PUGET, Pierre Paul, pal French painter, sculptor and architect: b. Marseilles, 31 Oct. 1622; d. there, 1694. He began his career in art as apprentice to a ship builder named Roman, who set him to carving the figure decorations for the prow and poop of galleys which the prevailing fashion de manded. At 17, however, he gave up this pursuit and traveled to Italy on foot, visiting Genoa, Florence and Rome and in the latter place entered the school of Pietro da Cortona. This master's influence was always apparent in Puget's painting. In 1643 he returned to Mar seilles and to ship-designing. Later he spent six years at Rome in company with a fenillant monk on a commission from Anne of Austria to make drawings of antique monuments. After 1653 he painted pictures for churches of Marseilles, Aix and Toulon; but finally aban doned painting on the advice of physicians. His first work as a sculptor, the caryatides supporting the balcony of the Hotel de Ville, Toulon, was a venture into realism, the figures being studied from the porters on the quays. These received the praise of Bernini. He pro duced two works similarly conceived, 'Hercules Overcoming the Hydra, (now in the Musee de Rouen) and 'La Terre) for the Chateau de Vaudreuil, Normandy. His other works are more in the manner of the Italians of the 17th century, an influence confirmed by another visit at the instance of Fouquet. The fall of that
minister put an end to his commission and Puget settled in Genoa, where he sculptured a