{"title":"Numbering The Ladies Waldegrave: Questions of Status and Display","authors":"Madeleine Page","doi":"10.1080/03087298.2022.2102287","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"At first glance, it appears as though Sir Joshua Reynolds’s The Ladies Waldegrave (1780) is in two places at once: Strawberry Hill House and the National Gallery, Edinburgh. Despite their visual indistinguishability, however, the former is a copy of the latter created by Factum Foundation in 2018. In this article, I discuss the ontological relation between paintings and their visually indistinguishable facsimiles, along with certain consequences that relation has for display practices. Traditionally, paintings are understood to be ontologically singular; no copy, however faithful, can ever stand in as the work itself. Using The Ladies Waldegrave, I defend ontological singularity while maintaining that these visually indistinguishable facsimiles can be used to promote engagement with, and a better understanding of, originals. Drawing on the philosophical idea that objects have temporal parts, I suggest that what I call suitable facsimiles – copies that are visually indistinguishable from originals – are representations of particular temporal parts of those originals. My proposal allows paintings to maintain their singularity while acknowledging that some copies share a special relationship with the originals such that the former can stand in for the latter. I conclude by considering issues concerning the display of both originals and suitable facsimiles.","PeriodicalId":13024,"journal":{"name":"History of Photography","volume":"46 1","pages":"9 - 19"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"History of Photography","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03087298.2022.2102287","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"ART","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
At first glance, it appears as though Sir Joshua Reynolds’s The Ladies Waldegrave (1780) is in two places at once: Strawberry Hill House and the National Gallery, Edinburgh. Despite their visual indistinguishability, however, the former is a copy of the latter created by Factum Foundation in 2018. In this article, I discuss the ontological relation between paintings and their visually indistinguishable facsimiles, along with certain consequences that relation has for display practices. Traditionally, paintings are understood to be ontologically singular; no copy, however faithful, can ever stand in as the work itself. Using The Ladies Waldegrave, I defend ontological singularity while maintaining that these visually indistinguishable facsimiles can be used to promote engagement with, and a better understanding of, originals. Drawing on the philosophical idea that objects have temporal parts, I suggest that what I call suitable facsimiles – copies that are visually indistinguishable from originals – are representations of particular temporal parts of those originals. My proposal allows paintings to maintain their singularity while acknowledging that some copies share a special relationship with the originals such that the former can stand in for the latter. I conclude by considering issues concerning the display of both originals and suitable facsimiles.
期刊介绍:
History of Photography is an international quarterly devoted to the history, practice and theory of photography. It intends to address all aspects of the medium, treating the processes, circulation, functions, and reception of photography in all its aspects, including documentary, popular and polemical work as well as fine art photography. The goal of the journal is to be inclusive and interdisciplinary in nature, welcoming all scholarly approaches, whether archival, historical, art historical, anthropological, sociological or theoretical. It is intended also to embrace world photography, ranging from Europe and the Americas to the Far East.