Séroux d'Agincourt, Jean-Baptiste [-Louis-Georges]

Date born: 1730

Place born: France

Date died: 1814

Place died: Rome, Italy

Collector and historian of ancient and medieval art. Séroux befriended artists and collectors who frequented the salon of Marie-Therese Geoffrin, including Denis Diederot, Jean-Honore Fragonard, and Francois Boucher. He was influenced by the school of the Comte de Caylus (1692-1765) and Pierre Jean Mariette (1694-1774). Between 1779 to 1789, Séroux attempted to complete an encyclopedic book recording the history of art from antiquity to the Italian Renaissance, but publication was delayed by the French Revolution. The book was completed and published posthumously in 1823 by Toussaint-Bernard Emeric-David (q.v.). The work remained influential well into the 19th century. Melchior Boisserée (q.v.) used Séroux's work as an example for his own work.

Home Country: France

Sources: Kultermann, Udo. Geschichte der Kunstgeschichte: Der Weg einer Wissenschaft. Vienna and Düsseldorf: Econ, 1966. 2nd ed., p. 152; Bazin, Germain. Histoire de l'histoire de l'art; de Vasari à nos jours. Paris: Albin Michel, 1986, pp. 87-8; The Dictionary of Art.

Bibliography: and Dufourny, Léon; Emeric-David, Toussaint-Bernard; Feuillet, Laurent François; La Salle, Achille Étienne Gigault de. Histoire de l'art part les monuments depuis sa décadence au IVe siècle jusqu'à son renouvellement au XVIe siècle. 6 vols. Paris: Treuttel et Würtz, 1811-1820.