Journal of the History of Collections Advance Access originally published online on November 16, 2006
Journal of the History of Collections 2007 19(1):15-31; doi:10.1093/jhc/fhl034
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
The cabinet of François-Emmanuel Bonne de Créquy, Duc de Lesdiguières
A taste most refined
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Abstract |
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Presented here is one of the most interesting collections of paintings gathered in late-seventeenth-century Paris: the thirty-eight pictures of François-Emmanuel Bonne de Créquy (1645–81). Until the present, this cabinet de peintures has been known only through the seven paintings mentioned in 1681–2, by Michel Passart, when, following the death of the Duc de Lesdiguières in July 1681, his whole cabinet was purchased by the art dealer Antoine Hérault. The fact that the Lesdiguières family was related to the more famous Créquys, already known as great art collectors, gives us an insight into the variety of responses to matters of art among the aristocracy in seventeenth-century France. Extracts from Passart's letters referring to paintings from the Lesdiguières collection are also included, since they shed light on sharp practices within the burgeoning trade in works of art during the late-seventeenth century.
Address for correspondence Moana Weil-Curiel, Institut Nationale d'Histoire d'Art, 2 rue Vivienne, F-75002 Paris. mweilc{at}aol.com