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READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS : Authenticity,Art: Restoration, Authenticity, Restoration, Art: Forgery Authenticity, Restoration, Forgery

David A. Scott

his presents a detailed account of authenticity in the visual from the Palaeolithic to the postmodern. The restoration of works Tof art can alter the perception of authenticity, and may result in of fakes and . These interactions set the stage for the subject of this book, which initially examines the conservation perspective, then continues with a detailed discussion of what “authenticity” means, and the philosophical background. Included are several case studies that discuss conceptual, aesthetic, and material authenticity of ancient and in the context of restoration and forgery. •

Scott

Above: An artwork created by the author as a conceptual of the original Egyptian faience objects. Do these copies possess the same intangible authenticity as the originals? Photograph by A. Scott On front cover: Cast of author’s hand with Roman mask. Photograph by David A. Scott

MLKRJBKQ> AO@E>BLILDF@> 35 MLKRJBKQ> AO@E>BLILDF@> 35 CLQPBK IKPQFQRQB LC AO@E>BLILDV POBPP CLQPBK IKPQFQRQB LC AO@E>BLILDV POBPP CIoA Press READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Art: Authenticity, Restoration, Forgery READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Art: Authenticity, Restoration, Forgery

David A. Scott

MLKRJBKQ> AO@E>BLILDF@> 35 CLCOQPBKTSEN IKPQFQRQB INSTITUTE LC AO@E>BLILDVOF ARCHAEOLO POBPPGY PRESS Monumenta Archaeologica READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

The Cotsen Institute of Press is the publishing unit of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. The Cotsen Institute is a premier research organization dedicated to the creation, dissemination, and conservation of archaeological knowledge and . It is home to both the Interdepartmental Archaeology Graduate Program and the UCLA/Getty Master’s Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethno- graphic Materials. The Cotsen Institute provides a forum for innovative faculty research, graduate education, and public programs at UCLA in an effort to positively impact the academic, local, and global communities. Established in 1973, the Cotsen Institute is at the forefront of archaeological research, education, conservation, and publication and is an active contributor to interdisciplinary research at UCLA.

The Cotsen Institute Press specializes in producing high-quality archaeological publications in nine dif- ferent series, including Monumenta Archaeologica, Monographs, World Heritage and Monuments, Cotsen Advanced Seminars, and Ideas, Debates, and Perspectives. Through a generous by Lloyd E. Cotsen, longtime Institute volunteer and benefactor, the Press makes the fruits of archaeological research accessible to scholars, professionals, students, and the general public. Our archaeological publications receive critical acclaim among both academic communities and the public at large.

The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press at UCLA Willeke Wendrich, Director Aaron A. , Editor-in-Chief Randi Danforth, Publications Director Deidre Whitmore, Director of the Lab

Editorial Board Willeke Wendrich (Ex officio member) Lothar von Falkenhausen East Asia Sarah P. Morris Mediterranean Basin John K. Papadopoulos Mediterranean Basin Jeanne E. Arnold North America–Pacific Coast Gregson Schachner North America–Southwest Charles Stanish South America–Andes Richard G. Lesure South America–Mesoamerica Aaron A. Burke West Asia–Near East Randi Danforth Ex officio member

Edited by Peg Goldstein Designed by Sally Boylan Cover concept and photo illustration by David A. Scott Cover design by Sally Boylan Index by Matthew White

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Scott, David A., 1948- author. Title: Art : authenticity, restoration, forgery / David A. Scott. Description: Angeles : Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016011510 | ISBN 9781938770081 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-938770-41-8 (eBook) Subjects: LCSH: Art--Conservation and restoration. | Art--Forgeries. | Authenticity (Philosophy) Classification: LCC N8555 .S36 2016 | DDC 702.8--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016011510

Copyright ©2016 Regents of the University of All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

This volume is dedicated to the Scott family and especially to my wife, Lesley Ann Moorcroft, who has lived through many years and travails with the author, too many to name, but also many very happy memories. READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

List of Illustrations xiii

Chapter 1 Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction 1

Chapter 2 The Cult of Authenticity 35

Chapter 3 Authenticity, Monuments, and the International Charters 95

Chapter 4 Different Approaches to Authenticity 121

Chapter 5 The Ancient Old World 161

Chapter 6 The Ethnographic and the Authentic 223

Chapter 7 Considerations of Medieval Authenticity 273

Chapter 8 The European and Beyond 295 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Contents

