Quick Facts
Biography
Jean-Baptiste Tuby (1635–1700) was a French sculptor of Italian origins.
Life
Tuby 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.
Art
Tuby's art 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.
Works
Tuby 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 (the Saon and the Rhone). 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 pHall of Mirrors (Palace of Versailles).