oa L’activité de l’éditeur d’estampes parisien Jean Messager (vers 1572-1649): l’affirmation de la gravure française du premier quart du xvii^e siècle, au carrefour des influences flamandes et italiennes

The Paris printer, print publisher and dealer Jean Messager, a contemporary of Nicolas de Mathonière, had a wide publisher fund with different subjects or genres. Messager collaborated with both French engravers/etchers (e.g. the young Claude Mellan, Michel Lasne, Léonard Gaultier) and engravers of Flemish origin. To the latter group belonged engravers who stayed in Italy for a while, such as Charles de Mallery and Melchior Tavernier. This explains partly the Italian influence in some of the prints he edited. To Messager, especially the production of small devotional prints was important. These were mainly copies of engravings by the families Wierix, Collaert and Sadeler. Because of Messagers trade network, the prints found their way to international markets.

So, the cases of the Mathonière family and Jean Messager clearly illustrate the importance of the Antwerp graphic arts for print production in Paris in terms of technique, subject, style and as an economic product. But this is only a small part of a larger story. French copies of prints of the southern Netherlands also found their way into Spain by French print publishers and dealers.