Chapter 9 From the to the Early Twentieth Century 355

Chapter 10 The Modern, Postmodern, and Contemporary 373

Chapter 11 Some Final Thoughts and 415

Glossary of Terms 425

References Cited 435

Index 479

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Preface

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new film, , , , photographs, poems, dreams, random conservation, , bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concerning your thievery— celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: it’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to. —Jim Jarmusch, MovieMaker, June 5, 2013

his quotation from Jim Jarmusch across many fields of scholarly inquiry be- encompasses some of the cacoph- come. Not only does the concept of au- Tony of voices and sources, media, thenticity have multiple dimensions to be opinions, and self-justificatory statements discovered, but the hermeneutics of engage- concerning authenticity that this book seeks ment with it are in serious need of transdisci- to explore. The celebration of authenticity plinary discussion. as a contested field of enquiry, one that has One of the aims of this book is to unravel been well trodden, picked over, and plowed these terms of engagement across the regions up, has led to modern anxiety concerning of philosophy, art restoration, , con- authenticity in the twenty-first century and servation theory, and in the hope whether it really exists. that multiple reflections from each field will The deeper one excavates the foundations illuminate the complex territory in new and of authenticity, the richer the interactions exciting ways.

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Preface

Readers will notice that several areas of how authenticity is defined and applied to cultural life, such as literature and music, the works in question. They also a are either underrepresented in this book or foil for philosophical debate on the nature of not covered at all. This book studies the vi- forgery and its relationships to replicas, cop- sual arts and authenticity, not literature or ies, or the real. Restoration of works of art music and authenticity, about which there is is capable, in itself, of creating inauthentic already an extensive and rapidly expanding fabrications whose disputed nature is further body of literature. The structural dissonance proof of our interest and engagement with between art conservation and the art histori- what we consider to be authentic or not, and cal discourse has been under attack for some the question of whether authenticity is better time, particularly in the sector of contem- served by our thinking of it in terms of ma- porary art, where a ménage à trois between terial authenticity, conceptual authenticity, conservator, , and has become historical authenticity, or aesthetic authentic- increasingly important for the survival of ity. Intellectual arguments concerning these the artwork. In a more general context, the types of questions are fascinating proof of the impact of and present art restoration relevancy and vitality of authenticity in all of programs and the ways these impinge on its various manifestations. the interpretation of artwork have been only The author learned much during the re- sporadically explored. search for this book, and in that process came This book strives to integrate these con- to admire several authors whose work is quot- cerns into a dialogue concerning authentic- ed or discussed in the text, and who now seem ity in the as a legitimate subject like old friends or intellectual companions. As of inquiry. Jarmusch talks of stealing that Jarmusch advises, the author selected things which resonates with you. That resonation to steal or covet that spoke directly to him, has been intriguing to investigate in the case changed views, gave him sustenance, or bol- of master forgers who have tried to emulate stered arguments and perspectives. The au- the achievements of others and in so doing hopes that the present text will help to have created an authentic body of work of illuminate this complex topic, which some their own that emulates, copies, or subverts still claim does not really exist, even if we the work of the original artist. Many of these cannot live without the need for some kind of cases create stimulating problems regarding authenticity in our lives and our art.

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Acknowledgments

everal colleagues have given of their University; Professor Andy Hamilton, time to read parts of this book, which Department of Philosophy, University of Shas greatly facilitated its peer review. Durham; Antonios Thessadopoulos, read- Thanks go to Tharron Bloomfield, Visiting er in , University of York, Mellon Scholar in Conservation at UCLA Dr. Eric Doehne, lecturer, Scripps College during 2013–2015; Professor Ellen Pearlstein, and Pomona College, and archaeologi- Department of Information Studies, UCLA, cal science consultant; Elma O’Donahue, and UCLA/Getty Conservation Program; Department of Paintings Conservation, Los Podany, formerly of Angeles County of Art; Dr. Pieter Conservation, J. Paul Getty Villa Museum, Meyers, former head of the Department of Malibu; Associate Professor Meredith Cohen, Conservation, Los Angeles County Museum Professor Miwon Kwon, Professor Lothar of Art; and Dr. Robert Storrie, keeper of von Falkenhausen, Professor Hui-shu Lee, anthropology, Horniman Museum and Professor Emeritus David Kunzle, and Gardens, . Professor Emeritus Joanna Woods-Marsden, Heartfelt thanks go to the two refer- all members of the Art History Department, ees for this publication: Professor Emeritus UCLA; and Professor Gavin Lawrence Elizabeth Pye, Department of Conservation, and Dr. Andrew Hsu of the Department of University College London; and Professor Philosophy, UCLA. John Papadopoulos, Department of Classics Useful correspondents who helped to and Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA. improve the quality of the text include Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons have Professor Christopher Caple, Department been useful resources for illustrations, saving of Conservation, University of Durham; thousands of dollars in fees and Professor Glenn Wharton, Department of preventing the text from losing even more il- Art History and Conservation, New York lustrative material than it already has. Limits

