Jean-Jacques Castex (9 April 1731 – 1822) was a French

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

. Castex was born in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

. He participated in the

Napoleonic Campaign in Egypt The French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in the Ottoman territories of Egypt and Syria, proclaimed to defend French trade interests, to establish scientific enterprise in the region. It was the pr ...

. In January 1799, he accompanied the geographer Bertre in his travel to Fayoum. He was part of the committee led by Pierre Girard which left

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

on 19 March 1799 to go to

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...

. He made a wax model, reduced to one third, of the Dendera zodiac. He created, after the drawings he had brought back from Egypt, a ''Zodiaque'', which was exhibited at the 1819

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...

. He remains famous for having carved an inscription on the stone of the great temple of Philae. Despite his talent, he died in poverty at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris. ''Edouard de Villiers du Terrage, Journal et souvenirs sur l'expédition d'Égypte, mis en ordre et publiés par le baron Marc de Villiers du Terrage'', Paris, E. Plon, Nourrit, 1899, and ''L'expédition d'Égypte 1798-1801, Journal et souvenirs d'un jeune savant'', Paris, Cosmopole, 2001 and 2003, p. 356

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castex, Jean-Jacques 1731 births 1822 deaths 18th-century French sculptors French male sculptors 19th-century French sculptors Sculptors from Toulouse 19th-century French male artists 18th-century French male artists