What is Connoisseurship?

August 17-23, 2008

This workshop focused on connoisseurship exploring the following areas definition, method, transcription, legitimacy, service (as profit versus investment), and historiography. The aim was to gain an overview of the issues and problems in the field, of the historiography of connoisseurship, and to discuss particular personalities and approaches that have interest and relevance today.

Participants included:

Philippe Bordes, INHA, Paris, France
Olivier Bonfait, Université d’Aix en Provence, France
Guillaume Cassegrain, Université Lyon 2, France
Jean-Marie Guillouët, Saint-Denis, France
Madeline Lennon, University of Western Ontario, Canada
Richard Neer, The University of Chicago
Peter Parshall, National Gallery of Art
Thomas Röske, Prinzhorn Collection, University Psychiatric Clinic, Germany
Ilaria Romeo, Università degli Studi di Lecce, Italy
Catherine Scallen, Case Western Reserve University
Elvan Zabunyan, Paris, France

Discussion Topics :

The Individual Connoisseur and his Role in the Social-Cultural World of Art
Catherine Scallen

The Strategies of Connoisseurship: From the Market to Art History; the Case of Le Brun
Olivier Bonfait

Morelli’s « Scientific » Method and Responses
Madeline Lennon

Connoisseurship and Ancient Art: The Increasing Role of Scientific Analysis
Ilaria Romeo

Looking at Words, Reading Style. Connoisseurship, Sight and Writing
Guillaume Cassegrain

The Hans van Meegeren Forgeries and the Specter of the Connoisseur's Blind Spot
Peter Parshall

Connoisseurship and the Discourse of Ethnicity
Jean-Marie Guillouët

Connoisseurship and Conservation—Technology and Possibility
Philippe Bordes

Connoisseurship and Contemporary Art Practices
Elvan Zabunyan

Connoisseurship and Outsider Art
Thomas Röskev