Conservation and Art History

The essays in this Art Journal defy neat or tidy categorization. The breadth of issues addressed is matched by a breadth of periods, materials, and methods. Indeed, the periods discussed in some of these papers fall outside the nominal area of the Art Journal, but in every instance wide-ranging methodological concerns are raised. This, we believe, is a function of placing the object itself at the center of investigation. The object and its physical history thus become a source of both broad questioning and detailed inquiry. The disciplines identified in the prosaic title “Conservation and Art History” are served by the various methods represented in these papers. Both are greatly enriched by the efforts, often collaborative, of such investigations.