Craft and comment: a proposed model for artifact study
Date
1988
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Although artwork falls under the heading of artifacts, art historians have generally not regarded their objects of study as historical or cultural evidence and thereby stand in opposition to material culturalists. Concerned parties in both disciplines have offered models for artifactual analysis, three of which are examined, but most art historians remain aloof. One reason why such models fail to attract art historians is that the models impose strict cultural relativity on all objects, stripping artwork of the absolutes that give it exceptional value. The opposing viewpoints of art historians and material culturalists can be reconciled through a model that analyses all objects in terms of the properties of craft and comment. Craft is defined as those things inevitably encountered in the making of an object, comment as those things affecting an object's form but capable of being separated from the object. (Abstract from ProQuest citation page, "shortened with permission of author.")