Olivier Martinet (XVIIe - ?) was an 18th-century French architect of the .
Life Origin He was the son of Jean Martinet and Renée Bellier (the Belliers were linked to several architects). He was also affiliated to the Langlois family.His kinship is attested by a notarial deed of 1639 which mentions him as close relatives of the minor children of deceased Jean Martinet and Renée Bellier. Abbé Angot, volume II, .
Architect
One evening of the 1645 Fête-Dieu, at the end of the suburb of Saint-Martin de Laval, a fight took place between Jean-Michel Langlois and Olivier Martinet on one side and the architects François and Pierre Vignier on the other, but the complaint was withdrawn, and they reconciled. Another time, in 1666, François Langlois was accused of wounding Jacques Chevreul, master locksmith, in a quarrel.
He lived in Vitré in 1647 when he had his first known market signed in LavalHe ordered 20 columns, 8 balusters and flat marble from the marble makers Rochereau and Cuvelier. to build the main altar of the in Hennebont.This altarpiece has now disappeared.
In the same year, he took part in the auction of the reredos of which he won against the LangloisRepresented by François Langlois, their brother, a grain merchant. and the marble maker Julien LecomteOlivier Martinet also architect put the said altar to a thousand pounds to which as more demeaning by the advisers of most of the said parishioners was the said awarded company. However, it did not respect the planned deadlinesOne year. and completed the project in 1649Paris-Jallobert, Journal historique de Vitré, . In 1647, he ordered again from Rochereau et Cuvelier, which was to be delivered to Nantes.
In 1650, he built an altar at Saint-Colomban Church in Quimperlé.- Retable de l'église Saint-Colomban de Quimperlé . Martinet leads a team of local masons and sculptors (Berard, Bonnier, Chève, Le Poix). He had statues executed by the sculptor Jacob Le Roy, famous for his marble and terracotta statues. In 1653,According to J.-M. Richard. he is at Port-Louis where he built the altars of the Church of Our Lady.They were blessed in 1655. These altars have now disappeared. They can be seen in a photograph by H.-F Buffet Le vieux Port-Louis, .
On May 31, 1655, he lived in Hennebont, and came to Laval to settle his marble scores with Michel Rochereau. At the same time, he erectedThese altarpieces are neither dated nor signed, but for Jacques Salbert, characteristic of his work. three retables lavallois in Séglien,This altarpiece is sometimes incorrectly attributed to Tugal Caris. Ploërdut and Locmalo. On April 7, 1657, he lived in AurayAccording to the act of sale of the house in . where he built an altar at the .
He then erected an altar in a side chapel of the Dominican Church of Rennes. He then returned to Port-Louis, where the work seemed episodic. It was probably at the same time that he was raising the main altar and two side altarpieces in the church of Carnac, that he finished in 1659.
In 1660, he built the altarpiece of the main altar of , then in 1667, that of Laniscat. From 1668 to 1670 or 1672, he built an altarpiece at the Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Saint-Jean-du-Doigt.It was destroyed by fire in the 20th century. There are still some photographs left. Jacques Salbert indicates that it had an original place in the Laval altarpiece by its double convexity of the wings framing the large recessed central painting. In 1672, he had the following transported from Nantes to and at the hâvre of Pontrieux marble and tufa.three cents of tufa, 6 columns of 7 feet marble, 4 columns of 6 feet, 2 of 5, 18 half balusters Jacques Salbert thinks that an altarpiece was built in the chapel of the Château du Taureau, and that the rest of the material was used to build the altarpiece of Guingamp.Attributed to Olivier Martinet by Hervé du Halgouët, Les retables de chevet au XVIIe et au XVIIIe, .
In 1672, he worked on the construction of the main altar of the Abbaye de Beauport.This altarpiece is now destroyed. It was decorated with 6 marble columns and 3 statues, and the whole had cost 4000 Livres. In 1679, Martinet made the altarpiece of Tressignaux, then probably also in Guingamp in 1680. The altarpiece of Bréhat is also attributed By R. Couffon. to Olivier Martinet.
References
Bibliography Jules-Marie Richard, Les constructeurs de retables, , 1906. Jacques Salbert, Ateliers de retabliers Lavallois aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles: Études historiques et artistiques, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 1976.