On Art and Connoisseurship

Max J. Friedlander, On Art and Connoisseurship, London, Bruno Cassirer, 1942, 284 pp.

Da introdução de Tancred Borenius:

Among art historians of today there is hardly anyone who enjoys a position comparable to that of Dr. Max J. Friedlander. He is universally recognized as being probably the greatest living expert, notably, of course, on the early Netherlandish and German masters; and in normal times not a day passed on which pictures were not submitted to him for opinion from all parts of the world. But he is much more than the mere, if accomplished, expert, worried without respite by people eager for his verdict on their possessions: the list of his writings all of them revealing the outlook of the born historian makes a truly imposing series, culminating in his monumental History of Early Netherlandish Painting issued from 1924 onwards in fourteen substantial volumes. And for a long time the whole of this ceaseless activity had for its background Dr. Friedlander's connection with the Berlin Picture Gallery and Print Room: their marvellous growth during the period in question owes in fact an enormous debt to the distinguished scholar, whose career as an official came to an end in 1933, when Dr. Friedlander relinquished the post as Head of the great Picture Gallery, to which he had been appointed as Wilhelm von Bode's successor. It is, indeed, the very aroma of that institution in its best days which pervades the whole activity of one of the greatest of those who stand to it in the relation of at once alumnus and creator. The opinions on art and connoisseurship, which represent the ultimate wisdom and considered judgment of a man whose performance has here been summarily outlined, must inevitably be of the most profound interest; and it is, indeed, a matter of congratulation that Dr. Friedlander should have made them accessible to a much larger audience than that of those friends in many lands who have been admitted to the privilege of his conversation. The views expressed in the present volume obviously derive a peculiar significance from the author's first-hand contact with the problems concerned, as well as from his power of independent thinking.

Índice:

1. Seeing, perceiving, pleasurable contemplation 19
2. Existence, appearance, objective interest in things 32
3. Art and symbol 39
4. Form, colour, tonality, light, gold 43
5. The concept of ‘pictorial’ 53
6. Size and scale, distant view and near view 58
7. On linear perspective 64
8. Movement 69
9. Truth to nature, artistic value and style 75
10. Individuality and type 84
11. On beauty 87
12. On composition 91
13. On the picture categories 97
14. Religious and secular history in painting 100
15. The nude 104
16. Genre painting 108
17. Landscape 113
18. Portraiture 124
19. Still life 131
20. The artist: genius and talent 134
21. Art and erudition 143
22. The standpoint of the spectator 155
23. On the value of the determination of authorship 160
24. On the objective criteria of authorship 163
25. On intuition and the first impression 172
26. Problems of connoisseurship 179
27. The analytical examination of pictures 184
28. On the use of photography 197
29. On personality and its development 200
30. On the anonymous masters, the medium masters and the lesser masters 213
31. The study of drawings 218
32. Influence 222
33. Artistic quality: original and copy 230
34. Deductions a posteriori from copies regarding lost originals 246
35. Workshop production 250
36. On forgeries 258
37. On restorations 267
38. On art literature 273

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