Biography

French engraver, etcher and designer. Vasari, in his Vita of Marcantonio Raimondi, mentions that 'after the death of Rosso [Fiorentino], we saw the arrival from France of all the engravings of his works'. He attributed this upsurge of engraved reproductions 'to the copperplate engraver René', that is René Boyvin. He came to Paris c. 1545 from Angers, where he was an associate of the mint. In Paris he may have been in contact with Antonio Fantuzzi, and he is known to have renewed a contract of service with the engraver Pierre Milan in 1549. In 1553 he completed two plates that Milan had failed to finish for the music publisher Guillaume Morlaye (c. 1510-after 1558); one of these was the Nymph of Fontainebleau. He later opened his own workshop, and it is known that Lorenzo Penni, the son of Luca, was working for him in October 1557.

Boyvin survived for many years despite the Calvinist beliefs for which he was imprisoned in January 1569. He seems to have published nothing under his own name between 1569 and 1574. His last dated work is from 1580, but it appears that he was still alive well into the 17th century.