ebook img

Studying 18th-Century Paintings and Works of Art on Paper PDF

170 Pages·2016·17.79 MB·English
by  
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview Studying 18th-Century Paintings and Works of Art on Paper

S t u d y i n g 1 8 t h - Studying 18th-Century Paintings C e n t u r and Works of Art on Paper y P a i n t i n g s a n d W o r k s o f A r t o n P This book contains papers presented at the international a p technical art history conference Studying 18th Century e r Paintings & Art on Paper which focused on artists’ techniques and materials, source research, conservation science, the history of science and technology, and the history of trade and pharmacy during the 18th century. C A Tradition and changes in artistic practices were T S P examined in the light of the establishment of a series ro c of national art academies in Europe throughout the ee d century. A scientific peer review committee selected ing s the papers from a range of high quality presentations. , II, 2 The papers are lavishly illustrated and cover the making 01 4 of paintings and artworks on paper throughout the E d 18th century, thereby illustrating a vast range of artists’ ite d and workshop practices. by H e le n The conference was organised by the Centre for Art E v a Technological Studies and Conservation – CATS – ns a in collaboration with Nationalmuseet (Stockholm), nd K Metropolia University of Applied Science (Helsinki), im b and the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and erle y History, University of Oslo (Oslo). M u ir Archetype A r Publications c h e www.archetype.co.uk ISBN 978-1-909492-23-3 ty p e P u b in association with lic at CATS Proceedings, II, 2014 io 9 781909 492233 ns Edited by Helen Evans and Kimberley Muir S18CP-Cover-v3.indd All Pages 17/08/2015 09:54 STUDYING 18TH-CENTURY PAINTINGS AND WORKS OF ART ON PAPER CATS Proceedings, II, 2014 Edited by Helen Evans and Kimberley Muir Archetype Publications www.archetype.co.uk in association with Th is online publication is available as a paperback book from Archetype Publications, www.archetype.co.uk, ISBN 978-909492-23-3 First published 2015 by Archetype Publications Ltd in association with CATS, Copenhagen Archetype Publications Ltd c/o International Academic Projects 1 Birdcage Walk London SW1H 9JJ www.archetype.co.uk © 2015 CATS, Copenhagen The Centre for Art Technological Studies and Conservation (CATS) was made possible by a substantial donation by the Villum Foundation and the Velux Foundation, and is a collaborative research venture between the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK), the National Museum of Denmark (NMD) and the School of Conservation (SoC) at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation. ISBN: 978-1-909492-23-3 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher would be pleased to rectify any omissions in future reprints. Front cover illustration: Joshua Reynolds, Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, c.1776, oil, resin and wax on canvas, 127.8 × 102.4 cm, The Wallace Collection, inv. P48. (© The Wallace Collection. Photo: The National Gallery, London) Back cover illustrations: (from left to right) X-radiograph of Jens Juel, Sophie Birgitta Mathiesen, 1760–1802, oil on canvas, 45.0 × 37.0 cm, Statens Museum for Kunst, inv. KMS4795 (© SMK); Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, Apollo, 1718, oil on canvas, 192 × 262 cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague, inv. 1135, (photo: Margareta Svensson); Nicolai Abildgaard, The Wounded Philoctetes, 1775, oil on canvas, 123 × 175.5 cm, Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst, inv. KMS586 (© SMK); José del Castillo, Male Nude, 1759, chalk on paper, 55.4 × 42.4 cm, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, drawing 1944 (© The Library of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid.) Printed on acid-free paper Designed by Marcus Nichols at PDQ Digital Media Solutions Ltd. Typeset by PDQ Digital Media Solutions Ltd, Bungay Printed and bound in Great Britain by Latimer Trend & Co. Ltd, Plymouth CONTENTS Foreword vii Discipline and wonder: the 18th-century art academy and the invention of the artist as a free practitioner 1 Mikkel Bogh The effect of Prussian blue on the technique of the Danish court painters Hendrik Krock and Benoît le Coffre 7 Loa Ludvigsen, Mikala Bagge and Vibeke Rask Breaking new ground: investigating Pellegrini’s use of ground in the Golden Room of the Mauritshuis 16 Carol Pottasch, Susan Smelt and Ralph Haswell Liotard’s pastels: techniques of an 18th-century pastellist 31 Leila Sauvage and Cécile Gombaud An investigation of the painting technique in portraits by Jens Juel 46 Tine Louise Slotsgaard 72 florin for colours, white and glue: the Tiepolos, the Veninos and Würzburg 58 Andreas Burmester and Stefanie Correll The coarse painter and his position in 17th- and 18th-century Dutch decorative painting 70 Piet Bakker, Margriet