Satyr and Nymph,

cast postumously

Géricault’s sole sculpture was a carved stone Satyr and Nymph, now in the museum in Rouen, France, his place of birth. Géricault chose to carve directly into stone, setting aside the established tradition of beginning with terracotta and plaster models, then copying the plaster one mechanically in marble. He attacked the block directly with hammer and chisel, in the manner of Michelangelo, and thereby inverted French disdain for the Italian master during the ancien régime, placing him at the pinnacle of art for Romantic-era artists. While the date of this bronze cast is unknown, it is surely posthumous. (The French bronze founder Rudier would also make casts after the piece around 1900.) The bronzes attest to the cult status of Géricault, who dramatically changed the course of French art, but also vitiate Géricault’s project: the chisel marks, physical signs of the carving process, become nonsensical when preserved in bronze.