Bernard Picart ( 1673 - 1733)

Picart was a French artist and engraver. He was born in Paris and died in Amsterdam. He moved to Antwerp in 1696, and spent a year in Amsterdam before returning to France at the end of 1698. After his wife died in 1708, he moved to Amsterdam in 1711 (later being joined by his father), where he became a Protestant
His most famous work is Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde. Although Picart had never left Europe, he relied on accounts by those who had and had access to a collection of Indian sculpture.