The trace in the technique: Forensic science and the Connoisseur's gaze

Abstract

Both scientific art investigations and forensic investigations rely on observation, inferential reasoning, and analytical techniques to answer questions concerning identification, source, and activity. The forensic scientist and the art connoisseur evaluate the whole-a crime scene or work of art, respectively-and draw meaning from the often-overlooked details, or traces, contained therein. This manuscript considers the correlations between art connoisseurship and forensic science, first by outlining the history of connoisseurship, focusing on the detection and evaluation of traces through patient observation, reasoning, and comparison based on methods established by Giovanni Morelli in the nineteenth century. This article then explores connoisseurship and forensic science within the historical sciences framework, based on the process in which observable traces can be ordered to provide a reconstruction of unobservable past events. Finally, this article asserts that art can be used to shape and refine the scientist's practiced eye, thereby improving trace detection and interpretation in investigations.

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