Connoisseurship and the Stakes of Style (original) (raw)

Making and matching: aesthetic judgement and art historical knowledge

I argue that aesthetic judgement plays a key role in the production of art historical knowledge and that judgements of taste lie at the very heart of art historical practice. My key claim is that in their encounters with art the art historian makes parallel judgements. First, they make critical and connoisseurial judgments, which they may or may not choose to acknowledge. Second, further judgements are made on the particular discursive and historical models that they have chosen to use. My argument is that, even though they might not like to admit it, such discursive judgements are, also, aesthetic ones. In short, art historians are involved in a process that attempts to reconcile two things: on the one hand a mode of writing and on the other the art which that writing negotiates. My conclusion is that aesthetic judgements play a key role in this negotiation and hence in the genesis and structure of art historical discourse. Key words: Kunstwissenschaft; aesthetics; judgment; writing; art history

Provenential Properties, Style, and the Aesthetic Value of History

DES PROPRIÉTÉS ESTHÉTIQUES, Collège de France, 2024

In this paper, I propose a reconfiguration of the ongoing debate surrounding the aesthetic value of history. Specifically, I contend that this debate can be recast as a fundamental disagreement concerning the nature of properties that genuinely contribute to our aesthetic appreciation of art. Central to this discussion is the inquiry into whether context-dependent properties, which rely on the historical background of a work of art, should also be deemed aesthetic properties in the proper sense of the term. Furthermore, we must address whether these properties can directly engender aesthetic appreciation. Resolving these questions hinges, to a significant extent, upon our understanding of the term ‘aesthetic’ and its various connotations. This paper does not address this issue directly, though; rather, it delves into a nuanced exploration of specific examples of artworks’ properties. My aim is to scrutinize which of these properties possess aesthetic relevance and, in cases where not all properties meet this criterion, how one can discern the distinction. While certain properties inherently hold obvious aesthetic significance, as they command our attention during encounters with artworks, others do not, or not so obviously. These particular properties pertain to the provenance and historical background of the artwork.

Winter, I. J. (1998). The Affective Properties of Styles: An Inquiry into Analytical Process and the Inscription of Meaning in Art History. Picturing Science, Producing Art. C. A. Jones and P. Gallison (eds.). New York and London, Routledge: 55-77.

e IRENE]. WINTER I n the wider arena of the waves) in which the arts and the sciences generate appropriate tenus and concepts to be used as instruments in analytical operations, the term/concept "style" occupies a rather special place: applicable both to the ways in which the operations are undertaken' and [0 describable characteristics of the objects of analysis. In the present chapter. I wish [0 pursue, on the one hand, the lack of discreet boundaries between "style" as it is manifest in a work and subject rnatter-chence. Content and meaning-and, on the other hand, the henneneuric problems raised by attempts to correlate style and meaning through "stylistic analysis" as operationalized in art history. I have chosen my tenus carefully to mirror the language used for certain mathematteal operations, as I believe the analogy holds well, and in the hope it will raise questions of methodology common to both the sciences and the humanities. To the extent * The general issues dealt with in this paper were presented in a College An Assoctanon panel in 1957. Ahhou~h the case studies used have not changed since then. I am most grateful for this opporrumrv to reformulate the rmHem. I would also like to thank a number of graduate students. now colleagues, ..... ho ever the yean have rut their /:,,,><1 minJ.' to nuanced delinitions of style; many will see echoes of themselves in what is presented here. In r.lnicuhr.1 would cite

Notes on Art History Styles and the Related Terminology (2022)

2022

ATINER's conference paper proceedings series are circulated to promote dialogue among academic scholars. All papers of this series have been presented at one of ATINER's annual conferences according to its acceptance policies (http://www.atiner.gr/acceptance).