Enfilade

From Reaktion Books with distribution in the U.S. by The University of Chicago Press:

Peter Burke, The Connoisseur: A Cultural History (London: Reaktion Books, 2026), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-1836391951, £20 / $28.

The connoisseur has been an influential, if somewhat mysterious, figure in the history of art, responsible for making or breaking high-profile collections and reputations and influencing taste, the art market, and the field of art history with their pronouncements. But what did it take to become a connoisseur, and how reliable were the great connoisseurs of previous centuries? With the advent of scientific techniques and artificial intelligence, what future is there for expertise based on the trained eye? This book offers the first history of the art connoisseur, from the Renaissance to the professionalization of the role in the nineteenth century and on to the present day. Featuring portrayals of some of the leading connoisseurs, such as Bernard Berenson, Roberto Longhi, and Giovanni Morelli, this is a highly readable history of the extraordinary characters and intellects that shaped the art world through a mixture of intuition, learning, and chutzpah.

Peter Burke is a pioneering cultural historian and author of over thirty books, including Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence (Reaktion, 2019). His books have been translated into more than thirty languages. He is a Life Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and a Fellow of the British Academy.

c o n t e n t s

Preface
1  What Is Connoisseurship?
2  The Birth of the Connoisseur
3  Codifying Connoisseurship
4  The Age of the Amateurs
5  The Age of the Professionals
6  Globalization and Science
7  Crisis
Conclusion: Can We Trust Connoisseurship?

References
Further Reading
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index