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Acknowledgments

on illustrations are apparent in chapter 10, Finally, grateful acknowledgements go to which deals with modern and contemporary the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, art. To reproduce these works, the payment UCLA, for wrestling with this manuscript of fees is unavoidable, and illustrations are and to the director of publications, Randi scanty in this chapter. Danforth, whose attention throughout the Special thanks go to the Guggenheim process of publication has been superlative. Foundation, which awarded me a Peg Goldstein, my copyeditor, deserves Guggenheim Fellowship for 2014, which thanks for helping to clarify the text and for made the writing of this book possible and removing as many errors as possible, as well which acted as an incentive for the recogni- as for correcting the many reference prob- tion of interest in this project in the wider lems in this expansive text, and thanks also to world of scholarship. Sally Boylan for her design. READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

List of Illustrations

Figure 1.1. An apparently complete Figure 2.6. Naum Gabo artwork in cellulose Madonna and Child by Rogier van der acetate or cellulose nitrate. Weyden, the majority of which had been Figure 2.7. Modern replica of Construction in lost through damage. Space: Two Cones, 1927, shown in Figure Figure 1.2. Crucifix by Cimabue, in the 2.6. Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence, circa Figure 2.8. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by 1268–1271. Pablo , 1907. Figure 1.3. Detail of the Madonna from the Figure 2.9. La Saveur des Larmes (The crucifix by Cimabue shown in Figure 1.2. Flavor of Tears) by René Magritte, 1948. Figure 1.4. Eighteenth-century portrait Figure 2.10. The Toilet of , also known of Pope Innocent XII before and after as Rokeby Venus, by Diego Velázquez, cir- restoration. ca 1647–1651. Figure 1.5. Victorious Youth, Greek bronze Figure 2.11. Concepts of authenticity. retrieved from the Italian coast of the Figure 2.12. Arenas of authenticity. Adriatic Sea near Fano, 300–100 B.C.E. Figure 2.13. Ruins of of Ur, site of Figure 2.1. The art- system: a ma- one of the first in the world, chine for making authenticity. dating from about 530 B.C.E. Figure 2.2. The RIP triangle of Christopher Figure 2.14. Ningyo specimen; papi- Caple. er-mâché body and fish tail. Figure 2.3. Conservation dynamics. Figure 2.15. Modes of intention. Figure 2.4. Aspects of perceptual defects Figure 2.16. Vanitas Still Life with a Portrait that should be viewed from 2 m away. of a Young Painter by David Bailly, 1651. Figure 2.5. Augustus Caesar as the Augustus Figure 2.17. A fake limestone of of Prima Porta and later restorations. Queen Tetisheri.

