Manius Curius Dentatus Refusing the Presents of the Samnite Ambassadors

A sculptor and draftsman who worked in the Neoclassical style and, although not that well-known, to be one of France most talented and committed exponents of that style. In 1768 he won the Prix de Rome for sculpture and lived in Rome from October 1771 to May 1773. In 1783 Moitte was accepted by the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and received commissions for several statues and low reliefs (1784) for the Hotel de Salm (now Palais de la Légion d'Honneur). From 1786 to 1788, Moitte participated in the decoration of the barrières (toll-houses) in Paris, constructed by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. His only royal commission was for a statue of Jean-Dominique Cassini, one of the more successful works in a series of 'great men.' The plaster for this sculpture was exhibited at the Salon of 1789 and its pose was likely inspired by that of Jacques-Louis David's "Brutus," also exhibited at the same Salon. In 1792-1793 he sculpted a new pediment for the Panthéon, depicting the "Motherland Bestowing Crowns on Virtue and on Genius" (destroyed). In 1805 he sculpted a monument to Général Louis Desaix for the chapel of the hospice of Grand-Saint-Bernard and a bronze relief for the column of the Grande Armée near Boulogne-sur-Mer. Comment on works: Sculptor