Francois Duquesnoy
| François Duquesnoy | |
|---|---|
Portrait by van Dyck.
|
|
| Born |
January 12, 1597 Brussels |
| Died | July 12, 1643 (aged 46) Livorno |
| Nationality | Flemish |
| Known for | Sculpture |
| Movement | Baroque |
François Duquesnoy or Frans Duquesnoy (January 12, 1597 – July 12, 1643) was a Flemish Baroque sculptor in Rome. His more idealized representations are often contrasted with the emotional character of Bernini's works, while his style shows greater affinity to Algardi's sculptures.
Duquesnoy was born in Brussels. Having come from Flanders, Duquesnoy was called Il Fiammingo by the Italians and François Flamand by the French. His father, Jerôme Duquesnoy the Elder, sculptor of the Manneken Pis fountain in Brussels (1619), was the court sculptor to Archduchess Isabella and Archduke Albert, governor of the Low Countries. Some of Francois' early work in Brussels attracted the notice of the Archduke, who gave him the wherewithal to study in Rome, where he would spend his whole career.
According to early biographers, when Duquesnoy arrived in Rome in 1618, he studied antique sculpture in detail, climbing over the equestrian Marcus Aurelius to determine how it was cast, or making a pilgrimage to the shrine of Diana at Lake Nemi. In 1624, Nicolas Poussin, who shared his classicly styled, emotionally detached manner of depiction, arrived in Rome, and the two foreign artists lodged together. Both moved in the circle of patronage of Cassiano dal Pozzo. They developed a canon of ideal expressive figures, counter to the theatrical baroque of Bernini. Contemporary critics, like Giovanni Bellori, in Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors and Architects from 1672, hailed Duquesnoy's art as restoring contemporary sculpture to quality of antique Roman sculpture. Bellori said that with his Santa Susanna, Duquesnoy "had left to modern sculptors the example for statues of clothed figures, making him more than the equal of the best ancient sculptors...".
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