RATIONALE.
Why do this? Well, the internet revolution is making visual art available to the public in an unprecedented way, and scholars like me are excited by the opportunities this holds for the promotion of our subject. Not only that, but the web is starting to affect the way connoisseurship is practiced. The Poussin Connoisseurship Project positions itself within that new paradigm of digital connoisseurship; it aims to bring the traditional catalogue raisonné into the realms of hyperlinks, digital databases and the expanding universe of art history on the web. We’ll start modestly at first- but who knows? This has the potential to be something bigger.
AIMS
- To list the paintings on the Public Catalogue Foundation: BBC Your Paintings website (and others) that are not by Poussin’s hand, though linked with him by the curators of these resources. This includes paintings designated as “After”, “Style of”, “School” etc.
- To use my own expertise and experience as a Poussin scholar to add to the knowledge data base of the PCF, as well as offer an independent resource for anybody interested in the subject.
- To raise awareness about scholarly issues in Poussin connoisseurship for the general public.
- To use this resource as a foundation for larger, more ambitious projects, like cataloguing the paintings on the PCF by Poussin's followers; or even working through Poussin’s oeuvre in a web format.
FORMAT
The chosen format is derived from a number of conventions and traditions in cataloguing; this may change depending on what works best over time.
TITLE
LOCATION
MEDIUM AND SUPPORT (nearly always oil on canvas in Poussin’s case).
PROVENANCE (History of Ownership).
RELATED WORKS (originals, autograph works, drawings and engravings).
TECHNICAL NOTES (conservation,restoration, condition etc).
THEME.(Mythology, Biblical, whatever).
ADDITIONAL REMARKS
RELEVANT LITERATURE (subdivided into catalogues and other literature).