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connoisseurship
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A specifically visual knowledge gained from looking at works of art. Connoisseurship requires the gift, and the constant exercise, of a keen visual memory and the ability to sympathize with the process of artistic creativity. A connoisseur (from the French connaisseur, ‘one who knows’) is someone who is often described as having ‘a good eye’ with which to attribute works of art, to distinguish different styles or periods. The term is particularly associated with the art historian Bernard Berenson (1865–1959), who identified so many Italian Renaissance works of art (and frequently provided certificates of authentification).
