Falconet shows the god of Love, with a finger of caution at his lips. The idea of the hand slyly stealing round to the quiverful of arrows slung across his shoulder is expressed with delightful art. The dainty work is remarkable for its grace and the vivacity of expression animating it. It is significant that the work was commissioned by Madame de Pompadour in 1756. Two more sculptors call for notice before we close this chapter—Clodion and Houdon. Both were followers of Pigalle and both lived to a good old age and worked well into the nineteenth century. But in essence their work was dominated by the factors which moulded the rest of the sculpture of Louis XV. and Louis XVI. The lesser of the two men, Claude François Michel, called Clodion, was to sculpture what Boucher was to painting. His favourite subjects were satyrs and bacchantes, as, for instance, in the “Satyr with Flute,” with which we illustrate his art. Some of his most delightful works are at the Musée Cluny. There is also a fine “Satyr and Nymph” in the Wallace collection at Hertford House, London. With rare exceptions, all Clodion’s works were designed for the drawing-room or the dancing-hall. He was a master of the statuette and, perhaps, without a rival in the skilful use of terra-cotta. It is easy to cavil at the frankly sensuous style of Clodion but, after all, his justification is complete. It depends upon the success with which he carried out that at which he aimed. On the whole, the great body of eighteenth-century French sculpture defies criticism by the same triumphant grace and vivacity and the same plea that what was aimed at has been done. There are times when “Eternal smiles its emptiness betray As shallow streams run dimpling all the way.” But, judging it by its own standard and looking for neither deep feeling nor high thinking, it amply justifies its place among the art movements which have given humanity a fresh thrill. Houdon (1741-1828), the last of the eighteenth-century French sculptors, was a far greater artist than either his master Pigalle or Clodion. He lived throughout the sculptural period dominated by Canova, and might, on that account, claim consideration in our next chapter. Houdon as an artist, however, seems to have been little impressed by the events of the French Revolution, so we have chosen to represent him by two of his earlier works.