van Eikema Hommes and Katrien Keune A ‘painted chamber’ in Beverwijk by Jacobus Luberti Augustini: novel insights into the working methods 83 and painting practices in a painted wall-hanging factory Ige Verslype, Johanneke Verhave, Susan Smelt, Katrien Keune, Hinke Sigmond and Margriet van Eikema Hommes Eighteenth-century practices in the art academies in Spain: the use of paper in prints and drawings 96 Clara de la Peña Mc Tigue Nicolai Abildgaard: an 18th-century Danish artist and his paper 109 Ingelise Nielsen and Niels Borring Semi-mechanical transfer methods in Nicolai Abildgaard’s drawings 118 Niels Borring Canvas supports in paintings by Nicolai Abildgaard: fabrics and formats 128 Troels Filtenborg ‘1st olio after Capivi’: copaiba balsam in the paintings of Sir Joshua Reynolds 140 Alexandra Gent, Rachel Morrison and Nelly von Aderkas Ferdinand Bauer’s Flora Graeca colour code 153 Richard Mulholland v FOREWORD Editors This is the second CATS conference proceedings with papers from the international conference Technology & Practice: Studying 18th Century Paintings & Art on Paper. This two-day Dr Helen Evans technical art history conference was held on 2–3 June 2014 Paper Conservator at the 18th-century Frederiksberg Palace in Copenhagen. Nationalmuseum The conference was organised by CATS in collaboration with Stockholm Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Science in Helsinki, Sweden Finland, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden, and the University of Oslo, Norway. Dr Kimberley Muir The conference focused on artists’ techniques and mate- Assistant Research Conservator rials, source research, conservation science, the history of The Art Institute of Chicago science and technology, trade and pharmacy during the 18th Chicago century. Speakers explored tradition and changes in artistic USA practices in the light of the establishment of a series of national art academies in Europe throughout the century. The talks included topics such as workshop practice and materials, art Organising committee historical and technical approaches to documentary evidence, and technical examination and the analysis of paintings and drawings. Issues of trade, supply and questions concerning CATS the demand for materials for diverse artistic expressions were Mette Kokkenborg; Johanne Marie Nielsen; Andreas Swane; also analysed and discussed. Two keynote presentations and Daniel Rosenstrøm; Jack Johnsen; Astrid Wiik; Marion 16 papers were presented of which 15 appear in this publi- Limbrecht; Jørgen Wadum cation following peer review and editing by our two most capable editors. We hope you will find this second volume of CATS confer- ence proceedings as enjoyable and enlightening as the previous one and that the information contained herein will stimulate further research into aspects of studying the technology and practice of 18th-century paintings and art on paper. As with the first CATS Proceedings, this volume is also available as a paperback book from Archetype Publications. On behalf of the organisers Prof Dr Jørgen Wadum Director of CATS vii Scientific committee Sponsors Prof Dr Bruno G. Brunetti, Dipartimento di Chimica and Bruker, Tru Vue, Leica, Frederiksberg Palace Centre SMAArt, Universita’ di Perugia, Perugia, Italy Mads Chr. Christensen, MSc, Conservation Scientist, National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark Rica Jones, Conservator in Private Practice, UK Dr Ingelise Nielsen, Associate Professor and Head of Department, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, School of Conservation, Copenhagen, Denmark Dr Ashok Roy, Director of Collections, The National Gallery, London, United Kingdom Tannar Ruuben, MSc, MA, Senior Lecturer, Conservator of Paintings, Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Science, Helsinki, Finland Mikkel Scharff, MSc, Associate Professor, Head of the Conservation School and Department, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, School of Conservation, Copenhagen, Denmark Kriste Sibul, MSc, MA, Director of Preservation, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden Dorthe V. P. Sommer, MSc, Assistant Professor, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, School of Conservation, Copenhagen, Denmark Prof Dr Ron Spronk, Professor of Art History, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada and Hieronymus Bosch Chair, Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Dr Noëlle Streeton, Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Jesper Svenningsen, PhD Fellow, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark Dr Anna Vila, Senior Conservation Scientist, CATS, Copenhagen, Denmark Prof Dr Jørgen Wadum, Director of Conservation & Director of CATS, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark DISCIPLINE AND WONDER: THE 18TH-CENTURY ART ACADEMY AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTIST AS A FREE PRACTITIONER Mikkel Bogh ABSTRACT How