At the beginning of the eighteenth century, a generation of collectors in France and the Holy Roman Empire developed new principles for the display of paintings, principles based on comparison triggered by the mixture of schools and periods; its aim was to encourage analysis and connoisseurship through comparison and conversation. The ground-breaking theories of Roger de Piles were central to this novel approach, and essential to its understanding. These principles were predominant until the 1780s. This book examines case studies in France, the German Empire and the UK that exemplify these new principles.
Mary Tavener Holmes, Ph.D., is an independent scholar with a specialty in the art of the eighteenth century. Her publications include De Watteau à Fragonard: Les fêtes galantes (with Christoph Vogtherr, 2014) and Nicolas Lancretâs Dance before a Fountain (2006).
Christoph Martin Vogtherr is General Director of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation, Potsdam. Prior to that, he was director at the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Wallace Collection. He is a specialist of French eighteenth-century art and the history of art collecting.
A "stimulating book"
Peter Humfrey, University of St Andrews (Em.). In: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 168 (April 2026), pp. 413â414.
AcknowledgementsâIX List of Figures
Introduction
â1âSocial Spaces: Displaying and Discussing Paintings in Eighteenth-Century European Collections
â2âA New Theoretical Framework
â3âThe Vanishing Role of Iconography
â4âSetting the Stage: Vienna and Versailles at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century
Part 1: Pioneers of the New Principles
Introduction to Part 1
1 Lothar Franz Graf Schönborn at Pommersfelden, Schloss WeiÃenstein
2 Eugen Prince of Savoy at Vienna, Upper Belvedere