Bust of a Girl Veiled and Crowned with Flowers 1774 - 1784

Pierre Julien sculpted this bust of a girl in terracotta in France around the time of the Revolution. Here we see her idealized beauty through the lens of the late eighteenth century. The veil and floral crown, rendered in meticulous detail, speak to the era’s fascination with allegory and classical forms. What is most striking to me is that Julien made this in the years just before the French Revolution. Sculptors at this time were supported by the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, an institution that controlled artistic production and taste in France. Looking at Julien’s allegorical sculpture, we see what they valued: a sense of idealized beauty and the polish of French society. We can see in the bust an interesting tension between the artist’s position within the institutional system and the social upheaval that took place in France during this period. By exploring archives and academic records, we can understand the complex dialogue between art and society in the twilight years of the ancien régime.