Lebensdaten/Datierung: 16./17. Jh.
Kupferstecher/in, Radierer
Wirkungsort: Genf
"The identity of the artist responsible for these prints, long a mystery, was clarified in 1940 when Albert Choisy discovered a payment in Geneva's municipal accounts from 1601 to the goldsmith Michel Bénard "for having colored (illuminé) the portraits of the Genevan war to be given to Mr de Grandcour of Fribourg ". If Bénard was not also the person who designed and engraved the plates, Choisy reasoned, why would the city council have asked have asked him to color the prints? Not only does this document serve to identify the artist. It shows that Geneva had no specialists in hand coloring prints in 1601 and that these memorials of Genevan victories were offered by the city to important diplomatic allies a decade after the events themselves. That the artist should have been a goldsmith who had only made engravings as a sideline fits with the evidence of the prints." (Philipp Benedict, Graphic History: The Wars, Massacres and Troubles of Tortorel and Perrissin 2007, 202-203. 05.08.2022)
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