Doing connoisseurship. Yesterday, today, tomorrow. Introductory remarks

Abstract

The introduction seeks to concretize and expand on crucial connoisseurial practices such as comparing or verbalising. Starting from the three domains of connoisseurship, namely the judgment of an artwork’s quality, the attribution to an artist, and the question whether the art work is an original or a copy, it becomes apparent that connoisseurial practices still play a remarkable role in art historical endeavors. This can be demonstrated with a look at the contributions, which are bringing together and reflecting both historical and current connoisseurial practices.

Keywords

• connoisseurship
• practices
• comparing
• judging
• practice theory
• methodology