did artists acquire knowledge of their fields of practice – whether painting, sculpture or drawing – in the 18th century? What was the nature and content of artistic training in a century that saw the establishment in many, if not most, European countries of academies or schools of art after the French model? What were the inherent tensions in a formal training system the purpose of which was to professionalise, to discipline and to secure the freedom of the artist? And how did the new training institutions sit in the context of an emerging art market that was gradually replacing the traditional art patronage system? A discussion of practices relating to 18th-century painting and art on paper, with a particular focus on the material and technical aspects of artistic production, should not only address the use, production and the availability of specific types of colour, paper, canvas, tools etc. but should also take into account the changing conditions of the making and training of artists including the role of new institutions such as the art academy during this period. This paper examines the function and workings of the art academies and their relation to artists’ and artisans’ workshops during this century. My argument revolves around the apparent paradox that the institutionalisation of art training and the academic disciplining of artists emerged at the same time in history as, and is intimately bound up with, the notion of the free artist. Introduction offering teaching programmes for young talent. The need to shape an institutional identity in opposition to the guild gave By and large the academy of art is an invention of the 18th rise to a whole rhetoric of art versus crafts. Thus the academy century, but the academy as a public art school had its impor- was seen as a place where the theory and practice of fine art, tant predecessors in 16th-century Florence and notably in not just the craft of painting, was taught. Here aspiring art- 17th-century Paris. The establishment in 1648 of the French ists would be offered an opportunity to rise above the level of Royal Academy of Painting (Académie royale de peinture et the skilled craftsman through a theoretically informed pro- de sculpture) was motivated by the ambition on the part of gramme based on intellectual ideas and drawing. This would those artists working under royal protection, the so-called take place in an institution where ideals of beauty, themes and brevetaires, to form an arena for the discussion, promotion composition were discussed among peers. The teaching pro- and distribution of painting and sculpture that was independ- gramme developed in a new and more systematic direction ent of the restrictive guild system with its community rituals under the directorships of Jean-Baptiste Colbert from 1661 as well as its rigid regulations regarding techniques, materi- and, from 1683, Charles Le Brun. From this point in time the als, nationality and choice of subject.1 Many artists working institution was intimately bound up with efforts to reorient outside the protection of the guild felt the need to develop and ultimately control artistic production in order for it to a more flexible organisation, especially in light of the many serve the absolutist monarchy and the building of the nation. new commissions emerging as a result of a building boom In the case of the French Royal Academy, a reorientation following a boosted French economy. In order for the acad- towards a specific French idiom implied the development of emy to gain royal protection and to acquire state funding, a ‘classical’ and grand style that was deemed non-Italian as the institution had to convince officials that it was a school well as non-Spanish.2 1 MIKKEL BOGH Fig. 1 Antoine Watteau, Gersaint’s Signboard, 1721, oil on canvas, 163 × 308 cm, Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin.  However it took time for this idea to disseminate to other of instruction through drawing, fixed in a set of academic and European countries, partly because of financial issues. In 1720 institutional norms, was, at least in smaller European nations there existed only three or four academies of art and only six such as Denmark, partly a means of producing local artists new academies opened during the following two decades. As of high quality to avoid dependence on expensively imported late as 1740, less than 10 academies offered teaching curricu- artists from France, and partly a way of securing control of lums.3 Academies still worked mainly as professional forums official imagery. At a time when the art market was already and clubs where peers could meet and exchange ideas relat- flourishing and, to a growing extent, artists’ productions were ing to philosophy, geometry and literature, and where norms following routes other than those provided by patrons and and standards of the profession could be agreed – most did official commissions, there was an imagined risk that