François Gaspard Adam

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François Gaspard Balthasar Adam (* 23. May 1710 in Nancy , † 18th August 1761 in Paris ) was a French sculptor of the rococo .

Live and act

Birthplace of François Gaspard Adam. 57, rue des Dominicains, Nancy

François Gaspard Adam, who comes from a family of sculptors, was born in 1710 in the parish of Saint-Sébastien in Nancy as the youngest son of the French sculptor Jacob-Sigisbert Adam and his wife Sébastienne Le Léal. He received his artistic training in his father's workshop until 1729. For further training he followed his brothers Lambert-Sigisbert Adam and Nicolas Sébastien to Rome, where he arrived in 1730. There he probably worked on antique sculptures from the private collection of Cardinal Polignac , which his brother Lambert-Sigisbert restored and added to.

In January 1733, François Gaspard and Lambert-Sigisbert went to Paris with a brief stay in Nancy in Lorraine. There he received the second prize for a sculpture at the Prix ​​de Rome competition of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1740 and the first prize with a Rome grant for a bas-relief depicting the healing of Tobias . As a scholarship holder, he attended the Académie de France à Rome for four years from 1742 and received the title of professor from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence on his journey home to France in 1746 .

After a short stay in Paris joined Adam in 1747 through the mediation of the Marquis d'Argens in the service of the Prussian King Frederick II. , Who appointed him the first court sculptor and entrusted him with the leadership of the French sculptor studio in Berlin. The atelier, which was set up in a former garden house in Berlin's Lustgarten, was founded by the king specifically for the production of marble sculptures, since work with this stone was hardly widespread among local artists. His first works on behalf of Frederick II were the marble sculptures " Venus Urania " and " Apollon " created in 1748 for the marble hall of the newly built Potsdam summer palace Sanssouci . In 1749 the " Flora with Zephyr " was created for the top vineyard terrace of Sanssouci, which was followed a year later by " Cleopatra with mourning Cupid ". He was also involved in furnishing the “French Rondell ” on the ground floor to the south , for which he created marble figures and base reliefs. In 1751 he was made an honorary member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts and Mechanical Sciences , Section for Fine Arts.

In 1759, François Gaspard Adam left Prussia and returned to Paris, although he had not completed all of the commissioned works. His nephew Sigisbert François Michel performed some works , such as the "Mars" in the "French Rondell", the bust of the legal reformer Samuel von Cocceji for the Berlin Supreme Court and the statue of Field Marshal Kurt Christoph von Schwerin for Wilhelmplatz in Berlin.

“All of his work shows excellent technical dexterity; but in the really artistic, in the feeling and shaping, position and posture, he is the weakest among the 3 brothers. "

- Stanislas Lami : General encyclopedia of fine artists from antiquity to the present. Volume 1: Aa – Antonio de Miraguel.

Works (selection)

  • 1748 Venus Urania and Apollo , marble sculptures in the marble hall of the Sanssouci Palace
  • 1749 Flora with Zephyr , marble sculpture in the eastern semicircle of the top vineyard terrace, Sanssouci Palace
  • 1750 Cleopatra with mourning Cupid , marble sculpture in the western semicircle of the top vineyard terrace, Sanssouci Palace
  • Marble sculptures in the "French Rondell", Sanssouci:
    • 1752 Apollo with the slain python
    • 1753 Diana in the bath
    • 1753 Juno with peacock
    • 1754 Jupiter and Jo
    • 1756 The fire ( Venus looks at the shield forged by Vulkan for Aeneas ), marble sculpture and base reliefs
    • 1758 The earth ( Ceres teaches Triptolemus to plow ), marble sculpture and base reliefs
    • 1760 Minerva
    • 1760 Mars (completed by Sigisbert François Michel in 1764)
  • 1769 Marble statue of General Field Marshal Kurt Christoph von Schwerin for Wilhelmplatz in Berlin (completed by Sigisbert François Michel), today the Bode Museum
  • Bust of Samuel von Cocceji, Berlin Superior Court (completed by Sigisbert François Michel)

literature

Web links

Commons : François Gaspard Adam  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Gerdt Streidt, Peter Feierabend: Prussia. Art and architecture. Könemann, Cologne 1999, p. 229.
  2. SPSG : The gods are returning. Jaron, Berlin 2011, p. 11.
  3. ^ Stanislas Lami : Adam, François Gaspard Balthasar . In: Ulrich Thieme , Felix Becker (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker. tape 1 : Aa – Antonio de Miraguel . Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1907, p. 61 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).