Jean Goujon
Jean Goujon was one of the most important sculptors of the French Renaissance; he worked from roughly 1540 to 1562. We know little about his training and education, but his knowledge of Greek and Roman art and his wet drapery techniques indicate that he most likely travelled to Italy. His art is mostly reliefs; his only known sculptures modelled in the round are the Cariatides in the Louvre.
His first work as architect and sculptor can be found in Rouen, where he created the tomb of Louis de Brézé. He reappears in Paris in 1544, working with Pierre Lescot: he worked on the jube in Saint-Germain-L'Auxerrois (no longer standing), then later in the chapel at Ecouen for Constable Anne de Montmorencey (wood work conserved in Chantilly) from 1547 to 1548.
He naturally entered the service of Henri II and worked, still under the direction of Pierre Lescot, on the decorations of the new Louvre palace from 1548 to 1562. He sculpted the reliefs for the Cour Carrée in the Louvre, the caryatides in the ballroom gallery (now the caryatides room). He created the Fountain of the Innocents for the King's arrival in 1549. The original reliefs of the famous composition were held for some time in the Louvre, then were reconstructed in 1787.
So great was his fame that many works were attributed to him, such as the Diane d'Anet (chateau de Diane de Poitiers), which in fact he did not create. Recent research has made it possible to attribute the relief on the tomb of André Blondel de Rocquencourt to him.
As a Protestant, he, like many French artists at that time, was forced to flee France in 1562 taking refuge in Bologna.
