François Cacault
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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François Cacault (1742, Nantes – 10 October 1805, Clisson) was a French diplomat of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods.
A friend of letters and the arts, he translated many German works into French. During his stay in Italy he bought sculptures, more than a thousand paintings and over 5,000 prints, representative of Western European art from the end of the 13th century to the start of the 19th century. Conditions were highly favourable for this collection's formation, and Cacault was probably advised by the painter-collector Jean-Baptiste Wicar. They were both present in the art market, notably with the "brocanteur" or market-dealer Corazetto in piazza Navona and amidst works seized from churches and convents by the French occupiers and the suppression between 1798 and 1802 of a ban on exporting works of art from the Papal States. François's younger brother Pierre had stayed in Clisson since 1796, and there they founded a museum that aimed to display François's collection, to contribute to the spread of good taste and beauty and to favour arts studies. This "museum-school" arose from a passion for art and witnesses to the political context which affirmed the will to make all works of art accessible, within an ideal of artistic education. The Cacault collection was bought in 1801 by the town of Nantes, forming the foundation of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes.
