Faith in facsimile? The invention of photography and the reproduction of Spanish art

摘要

This paper considers the relationship between traditional prints, painted copies and photography in the reproduction of art, including the development of photomechanical processes in book illustration, from the point of view of the historiography of art. Its aim is to examine the impact of these on the methodology of the emerging discipline of art history and the establishment of a canon of Spanish art during the nineteenth century. Focusing principally on the Scottish writer Sir William Stirling Maxwell (1818-78), and including comparison and contrast with another pioneer in the historiography of Golden Age art in Spain, the German art historian Carl Justi (1832-1912), it explores some of the concerns they expressed around the reliability of both new and established methods of reproduction of art, including notions of facsimile and translation of meaning, and ponders the continuing relevance of such concerns in today’s digital age.