PUGET, Pierre
(b. 1620, Marseille, d. 1694, Marseille)

Atlas from the door of the Hôtel de Ville at Toulon

1656
Marble
Musée Navale, Toulon

Puget's style here springs from the Roman Baroque, but not in the first place from Bernini. There is no work of Bernini which attempts to convey the feeling of anguish, which is the principal characteristic of Puget's Atlantes. In this way they mark rather a direct return to the Slaves of Michelangelo, who was at all times an important inspiration to the artist. But there are also models for them to be found in Puget's own master, Pietro da Cortona. One of the novelties of the latter's ceiling in the Palazzo Barberini is that in the painted corners the entablatures are supported not, as in the Farnese Gallery, by nonchalant athletes in classically calm poses, but by struggling figures oppressed by their loads.




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