ABSTRACT
The study of the materiality of art has increasingly been recognized as an important field, often referred to in the early twenty-first century as ‘technical art history’. Technical art history is interdisciplinary and can illuminate studies of art by combining art-historical research with detailed examination of the artefacts themselves, possible reconstructions of materials or methods, and scientific analysis. Technical art history frequently also includes scholarship concerning documentary sources, recently termed ‘art technological source research’ (ATSR). Although these activities often evolved alongside conservation, they may equally be the work of specialists. In 2005, a Working Group, ‘Art Technological Source Research’ (ATSR), was established within the International Council of Museums-Conservation Committee (ICOM-CC). Recent ATSR published conference proceedings can be recommended as examples of good practice (Clarke et al., 2005; Kroustallis et al., 2008; Hermens and Townsend, 2009). By using a holistic methodology that combines the study of documentary material along with reconstructions (see Chapter 2), scientific analysis (Chapters 17-22), and traditional art-historical research, a new degree of interpretative precision can be achieved (Clarke, 2009).
