WARIN, Jean

Jean Warin (Varin), French sculptor, medallist and painter. He was one of the most eminent French medallists and a sculptor of considerable reputation during the first half of the 17th century. He trained in the Liège workshop of his father, the medallist and chaser Jean Warin. By 1615 the family had left Liège, perhaps for Sedan, and by 1625 Warin was in Paris, where in 1629, having renounced his Protestantism, he took part charge of the Monnaie du Moulin during the minority of the heirs of the Olivier family, its hereditary owners. Having secured his position by marrying their widowed mother, he took charge of the studio of the Lyon mint around 1642-43, and in 1646 he was appointed Tailleur Général des Monnaies de France, to which in the following year he added the office of Contrôleur Général des Poinçons et Effigies des Monnaies de France.

He became a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1665. In addition to designing many of the dies and stamps used for coinage and commemorative tokens, in 1635 Warin engraved the die for the seal of the Académie Française, decorated with a bust of Cardinal Richelieu.