The restoration of paintings in Paris, 1750-1815: practice, discourse, materiality

Contents

Introduction: restoration and the public sphere -- Versatility and flexibility -- A networked practice -- Between the institutional and the private settings -- A public sphere of knowledge? -- Standards and reclassifications -- Intellectual property -- A "connoisseur-artist" -- Toward a definition at the museum -- To smoke or to scour? -- Retouching as interpretation -- Faking the painting -- Window or mirror -- Supports/surfaces -- From divided work to fabricated painting -- From adjustable object to adjusted space -- Mural exodus: the paintings transported to the museum -- Commercial and private venues -- Seeing, believing, and judging -- Financial repercussions -- For the glory of the king -- After the Revolution: the opening of the Louvre -- "From the rubble of triumph" -- Gazing upon the masterpieces of the arts -- The skilled hand of the French restorers -- The end of an empire.