Jacques Sarazin or Sarrazin (

baptised Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

8 June 1592 in

Noyon Noyon (; pcd, Noéyon; la, Noviomagus Veromanduorum, Noviomagus of the Veromandui, then ) is a commune in the Oise department, northern France. Geography Noyon lies on the river Oise, about northeast of Paris. The Oise Canal and the Cana ...

– died 3 December 1660 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

) was a French sculptor in the classical tradition of

Baroque art The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

. He was instrumental in the development of the

Style Louis XIV The Louis XIV style or ''Louis Quatorze'' ( , ), also called French classicism, was the style of architecture and decorative arts intended to glorify King Louis XIV and his reign. It featured majesty, harmony and regularity. It became the official ...

through his own work as well as through his many pupils. Nearly all his work as a painter was destroyed and is only known through

engravings Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

Life

Sarazin was born in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, and went to Paris with his brother, where he trained in the workshop of Nicolas Guillain. He went to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1610 and remained there until 1628. While in Rome, he produced garden sculpture for Cardinal Aldobrandini's

Villa Aldobrandini The Villa Aldobrandini is a villa in Frascati, Italy. It is still owned and lived in by the Aldobrandini family, and known as Belvedere for its location overlooking the valley toward the city of Rome. It is the only grand Pope, Papal garden not o ...

Frascati Frascati () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated wit ...

(c. 1620). From 1622 to 1627, he carried out stucco work to accompany the paintings of

Domenichino Domenico Zampieri (, ; October 21, 1581 – April 6, 1641), known by the diminutive Domenichino (, ) after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters. Life Domenichino was born in Bologna, son of a sho ...

on the high altar of

Sant'Andrea della Valle Sant'Andrea della Valle is a minor basilica in the rione of Sant'Eustachio of the city of Rome, Italy. The basilica is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines. It is located at Piazza Vidoni, at the intersection of Corso Vittor ...

and in San Lorenzo in Miranda. In 1628 he returned to

, where, in 1631, he married a niece of the painter

Simon Vouet Simon Vouet (; 9 January 1590 – 30 June 1649) was a French painter who studied and rose to prominence in Italy before being summoned by Louis XIII to serve as Premier peintre du Roi in France. He and his studio of artists created religious and ...

, whom he had met in Rome and for whom he had created some angels in stucco to frame his altarpiece in Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, Paris. Appointed ''Sculpteur et peintre ordinaire du roi'' in 1631, Sarazin made a number of works for

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown ...

and his wife

Anne of Austria Anne of Austria (french: Anne d'Autriche, italic=no, es, Ana María Mauricia, italic=no; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was an infanta of Spain who became Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XIII from their marriage in 1615 un ...

, particularly

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...

s and tomb sculpture, most of which were later destroyed. Other royal works include the

Caryatides A caryatid ( or or ; grc, Καρυᾶτις, pl. ) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term ''karyatides'' literally means "ma ...

of the Pavillon de l'Horloge, in the center of the west wing of the Cour Carrée (Square Court) of the

Palais du Louvre The Louvre Palace (french: link=no, Palais du Louvre, ), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Gardens and the ...

. The history of the Caryatides illustrates well the collaborative system of royal sculpture during the period in which Sarazin worked. The facade had been designed by the royal architect,

Jacques Lemercier Jacques Lemercier (c. 1585 in Pontoise – 13 January 1654 in Paris) was a French architect and engineer, one of the influential trio that included Louis Le Vau and François Mansart who formed the classicizing French Baroque manner, drawing ...

, as an extension of the earlier facade across the courtyard made by

Pierre Lescot Pierre Lescot (c. 1515 – 10 September 1578) was a French architect active during the French Renaissance. His most notable works include the Fontaine des Innocents and the Lescot wing of the Louvre in Paris. He played an important role in t ...

. The

were inspired by six figures of the Caryatid

Porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

of the

Erechtheion The Erechtheion (latinized as Erechtheum /ɪˈrɛkθiəm, ˌɛrɪkˈθiːəm/; Ancient Greek: Ἐρέχθειον, Greek: Ερέχθειο) or Temple of Athena Polias is an ancient Greek Ionic temple- telesterion on the north side of the Acropoli ...

on the Acropolis at Athens. They had been drawn frequently by artists, and one had been brought to London. En 1550,

Jean Goujon Jean Goujon (c. 1510 – c. 1565)Thirion, Jacques (1996). "Goujon, Jean" in ''The Dictionary of Art'', edited by Jane Turner; vol. 13, pp. 225–227. London: Macmillan. Reprinted 1998 with minor corrections: . was a French Renaissance sculpt ...

, the architect and sculptor at the Louvre under

Henry II of France Henry II (french: Henri II; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I and Duchess Claude of Brittany, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder bro ...

, had made a group of caryatides inside the Louvre, supporting the platform for musicians in the Hall of the Swiss Guards. Goujon, like Sarazin, never saw the originals in Greece; he worked only from drawings. Sarazin made his first drawings for the Louvre exterior figures in 1636, based on drawings of the originals and on the Goujon works, and then made terra cotta miniatures. The actual statues were then carried out in 1639-1640 by his assistants Gilles Guérin,

Philippe de Buyster Philippe de Buyster (1595 – 1688), was a Flemish-French sculptor. Biography He was born in Antwerp and became a pupil of Gillis van Papenhoven.Thibaut Poissant according to the master's models. Sarazin used his large workshop for decoration campaigns for several châteaux in the Ile-de-France, including Château de Chilly (c. 1630-32, destroyed) for the Superintendent of Finances marquis d'Effiat, the Château de Wideville for Effiat's successor Claude de Bullion (after 1630, only fragments remain) and interior and exterior sculptures for the

Château de Maisons The Château de Maisons (now Château de Maisons-Laffitte), designed by François Mansart from 1630 to 1651, is a prime example of French baroque architecture and a reference point in the history of French architecture. The château is located in M ...

