Background
He was born at Antwerp and joined the Paris workshop of François Girardon, under whose direction he worked for the sculptural decor of Versailles and its gardens and for the Tuileries.
He was born at Antwerp and joined the Paris workshop of François Girardon, under whose direction he worked for the sculptural decor of Versailles and its gardens and for the Tuileries.
Sébastien Slodtz was the outstanding sculptor to come out of Girardon"s atelier (Souchal 1968). Sébastien Slodtz is best known for his Aristaeus fettering Proteus, begun in 1688, installed in 1714 in the Bassin d"Apollon on the grand terrace at Versailles, where it remains. His other chief works were the Hannibal Barca counting the rings of the Roman knights killed at the Battle of Cannae (illustration) for the Allée du Roi, which was designed as a pendant for Nicolas Coustou"s Julius Caesar and for which Girardon provided a terracotta maquette a statue of Street Ambrose in the Dôme des Invalides, and a bas-relief Saint Louis sending missionaries to India.
Other works were provided for the Château de Marly, such as the marble Vertumnus for the Cascade and sculptures for the Val-de-Grâce.
Their lively, dashing drawings cannot be told apart, even by specialists. Among the pupils of Sébastien Slodtz was Pierre de L’Estache.