Author Description

"It was, in fact, during the waning decades of the ancien râegime that several enterprising and hugely ego-centric craftsmen developed transfer and lining techniques that were to put some of the Crown's greatest masterpieces at unconscionable risk. Not painters by training, the Hacquins, páere et fils, the Picaults, páere et fils, the widow Godefroid, to mention the most prominent, plied their trade well into the museum age, each promoting his or her own special and very secret techniques. This coincided roughly with the fall of the monarchy and the establishment of the Musâee National (later Musâee Napolâeon, and later still, Musâee du Louvre). It was the first public gallery to open its doors, and although artists of the stature of Jacques-Louis David were still very much involved in the new enterprise, the museum consecrated the roles of restorer, curator, and administrator. The "kitchen of art" is born. This essay collection, comprised of submissions to the New Criterion from over the years, will explore the "kitchen of art" from the point of view of an Italian-born American amateur art-historian"--