Tugal Caris

Tugal Caris (late 16th century – 1665 or 1666), also spelled Carris or Cariste, was a 17th-century French sculptor and architect.

Biography

Caris was born in the late sixteenth century or early seventeenth century. In 1630, he was associated in a market with Jean Martinet for the purchase of 600 carts of stones from the Couldre and Bootz quarries at Changé. He then lived in Laval. This purchase did not concern the construction of altarpieces.

He was the husband of Jeanne Barais, probably the sister of Catherine Barais, wife of the architect Michel Bellier.[1] They had several children, including a son Jacques Caris who moved to Nantes where, after having been associated with his father, he became an architect.

Origins
  1. Marie Bellier, wife of Antoine Agenyau, architect.[2]
  2. Michel Bellier,[3] architect, husband of Catherine Barais.[4]
  3. Louise Bellier, wife of Philippe Bault, lawyer at Rennes
  4. Guillaume Bellier
  5. Renée Bellier, wife of Jean Martinet, architect
  6. Olivier Martinet, architect

Lavallois Rededos

His first known altarpiece is that of Vaiges, now missing, built in 1634. He can probably also be attributed the realization of the altar Saint-Denis at Saint-Denis-du-Maine in 1632, and the altar Saint-Pierre at Nuillé-sur-Ouette in 1633. From 1634 to 1636, he erected the altarpiece[5] of the Saint-Sauveur Abbey of Redon.[6] Caris is also attributed the two side altars of this church, but which do not date from the same period.

In June 1636, he was in Laval where he contested the quality of the marble ordered from Étienne Arnoul, and asked for an expertise from Pierre Corbineau and Jean Martinet. After Redon's realization, he made an altarpiece at the church of the Cordeliers of Rennes in 1636, then from 1637 to 1639, the high altar of the Saint-Vénérand church of Laval.[7] Around 1639, he made the main altarpiece of the Tréguier Cathedral.[8] At the same time, he raised two altarpieces at Bonchamp-lès-Laval.

In 1640, he realized the high altar and the altar of the Rosary of the Saint-Martin church of Châtillon-sur-Colmont. The reredos of the right altar, representing the Virgin Mary, is composed of small medallions. In each medallion, a mystery of the Rosary is represented as a scene.

  • Altarpiece of the Rosary of the Church of Chatillon-sur-Colmont.
  • Main altar and altarpiece (church of Brée), attributed to Tugal Caris.

Architect at Rennes and Nantes

After the lavallois reredos, he moved to architecture, and was entrusted with the realization of the façade of the Rennes Cathedral.[9] He built the large portal and part of the towers from 1640 to 1654. He then became entrepreneur du Palace of Rennes,[10] whose construction he resumed after Jacques Corbineau. He signed with the community of the city of Rennes on 28 April 1640 for the "continuation of work on the side of the Cordeliers".

He then lived in Rennes where he directed the most important works. In 1642 he built two side altarpieces and the main altar[11] of Availles-sur-Seiche[12] as well as that of Rannée[13] He is also attributed the altarpiece of the high altar[14] of the church of Tinténiac.

Nevertheless, the work carried out at the Palace of Parliament of Brittany was deemed not to conform to the plans and specifications drawn up by Salomon de Brosse in 1618, and was destroyed in 1647 by order of the Parliament of Brittany. Caris was dispossessed of his office for the benefit of Pierre Corbineau.

In 1648 he left Rennes[15] for Nantes where he built a convent and private mansions. It is possible that he was at this time between Nantes, Rennes where he managed the cathedral site until 1654, and Gaël where he raised the altarpiece of the high altar in 1650-1651. He seems to leave Rennes in 1654 definitively, the cathedral site was also taken over by Pierre Corbineau. The construction of the Cathedral in Rennes was eventful: Tugal Caris must start again in 1651 in granite instead of the tufa initially chosen.

According to Léon Palustre, Tugal Caris would have led the work to the cornice on the first floor. After him, from 1654 to 1678, Pierre Corbineau completed the superposition of the three orders and placed the coat of arms of Louis XIV above the immense window in the façade of the monument. Then François Huguet[16] cleared the two towers, gave them two independent floors, and in 1703 put the finishing touches to this work. He brought the levels to their current height of 48 metres and added on the pediment at the top of the façade Louis XIV's motto: Nec pluribus impar, the unparalleled.

Caris completed the rededo of the altar Notre-Dame-de-Pitié in one of the chapels[17] of the Nantes Cathedral circa 1656, the same year he was awarded the contract for the cathedral's works[18] Il meurt à Nantes en 1665 ou 1666.[19]

References
  1. Michel Bellier was also linked to the Langlois family.
  2. He was established in the Faubourg du Pont-de-Mayenne at the beginning of the 17th century in Laval. He worked at the Saint-Vénérand church of Laval where he built at least a large rood screen destroyed in 1697, and a pulpit and two altars, those of Notre-Dame and Sainte-Suzanne, at both ends of the rood screen. His brother François was also probably an architect, and assisted his brother in his work. His origin is unknown from either abbot Angot or Celestin Port. He was a candidate in 1624 for the succession of Germain Gaultier at the Palace of the Parlement de Bretagne. In 1627, his name appears in the request of Thomas Poussin among several architects including Jacques Corbineau who would have worked for Poussin. In 1629, he settled in Vitré where he died on 2 July 1630.
  3. His name is sometimes written Beslier or Bellice; He seems to have been more a sculptor and marble worker than an architect. His name is associated with marble markets.
  4. Jeanne Barais, wife of Tugal Caris, was his sister
  5. - Retable de l'abbaye Saint-Sauveur de Redon
  6. The work cost 6,600 livres, without statues, painting and gilding.
  7. It currently seats in the church of Brée.
  8. Destroyed. Caris was associated with Jean Martinet, who died the same year.
  9. Whose work had been halted a century earlier.
  10. Based on a house lease signed in Laval on 10 January 1643.
  11. - Retable du maître-autel d'Availles-sur-Seiche
  12. The contract signed in 1642 with the architect Michel Bellier for the supply of marble columns on the port of Nantes was probably linked to the construction of altarpieces.
  13. - Retable du maître-autel de Rannée
  14. - Retable du maître-autel de Tinténiac
  15. He had bought two houses there
  16. Marie Beaugrand's son, therefore son-in-law of Pierre Corbineau, his student, François II Houdault, had a daughter, Catherine, who, on 20 August 1675, married François Huguet, son of the late Jean Huguet and the late Anne Vilarde in the Trinity church of Laval. From François Huguet and Catherine Houdault was born Jean-François Huguet, baptized on 29 December 1679, he was "ingénieur du Roy",
  17. Dictionnaire des églises de France, volume IV, Bretagne, p. 81.
  18. Charles Durville, Études sur le vieux Nantes, volume II, p. 26.
  19. And not in Rennes in 1654, as indicated by J.-M. Richard.

Bibliography
  • Jules-Marie Richard, Les constructeurs de retables, Société d'archéologie et d'histoire de la Mayenne, 1906.
  • Salbert, Jacques (1976). Les ateliers de retabliers lavallois aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Étude historique et artistique (compte-rendu). Persée (web portal). Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
  • Journal d'un bourgeois de Rennes au XVIIe siècle, Apogée, 1993, p. 194-199.
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