Jacques Sarazin

Jacques Sarazin or Sarrazin (; baptised 8 June 1592 – died 3 December 1660 in Paris) was a French sculptor in the classical tradition of Baroque art. He was instrumental in the development of the Style Louis XIV through his own work as well as through his many pupils. and for whom he had created some angels in stucco to frame his altarpiece in Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, Paris.

Sarazin used his large workshop for decoration campaigns for several châteaux in the Ile-de-France, including Château de Chilly (c. 1630-32, destroyed) for the Superintendent of Finances marquis d'Effiat, the Château de Wideville for Effiat's successor Claude de Bullion (after 1630, only fragments remain) and interior and exterior sculptures for the Château de Maisons (1642–50). In 1654 he became its Rector.

Already in 1648, Sarazin received the commission for the large funeral monument for the heart of the prince de Condé for the Église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis in Paris. Due to the troubles of the Fronde its making was long delayed. At the time of Sarazin's death in 1660, all its parts were finished but not assembled, which was accomplished until 1663 by his assistant Le Gros. The monument has later been moved to the Musée Condé in Chantilly where it was installed in a different form.

Importance Although Sarazin died before the large sculpture commissions for the Gardens of Versailles were properly underway, it is there that most of his influence can be felt. He had brought the classical early Baroque style of the Bolognese painters and the restrained playfulness of the sculpture of François Duquesnoy from Italy to France. There, he developed his vocabulary. His mythological statues of the 1630s for Wideville already display a stylistic approach which was to become typical for Versailles sculpture. Moreover, the playful ease of his putti at Maisons provide an example which was to be followed in French sculpture well beyond the 18th century.

Gallery

Works in the Musée du Louvre, Paris Temperance, c. 1645, marble. Louis XIV enfant, c. 1643, sculpture Cenotaph to the heart of cardinal Pierre de Bérulle, 1657