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1979
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François Souchal, « Situation de la sculpture en France en 1778 », Dix-Huitième Siècle, ID : 10.3406/dhs.1979.1224
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François Souchal : Sculpture in 1778. A few months before Voltaire's and Rousseau's deaths, the Superintendent of the King's Buildings, the count of Angivilleir, launched a programme of sculptures representing the great men who had honoured France by their genius ; those chosen were men of letters rather than soldiers. The greatest artists of the time took part (Pajou, Houdon, Olodion, Mouchy, Julien, etc.). The results were of unequal quality, and today these big official statues are at the Institute, the Louvre and Versailles. Thiey show a concern for historical veracity, little sympathy for the new neoclassical fashion of the heroic nude and, even before the Revolution, a desire to exalt civic virtues.