Product Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1902. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... RUDIMENTS OF CONNOISSEURSHIP (a Fragment) The materials for the historical study of art are of three kinds: 1. Contemporary documents. 2. Tradition. 3. The works of art themselves. These materials are not presented ready for use. The student is confronted with a quantity of data of every kind supposed to concern his subject, and he cannot accept them all offhand as being of equal value. Examination soon reveals that some of the data offered are suspicious, some doubtful, and others positively apocryphal. He is obliged, therefore, before going further, to sift his materials, separating them into two groups: one immediately and distinctly valuable for his studies; the other not wholly useless, but only of remote and indirect consequence. The process of sifting is different in each of the three kinds of materials dealt with by the student of the history of art. CONTEMPORARY DOCUMENTS--THE DOCUMENT IN ART The contemporary document needs the least sifting. We need only consider its genuineness (forged documents being by no means rare), its correct transcription, and its value as information or evidence. 1n Only the last question is within the strict bounds of the art student's province, the questions of genuineness and text being better dealt with by palaeographists and philologists. Confining ourselves, therefore, to the discussion of the document as information or evidence, we must note that the art student's attitude toward a document is not quite the same as that of the student of general history. To the latter, every treaty or agreement, to take one instance, that he can find, if connected with his subject, is of the greatest importance, even if it never was carried out, and never intended to be, the mere existence of a sketch for an agreement between contending...