artists not function as public art schools in the modern sense. All would become too idiosyncratic in their choice of subject and this changed dramatically after the mid-century. Over the style. The transformation of the area of artistic production and next four decades more than 100 art academies and public distribution, as well as the development of new relationships art schools emerged, most of which now included teaching between artists and consumers, did not happen overnight – it duties. According to Nikolaus Pevsner, the fast establish- was only by the mid-19th century that the art market and art ment of institutions of artistic training ran parallel to the institutions such as museums, art criticism, auctions etc. were development of a neo-classical style in the arts. Excavations in place as a coherent art system. But this development had beginning in Herculaneum (1738) and in Pompeii (1748), already begun in the late 17th century and even had its pre- together with the publication of German art historian J.J. cursors in cities such as Antwerp and Frankfurt back in the Wincklemann’s seminal works on Greek art, helped to lay the mid-16th century, long before academies assumed the role of foundation for this neo-classical fashion. The classical Greek quality assurance institutions previously played by the guilds.4 canon was promoted as the new norm of contemporary style Antoine Watteau’s famous late work Gersaint’s Signboard and focus was once again put on the human figure. The new (1721) (Fig. 1) offers a hint of what an early 18th-century style, and the conformism that accompanied it, offered a sort art market would have looked like. Far from being the place of impetus for the adoption of normative curricula, as well as where artists’ works were commissioned directly by patrons, for the introduction of academic standards and abstract ideals dealers such as the Paris art dealer Gersaint (for whose against which observations of nature could be m easured small boutique Watteau made this outdoor sign) had a great and corrected. variety of artists, themes and even styles on display and in Pevsner probably overemphasised the stylistic back- storage. Gersaint in this painting is offering works made by ground of the almost explosive emergence of public art artists for an anonymous albeit noble public of both ama- schools throughout Europe, even though academies evolved teurs and connoisseurs, who in this painting are coming with from an anti-Rococo trend. The need for normativity was not a view to enjoying hitherto unseen work. In the context of a only a question of the stylistic rigour of classical style and of European art market appealing to or even, as it were, gen- making sure art students got it right. Training students in a erating independent artists, the art academy had the dual more or less classicist style, based on a Renaissance principle function of both delivering professional local artists for a 2 DISCIPLINE AND WONDER: THE 18TH-CENTURY ART ACADEMY AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTIST AS A FREE PRACTITIONER buying public as well as setting the standards of what was of art as a separate and autonomous field or, in the words of appropriate including standards of decorum, legibility and Larry Shiner, to the ‘invention of art’.7 interpretation.5 Officially sanctioned art, including work dis- The new system of art was, of course, not as coherent as tributed to anonymous consumers in the art market, was to it might seem from a historical distance. Even though the be correct in tone, taste and content. But most importantly, transformation had a clear direction, old and new forms of each state and each prince in the second half of the 18th cen- production, evaluation and distribution of art existed side by tury considered the art academy as a way of guaranteeing that side during the 18th and 19th centuries. The same applies to the most talented and skilled artisans would be raised to the the public art schools whose roles as instructive institutions level of artists and architects. Thus the art academy ensured were by no means unambiguous. No doubt the academies that every state would have in its possession highly educated contributed to the establishment of a system of fine art or artists to take on commissions from the royal household, the beaux-arts according to which art was an autonomous practice aristocracy and the wealthiest bourgeois citizens. The abil- and the artist a practitioner in a field more or less unrestricted ity to provide decorative, built and representational solutions by the rules and norms pertaining to the rest of society, as well for the absolutist state and its highest ranking proponents as to other fields of practice, particularly those of the artisans. and representatives was, from the outset, the most important At the same time, however, the academy was closely bound up official rationale of the art academy. But the academy cannot with a master-apprentice