Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Jean Goujon

GOUJON, Jean, was the most distinguished sculptor produced by France during the 16th century. Although some evidence has been offered in favour of the date 1520 (Archives de VArt franpais, vol. iii. p. 350), the time and place of his birth are still uncertain. The first mention of his name occurs in the accounts of the church of St Maclou at Rouen in the year 1540, and in the following year he was employed at the cathedral of the same town, where he added to the tomb of Cardinal d Amboise a statue of his nephew Georges, afterwards removed. The tomb of Louis de Breze, executed some time after 1545, has also been attributed to Goujon, but there is no evidence in point, nor even any tradition, of the fact. On leaving Eouen, Goujon was employed by Pierre Lescot, the celebrated architect of the Louvre, on the restorations of St Germain FAuxerrois ; the building accounts some of which for the years 1542- 44 were discovered by M. de Laborde on a piece of parch ment binding specify as his work, not only the carvings of the pulpit (Louvre), but also a Notre Dame de Pie te , now lost. In 1547 appeared Martin s French translation of Vitruvius, the illustrations of which were due, the translator tells us in his "Dedicationto the King" to Goujon, "nagueres architecte de Monseigneur le Conne table, et maintenant un des votres." We learn from this statement, not only that Goujon had been taken into the royal service on the acces sion of Henry II, but also that he had beeu previously em ployed under Bullant on the chateau of Eeouen. At the Louvre, Goujon, under the direction of Lescot, executed the carvings of the south-west angle of the court, the reliefs of the Escalier Henri II., and the Tribune des Cariatides. About a year before the execution of the Caryatides, for which Goujon received 737 livres on September 5, 1550, he produced, according to unbroken tradition, the reliefs of the Fontaine des Innocents (Louvre, and in situ); after which he is supposed to have been occupied in work des tined for the decoration of the chateau of Anet, then building for Diana of Poitiers. Unfortunately the building accounts of Anet have disappeared, but tradition not only ascribes to Goujon the chef d ceuvre of French sculpture, the Diane Chasseresse now in the Louvre, but asserts that he also executed a vast number of other works of equal importance, destroyed or lost since 1792. In 1555 his name appears again in the Louvre accounts, and continues to do so every succeeding year up to 1561, when all trace of him is lost. In the course of this year an attempt was made to turn out of the royal employment all those who were suspected of Huguenot tendencies. Goujon has always been claimed as a Reformer; it is consequently possible that he was one of the victims of this attack. We should therefore probably ascribe the work attributed to him in the Hotel Carnavalet (in situ), together with much else executed in various parts of Paris but now dispersed or destroyed to a period intervening between the date of his dismissal from the Louvre and his death (of which there is no evidence), which is said to have taken place during the St Bartholomew massacre in 1572. Goujon s work is remarkable- as may be observed in the sculpture of the Louvre for its perfect harmony with the archi tectural lines which it was intended to enrich or accompany, and is distinguished in a supreme degree by that elegance which was the leading characteristic of the school of which he was the chief representative. His treatment of the nude (Diane Chasseresse), both in style of line and choice of forms, attains a degree of accomplished perfection which, in its complete fulfilment of the proposed though very different ideal, comes nearer to the character of tranquil achievement, which marks all classic art, than any other work of modern times.

Engravings after Goujon will be found in Cicognara s Storia della Scultura, and in M. de Clarac s Music du Louvre. M. Berty has given a brief notice of his life and works in Grands architcctes franqais de la Renaissance ; and a fuller account will be found in Mrs Pattison s Renaissance of Art in France.