View source for Jean Goujon

{{short description|French sculptor}}

{{for|the French cyclist|Jean Goujon (cyclist)}}
{{Infobox artist
| honorific_prefix = 
| name             = Jean Goujon
| honorific_suffix = 
| image            = Jean Goujon Louvre Seurre l'aîné (adjusted).jpg
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| caption          = Statue of Jean Goujon by [[Bernard Seurre]], located on the exterior of the [[Louvre Palace|Louvre]]
| native_name      = 
| native_name_lang = French
| birth_name       = <!--only use if different from name-->
| birth_date       = c. 1510
| birth_place      = probably [[Normandy]]
| death_date       = c. 1565, ~55 years old
| death_place      = probably [[Bologna]]
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| resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} -->
| nationality      = [[France|French]]
| education        = 
| alma_mater       = 
| known_for        = sculptor, architect
| notable_works    = [[Fontaine des Innocents|Fountain of the Innocents]], Caryatids of the [[Louvre]]
| style            = 
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}}
'''Jean Goujon''' ({{Circa|1510|1565}})<ref name=Thirion>Thirion, Jacques (1996). "Goujon, Jean" in ''The Dictionary of Art'', edited by Jane Turner; vol. 13, pp. 225–227. London: Macmillan. Reprinted 1998 with minor corrections: {{ISBN|9781884446009}}.</ref><ref>A. de Montaiglon, documentary articles in ''Gazette des Beaux-Arts'', '''30''' (1884), pp. 377-394, and '''31''' (1885), pp. 5-21, noted by Stein 1890:6, states Goujon died after 1572.</ref> was a French Renaissance sculptor and architect.

== Biography ==
His early life is little known; he was probably born in [[Normandy]] and may have traveled in Italy.  He worked at the church of Saint-Maclou, his earliest documented work,<ref>Goujon executed two columns beneath the organs, and bas-reliefs on doors.</ref> and the [[Rouen Cathedral]], in 1541-42, where he executed the monument to [[Louis de Brézé, seigneur d'Anet]], before arriving in Paris, where he collaborated with the architect [[Pierre Lescot]] at the [[church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois]] about 1544, working on the pulpit, which was dismantled in the mid-eighteenth century.<ref>Goujon's bas-reliefs are conserved at the [[Musée du Louvre]].</ref> In 1544-1547 he was occupied with considerable works at the [[Château d’Ecouen]] for the [[Anne de Montmorency|connétable de Montmorency]]. He became "sculptor to the king" ([[Henry II of France]]) in 1547 and in the next years was occupied at the [[Château d'Anet|Château of Anet]]. He was then imprisoned at Ecouen in 1555.<ref>The attribution to Goujon of the Maison de Diane de Poitiers (bearing the date 1554) at [[Ecouen]] was made by Henri Stein, 1890, based on the document that placed Goujon at Ecouen, imprisoned under orders of the ''[[bailli]]'' of 27 September 1555</ref>

His most famous works are the sculptural decorations made in collaboration with Lescot for the western extension of the [[Louvre]], 1555-62.  A fine representative of [[Mannerism]] in France, Goujon's figures are elongated, sensual and fluid; his drapery work reveals knowledge of Greek sculpture, though certainly not at first hand.  He is also responsible for engravings for Jean Martin's 1547 translation of [[Vitruvius]] and for work on the [[Ecouen|Château of Ecouen]], for the [[House of Montmorency|Montmorency]] family.  In 1562, Goujon left France for religious reasons (he was a [[Huguenot]]).

The purity and gracefulness of his style were disseminated throughout France by engravings by artists of the [[School of Fontainebleau]] and had an influence in the decorative arts.  His reputation was slightly eclipsed at the end of the century by more mannered tendencies, but was appreciated by [[French Baroque and Classicism|French Classicism]].

Goujon was a Protestant; he escaped the [[French Wars of Religion]] by exiling himself in Italy in 1562. He probably died in [[Bologna]], where he is last documented in 1563 as a member of a group of Huguenot refugees.<ref name=Thirion/>

==Works==
His most famous works include:

* ''[[Fontaine des Innocents|Fountain of the Innocents]]'' (1547–1550) - Goujon sculpted the six [[nymphs]] that decorate this public fountain designed by [[Pierre Lescot]].  The fountain is currently located - in a much truncated form - in the [[Les Halles]] section of [[Paris]]; original bas-reliefs are located at the [[Louvre]]
* ''Caryatids'' (1550–1551) - for the musician's platform in the [[Louvre]], these are highly reminiscent of the [[Erechtheum]] in [[Athens]].
* ''Allegories on the facade of the [[Louvre]]'' (1549-155) - these are found in the ''[[Cour Carrée]]'' (or "square courtyard") of the [[Louvre]]
* ''The Four Seasons'' (''illustrations'') made for the courtyard façade of the hôtel of Jacques de Ligeris, now housing the [[Musée Carnavalet]], Paris.

To Goujon is usually attributed the engravings of the French version of [[Francesco Colonna (writer)|Francesco Colonna]]'s ''Songe de Poliphile'' (1546), based on the engravings of the original edition (which may be due to the studio of [[Andrea Mantegna|Mantegna]]).

The famous ''[[Fountain of Diana]] (Diana with a Stag)'' (c. 1549) [[Louvre]], designed for [[Diane de Poitiers]] for the [[Château d'Anet]], was long believed to be by Goujon or his workshop. It is now thought more likely to have been the work of [[Germain Pilon]].<ref>[[Blunt, Anthony]]; Beresford, Richard (1999). ''Art and Architecture in France, 1500–1700'', 5th edition, pp. 80–81. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. {{ISBN|9780300077483}}.</ref>

== Gallery ==
<gallery mode=packed heights=200>
File:Fontaine des Innocents reliefs. Louvre, Paris.jpg|Stone reliefs of nymphs<br />from the [[Fontaine des Innocents]]
File:Tribune-louvre (3).jpg|[[Caryatides]], Salle des Caryatides at the [[Louvre]] (1550–51)

File:Pediment war cour Carree Louvre.jpg|''Allegory of War'', central pediment of the [[Lescot Wing]] of the Louvre
File:Goujon, les quatre saisons 03.JPG|''The Four Seasons'' (c.1547)<br />Musée Carnavalet, Paris
</gallery>

== See also ==
{{commons category}}
*[[French art]]
*[[French sculpture]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Goujon, Jean |volume = 12 |page=282 |short=1}}
*{{ARC artist|4425}}
*[http://www.cosmovisions.com/Goujon.htm Imago Mundi: Jean Goujon]
*[http://www.corpusetampois.com/che-19-stein1889goujon.html Henri Stein, "Jean Goujon et la maison de Diane de Poitiers à Écouen", ''Annales de la Société historique et archéologique du Gâtinais'' '''7''' (1889), Paris 1890]
*[[Sir Reginald Lister|Lister, Reginald]], [[iarchive:gri 33125001439880|"Jean Goujon : his life and work"]] (1903) London: Duckworth
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Goujon, Jean}}
[[Category:1510s births]]
[[Category:Architects from Rouen]]
[[Category:French architectural sculptors]]
[[Category:16th-century French sculptors]]
[[Category:16th-century French architects]]
[[Category:French male sculptors]]
[[Category:16th-century deaths]]
[[Category:Huguenots]]
[[Category:Calvinist and Reformed artists]]