In class today, we talked about issues in the creation and termination of artists’ place in the canon of art. Individual works can go through the same process.
Another point about individual works of art is that there’s often a ‘consensus’ about which point in a work’s life (which can be a very long time) is the representative or ‘masterpiece’ moment – the ‘canonical’ moment.
This consideration often has implications for conservation and/or restoration decisions. Which moment in the lifetime of an object do we try to “freeze”.
For today’s assignment choose a work of art and learn something about its history. Something more than 200 years old will probably be best, but if you have a specific idea for something younger that you’d like to explore that you know would work, go ahead.
Is it completely unchanged in all that time?
Has it moved? dis-coloured? broken? re-framed?
Have any attempts been made to restore it? How much was done?
What “moment” in its history was deemed worthy to be “the” moment we are presented with? What implications does this have? This is the key point. Why does it matter which moment we consider to be most important?
Off the list of choices – Regnault’s work (like Salome discussed in class today.

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