Faked, Forgotten, Found
I was really excited when we were home this summer to see the Carnegie Museum's summer shows, Small Prints, Big Artists and Faked, Forgotten, Found. Both Randy and I found the prints exhibit to be absorbing and exquisite (especially the feathery pieces by Rembrandt van Rijn), but Myles and Brigid enjoyed Faked so much more. They are both mystery-obsessed right now, so the art detective work involved with each painting held their attention. I likewise enjoyed that aspect of the exhibit, as well as the discussions of process. Faked is now one of my favorite exhibits I've seen at the Carnegie.
The exhibit focuses on five paintings, all but one from the Carnegie's permanent collection. Each of these paintings has more to them than meets the eye, and even getting close to the truth required all the resources and technological advancements at the art world's disposal. Along the way, there are plot twists and surprises that one would think only possible in fiction.
The paintings themselves are mounted in a rotunda, seen above, so that museum goers can view them from both sides, important in understanding how art mysteries are solved. On the walls around, each analysis unfolds with a combination of art, history, and science that satisfied our own particular curiosities.
More after the jump
The first painting the curators focus on is a portrait of Isabella de'Medici originally attributed to Agnolo Bronzino, a Florentine painter from the 1500s. Museum curator Louise Lippincott was certain that based on what she saw of this painting when it was in the museum storage that it did not fit with the label, so she was sure it was a fake. The painting style simply did not correspond with Bronzino's studio. However, the museum's conservator, Ellen Baxter, was not as convinced. X-Rays of the painting showed another painting, similar in subject, underneath.
Because of this, they looked for other clues that would lead them further towards a real attribution. A tag on the back of the painting, affixed by a 19th century restorer, was further proof that the painting was real but changed to make it more appealing to the art market of the time. With cleaning and removal of the later restorations, the Carnegie Museum is more certain that this portrait of Isabella de'Medici was painted during her doomed lifetime, not by Bronzino, but by someone associated with Bronzino's nephew, Allessandro Allori.
The second painting in the exhibit is one everyone at the museum was quite certain was a forgery, and they proceeded with testing to show how fakes can be detected today. Questions of the authenticity of this portrait of George Nevill, Lord Bergavenny persisted since 1968. Once attributed to the workshop of Hans Holbein, the chain of ownership and an analysis performed in 1994 was all the confirmation they needed to declare it a fake dating to 1870-1920. It was taken off display. Lippincort decided to include the painting in this small exhibit, and began a new round of testing on it more in line with newer methods, like infrared imaging and x-ray fluorescence. This is where the plot twists. While they expected further proof this was a forged Holbein painting, the newest technologies was able to show that, while retouched sometime between 1870 and 1920, the portrait was mostly painted in 1650. This painting was indeed, authentic. Some of the results, too, were not available until after the exhibit opened, so some museum goers were treated to a bit of a cliff-hanger this summer.
The third study was of two nearly identical paintings, one in the collection of the Carnegie and one in the collection of the National Gallery in London. Francesco Francia's "Madonna and Child with Angel" was painted around 1500, and by the 1840s was in the possession of Pelagio Palagi's family. They were wanting to sell the painting to a wealthy British buyer, but the Italian authorities prohibited its export. At that point, a very convincing copy was made, so that in 1847 Palagi could secretly sell the original. The copy eventually made its way to the National Gallery while the original quietly circulated until it ended up at the Carnegie. The National Gallery had long hoped that theirs was the original, but unfortunately, it was not. Among the evidence were the wormholes in the Carnegie's painting that weren't in the National Gallery's, and imaging that showed that the painting in Pittsburgh had more contemporaneous revisions as the artist fixed his own mistakes, and a sketch underneath that did not match up exactly with the final product.
The final painting falls under "Forgotten" and "Found" in the title of the exhibit. Jan Rombouts the Elder's "Birth of Saint John the Baptist" had languished in museum storage for a long time because of its condition. The manner in which the artist joined the panel pieces together led to warpage and damage centuries later. In such fragile condition, the painting was off display until a recent restoration and remounting. The Carnegie Museum received it as a bequest from a Pittsburgh art collector (Kennywood heiress Katherine McSwigan McDonough), who herself purchased it from a 1959 auction at Christie's where it had been consigned by Hermann Michelson and identified as "Birth of the Virgin." In the 1940s, Rombouts' "Birth of Saint John the Baptist" had been on the radar of the Monuments Men, a task force charged with locating art and antiques looted during World War II. However, between the misidentification at Christie's (which is not clear if that was willful) and the fragile condition, the painting escaped notice until more recently. Currently, the legal status of this painting is in litigation in Europe.