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List of Illustrations

Figure 2.18. by Michael Mandiberg, invoked by a fake, and the merger of 2001. the historical horizons of the artist and Figure 2.19. The four criteria for the produc- the interpreter, based on Gadamer’s tion of the perfect fake. hermeneutics. Figure 3.1. Warsaw, Poland. Figure 5.1. Granite sphinx of Amenemhet Figure 3.2. Nikko, . III, from the Twelfth Dynasty, around Figure 3.3. Uppark House in Sussex. 1810 B.C.E., from Tanis. Figure 3.4. The Black Madonna of Chartres Figure 5.2. Decapitated head of the Roman before restoration. emperor Augustus, 63 B.C.E.–14 C.E., Figure 3.5. The Black Madonna of Chartres inlaid with eyes of glass and stone. after restoration. Figure 5.3. ’s Needle on the Figure 3.6. The Cathedral of Reims as a ruin Thames embankment in London. following German bombing in 1914. Figure 5.4. Egyptian Multiples: The Ushabti Figure 3.7. Hotel designed by George 2014. Gilbert Scott St. Pancras, North London. Figure 5.5. Old Kingdom–style by Figure 4.1. Pietà by , 1498– Oxan Aslanian in the Museums. 1499, St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Figure 5.6. Alabaster torso of an Egyptian Figure 4.2. Concepts important for establish- princess of the period, presumed ing authenticity, based on Mark Sagoff’s to be 3,300 years old. ideas. Figure 5.7. The North Portico at Knossos, Figure 4.3. Miniature Roman portrait bust of Greece. a woman, 25 B.C.E.–25 C.E. Figure 5.8. La Tiare de Saïtapharnès. Figure 4.4. La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans Figure 5.9. Roman Harbour Scene, attributed by Edgar Degas. to Piranesi (1720–1778), imagined by Figure 4.5. Lucrezia Donati by Giovanni as the preparatory draw- Bastianini. ing Piranesi would have made for a cop- Figure 4.6. The Procuress by Han van per etching plate. Meegeren, circa 1940. Figure 5.10. Marble version of the lost Figure 4.7. Factors that affect our view of original bronze Apoxyomenos by Lysippos. the three authenticities outlined in Figure Figure 5.11. A fully rerestored sculpture of 2.11. Marcus that came to the Getty Figure 4.8. Fountain by . Museum in 1999 for treatment. Figure 4.9. Not to Be Reproduced by René Figure 5.12. The Getty Herakles, circa 125 Magritte, 1937. C.E., shown in its rerestored condition Figure 4.10. Problems of indistinguishability. in 2016. Figure 4.11. The problem posed by Danto, Figure 5.13. The Getty Herakles, circa 125 with an addition after Radnóti (Picasso’s C.E. Tie). Figure 5.14. , first cen- Figure 4.12. A variation on the relation- tury C.E. ships between artist’s intention, ap- Figure 5.15. Leda and the Swan. preciation or surpassing intention, the Figure 5.16. Two restored versions of the appropriation of tradition that may be same figure of . READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

List of Illustrations

Figure 5.17. The Getty Kouros. Figure 7.6. Impressive marble tomb pur- Figure 5.18. Monumental head of Zeus. chased by the Boston Museum of Fine Figure 5.19. Discussion on the Piltdown Skull Arts in 1924 for $100,135. by John Cooke. Figure 7.7. Angel of the . Figure 5.20. Totonac wind god Ehecatl. Figure 7.8. The Annunciation by Simone Figure 5.21. Manitou Springs in Colorado. Martini. Figure 6.1. Malagan wood with Figure 7.9. Marble Madonna and Child by polychromy, Papua New . Dossena. Figure 6.2. Preserved Maori mokomokai. Figure 7.10. The great forger of Figure 6.3. A mokomokai in the collections Renaissance art Alceo Dossena. of the . Figure 7.11. Cross made for Archbishop Figure 6.4. Mask from the Punu tribal re- Herimann of Cologne. gion of the Gabon. Figure 7.12. Madonna and Child by Coppo Figure 6.5. Intangible and di Marcovaldo. the information ecosystem. Figure 7.13. Madonna and Child in the style Figure 6.6. Bulul guardian figure of the of Coppo di Marcovaldo. Ifugao people. Figure 8.1. The by Leonardo da Figure 6.7. A Yoruba woman with a tradi- Vinci. tional wooden ibeji figure. Figure 8.2. The Prado Mona Lisa after Figure 6.8. A carved wooden treasure cleaning and digital remastering. box—a typical James Little Maori Figure 8.3. The Ludovisi Ares. artwork. Figure 8.4. The derestored version of the Figure 6.9. Songye mask from Democratic Laocoön. . Figure 8.5. A restored version of the Figure 6.10. Forgery of Guan Tong’s Laocoön as it appeared prior to 1950. Drinking and Singing at the Foot of a Figure 8.6. The Farnese Herakles. Precipitous Mountain. Figure 8.7. in the collections of the Figure 6.11. A perfectly authentic Chinese Brancacci Chapel. bronze from the Eastern Han Figure 8.8. Detail of the painting from the period. Brancacci Chapel shown in Figure 8.7. Figure 6.12. In the Beginning . . . (Genesis 1) Figure 8.9. Detail from the garden from the 1997, attributed to Eddie Burrup. Sistine Chapel frescoes by Michelangelo. Figure 7.1. Three important concepts in the Figure 8.10. The creation of the sun and authenticity of the medieval. moon scene on the Sistine Chapel ceiling Figure 7.2. Procession of Fragments of the True before conservation in 1990. Cross by Gentile . Figure 8.11. The creation scene on the Figure 7.3. The mummified body of Saint Sistine Chapel ceiling after conservation Zita from 1272. in 1990. Figure 7.4. Reliquary containing the relic Figure 8.12. The Last Supper by Leonardo blood of Christ in procession in Brugge. da Vinci. Figure 7.5. Hand reliquary without the Figure 8.13. Varieties of approaches to the hand, from Belgium, circa 1250–1300. restoration of Renaissance works of art.