(1642–50). His main assistants were Guérin, de Buyster, Gérard van Opstal and later

Pierre Le Gros the Elder Pierre Le Gros the Elder (baptised 27 May 1629 Chartres – died 11 May 1714 Paris)Gerhard Bissell, ''Le Gros, Pierre (1629)'', in: Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, vol. 83, de Gruyter, Berlin 2014, . was a French sculptor in the service of King ...

, all of whom in turn became prominent sculptors in the service of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

. In 1648, Sarazin was one of the founders of the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and was elected as one of the original twelve elders in charge of its running.''Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de l'Académie royale de Peinture et de Sculpture depuis 1648 jusqu'en 1664''
Ed.

Anatole de Montaiglon Anatole de Courde de Montaiglon (28 November 1824 – 1 September 1895) was a 19th-century French librarian and art historian. Biography In 1850, De Montaignon graduated as an archivist and palaeographer from the École des chartes, with a t ...

, Paris 1853, vol. I, p. 36. In 1654 he became its Rector. Already in 1648, Sarazin received the commission for the large funeral monument for the heart of the

prince de Condé A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

for the Église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis in Paris. Due to the troubles of the

Fronde The Fronde () was a series of civil wars in France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the law cour ...

its making was long delayed. At the time of Sarazin's death in 1660, all its parts were finished but not assembled, which was accomplished until 1663 by his assistant Le Gros. The monument has later been moved to the

Musée Condé The Musée Condé – in English, the Condé Museum – is a French museum located inside the Château de Chantilly in Chantilly, Oise, 40 km north of Paris. In 1897, Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale, son of Louis Philippe I, bequeathed the ...

Chantilly Chantilly may refer to: Places France *Chantilly, Oise, a city located in the Oise department **US Chantilly, a football club *Château de Chantilly, a historic château located in the town of Chantilly United States * Chantilly, Missou ...

where it was installed in a different form.

Importance

Although Sarazin died before the large sculpture commissions for the

Gardens of Versailles The Gardens of Versailles (french: Jardins du château de Versailles ) occupy part of what was once the ''Domaine royal de Versailles'', the royal demesne of the château of Versailles. Situated to the west of the palace, the gardens cover so ...

were properly underway, it is there that most of his influence can be felt. He had brought the classical early Baroque style of the Bolognese painters and the restrained playfulness of the sculpture of

François Duquesnoy François Duquesnoy or Frans Duquesnoy (12 January 1597 – 18 July 1643) was a Flemish Baroque sculptor who was active in Rome for most of his career. His idealized representations are often contrasted with the more emotional character of Ber ...

from Italy to France. There, he developed his vocabulary. His mythological statues of the 1630s for Wideville already display a stylistic approach which was to become typical for Versailles sculpture. Moreover, the playful ease of his

putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University of ...

at Maisons provide an example which was to be followed in French sculpture well beyond the 18th century.

Gallery

14 - Autel et statue de Saint-Bruno à Saint-Bruno des Chartreux.JPG, Saint Bruno, Church of St Bruno-les-Chartreux, Lyon (1629) Left caryatids Pavillon Horloge Louvre.jpg, Double Carytides on the Pavillon de l'Horloge of the

cour Carrée The Cour Carrée (Square Court) is one of the main courtyards of the Louvre Palace in Paris. The wings surrounding it were built gradually, as the walls of the medieval Louvre were progressively demolished in favour of a Renaissance palace. Cons ...

, Louvre Palace (1639–40) File:Paris - Palais du Louvre - PA00085992 - 45.jpg, Caryatides on the Pavillon de l'Horloge, Louvre Palace (1639–40) File:Putti Grand stairway Château de Maisons n04.jpg,

Putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University of ...

on the Grand Stairway,

(c. 1642-1650) File:PA040150 Reliefs du monument du coeur de Louis XIII - Jacques Sarazin - Louvre reduct.JPG, Plaque representing "Prudence" on the funeral monument holding the heart of Louis XIII, Louvre (1643) Louis XIV a 5 ans Louvre.jpg,

at age five (1643) Sarazin Louis XIV 01.jpg, Louis XIV at age ten. (1648) Leda and the Swan MET ES4879.jpg, Leda and the Swan, New York,

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

(ca. 1650) LouvreMonumentCoeurBérulle 03.jpg, Monument for heart of cardinal Pierre de Bérulle, Louvre (1657) File:Chantilly (60), château de Chantilly, chapelle des cœurs des princes de Condé, mausolée des princes de Condé 7.jpg, ''La Prudence'' from the monument to the Prince de Condé, Chantilly, Musée Condé (finished by 1660)

Works in the Musée du Louvre, Paris

*''Temperance'', c. 1645, marble. *''Louis XIV enfant'', c. 1643, sculpture *''Cenotaph to the heart of cardinal Pierre de Bérulle'', 1657

References

External links