peter’s. He was also the sculptor of the tomb of Marquis Capponi in St John of the Florentines. Other works of his are to be seen at the church of St Louis of France and at Santa Maria della Scala. After his return to France in 1747, Slodtz, in conjunction with his brothers, Antoine Sebastien and Paul, produced many decorative works in the churches of Paris, and, though much has been destroyed, his most considerable achievement—the tomb of Languet de Gergy in St Sulpice (commissioned in 1750)—still exists. Slodtz was, like his brothers, a member of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and many particulars of his life are preserved in a memoir written by Cochin, and also in a letter from the same to the Gazette litteraire, which was reproduced by Castilhon in the Nécrologe of 1766.

Slodtz’s father, Sebastien (1655–1726), was also a sculptor, born at Antwerp; he became a pupil of Girardon and worked mostly under him at Versailles and the Tuileries. His chief works were "Hannibal" in the Tuileries garden, a statue of St Ambrose in the Palais des Invalides, and a bas-relief "Saint Louis sending missionaries to India."

See C. N. Cochin, Mém. inéd. (Paris, 1881); Barbet de Jouy, Sculpture moderne du Louvre (Paris, 1856); Duissieux, Artistes français à l’étranger (Paris, 1852).