Bust of Moses Mendelssohn

Jean Pierre Antoine Tassaert, born to a family of sculptors in Antwerp, left for Paris at the age of nineteen, enjoying a successful career as a sculptor. After thirty years in France, he left for Berlin, where he became a court sculptor and was appointed head of the royal sculptural workshop. Known for his sculptures of figures from mythology, he also received royal commissions to create large marble statues of German generals, in which he broke with tradition by depicting them in contemporary uniform rather than in Roman togas. He also portrayed other public figures, such as the German Jewish intellectual Moses Mendelssohn.