And in 1621, he helped in the decoration of the Luxembourg Palace in Paris for the king's mother, Marie de Medici.

[2] The son's long career as an artist in France was interrupted by several stays in Rome, going there to study with his father in 1625, equipped with a royal scholarship, and again in 1627.

He drew ancient works of art as well as figures, busts, reliefs, ornament and Trajan's Column, as well as contemporary buildings.

[4] In 1651, according to Stiche, he produced illustrations after Poussin's sketches to Leonardo da Vinci's Trattato della Pittura.

[5] In 1666, Louis XIV's minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert sent him to found the French Academy in Rome, where he was director until 1684 (apart from 1673 to 1675, when he was replaced by Noël Coypel).

Rivalries with Charles Le Brun led him to take another trip to Rome, this time taking twelve scholars with him to establish the Académie de France à Rome on behalf of his promoter, the French minister Colbert.