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List of Illustrations

Figure 8.14. Restored wall painting from the Figure 8.22. Art forger Icilio Frederico Joni. Tomb of Queen Nefertari. Figure 9.1. Page from the website of Gary Figure 8.15. Bacchus and Ariadne by . Arseneau. Figure 8.16. Self-portrait by Charles- Figure 9.2. Neo-Renaissance portrait Antoine Coype. bust of Giovanna Albizzi by Giovanni Figure 8.17. Prometheus Bound by Peter Paul Bastianini. . Figure 10.1. Erased de Kooning by Figure 8.18. Virgin and Child in Flower Robert Rauschenberg. Garland with Angels by Figure 10.2. One and Three Chairs by Joseph and Jan Brueghel the Elder. Kosuth. Figure 8.19. The Virgin Mary with Saint Figure 10.3. Karl Gunnar Vougt Pontus Thomas Aquinas and Saint Paul by Hultén, first director of the Centre Bernardo Daddi, before rerestoration. Pompidou, . Figure 8.20. The Virgin Mary with Saint Figure 10.4. Twenty-Ninth Copper Cardinal Thomas Aquinas and Saint Paul by by Carl Andre. Bernardo Daddi after rerestoration. Figure 10.5. Primo Piano III by David Smith. Figure 8.21. Portrait of a Young Lady by Icilio Figure 10.6. Homage to New York by Jean Frederico Joni. Tinguely.

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Chapter 1 Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

Connoisseurship Intention Intertextuality Minimal Intervention Restoration Replicas Artistic Value Forgery Reversibility Aesthetic Value

Objects cannot exist in a state of falsehood, nor can they have a false nature. If they really exist they are inherently real. —Salvador Muñoz-Viñas, Contemporary Theory of Conservation

Introduction, Audience, and Aims regarding their reception. The book will be This volume spans a range of topics, times, of special interest to archaeologists, con- and artworks that are used to illustrate the servators, restorers, art historians, philoso- themes of authenticity, restoration, and forg- phers, and critics. In its cross-cultural aims, ery. The book is designed to be a resource the volume attempts to synthesize diverse for the general reader interested in how sources and arguments to present views of restoration and authenticity of art inter- authenticity from a series of vantage points, mix and how the issues created by forgeries sometimes representing antinomies, con- may involve culturally influenced decisions tested intentions, or disputed vistas.

