Art historical research for the conservation of cultural heritage: specific aspects
ENCultural Heritage Conservation aims at preserving manifestations and evidences of the Past that are considered valuable by societies and communities, identifying themselves with this Past, sharing it as their'common history'and/ or'common tradition'and defining it as their'common heritage'. Determining values of such heritage is a multilayered process, covering three basic consequent stages: identification of a huge variety of things and events of the Past, interpretation of the identified items, and finally, assessment based on findings that have resulted from the two former stages. It is generally accepted and even legitimated that in all but a few cases scientific knowledge must be applied as the main tool for identification and evaluation of cultural heritage. Another important notion is related to the core of heritage conservation as a human activity. Though heritage conservation is based on sociocultural needs of collective memory and historical identity, that is, lies within intellectual demands of the mind and spiritual demands of the soul, but in practice, however, it is targeting towards the preservation of material substance as a media for spiritual experiences and/or cultural cohesion of social groups. All this makes heritage a specific field of knowledge. However, the question is whether the research for heritage conservation might be distinguished as an autonomous branch of scholarship if compared with other studies in history, cultural anthropology, and alike? This article aims at defining the following: what does research for heritage conservation implicate; what sciences and methods are involved; what types of findings are applicable; and who might assume the responsibility of drawing conclusions upon identification and assessment of historic remains? The role of Art History and art historians in this context is analysed as well.
