Mariette and the Science of the Connoisseur in Eighteenth-Century Europe

Celebrated connoisseur, drawings collector, print dealer, book publisher and authority on the art of antiquity, Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694-1774) was a pivotal figure in the eighteenth-century European art world. Focusing on the trajectory of Mariette’s career, this book examines the material practices and networks through which connoisseurs forged the idea of art as an object of empirical and historical analysis. Drawing on unpublished archival material as well as on histories of science, publishing and collecting, this book shows how Mariette and his colleagues’ interpretations of graphic arts gave rise to new conceptions of artistic authorship.