Technical Art History: The Synergy of Art, Conservation and Science

Abstract

This chapter discusses the development of technical art history, which goes hand in hand with an increasingly scientific approach in conservation research and methodology, rapidly developing scientific analytical applications, and a growing interest in documentary sources on techniques and materials past and present. Hogarth ridicules and attacks connoisseurs and art dealers who support a trade in old masters of dubious quality and encourage a taste for 'dark pictures', thus disadvantaging contemporary British artists through a misplaced emphasis on the past. The chapter also discusses some of the key facets that constitute the field of technical art history, which aims at a thorough understanding of the physical object in terms of original intention, choice of materials and techniques, as well as the context in and for which the work was created, its meaning and its contemporary perception. Keywords:conservation; dark pictures; technical art history; William Hogarth

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 26 citations exist upstream.