CFP: Science, Museology and Connoisseurship: The Birth of the Scientific Study of Works of Art (Museo del Prado Madrid, 27-29 Sept 2023)

A technical team from the Stockholm Museum at the Prado Museum in 1960, making an X-radiograph of the painting The Feast of Bacchus (Los Borrachos) by Velázquez


This is an invitation to share thoughts on the disciplinary changes and methodological evolution that accompanied the controversial advent of technical art researchers at the beginning of the twentieth century. Their methods of study and techniques had a deep effect on the scientific status of art historians as well as on the accrual of knowledge by connoisseurs in areas as relevant as those of authorship and the dating of works of art. Simultaneously to their appearance, discussions were being held, and agreements reached, on the modern defining elements of what makes a curator or a conservation scientist.

Deadline: 31 Mar 2023

For more information and submissions, please visit: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/learn/centro-de-estudios-del-prado/activities.