Girardon, François (fräNswä` zhērärdôN`), 1628–1715, French sculptor. Chancellor Séguier sent him to study in Paris with François Anguier and later to Rome. On his return he was commissioned with much of the decorative sculpture in the gardens of Versailles under the direction of Le Brun. He is best known for his Tomb of Richelieu at the Sorbonne. His famous equestrian statue of Louis XIV was destroyed in the Revolution.

Girardon, François

(baptized March 17, 1628, Troyes, Fr.—died Sept. 1, 1715, Paris) French sculptor. He studied in Troyes and in Rome, and in 1657 he became a member of the French Royal Academy. In 1666 he received his most famous commission, the Apollo Tended by the Nymphs, for the Grotto of Thetis at Versailles. Of his other works at Versailles, the most notable are The Bath of the Nymphs (1668–70) and The Rape of Persephone (1677–79). Although superficially a Baroque artist, Girardon's deep-seated Classical tendencies also emerge in the serene solemnity of his two principal works outside Versailles: an equestrian statue of Louis XIV (1683–92), destroyed in the French Revolution, and the tomb of Cardinal Richelieu in the church of the Sorbonne (1675–94). Though influenced by the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, his own style was more restrained.