Asymptotically approaching the past: historiography and critical use of sources in art technological source research

This paper proposes that historiographic methods should be applied during art technological source research. Sources cannot always be used uncritically as being simply reliable records of contemporary workshop practice. The accuracy, date and origin of the technical information embedded within sources can only be evaluated by questioning their authorship and their intended audience, and by investigation of their transmission. When using sources to illuminate the study of artefacts, more effort should be made to seek out and interpret a wider variety of sources, and to find those that are closer in time and place to the artefacts under consideration.