Drunken Silenus Riding on an Ass

Jacques Sarazin was a French sculptor of the seventeenth century known for monumental marble reliefs and architectural ornament that synthesized classical restraint with baroque spatial drama. Active in Paris during the reign of Louis XIII, he executed major commissions for royal residences and religious institutions, establishing a vocabulary of dignified figuration that influenced French sculptural practice for generations. His work exemplifies the transition from Mannerist excess toward the ordered classicism that would define the Baroque in France.