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

Chapter 1 introduces a number of conser- discussion here, especially since restorations vation topics that are relevant to the themes of works of art are sometimes accused of of authenticity, restoration, and forgery. becoming historical forgeries themselves in Since conservation and restoration directly virtue of what has happened to them in the affect the materiality of works of art, these is- course of restoration. sues are very relevant to the discussions that The philosophical background is germane follow later in the book. to this discussion because its various struc- Authenticity interacts with both resto- tures support aesthetic or ethical arguments ration and forgery, as these two activities may concerning how works of art are to be regard- alter how the authenticity of a ed; how fakes and forgeries raise significant is perceived or described. The text spans a questions regarding their status within the chronological period from the to canons of both art and art history; and, more the postmodern; the period is broken up for specifically, how their aesthetic and material convenience into a series of chapters devot- constitutions can be analyzed or discussed. ed to particular time periods. The diachronic For example, can fakes that are visually spread of the artworks discussed in this text indiscernible from originals be regarded as seeks to illustrate how notions of authentic- aesthetically inferior? Can fakes that were ity, restoration, and forgery are addressed in accepted as real artworks for generations be different contexts and , and it illus- seen as of no value today? Philosophical in- trates a continuity of concerns and debates vestigations regarding the aims and process- from the ancient world to the contemporary. es of restoration have also been invaluable in Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are concerned with widening the terms of debate on this import- a wide-ranging discussion on the interaction ant and fascinating topic, which continues between the concepts introduced in chapter to generate many controversies, such as the 1 and examples of how the philosophical and cleaning of the Sistine Chapel frescoes or the conservatorial nexus regarding authenticity total revamping of the interior of Chartres has a direct or indirect bearing on artworks Cathedral. A more detailed account of some and the cultural setting of the works. This philosophical studies that are relevant to the book is concerned primarily with works of visual arts and the topics dealt with in this the visual arts rather than literature or music, book is presented in chapter 4. both of which have a huge literature pertain- Within the profession of conservation, ing to authenticity. the lack of any clear philosophical under- The inauthentic, in the shape of fakes pinnings led to the formulation of a series of and forgeries, is an important aspect of the international charters in the early twentieth way in which artworks are valorized because century. Some of them are reviewed in this there is a of authenticities and book, especially as they relate to problems as- values associated with them. The processes sociated with the concept of authenticity and of historical and cultural assignation of value monuments. These charters are still relevant cannot simply be separated from the problem to discussions concerning the authenticity of of fakes or how they are regarded across dif- art and our various responses to the problem ferent time periods and cultures. The subject in the twenty-first century. At the same time, of fakes is both relevant and important to the they represent a series of time capsules that

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The Connoisseurial Nexus

embed the thoughts of different generations The Connoisseurial Nexus of scholars at specific historical moments. This book takes a robust view of the need for In relation to the primary concerns of the contextualization of the debate between these codes, namely historic monuments, the art historical and the scientific some aspects of the charters are discussed in connoisseur, both of whom are part of an es- chapter 3. sential dialogue concerning the nature of au- The relationship between the cleaning of thenticity but who all too often speak in very works of art and how the perceptible proper- different terms about the same artwork. Both ties of them are evaluated is interconnected groups of may be unaware of the with the notion of how far restoration can materiality studied by the conservator, the nu- be taken before the essential properties of an ances of restoration, the aesthetic and ontolog- artwork are compromised or overridden by ical arguments advanced by philosophers, or culturally determined choices regarding how the cultural needs of ethnic communities and the artwork appears. These concerns are part how these might impinge on the discussion. of the argument about the authentic appear- The term scientific connoisseur is used ance of works of art and what has happened throughout this text because, analogous to the to them over time, a concern that this book art connoisseur, the scientific connoisseur must fleshes out in a number of pertinent examples have a thorough knowledge of art in terms of throughout the text, particularly in chapters its materiality; its physical and chemical char- 5 through 9, which deal with the ancient Old acterization; the history of ’ materials World; ethnographic works of art; the me- and when , media, and supports dieval period; the Renaissance; the Baroque came into use or ceased being used; dating period to the early twentieth century; and the techniques applied to works of art and their modern, postmodern, and contemporary era. field of operation; and limitations inherent One of the aims of this book is to illu- in the . These, rather than minate how concerns regarding authentic- possession of an outstanding expertise in one ity are not a phenomenon of recent times particular technique of scientific analyses, are but a response to the originality and important facets of the required knowledge honest reception of artworks from the very base. Seeking the application of a new scien- beginnings of human interaction with ma- tific technique on disparate artworks does not terials. On the other hand, the recognition entail a holistic understanding of an artwork of the production of forgeries is the Janus itself, which must remain the focus of inquiry, face of concerns with authenticity that afflict not the novelty of a new form of character- our aesthetic understanding of the past or in ization in isolation from the examination of some cases enhance, distort, or valorize it. the totality of the materiality and historical The text discusses many prominent examples existence of the work. of forgers whose work has either created its The art connoisseur must have a range of own body of artworks that have come to be knowledge about a particular work and a de- admired as a reflection of our interaction and tailed understanding of the artist’s catalogue signification of them, or that create philo- raisonné, the culture from which the object sophical problems in aesthetics or conserva- originates, and how that culture used materi- tion decisions. als and techniques. The art connoisseur must

