Technical Art History and the First Conference on the Scientific Analysis of Works of Art (Rome, 1930)

Technical studies made their disciplinary entrance in art history in the first half of the twentieth century. This development happened at different speeds in different Western countries. Whereas the situation in the United States is well known, the European context has received less attention. The first International Conference for the Study of Scientific Methods in the Examination and Conservation of Artworks, held in Rome in October 1930, was a crucial turning point for the establishment of technical art history. The French scholar Henri Focillon played a significant role by supporting technicalstudieswithintheInternationalInstituteforIntellectualCooperation.Oneofthe few Italian scholars interested in the emerging methods of technical art history was Lionello Venturi, who had, during his exile in the United States, encountered the laboratory criticism of Alan Burroughs, responsible for x-ray examination at the Fogg Art Museum. Another scholar who promoted the new approach was Fernand Mercier, director of the microradiographic laboratory of the Museum of Fine Arts in Dijon, who gave a lecture at the 1930 conference, regarding the technical study of the peculiar characters of artists. Apart from the émigré Venturi, who did not attend theconference, andCesareBrandi,whoarguedfromboththehistorian’sand theconservator’s perspectives, the main Italian scholars of the time were strongly influenced by the aesthetic preferences of Benedetto Croce and underestimated the relevance of technical features. They either ignored or rejected the new approach.