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Pigalle received the commission from the city of Reims for the monument to Louis XV, preferred to the aging Lambert-Sigisbert Adam and to Louis-Claude Vassé.
Pigalle set his personal seal upon it by including himself on the monument. The emblematic figure of a contented nation was symbolized by a citizen who is a portrait of Pigalle. The Citizen is a powerfully modelled figure, which suggests the influence not of the antique, nor Bernini, but Michelangelo. The figure has a brooding, timeless sense which lifts it out of all associations with the allegorical luggage around it, and with the rest of the monument.
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