Bas-relief
by PAJOU, Augustin, Wood
In the opera house at Versailles Pajou was working primarily as a decorator of surfaces. Among the decorative reliefs it is the gilded bas-reliefs on the lowest tier of the boxes in the auditorium that best represent his art. There is in these elongated, reclining figures a hint already of the sculptor’s study of sixteenth-century models, notably the achievements of the Fontainebleau School.