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

have a knowledge of documentary sources, . The Wildenstein Institute has been underdrawings, X-ray radiographs, catalogs, made to look foolish in the international art stamps, seals, signatures, papers, inks, me- world by virtue of its inability to accept evi- dia, frames, stretchers, pigments, stones, and dence of modern connoisseurship from both wood, which is not the same kind of knowl- the art historical and scientific community edge necessarily sought by an art historian. (Grosvenor 2014). A good example of the combined strength Increasingly, these two approaches to of these two strands of connoisseurship is material authenticity are equal bedfellows, the case of Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil, a whose intimate relationship will continue to painting attributed to . The illuminate art historical and archaeological BBC team of Philip Mould and Fiona Bruce problems for decades to come. (Mould and Bruce 2012), in their television program Art: Fake or Fortune?, presented Some Conservation Concepts extensive and convincing evidence for au- Several key concepts originate from within thenticity of this work based on the art con- the conservation sphere, and some of these noisseurship of labels, stamps, stock num- are of value for the discussions of art and bers, history, and photographic restoration given in the text. The glossary evidence, all supported by the scientific at the end of this book also includes several connoisseurship of , pigments, useful definitions of a wider scope. and multispectral imaging using 13 differ- The concept of minimal intervention is ent filters, including reflectographic especially important in the arena of resto- mode (Mould and Bruce 2012). ration because the concept aims to keep to a The head of conservation at the Wallraf- minimum any physical or chemical interven- Richartz-Museum in Cologne, Iris Schaefer, tion to the object under treatment. The aim on reviewing the scientific data, had no doubt is to prevent the undertaking of potentially whatever that the painting was by Claude unnecessary interventions with the object Monet (Mould and Bruce 2012). As a result, beyond those that are strictly necessary for the late Monet expert John House, whose either its to exist as an art ob- writings on Monet have been international- ject or its aesthetic appearance. These aims ly recognized (House 1986), approached the may be seen as disparate (Caple 2000:65) Wildenstein Institute in Paris, the creator or as context dependent. Nevertheless, the of the catalogue raisonné for the artist, with concept itself functions well in virtue of the incontrovertible evidence assembled from aim to perform the minimum amount of both the scientific and art connoisseurial treatment to ensure the survival of the ob- community. Despite this, the painting was ject, or the minimum amount of aesthetic re- still rejected by the Wildenstein Institute integration necessary to enable the artwork in 2012, based on the opinion of the late to function as a completed image. This is Wildenstein père, who had judged the pic- where conflicts with different approaches to ture “not by Monet.” An impartial assess- restoration can arise, since some observers ment of the two strands of evidence present- may protest that too much integration of the ed in this case would convince any disinter- image has been undertaken, in opposition to ested party that the painting was indeed by the principle of minimal intervention, while

