.jpg?width=1200)
Julius Caesar
Nicolas Coustou (1658-1733) · 1696
A Roman general stands in armour and a short cloak, one arm extended in a gesture of command, on a base barely sixty centimetres high. This small terracotta is the model that Nicolas Coustou prepared for a life-size marble of Julius Caesar, and it keeps the freshness of a sketch: the clay is pressed and pulled rather than polished, the folds of the cloak are quick strokes, and the face is suggested rather than finished. On the right of the plinth the sculptor inscribed his name and the date 1696, an unusual signature for a preparatory work.
Coustou's marble Caesar, now also in the Louvre, was one of the statues of ancient heroes made for the royal gardens, and the terracotta was probably kept by the artist as a record. At some point the figure was renamed Scipio Africanus, a title the museum still lists. The model passed through several famous Paris sales, beginning with the collection of La Live de Jully in 1770, and belonged to the collector Édouard Larcade, who gave it to the Museum of Decorative Arts in 1947. That museum deposited it at the Louvre in 1980, where it introduces the vestibule of terracotta sketches.
Did You Know? The same figure has been catalogued under two different Roman names, Julius Caesar and Scipio Africanus.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.