Jean Bérain the Elder

Born in Saint-Mihiel, Meuse, in the Austrian Netherlands,[2] he was the son of a master gunsmith, in whose line of work engraving was a prominent technique.

His close friendship with Nicodemus Tessin the Younger ensured that Berain's own nuance in the Louis XIV style was transmitted to court circles in Sweden.

He was inventive and industrious, and, beginning with interiors at the Hôtel de Mailly (1687–88) assimilated and adapted Raphaelesque grotesque ornament[7][2] to the taste of the time.

For Lully's 1684 opera Amadis, a tale of chivalric romance, Bérain carried out research into the styles of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, a historical approach to costume design that was unusual for the time.

After Lully's death in 1687, he created designs for the earliest opéra-ballets, Pascal Colasse's Les saisons (1695) and André Campra's L'Europe galante (1697).

His numerous designs were for the most part engraved under his own supervision; a collection of them was published in Paris in 1711 by his son-in-law, Jacques Thuret, clockmaker to the king from 1694.