(b Paris, 25 Aug 1678; d Paris, 23 Nov 1755).
Bronze-caster, sculptor and designer, son of (1) Philippe
Caffiéri (i). He was the nephew of Charles Le Brun
and had two sons by his marriage to Marie-Anne Rousseau,
(3) Philippe Caffiéri (ii) and (4) Jean-Jacques Caffiéri.
Jacques became one of the most prominent bronzeworkers in
the reign of Louis XV. A member of the Académie de
Saint-Luc, Paris, he became a master bronze-caster and chaser
in Paris before 1715 and, on an unknown earlier date, received
the title of Sculpteur et Ciseleur Ordinaire des Bâtiments
du Roi. It is probable that one of his teachers was Domenico
Cucci, who was Ebéniste et Fondeur du Roi and with
whom the Caffiéri family was closely linked. Jacques
also received training in sculpture, as evidenced by his
busts of Baron de Besenval (1735) and Baron de Brunstadt
(1737). It was in the decorative arts, however, that he
achieved his reputation.
In 1740 his wife bought the warrant of Marchande Doreuse
Privilégiée du Roi suivant la Cour, which
allowed them to continue the processes of bronze-casting
and gilding, which would normally have been performed by
separate businesses, within the same workshop. In 1747 his
son Philippe Caffiéri (ii) joined him as an associate.
Jacques had clients in the city of Paris and at court, including
the royal family. He also became Maître Sculpteur
et Dessinateur des Vaisseaux du Roi. Of his bronzework only
small, decorative pieces are extant. He is known to have
made gilt-bronze mantelpieces (destr.) for four chimney-pieces
commissioned for the château of Versailles in 1747,
but only those from the Dauphin's Bedchamber survive. Similarly,
the numerous bronze ornaments for coaches, including those
commissioned by the court, are lost. Of his work for cabinetmakers,
only the bronzes for the commode (1739; London, Wallace;
for illustration see COMMODE) by Antoine-Robert Gaudreaus
for Louis XV are extant, although those for the desk (Baron
Edmond de Rothschild priv. col.) for the Duc de Choiseul
have also been attributed to him.
Jacques Caffiéri specialized in the Louis XV style.
Animals and fantastic beasts, figures of gods and heroes
inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses and genre subjects, all
combined with elaborate curves that are emphasized by leafy,
flowered branches, typical of the asymmetrical Louis XV
style, feature prominently in his earlier works. Examples
with this type of decoration include the Diana and Apollo
clocks (Pushkin, Pal.-Mus.; Duke of Buccleuch, priv. col.);
the Diana and Endymion cartel-clock (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.);
Queen Marie Leczinska's candelabra (Paris, Louvre); wall-lights
(Malibu, CA, Getty Mus.) made for the Infanta Elizabeth,
Louis XV's daughter (1727-59); fire-dogs decorated with
hunters (Rome, Pal. Quirinale); and the chandeliers (Paris,
Bib. Mazarine) of the Marquise de Pompadour, which include
putti playing among bouquets of roses, as well as representations
of castles similar to those that feature on the Marquise's
coat of arms. Caffiéri's later works are in the symmetrical
version of the Louis XV style, for example the chandelier
(1751; London, Wallace) from the collection of the dukes
of Parma and the Passament astronomical clock (1753; Versailles,
Château) for Louis XV.
