Enfilade

From the conference website and programme:

El ojo experto: Método, límites y la disciplina de la Historia del Arte
The Expert’s Eye: Method, Limitations, and the Practice of Art History
Online and in-person, Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, 24–25 October 2024

Organized by Pilar Diez del Corral Corredoira and David Ojeda Nogales

The work of the art historian revolves around the art object, and the need to tailor one’s methodology to that object gives the discipline its variety and richness. Yet paradoxically, to stress that art works are the centre of art history feels almost transgressive at a time when basic questions of identification and dating are increasingly deemphasized in training new generations of scholars and curators.

The new art history, by contrast, has shown itself perfectly capable of conducting research without having to study or even look at the art object. Without discrediting the results, which are sometimes more characteristic of departments of history or anthropology, the ease with which art-historical fact is blurred can be surprising. Over the last fifty years, the notable decrease in studies that examine the most fundamental problems of dating and authorship has raised questions about the usefulness of prevailing methodologies, leading to extreme cases in which a trained or expert eye is considered unnecessary, or at least insufficient, to deal with objects lacking documentary or other external proof of origin, creator, or date. By contrast, having an educated eye implies knowing the difference between a Roman bust from the first century AD and a modern copy, between discovering the hand of Leonardo and detecting an excellent falsification. In light of these trends, this conference aims to interrogate and challenge the abandonment of visual, material, and historical expertise among art historians.

Watch online here»

Technical coordination
• Marta I. Sánchez Vasco, misanchezvasco@gmail.com

Scientific coordination
• Pilar Diez del Corral Corredoira, diezdelcorral@geo.uned.es
• David Ojeda Nogales, dojeda@geo.uned.es

Scientific committee
• Amaya Alzaga Ruiz (UNED)
• Jeffrey Collins (Bard Graduate Center, Nueva York)
• Ana Diéguez Rodríguez (Instituto Moll)
• Pilar Diez del Corral Corredoira (UNED)
• David Ojeda Nogales (UNED)
• Markus Trunk (Universität Trier)

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10.00  Presentación institucional a cargo de Isabel Izquierdo Peraile, directora del Museo Arqueológico Nacional

10.30  Conferencia plenaria
• Jeffrey Collins (BGC, NY) — Experts, Eyes, and Expert Eyes: A View from the Decorative Arts

11.30  Pausa café

11.50  Bloque 1
Modera P. Diez del Corral
• Hans R. Goette (DAI) — Remarks on Excavation Context and Epigraphy Serving Stylistic Analysis by Experts in Classical Archaeology: The ›Esquiline Sculptures‹ ‒ ca. 200 or 400 AD?
• Matteo Cadario (UNIUD) — I rischi dei giudizi ‘stilistici’ nello studio della scultura antica
• David Ojeda (UNED) — La desaparición del ‘ojo experto’: El problema del tiempo en el estudio de la escultura antigua

13.30  Pausa comida

15.00  Bloque 2
Modera Jeffrey Collins
• Benjamin Binstock (Independiente) — Less is More: Recognizing Young Rembrandt’s Painting-by-Painting Development
• Miguel Hermoso (UCM) — Truco o trato: Ojo crítico y pintura de la Edad Moderna
• Pilar Diez del Corral Corredoira (UNED) — Aprendices, copistas y falsarios: El dibujo de Carlo Maratta y sus seguidores

16.15  Pausa café

16.30  Bloque 3
Modera Ana Diéguez
• Beatriz Campderá Gutiérrez (MAN) — El ojo experto en las colecciones medievales
• Eduardo Lamas e Isabelle Lecocq (KIK-IRPA) — Inventory at the Service of the Expert Eye
• Sacha Zdanov (ULB) — Interrogating Erwin Panofsky’s Artistic Relativity: Methodological Reflections on the Aesthetic Diversity of Netherlandish Pictorial Production around 1500
• Rafael Villa (UNIGE) — Connoisseurship and French Stained Glass: On the Abandonment of a Method

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9.30  Conferencia plenaria
• Carmen Marcos Alonso (subdirectora del MAN) — Protección y enriquecimiento del Patrimonio Cultural: La labor de los museos en la expertización de bienes culturales

10.15  Bloque 4
Modera Amaya Alzaga
• José Luis Guijarro (Universidad Nebrija) — El ‘silencio de los expertos’: Consideraciones en torno a las responsabilidades legales del historiador del arte en el ejercicio de su labor
• Isabel Menéndez (UNED) — Historiadores y peritos en la valoración de la obra de arte
• Adolfo Gandarillas (UPO) — La Inteligencia Artificial y las tecnologías avanzadas aplicadas al patrimonio artístico: Herramientas y recursos del nuevo connoisseur

11.30  Pausa café

11.50  Mesa redonda