# Maria Taglioni in La Sylphide [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BARRE, Jean-August]() - Date: 1801-1850 - Technique: Bronze, height 45 cm ## Commentary All the Romantic sculptors executed medallions, a form of portrait that was quicker, less burdensome and cheaper than the bust. Many of them embarked on the portrait statuette connected with the contemporary world of politics and the theatre, unless it concerned the intimate effigy of the artist's wife and children. Distributed in series, it had a great success owing to its small-scale format which fitted easily into bourgeois apartments, but also to the fame of the model depicted with great accuracy of attitude and costume, whether it was Queen Marie Amélie, Rachel in the role of Hermione or Maria Taglioni in La Sylphide incarnating the ballet in its most aerial aspect, thanks to the recently invented technique of point work. ## Related artworks - [Bust of Mrs. Bouchet]() - [Mary of Burgundy Hawking]() - [Mary of Burgundy]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()