Colt, Maximilian

Colt, Maximilian (or Maximilian Coulte) (b Arras; d ?c.1650). French-born sculptor who settled in London c.1595 (probably as a Huguenot refugee), Anglicized his surname from Poultrain, and became an English citizen in 1607. His career ‘began with great promise, and then dwindled, apparently, almost to nothing’ ( Margaret Whinney, Sculpture in Britain: 1530–1830, 1964). In 1605–6 he made the tomb of Queen Elizabeth I in Westminster Abbey, a splendid example of a conventional type. Much more original is his tomb of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury (c.1612–18), at Hatfield, in which the effigy lies on a black marble bier carried on the shoulders of four solemn and beautifully cut kneeling Virtues. Before this Colt had carried out much work at Hatfield House for Cecil, including two magnificent fireplaces. In 1608 James I appointed Colt his master sculptor, an office he continued holding under Charles I. However, his art, excellent as it was by Jacobean standards, was too conservative for Charles, from whom he received only minor commissions. Very little is known about Colt's later life. He was evidently still alive in about 1645 but dead by the Restoration in 1660.