I was furiously taking notes in my planner as we walked through this exhibit. Myles was sketching in his notebook, as he always does at the Museum, but I had forgotten to bring Brigid hers. She borrowed my planner in between my scribbles to take her own notes. She proceeded to "borrow detail" (her words!) from several of the paintings in Faked, Forgotten, and Found. What resulted was an ornately framed portrait of a Baby Angel Superhero.
The exhibit focuses on five paintings, all but one from the Carnegie's permanent collection. Each of these paintings has more to them than meets the eye, and even getting close to the truth required all the resources and technological advancements at the art world's disposal. Along the way, there are plot twists and surprises that one would think only possible in fiction.
The paintings themselves are mounted in a rotunda, seen above, so that museum goers can view them from both sides, important in understanding how art mysteries are solved. On the walls around, each analysis unfolds with a combination of art, history, and science that satisfied our own particular curiosities.
More after the jump
The first painting the curators focus on is a portrait of Isabella de'Medici originally attributed to Agnolo Bronzino, a Florentine painter from the 1500s. Museum curator Louise Lippincott was certain that based on what she saw of this painting when it was in the museum storage that it did not fit with the label, so she was sure it was a fake. The painting style simply did not correspond with Bronzino's studio. However, the museum's conservator, Ellen Baxter, was not as convinced. X-Rays of the painting showed another painting, similar in subject, underneath.
Because of this, they looked for other clues that would lead them further towards a real attribution. A tag on the back of the painting, affixed by a 19th century restorer, was further proof that the painting was real but changed to make it more appealing to the art market of the time. With cleaning and removal of the later restorations, the Carnegie Museum is more certain that this portrait of Isabella de'Medici was painted during her doomed lifetime, not by Bronzino, but by someone associated with Bronzino's nephew, Allessandro Allori.
The second painting in the exhibit is one everyone at the museum was quite certain was a forgery, and they proceeded with testing to show how fakes can be detected today. Questions of the authenticity of this portrait of George Nevill, Lord Bergavenny persisted since 1968. Once attributed to the workshop of Hans Holbein, the chain of ownership and an analysis performed in 1994 was all the confirmation they needed to declare it a fake dating to 1870-1920. It was taken off display. Lippincort decided to include the painting in this small exhibit, and began a new round of testing on it more in line with newer methods, like infrared imaging and x-ray fluorescence. This is where the plot twists. While they expected further proof this was a forged Holbein painting, the newest technologies was able to show that, while retouched sometime between 1870 and 1920, the portrait was mostly painted in 1650. This painting was indeed, authentic. Some of the results, too, were not available until after the exhibit opened, so some museum goers were treated to a bit of a cliff-hanger this summer.
The third study was of two nearly identical paintings, one in the collection of the Carnegie and one in the collection of the National Gallery in London. Francesco Francia's "Madonna and Child with Angel" was painted around 1500, and by the 1840s was in the possession of Pelagio Palagi's family. They were wanting to sell the painting to a wealthy British buyer, but the Italian authorities prohibited its export. At that point, a very convincing copy was made, so that in 1847 Palagi could secretly sell the original. The copy eventually made its way to the National Gallery while the original quietly circulated until it ended up at the Carnegie. The National Gallery had long hoped that theirs was the original, but unfortunately, it was not. Among the evidence were the wormholes in the Carnegie's painting that weren't in the National Gallery's, and imaging that showed that the painting in Pittsburgh had more contemporaneous revisions as the artist fixed his own mistakes, and a sketch underneath that did not match up exactly with the final product.
The final painting falls under "Forgotten" and "Found" in the title of the exhibit. Jan Rombouts the Elder's "Birth of Saint John the Baptist" had languished in museum storage for a long time because of its condition. The manner in which the artist joined the panel pieces together led to warpage and damage centuries later. In such fragile condition, the painting was off display until a recent restoration and remounting. The Carnegie Museum received it as a bequest from a Pittsburgh art collector (Kennywood heiress Katherine McSwigan McDonough), who herself purchased it from a 1959 auction at Christie's where it had been consigned by Hermann Michelson and identified as "Birth of the Virgin." In the 1940s, Rombouts' "Birth of Saint John the Baptist" had been on the radar of the Monuments Men, a task force charged with locating art and antiques looted during World War II. However, between the misidentification at Christie's (which is not clear if that was willful) and the fragile condition, the painting escaped notice until more recently. Currently, the legal status of this painting is in litigation in Europe.
I was furiously taking notes in my planner as we walked through this exhibit. Myles was sketching in his notebook, as he always does at the Museum, but I had forgotten to bring Brigid hers. She borrowed my planner in between my scribbles to take her own notes. She proceeded to "borrow detail" (her words!) from several of the paintings in Faked, Forgotten, and Found. What resulted was an ornately framed portrait of a Baby Angel Superhero.
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