Reproductions: art history's images

Book section : Chapter

Many chapters in the present volume focus on Art History's textual history, that is, on scholarly arguments based on verbal descriptions and debates. However, art historians rely as much on reproductions of artworks as on texts to construct their arguments. It is also the case that, in practice, art historians often analyze reproductions rather than the art objects themselves. This chapter explores the implications of these practices by considering what has been reproduced and how through two case studies that demonstrate the value of undertaking a visual historiography of Art History. The first focuses on how reproductions were used in later nineteenth-century debates by Heinrich Wölfflin and Wilhelm von Bode about the attribution of a statue to Michelangelo. The second considers the changing reproductions in one of the best-selling Art History survey textbooks of the past century, Helen Gardner's Art through the Ages, first published in 1926.

Authors: Johnson, GA

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Routledge
• Host title: Art History Now: Objects, Concepts, Approaches
• Pages: 88-110
• Chapter number: 6
• Place of publication: London
• Publication date: 2025-12-29
• Edition: 1
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003563693-8
• EISBN: 9781003563693
• ISBN: 9781032915180
• Language: English
• Subtype: Chapter