Making and matching: aesthetic judgement and the production of art historical knowledge

Abstract

In this paper 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.

Keywords

• Kunstwissenschaft
• aesthetics
• judgment
• writing
• art history