model that was basically inherited be seen as distinct from the emerging modern art market and from late medieval times and according to which students of the other new institutions of art. art would receive their most fundamental training through working in close proximity to a master in his workshop and in certain cases would serve as his assistant. Academies in the 18th century did not offer any training in basic artisa- The workshop and the academy nal skills such as carving, colour fabrication and painting. To achieve such skills was of course part of any artists’ toolkit Transformations not only took place between artist and buy- and mastery in the arts was also considered mastery of exe- ers or consumers of art – the commercialisation of the art cution, meaning technical-material ability. But this part of market had been under way since at least the mid-16th cen- artistic practice was not included in the curriculum offered tury. Now an entire system of art was in progress, and the by the academy. Until the mid-19th-century, technical and art academy was only one institutional factor in the creation material handling was taught to art students in private studios of a system that had not previously existed. Of course, ever where ‘masters’ held workshops and classes – some were not since the Renaissance there had been a growing awareness doing so in their capacity as academy professors but as a pri- that ‘fine art’ was a profession or a category of its own, but vate and extracurricular activity. These were, of course, more as late as the first half of the 18th century there was still no than mere technical workshops. Stylistic influence was part clear distinction made between fine art understood as paint- of what students sought just as a general sensibility towards ing, sculpture and engraving and any other business in the subject matter and ‘artistic discourse’ was being handed over. production of images such as shop signs, furniture paint- Before, during or after their academic programme, stu- ing, applied art etc. Encyclopaedias in the early part of the dents of art would seek further training and inspiration from century did not use beaux-art as an area of knowledge in its well-known masters such as Jacques-Louis David in Paris. own right. Sculpture and architecture were mentioned in cat- Thus early in his career Danish painter C.W. Eckersberg egories such as ‘mechanics’ whereas painting existed under went to study with David in Paris for almost three years, a the category ‘optics’,6 both being part of general mathemat- fact that did not make him a ‘pupil’ of David in the sense ics. However, d’Alembert, Diderot and the other editors of that Anne-Louis Girodet had been a pupil-assistant – and the French Encyclopédie (1751) suggested a totally different eventually also in opposition – to David.8 But the instruc- and new systematisation of human knowledge, divided into tion Eckersberg received in David’s studio did indeed provide three headings: ‘memory’, ‘reason’ and ‘imagination’. Painting, him with a stronger vision and a firmer grip on composition, sculpture and engraving belonged to the latter category. As spatial construction and figure drawing. It is no coincidence imaginative and poetic areas of knowledge, on a par with, that Eckersberg attended lessons at David’s studio on his yet distinct from, science and the humanities, a clear line of way to Rome. For most public art schools, the French Royal demarcation was now being drawn around the fine arts sepa- Academy was still the model to follow and a trip to Rome was rating these from crafts-based image practices. The gradual tantamount to becoming an accomplished artist according opening up to the public of museums of art, the advent of to this way of teaching. It was all about studying and imi- the juried exhibition beginning with the annual salon intro- tating the great masters from both classical antiquity and duced by the French Royal Academy in Paris in 1737, as the Renaissance. The Grand Tour was part of postgraduate well as the birth and development of art criticism through artistic training in the 18th century, often made financially which a reading and art-consuming public would get evalu- possible by an academic prize or grant from taking part in ative interpretations of recent exhibitions and publication, annual competitions. But the programme in the academy together with the segregation of the fine arts as an area of per se was largely taken over from the 17th century by the knowledge suggested by the Encyclopédie, formed part of the French Royal Academy which, for its part, was based on late institutional and discursive process leading to the definition Renaissance Florentine and Roman academy models.9 What 3

Description:
is online publication is available as a paperback book from Archetype 1760–1802, oil on canvas, 45.0 × 37.0 cm, Statens Museum for Kunst, inv.
See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.