In Conversation - (Studies in the History of Collecting & Art Markets) by Mary Tavener Holmes & Christoph Martin Vogtherr (Hardcover)

About the Book

In the early eighteenth century, a generation of collectors in France and the Holy German Empire developed new principles for the display of paintings based on comparison of a mixture of schools and periods, to encourage conversation and develop connoisseurship.

Book Synopsis

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, a generation of collectors in France and the Holy Roman Empire developed new principles for the display of paintings, principles based on comparison triggered by the mixture of schools and periods; its aim was to encourage analysis and connoisseurship through comparison and conversation. The ground-breaking theories of Roger de Piles were central to this novel approach, and essential to its understanding. These principles were predominant until the 1780s. This book examines case studies in France, the German Empire and the UK that exemplify these new principles.

About the Author

Mary Tavener Holmes, Ph.D., is an independent scholar with a specialty in the art of the eighteenth century. Her publications include De Watteau à Fragonard: Les fêtes galantes (with Christoph Vogtherr, 2014) and Nicolas Lancret's Dance before a Fountain (2006).

Christoph Martin Vogtherr is General Director of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation, Potsdam. Prior to that, he was director at the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Wallace Collection. He is a specialist of French eighteenth-century art and the history of art collecting.