PUGET, PIERRE, a celebrated sculptor, architect, painter, and ship-builder, was born at Marseilles on the 31st October 1622. His genius developed itself under very unfavourable circumstances. He had little artistic education and few facilities for artistic study; yet his own innate bias forced him on towards excellence. Every opportunity, however unfavourable, was seized for giving embodiment to those great ideas that began to rise vaguely before his boyish mind. Design in any of its branches, and on any occasion, was ardently practised by the precocious youth. When a mere lad of sixteen, he was superintending the building of a galley in the dockyards of his native city. At the age of eighteen he was gaining
a livelihood in Florence by carving in wood. A year had not elapsed before he was found in Rome the favourite pupil of the famous painter Pietro de Cortona. He then returned home at the age of twenty-one, ready to practise in any department of art that might suit his purpose. The established reputation of Puget now secured for him a series of commissions. The building of a most magnificent vessel, named La Reine in honour of Anne of Austria, was entrusted to his superintendence. No sooner had that been completed in 1646 than he was despatched to Rome to make drawings of the most celebrated monuments of antiquity. Six years were spent in this employment, and he then came back to France to undertake the painting of several pictures. His pencil was plied vigorously, until the towns of Marseilles, Aix, Toulon, Cuers, and Ciotat, were embellished with his productions, and his health gave way under the continued toil. Puget, thus compelled to change his vocation, turned his attention to sculpture and architecture. In no long time he began to take a prominent place in the profession. His own native genius, in spite of an imperfect education, led him to discover the secrets of his art. The edifices which he erected at Marseilles and Toulon were remarkable for the boldness, the originality, and the grandeur of their architecture. The statues which he set up at Genoa and other places were unrivalled for their rough vigour and intense expression. Especially did the colossal group of Milo excite the admiration of his contemporaries. While it was still unfinished, intelligence reached the French court about the figure, instinct with the throes of pain and baffled strength, which was gradually coming out from the dull, formless marble in a quiet studio at Toulon. King Louis XIV. issued orders that it should be conveyed to Versailles as soon as it was completed. A chest containing it arrived at the palace in the spring of 1683, and the court gathered round to see it produced. "Ah, poor man!" exclaimed the queen Maria Theresa, as she saw the agonized face of the statue appear. This cry of pity brought the reputation of Puget to a climax. From that time till the time when he died at Marseilles in 1694, he was recognised by his sovereign and countrymen as the greatest sculptor in Europe.