Paul Emile Millefaut (1847-1907) - Bronze sculpture - Notre Dame

Paul Emile Millefaut (1847-1907) Patinated bronze sculpture. Notre Dame de Fourvière. Circa 1900. Signed and titled on the terrace, PG foundry publisher. Green marble base. Height with base: 12cm. Height without base: 10.2cm. Very good condition. *Of modest origins but passionate about sculpture, he managed to enter the school of religious art, founded in Valence by architect Pierre Bossan and Canon Didelot, an ecclesiastic keen on medieval statuary. His teacher was the Lyonnais sculptor, Charles Dufraine, a specialist in religious art, who was later appointed to the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, where the young Millefaut was able to enrol thanks to a scholarship granted by the general council of Drôme. For years, the master and the student would both work extensively on the statuary of the new and imposing basilica of Fourvière, whose architect happened to be… Pierre Bossan. To do this, Millefaut commuted to La Ciotat, by the sea, where the builder resided, to create the models for the sculptures based on his sketches. It was Millefaut who designed the famous statue of "Saint Michael vanquishing the dragon, " still in place, pointing his lance towards the city from the top of the basilica's apse… which caused an uproar among supporters of secularism during a time of religious conflict. He also created nearly all the angels populating the sanctuary – and there are many! – from the crypt to the large windows of the upper church, including the truly monumental figures on the façade. Having become a true specialist in church statuary, Paul-Emile Millefaut also sculpted two bas-reliefs for the church of Ars, in Ain, worked for the chapel of the Brothers of Caluire, in Rhône… And it was to him that the worthy patrons of the Lyon daily "Le Nouvelliste, " a conservative and clerical publication, commissioned the imposing statue of Joan of Arc.