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JEAN BERAIN (1638-1711)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 761 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JEAN See also:BERAIN (1638-1711)  , known as " the See also:Elder," Belgian draughtsman and designer, painter and engraver of See also:ornament, was See also:born in 1638 or 1639 at See also:Saint Mihiel (See also:Meuse) and died in See also:Paris on the 24th of See also:January 1711 . In 1674 he was appointed dessinateur de la cha . et du See also:cabinet de Roi, in See also:succession to Gissey, whose See also:pupil he is believed to have been . From 1677 onward he had apartments, near to those of See also:Andre See also:Charles See also:Boulle (q.v.), for whom he made many designs, in the Louvre, where he died . After the See also:death of Le Brun he was commissioned to compose and supervise the whole of the exterior decoration of the See also:king's See also:ships . Without possessing See also:great originality he was inventive and industrious, and knew so well how to assimilate the See also:work of those who had preceded him (especially Raffaelle's arabesques) and to adapt it to the See also:taste of the See also:time that his designs became the rage . He furnished designs for the decorations and costumes used in the See also:opera performances, for See also:court festivals, and for public solemnities such as funeral processions, and inspired the ornamentations of rooms and of See also:furniture to such an extent that a See also:French writer says that nothing was done during his later years which he had not designed, or at least which was not in his manner . He was, in fact, the See also:oracle of taste and the supreme pontiff whose fiat was See also:law in all matters of decora-tion . His numerous designs were for the most See also:part engraved under his own superintendence, and a collection of them was published in Paris in 1711 by his son-in-law, See also:Thuret, clockmaker to the king . There are three books, fEuvre de J . See also:Berain, Ornements inventes See also:par J . Berain and (Euvres de J . Berain contenant See also:des ornements d'See also:architecture .

His earliest known See also:

works show him as engraver—twelve plates in the collection of Diverses pieces de serrurerie inventees par See also:Hughes Brisville et gravees par See also:Jean Berain (Paris, 1663), and in 1667 ten plates of designs for the use of gunsmiths . M . Guilmard in See also:Les Maitres ornemanistes, gives a See also:complete See also:list of his published works . His son JEAN BERAIN, " the Younger " (1678-1726), was born in Paris, where he also died . He was his See also:father's pupil, and exercised the same See also:official functions after his death . Thus he planned the funeral ceremonies at St See also:Denis on the death of the dauphin, and afterwards made the designs for the See also:obsequies of See also:Louis XIV . He is perhaps best known as an engraver . He engraved eleven plates of the collection Ornements de peinture et de See also:sculpture qui sont clans la galerie d'Apollon au chasteau du Louvre, et clans le See also:grand appartement du See also:roy au palais des Tuileries (Paris, 1710), which have been wrongly attributed to his father, the Mausolei du duc de Bourgogne, and that of See also:Marie-See also:Louise Gabrielle de See also:Savoie, reine d'Espagne (1714), &c . His work is exceedingly difficult to distinguish from his father's, the similarity of See also:style being remarkable .

End of Article: JEAN BERAIN (1638-1711)
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