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Thirtieth International Congress of the History of Art Art History for the Millenium: Time. Section 23 Digital Art History Time London, 3-8 September 2000 |
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Benjamin Binstock <benjamin.binstock@nyu.edu>, assistant professor and director of Critical Studies Area, Department of Art and Art Professions, School of Education, New York University, 34 Stuyvesant st, New York NY 10003.
Benjamin Binstock using a clever backup poster while technicians are trying to put the projection back online.
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There is no substitute for the direct examination of paintings, but these can rarely be gathered in one place at the same time for comparison. Digital Connoisseurship is intended as a means of enhancing the examination of paintings, making possible through digital reproduction and storage of images:
The "Revolution" invoked in my title refers both to the use of new technologies and to the eventual displacement of the reigning authorities on attribution or ancien regime in Rembrandt scholarship, who have failed to provide answers to the fundamental questions that have been raised about Rembrandt's paintings. As in any revolution, this displacement will be a gradual, messy process. Ultimately, the most important concerns are the vitality and integrity of Rembrandt scholarship and art history, and our understanding of Rembrandt's art and its significance.
An appropriate emblem of my project would be Rembrandt's Self-Portrait in a Gorget in The Hague, one of his most famous paintings. This was "de-attributed" as a student's copy by the curators of the recent exhibition "Rembrandt by Himself" in London and the Hague, a judgment adopted in turn by the exhibition "Rembrandt Creates Himself" at Boston's Gardner Museum. In a review in last June's Art Bulletin, I argued that the Hague painting is by Rembrandt, and proposed to shift the focus to how and why such claims are made.
Instead of technical examination of the paint layer, the Hague painting can be visually compared to Rembrandt's preparatory study and his other autograph self-portraits. These present a remarkably consistent development throughout his career, in contrast to the variations after his self-portraits or portraits of him by his followers now mistakenly attributed to him. Rembrandt's Self-Portrait in a Gorget furthermore responds to his rival Jan Lievens's unflattering Portrait of Rembrandt in a Gorget, part of a series of exchanges between them. At stake are not just the status of the painting in The Hague, but also Rembrandt's style or singularity and the meaning of his art. The origins of the Hague painting even lead us to rethink the very category of the self-portrait.
Unfortunately, just as I was limited by lack of access to the internet at the conference, I am restrained here by copyright rules. Those who wish to may visit my website at http://www.nyu.edu/projects/rembrandt.
In his response to my presentation, Hans-Jörg Heusser stated that he does not recognize in my methods a "revolution" but merely a "definite improvement" in Rembrandt scholarship. His critique is gratefully acknowledged and embraced.
1. Digital Connoisseurship: A Revolution in Rembrandt
Scholarship
2. This paper will introduce a new method of connoisseurship using digital images to compare large numbers of paintings in various combinations, as an alternative to the prevailing and much contested method of technical analysis of individual works. The current uncertainty about attributions in Rembrandt studies has led scholars to interpret Rembrandt1s individuality as a "market strategy" disseminated among his students, or to question the possibility of differentiating his works. There is no substitute for examination of the paintings themselves, yet my project is intended to establish fundamental visual parameters for different artists, which are sorely lacking in current debates and crucial to any further discussion. Using digitally scanned photographs and reproductions of paintings and drawings currently isolated in inaccessible publications, I hope to demonstrate the visual logic of a series of new attributions in relation to rigorous, coherent, chronological accounts of the "virtual" oeuvres of Rembrandt and his students. My paper for the conference will introduce the most important new attributions, main conclusions, and potential future directions of the project together with an overview of the new method and technology.
3. The research described here was begun in my 1997 dissertation for Columbia University, but was limited to photographs, pins, and cardboard. Supported by a New York University Research Challenge Grant, my assistants and I have are now assembling a digital image bank as a versatile tool for explaining the oeuvres of Rembrandt and his students. Articles addressing the relation of Rembrandt to his students Willem Drost, Aert de Gelder, and Johannes Raven are now in print in the Harvard journal Res and submitted to Master Drawings. Other articles nearing completion involving Rembrandt1s students Govaert Flinck, Jan Lievens, and Nicholaes Maes have been invited by the Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte and the Staedlesche Jahrbuch.
4. For the last forty years, the Rembrandt Research Project has sought to identify Rembrandt1s autograph paintings on the basis of technical analysis of individual works, with inconclusive results. In my view, the "scientific" testing of individual works as "A," "B," or "C" must give way to a conceptual and synthetic analysis of different artists1 styles and ideas based on visual comparison of groups of works, in keeping with traditional connoisseurship. This approach can exploit modern technology, not through physical analysis of paint, but rather visual analysis of the myriad comparisons of color reproductions made possible through computers. Reproductions are usually limited to one per page and fixed in their place within a book, which makes different kinds of comparisons difficult or impossible, and reinforces the tendency to evaluate works in isolation. The alternative proposed here will allow for a more comprehensive, inclusive, and dynamic understanding of the relation of Rembrandt1s students to their master, later mis-attributions, and most importantly, the originality and value of Rembrandt1s art.
5. Digital resources will play a pivotal role in art history in the next century, and this project should prove of interest to the conference participants, particularly in Section 23: Digital Art Time. Our project 1s web page will be up this summer, scheduled lectures for the coming year include the CAA conference in New York, and we hope to produce an interactive CD-ROM, to make Rembrandt and what was an obscure and elitist area of art history more accessible and engaging.
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