Jean-Baptiste Tuby

Who was Jean-Baptiste Tuby?

Jean-Baptiste Tuby was a French sculptor of Italian origins who served Louis XIV of France and was regarded, with Antoine Coysevox, as one of the premier court sculptors of his time. He was born in Rome in 1635 and died in Paris in 1700.

His work is remarkable for its extraordinary precision of symmetry and three dimensional volume, its explosively animated forms, and for a delicate sense of embellishment and even humor.

He is most renowned for the magnificent bronze centerpiece of the Fountain of Apollo planned and built by André Le Nôtre for the West Gardens of Versailles. He also created remarkably nuanced life-size bronzes for Versaille's Parterre d'Eau representing several great rivers of France. His is arguably the finest decorative white marble urn at Versailles, Le Vase de la Paix, a monumental 2.5 meter tall work that still adorns the South corner of the stairs immediately below the west facade of the palace containing the Hall of Mirrors.