PUGET, Pierre

Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône 1620 - Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône 1694

Le bienheureux Alessandro Sauli en Saint Augustin

The Blessed Alessandro Sauli as St. Augustine

c. 1665-1667

terracotta

statuette

Dimensions (HxWxD): 27 ³⁄₄ x 16 x 12 in.

[unsigned]

Acc. No.: 50:1968

Credit Line: Museum Purchase

Photo credit: Saint Louis Art Museum

© Artist : public domain

© Artist : public domain

Saint Louis, Missouri, Saint Louis Art Museum

www.slam.org

Provenance

• 1968, Museum Purchase

Bibliography

• Museum's website, May 3 2010 and June 18, 2015
• 1977-1993 Souchal
  François Souchal, French sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries : the reign of Louis XIV, Oxford, Cassirer, 1977-1993

Exhibitions

• 1968 Basel
  French paintings and sculptures of the 17th century, Basel, Heim Gallery, June 12-August 15, 1968

Related works

• Terracotta, Cleveland, Museum of Art.
  Terracotta, Munich, Boehler collection.
  Marble, Genoa, Santa Maria di Carignano.

Comment

• Museum's website, May 3 2010:
  This expressive figure invades the surrounding space, making it an excellent example of the exuberant emotional power associated with 17th-century baroque sculpture. The artist used a sharp tool to detail the sleeve, the lace along the hem, the fringed edges of the cape, and the figure’s beard. Though typical of French taste, this highly finished terra cotta is related to a large-scale marble sculpture commissioned in 1664 for a Genoese church. Alessandro Sauli became bishop of Pavia (50 miles north of Genoa) in 1591 after having worked to energize the moribund church in Corsica.

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