CAYOT, Claude-Augustin
(b. 1677, Paris, d. 1722, Paris)

Biography

Claude-Augustin Cayot (also spelt Caillot), French sculptor. He may have been trained by the elderly Etienne Le Hongre, but his supple and graceful style better reflects his long association with Corneille van Clève and is typical of the work produced by the sculptors working in France in the last decades of Louis XIV's reign and during the Régence period. He executed decorative work at the Château Neuf de Meudon, Hauts-de-Seine (1706-07; destroyed), and works in stone and bronze for the chapel of the château of Versailles (1709-10; in situ). He was received (reçu) into the Académie Royale in 1711 with a dramatic marble statuette of Dido Taking her Life (Paris, Louvre), and in 1713-15 he supplied gilt-bronze ornaments for the high altar of Notre-Dame, Paris, in conjunction with François-Antoine Vassé (1681-1736) under the direction of Robert de Cotte. In 1718 he carved a delightful Rococo marble statue of a nymph for the series Companions of Diana (Cliveden, Bucks, NT) for the gardens of the château of Marly, Yvelines. The small marble group of Cupid and Psyche (London, Wallace Collection), long attributed to Cayot, is now generally thought to be by Filippo della Valle.