The event was organized by Joris Corin Heyder whose habilitation project is located within subproject C01 and is called "Von der Kennerschaft zur Kunstgeschichte. Praktiken der vergleichenden Betrachtung von Bildern im 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert" (working title). His research especially focuses on practices of connoisseurship.
The workshop discussion with international and renowned experts from Germany, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland also revolved around the question how and in what way connoisseurs produced knowledge and which presuppositions, adjustments, and problems accompany the attribution of artworks.

One of the suggestions to structure the discussion was that a historical reprocessing of practices of connoisseurship in the 17th and 18th centuries can benefit crucially from the contemplation of currently observable routines of connoisseurship. The mentioned practices—especially the sorting, ordering, comparing and rating of (anonymous) artworks—definitely transitioned as fundamental but rarely reflected techniques into the methodological repertoire of art history as an academic discipline.
How did the 18th century connoisseurs habitus and other forms of authorization and objectivation processes get inscribed into current rating practices and parlances?

The talks, for instance, dealt with the problem of contemporary taste in the arts, the role of vision aids for the connoisseurial observation, and in general with dominating practices, effectively 'contemporary trends'. The contributions and results of the intense discussion are set to be published soon.

Fotos: Corinna Mehl, Rebecca Moltmann