The article is dedicated to Jean-Claude Richard de Saint-Non (1727–1791), a refined connoisseur, a great friend of artists and an extremely charming personality. Destined to religious worship Abbot de Saint-Non had not a spiritual calling for this and was indifferent to any government service. Instead of it he devoted his own life to such activities as travelling, exploration of ancient and modern art, patronage of young painters and creation of multi-volumed treatise on the sights of Naples

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... Sicily. Abbot de Saint-Non himself was talented in fine art and produced some engravings after drawings by outstanding masters of his epoch, especially J.-H. Fragonard. The article examines his life, activities, and personality for the first time in Russian. It highlights de Saint-Non's contribution to the development of the 18th-century painting and to investigation of ancient art.