Critical History of Art Catalogue in Europe

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We witness the birth of an auction catalogue in the seventeenth century with the development of an open art market, and the next century fixes the form of classification and description of catalogue. This form is adopted into the Museum catalogue or the exhibition catalog in modern times.My objective is, surveying a history of the auction catalogue from 18th century to 19th century in France, to analyze it as a discourse of art history. I enumerate some theoretical remarks obtained through my research:1. The basic form fixed in the eighteenth century France stands on an idea of topographical classification of painters and paintings, namely, that of three schools of Italy, Netherlands and France. So, the auction catalogue maps an art world of that time as a history.2. This art history takes a genealogy different from an orthodox history based on Italian painting and history painting. It represents, in a sense, a new art history produced by art market.3. The central part of description of picture is occupied by an explication of image or subject. It means that a reference to the materiality of picture is reduced. So, the picture in the catalogue appears as a visual image rather than a material object.4. In the nineteenth century the description form receives a small change by insertion of plates into the catalogue, that is, by an appearance of illustrated catalogues. It brings a simplification of description. So, the auction catalogue steps toward a kind of index of articles at an auction in the second half of nineteenth century.