These prints, from which so much was expected, were not only cheaper and readily available, but of a dramatically lower quality than the kinds connoisseurs had admired for centuries.
Artist or model, connoisseur or clown, he or she served as a conduit for the subversive ambivalence that must attend all genuine artistic experience, however benign or controlled.
As a consequence, art was increasingly available to all, rather than being restricted to a small group of connoisseurs who had access to private collections, galleries and select performances.
Not the money and title of the great, not even the worthy praise of the connoisseur, is as pleasing a reward as the voice of an entire nation.
A circumstance that the public will perhaps learn with pleasure should render this music precious to true connoisseurs.
We historians are indeed connoisseurs of contingency, but we are also connoisseurs of narrative structure.
Possibly this is because the virtuosi did not always think or behave in ways that one might expect from a connoisseur.
This points to a circle of connoisseurs who, alone, could have appreciated such provocative effects.
