Jacques Sarrazin

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Jacques Sarrazin (1588–December 3, 1660) was a French painter and sculptor.

Sarrazin was born in Noyon, France. He went to Rome at an early age and worked there under a Frenchman named Anguille. Starting thus, Sarrazin speedily obtained employment from Cardinal Aldobrandini at Frascati, where he won the friendship of Domenichino, with whom he afterwards worked on the high altar of St. Andrea della Valle. His return to Paris, where he married a niece of Simon Vouet, was signalized by a series of successes which attracted the notice of Sublet des Noyers, who entrusted to him the work by which Sarrazin is best known, the decoration of the great portal and the dome of the western facade of the interior court of the Louvre.

The famous Caryatides of the attic show the profound study of Michelangelo's art, to which Sarrazin had devoted all the time he could spare from bread-winning whilst in Rome. He now executed many commissions from the queen, and was an active promoter of the foundation of the Academy. The mausoleum for the heart of the prince de Cond in the Jesuit church of the Rue Saint Antoine was his last considerable work (see Lenoir, Muse des monuments français, V. 5). He died on December 3, 1660, while it was in progress, and the crucifix of the altar was actually completed by one of his pupils named Gros.