Pierre Paul Puget
Encyclopedia
Pierre Paul Puget was a French painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

, sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

, architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 and engineer.

Biography

Puget was born in Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

. At the age of fourteen he carved the ornaments of the galleys built in the shipyards of his native city, and at sixteen the decoration and construction of a ship were entrusted to him. Soon after he went to Italy on foot, and was well received at Rome by Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona, by the name of Pietro Berrettini, born Pietro Berrettini da Cortona, was the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and also one of the key architects in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important decorator...

, who took him into his studio and employed him on the ceilings of the Palazzo Barberini
Palazzo Barberini
Palazzo Barberini is a palace in Rome, facing the piazza of the same name in Rione Trevi and is home to the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica.-History:...

 and on those of Palazzo Pitti
Palazzo Pitti
The Palazzo Pitti , in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast mainly Renaissance palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio...

 at Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

.

After four years in Italy, in 1643 he returned to Marseille, where he painted portraits and carved the colossal figureheads of men-of-war. After a second journey to Italy in 1646 he painted a great number of pictures for Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence
Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...

, Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

, Cuers
Cuers
Cuers is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.-External links:****...

 and La Ciotat
La Ciotat
La Ciotat is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southern France. It is part of the metropolitan area of Marseille Provence. La ciotat is located to the east of Marseille at an equal distance from Marseille and Toulon...

, and sculpted a large marble group of the Virgin and Child for the church of Lorgues
Lorgues
Lorgues is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.Lorgues is located in the middle of wineries and fields of olive trees...

. His caryatids for the balcony of the Hôtel de Ville of Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

 were executed between 1655 and 1657. He also created a monumental wooden retable for Toulon Cathedral.
Nicolas Fouquet
Nicolas Fouquet
Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux was the Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653 until 1661 under King Louis XIV...

 employed Puget to sculpt a Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...

 for his château, Vaux-le-Vicomte
Vaux-le-Vicomte
The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, 55 km southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département of France...

. After the fall of Fouquet
Fouquet
Fouquet is a French surname and may refer to:* Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, duc de Belle-Isle , French general and statesman* Guillaume Fouquet de la Varenne , French chef and statesman...

 in 1660, Puget moved to Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

. Here he crafted for François Sublet de Noyers
François Sublet de Noyers
François Sublet de Noyers , one of Cardinal de Richelieu's political creatures, who derived his position and political weight from the Cardinal's consistent patronage, was a secretary of state to Louis XIII, and a member of his Conseil du Roi...

 his Hercule Gaulois (Musée du Louvre), the statues of St Sebastian and of Bishop Alessandro Paoli in the church of Santa Maria di Carignano (c. 1664), and many other works. The Doria family gave him a church to build. The Genoese senate proposed that he should paint their council chamber. The artist's desire to paint gradually subsided before his passion for sculpture, and a serious illness in 1665 brought Puget a prohibition from the doctors which caused him wholly to put aside the brush.

But Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert was a French politician who served as the Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing...

 bade Puget return to France, and in 1669 he again took up his old work in the dockyards of Toulon. The arsenal which he had undertaken to construct there under the orders of the François de Vendôme, Duc de Beaufort, was destroyed by fire in the course of construction and was rebuilt by another architect. Disheartened, Puget took leave of Toulon, and in 1685 went back to Marseille, where he continued the long series of works of sculpture on which he had been employed by Colbert. His statue of Milo of Croton
Milo of Croton
Milo of Croton was a 6th century BC wrestler from the Magna Graecian city of Croton in southern Italy who enjoyed a brilliant wrestling career and won many victories in the most important athletic festivals of ancient Greece...

 (Louvre) had been completed in 1682, Perseus and Andromeda (Louvre) in 1684; and Alexander and Diogenes
Diogenes of Sinope
Diogenes the Cynic was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy. Also known as Diogenes of Sinope , he was born in Sinope , an Ionian colony on the Black Sea , in 412 or 404 BCE and died at Corinth in 323 BCE.Diogenes of Sinope was a controversial figure...

 (bas-relief, Louvre) in 1685, but, in spite of the personal favour which he enjoyed, Puget, on coming to Paris in 1688 to push forward the execution of an equestrian statue of Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

, found court intrigues too much for him. He was forced to abandon his project and retire to Marseille, where he remained till his death. His last work, a bas-relief of the "Plague of Milan", which remained unfinished, was placed in the council chamber of the town hall of his native city.

In 1882, Adolphe-André Porée
Adolphe-André Porée
Adolphe-André Porée, known as Chanoine Porée , was a French archaeologist and historian....

 discovered a lost statue by Puget on a castle grounds at Biéville-Beuville
Biéville-Beuville
Biéville-Beuville is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.-Population:-References:*...

. This statue of Hercules slaying the Hydra of Lerna was originally in the castle of Vaudreuil, and is now at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen
The musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen is an art museum in Rouen, northern France. Founded in 1801 by Napoleon I, its current building was built between 1880 and 1888 and completely renovated in 1994...

.

In spite of Puget's visits to Paris and Rome his work never lost its local character: his Hercules is fresh from the galleys of Toulon; his saints and virgins are men and women who speak Provençal
Provençal language
Provençal is a dialect of Occitan spoken by a minority of people in southern France, mostly in Provence. In the English-speaking world, "Provençal" is often used to refer to all dialects of Occitan, but it actually refers specifically to the dialect spoken in Provence."Provençal" is also the...

. His best work, the St Sebastian at Genoa, though a little heavy in parts, shows admirable energy and life, as well as great skill in contrasting the decorative accessories with the simple surface of the nude. There is in the museum of Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence
Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...

 the bust of a long-haired young man in pseudoclassical costume which is believed to be a portrait of Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

 made by Puget at the time of the king's visit in 1660.

Pierre Puget was and still is quite famous in Marseille. The Mont Puget
Mont Puget
Mont Puget, named after the French sculptor Pierre Puget, is a mountain, part of Marseille-Cassis calanques, located south-east of Marseille.Like most Marseille mountains, it is formed from limestone.- Tourism :...

, one of the mountain ranges bordering Marseille, is named after him.

External links

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