Cleveland Museum of Art

A Philosopher

Pierre Puget

Date

1662

Medium

marble

Culture

France, made in Rome, 17th century

Department

European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Puget traveled to Rome in the early 1660s, where he closely studied ancient busts in the collections of wealthy nobles. Although inspired by Greek and Roman depictions of individual philosophers, orators, and writers, Puget created a generalized image of this type—a mature, bearded man with a furrowed brow— rather than a portrait of a particular historical figure. The rounded forms of the flesh and individual locks of hair are particularly characteristic of 17th-century baroque taste.

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