Hercule au repos

1660

Commission from Nicolas Fouquet and a trip to Genoa for marble

The King’s Minister of Finance, Nicolas Fouquet, commissioned sculptures for his new garden at Vaux-le-Vicomte, including a statue of Hercules, Fouquet’s personal symbol, and sent Puget to Genoa to select and bring back the best blocks of marble in person. There the statue known as the Hercules of Gaul was made, with a Genoese sailor as the model.

1660

Refuses Colbert out of obligation to Fouquet

While preparing his voyage he received several proposals for sculptural projects from Jean-Baptiste Colbert, secretary to Cardinal Mazarin, but refused them because of his obligations to Fouquet. Colbert did not forget the slight.

5 September 1661

Fouquet is arrested on Colbert’s accusation

Nicolas Fouquet was arrested and imprisoned on Colbert’s accusation of using government funds for his own purposes. The statue commissioned for his garden was later sent instead to the Château de Sceaux, Colbert’s more modest residence; it is now in the Louvre.

1661–1669

Decides to stay in Italy for a time

He decided to stay in Italy for a time, making long visits to Rome and Genoa; his principal patron there was the nobleman Francesco Maria Sauli. For the French patron Emmanuel Brignole he made a notable statue, “The Immaculate Conception”, for the chapel of an Albergo in Genoa, and he declined the Genoese senate’s proposal to paint their council chamber in order to devote himself to sculpture.