Antoine-Augustin Préault

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^{[14] [15]} It also holds a medallion depicting Thomas Shotter Boys.^[16]

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"The rounded known as Le Silence was created for the tomb of Jacob Robles [1782-1842] in the Jewish section of the Parisian cemetery Pere Lachaise. Abandoning traditional funerary imagery, Auguste Préault fashioned an enigmatic and mysterious evocation of death in the skeletal face which is shrouded in drapery with a finger touching the lips. In part the image drew upon the traditional monastic symbol for silence in the cloisters, but here the sculptor also conveys a sense of ambiguity by leaving open whether the figure is living or dead. When Préault exhibited a bronze cast of Le Silence in 1849, it was hailed as "one of the representative works of modern art" and became an icon of Romanticism"

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This controversial bronze bas-relief by Préault is held in the Musée des Beaux-arts in Chartres. Tuerie means slaughter and in this stark composition, Préault leaves little to the imagination. ^{[27] [28]}

^[29] Préault depicts the head of a woman whose hand covers her face in a stark portrayal of grief.

^[30] Préault depicts an ondine. It seems that ondines or water-sprites were a popular subject for the writers of "littérature fantastique" and Paracelsus made reference to them in his writings on alchemy. In European folklore they are depicted as fairy-like creatures.

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This composition by Préault is held in the Bibliothèque Polonaise in Paris. ^[33]

^{[38] [39]} Finally in the Pavilion de la Bibliothèque is Préault's composition "Les Arts"^{[40] [41]} Préault had been commissioned to design a three-figure allegorical grouping for the Pavilion de la Bibliothèque and he created groups of angels with the theme of the arts and sciences. On the left, an angel twirls a giant sash in a parabolic arch: an ingenious tribute to Mathematics. At the angel's feet, a pair of cherubs twist to gaze upward at him, one with a long parchment scroll of Architecture draped across his lap. The other plays Music with a lyre, while a mask for Theatre rounds the angle of the plinth ornamented with the spherical astrolabe of Astronomy. The crown in the hand of the brawny angel on the right is Physics, Préault recalling Archimedes’ experiment in buoyancy to test the gold content of King Hiero's crown. The palm branch waving triumphantly in the angel's other hand symbolizes Grammar, while at his feet is Geometry, a grinning cherub with a compass. His counterpart, holding palette and brushes, portrays Painting, while Sculpture is evoked by the fine feminine profile medallion on the plinth. An 1857 critic lauded Préault's génies—the French term for angels on civic buildings—as "having nothing of that charming preciousness of those of the 18th century: they are strong and dense children, as a well-grounded art could form them: they dare to have muscles and stand out in vigorous contours against the sky." ^[42]

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"This sculpture taken from contemporary literature was placed in the Bouzaise Park in Beaune until 1996. At the government's request it was put back in the museum after having been exhibited at the Musée d'Orsay in a one-man exhibition of the sculptor's work. The work is extremely interesting and original. The general movement in a spiral, the violence between the opposition of the position of shoulders and hips, all combine to give this figure a feeling of unrest"

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"Ophelia is shown drifting lifeless on the water. With closed eyes and parted mouth, she escapes the stiffness of death. The waves intermingle with the folds of the wet sheet wound around the girl, emphasising the curve of her limbs. Designed like a funerary plaque from the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, the sculpture is nonetheless presented as a picture. Its sad, poetic mood is typical of the Romantic artists' reading of the work of the English playwright"

This plaster relief, subsequently cast in bronze by Thiebaut, dates to 1876. It was turned down by the Paris Salon of 1849 but accepted and shown in 1850–1851. Purchased by the French State in 1876, the work was subsequently deposited in the musée de Saint-Florentin in Yonne in 1879 but destroyed during the Second World War. The musée d'Orsay holds the original plaster model of this work. ^[55]

" LA / VITA-NUOVA / LA / DIVINA / COMMEDIA h.g. : DANTE / ALIGHIERI / NE : A / FLORENCE / 1265 / MORT / 1321"

The Musée d'Orsay hold Préault's plaster model. ^[56]