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(1) Sébastien Slodtz
(b Antwerp, ?1655; d Paris, 8 May 1726). Sculptor. He settled in Paris around 1687, entering the studio of François Girardon. He received a number of important commissions for the gardens of the château of Versailles, including a statue of Hannibal (marble, 1687–1704; installed Paris, Tuileries gardens, 1722; now Paris, Louvre), a large marble vase decorated with sunflowers for the Allée Royale (1687; in situ) and a group of Aristaeus and Proteus (marble, 1688–1714; in situ) based on a model by Girardon. He also worked at the Dôme des Invalides, Paris, carving decorative sculpture in stone as well as a bas-relief of St Louis Giving Orders to Missionaries (stone, 1691–3; in situ) and an over life-size statue of St Ambrose (plaster, 1702–5; destr.). He later worked at the château of Marly, Yvelines, carving a marble statue of Vertumnus (1708–9; destr.) for the gardens. At Versailles he also decorated the chapel of the Virgin (stone, 1708; in situ) and the chapel of St Louis (stone, bronze and plaster, 1709–10; in situ). For the rest of his career his energies were almost entirely devoted to ephemeral decorations for the grand funerals organized by the Menus Plaisirs du Roi at Notre-Dame, Paris, and at the abbey church of St Denis. Towards the end of his life he produced a number of portrait busts, including that of the noted connoisseur Evrard Titon du Tillet (marble, 1725; priv. col., see Souchal, iii, p. 286). He was an excellent craftsman and was able to instil life into his compositions, but he lacked any great originality. Although he was Recteur of the Académie de St Luc, he was never a member of the Académie Royale.
Part of the Slodtz family
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