Anne-Claude-Philippe de Tubières-Grimoard de Pestels Levieux de Lévis, Comte de Caylus

Who was Anne-Claude-Philippe de Tubières-Grimoard de Pestels Levieux de Lévis, Comte de Caylus?

Anne Claude de Tubières-Grimoard de Pestels de Lévis, comte de Caylus, marquis d'Esternay, baron de Bransac, French antiquarian, proto-archaeologist and man of letters, was born at Paris.

He was the eldest son of Lieutenant-General Anne de Tubières, comte de Caylus. His mother, Marthe-Marguerite de Villette de Mursay, comtesse de Caylus, was the daughter of vice-admiral Philippe, Marquis de Villette-Mursay.

He was a cousin of Mme de Maintenon, who brought Marthe-Marguerite up like her own daughter. Marthe-Marguerite wrote valuable Souvenirs of the court of Louis XIV; these were edited by Voltaire, and by many later editors.

While a young man, Caylus distinguished himself in the campaigns of the French army, from 1709 to 1714. After the peace of Rastatt he spent some time in travelling in Italy, Greece, the Levant, England and Germany, and devoted much attention to the study and collection of antiquities. He became an active member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture and of the Académie des Inscriptions. Chief among his antiquarian works must be the profusely illustrated Recueil d'antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grècques, romaines et gauloises, which was mined by the designers of Neoclassical arts for the rest of the century. His Numismata Aurea Imperatorum Romanorum, treats only the gold coinage of the Roman emperors, those worthy of collection by a grand seigneur. His concentration on the object itself marked a step towards modern connoisseuship, and in his Mémoire on the method of encaustic painting, the ancient technique of painting with wax as a medium mentioned by Pliny the Elder, he claimed to have rediscovered the method. Diderot, who was no friend to Caylus, maintained that the proper method had been found by J.-B. Bachelier.