Sculpture "Horse Tamer (right)"

A rider taming a horse is a popular plot. Variations on this theme now adorn Paris, St. Petersburg (Anichkov Bridge), Washington. This work is a reduced copy of the paired sculptures decorating Paris. The paired sculptures "Horse Tamers" were made especially for the palace in Marly. Later they were installed on the Place de la Concorde in Paris in front of the entrance to the Champs-Elysees. In 1984, they were replaced with copies, while the originals went to the Louvre, where they remain to this day. The violent impulse characteristic of the Baroque is combined here with a tamed aspiration, which fills the group with a sense of drama. The silhouette is verified and clear: the rearing rumps of horses, fluttering manes give it decorative picturesqueness, beauty, and a sense of flight. Guillaume Coustou (1677-1746) was a French sculptor. He studied, like his brother Nikola, with his uncle, the famous sculptor Kuazevo. He lived for some time in Rome. He worked in Paris, Versailles, Marly. Rector of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, later its director. One of the most talented sculptors of the 1st half of the 17th century.