François Girardon (17 March 1628 – 1 September 1715) was a French sculptor. He was born at Troyes. As a boy, he had for master a joiner and wood-carver of his native town, named Baudesson, under whom he is said to have worked at the chateau of Liebault, where he attracted the notice of Chancellor Séguier. By the chancellor's influence, Girardon was first removed to Paris and placed in the studio of François Anguier, and afterwards sent to Rome. In 1652, he was back in France and seems at once to… Read more...

Charles Le Brun (24 February 1619 – 22 February 1690) was a French painter, art theorist, interior decorator and a director of several art schools of his time. As court painter to Louis XIV, who declared him "the greatest French artist of all time", he was a dominant figure in 17th-century French art and much influenced by Nicolas Poussin. Read more...