Background
Jacques Caffiéri was the fifth son of Philippe Caffieri, a decorative sculptor, who, after serving Pope Alexander VII, entered the service of Louis XIV in 1660.
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Jacques Caffieri
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As a fondeur ciseleur, however, the renown of the house centred in Jacques, though it is not always easy to distinguish between his own work and that of his son Philippe (1714 - 1777). A large proportion of his brilliant achievement as a designer and chaser in bronze and other metals was executed for the crown at Versailles, Fontainebleau, Compiegne, Choisy and La Muette, and the crown, ever in his debt, still owed him money at his death. Jacques and his son Philippe undoubtedly worked together in the " Appartement du Dauphin " at Versailles, and although much of their contribution to the palace has disappeared, the decorations of the marble chimney-piece still remain. They belong to the best type of the Louis XV style vigorous and graceful in design, they are executed with splendid skill. It is equally certain that father and son worked together upon the gorgeous bronze case of the famous astronomical clock made by Passement and Danthiau for Louis XV between 1749 and 1753. The form of the case has been much criticized, and even ridiculed, but the severest critics in that particular have been the readiest to laud the boldness and freedom of the motives, the jewel-like finish of the craftsmanship, the magnificent dexterity of the master-hand. The elder Caffieri was, indeed, the most consummate practitioner of the style rocaille, which he constantly redeemed from its mannered conventionalism by the ease and mastery with which he treated it.
