JEAN PICART (PICARD)

m lopes azevedo

Painter and engraver, he was born in Paris in 1673, son of Etienne Picard, also an engraver. His grandfather was a Parisian bookdealer. He died in Amsterdam in 1733 , where he had settled. There is scant information available on his life. The Grove art dictionary states that he left Paris in 1696 for Amsterdam, returned in 1698 and eventually settled there, where, he supposedly converted to Protestantism.
There is no evidence he ever set foot in Portugal, although he was a keen observer of Portuguese Jewish life in Amsterdam. In fact, the auto de fe in Lisbon print (in Blackhorse square) below which he entitled the manner of burning is perhaps a product of his imagination, for Francisco Bethencourt in Historia Das Inquisicaoes (History of the Inquisitions), Portugal, Espanha, e Italia, Temas& Debates, Lisbon, 1996 states that burnings did not occur in the palace square (Terreiro Do Paço, now Praça Do Comerçio or Blackhorse Square, according to tourist guide books of Lisbon), but further east along the tagus river. Does anyone have any information on Picard and why he was so interested in Portuguese Jews?
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