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Some Conservation Concepts

others may regard the interventions as per- communicative semiotics. Villiers writes that fectly in keeping with that notion and as ad- in this context, the concept of minimal inter- hering to it. A pertinent question regarding vention is dysfunctional, as it disincentivizes the ontological basis of the concept is posed critical scrutiny of conservation methodology by Caple (2000:65), who asks: Minimum in- and neglects the fact that paintings embody tervention to achieve what? Attempting to multiple and often contested histories. answer this question foregrounds the dif- A similar complaint is lodged by Muñoz- ficulty in reaching any definitive statement Viñas (2009b:49), who even considers the ex- on what is being achieved. In any detailed pression to be an oxymoron. Instead he sug- examination of this question, the answers are gests the wording balanced meaning-loss. Since going to be contextualized, in which case the any intervention, however minimal, implies following propositions may function in the that something will be lost from the state case of panel paintings: the work currently presents, the problem is to decide which meanings will be preserved 1. Minimal intervention can be used to for the future and which will be eliminated. reintegrate the aesthetic appearance of The determination of how the loss in mean- a work employing reversible materials ings is to be balanced is, once again, a con- for in virtue of differentia- textualized debate that cannot be universal- tion from the original or present state ly applied. Once the concept of interfering of the work. with the work of art as minimally as possible 2. Minimal intervention aims to pre- is analyzed, the question posed by Caple be- serve the original support, frame, and comes ontologically important. The question ground of the work in virtue of the “minimum intervention to achieve what?” material authenticity of the original or could also be answered for paintings in the present state of the work. following way: Minimum intervention seeks 3. Minimal intervention as a principle to re-create the aesthetic appearance of the seeks to avoid unnecessary alterations work by use of the least invasive materials and and repaintings to a work in virtue of techniques that current practice allows in vir- attempting to present the work of the tue of the need for the work to be legible and original artist or to preserve the effects stable into the future. of the of time on the work. The concept of anastylosis refers to the reconstruction of buildings or monuments What minimal intervention does not do is in which original components are visually keep all the discolored varnish intact, and the discernible from later additions. The aim of canvas itself may have to be relined, so many anastylosis is to allow the visual identification actions that cannot be seen as minimal might of original fabric, unobscured by efforts to be carried out. Caroline Villiers (2004) ex- disguise exactly how much of the original re- plores the concept of post-minimal interven- mains intact. In terms of restoration of historic tion as attempting to demystify the positivist or ancient structures, this is a valuable concept philosophy of impartiality or neutrality in the because it helps limit arbitrary reconstruction, restoration of paintings and places the empha- in which case the original fabric may no lon- sis instead on interpretative, negotiative, and ger be able to be identified. In practice, there

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

may be good reasons why anastylosis cannot are easily removable with warm water, effect- easily be carried out, but the statement of the ing a treatment that can be designated as re- principle is crucial for retaining the authentic versible. Applied pigments can also be physi- materiality of the original. cally separated from the original by a varnish The principle of anastylosis has a bearing barrier, so that solvent dissolution of them on the concept of true nature, which used to is still an isolated process of removal, with- be regarded as a self-evident term in the con- out alteration of the original work below the servation discourse. The varnish interlayer. That is, these treatments Institute for Conservation (UKIC 1983), for are removable; the physical state of the object example, defined it thus: “Conservation is the itself will not necessarily be fully reversible, means by which the true nature of an object as operations such as cleaning and repair of is preserved. The true nature of an object damaged grounds or panels are not actually includes evidence of its origins, its original reversible. The aesthetic effect may be revers- construction, and the materials of which it is ible in virtue of the ability of the added paint composed and information as to the technol- layer to be removed and replaced by another ogy used in its manufacture.” watercolor inpainting that corrects prior er- As Caple remarks, “Problems in definition rors of interpretation. The principle of re- of any one exact state of an object as being versibility has helped spur the idea of trying the true nature led to the demise in the use to make physical interventions to works of of the term and it vanished from the ethical art, such as large stone , maximally codes in the 1990s” (Caple 2000:62). The au- reversible, allowing parts of a sculpture to be thentic nature of the object was not a static dismantled again should it prove necessary. concept rooted in time, as the concept of true This is the approach taken, for example, by nature suggested, but one that interacted with the Antiquities Conservation Department the artwork in its various states across time. at the J. Paul Getty Museum, where sever- The term true nature includes a whole range al large stone sculptures have recently been of concepts, some of which interact with the de-restored and rerestored using this tenet ideas of authenticity or authentic fabric but (Podany 1994a, 1994b). This is an admirable that could not be analyzed further, as too example of the physical reversibility of sepa- many disparate elements were included in the rate components. phrase itself. In a wider context, however, there are prob- The next concept of general utility is re- lems with the chemical or physical reversibility versibility (Caple 2000:64; Pye 2001:33). The of conservation treatments (Oddy 1999), and in aim of a reversible treatment is to allow the scientific terms, nothing that is undertaken is treatment to be undone at a later stage in the ever really reversible (Seeley 1999) because the life of the artwork, allowing for a further in- state in which the object existed prior to con- tervention that may be seen as more suitable servation intervention can never be regained. or more in keeping with the authentic aims The cleaning of the restored parts of the sculp- of the original, or simply removing what had ture of Herakles mentioned by Podany (1994a), been done in the first place. for example, is not a reversible action, and in For example, all inpaintings in watercolor consequence of these difficulties, the concept on Renaissance works of art in oil or tempera of retreatability has come to be regarded as a

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Some Conservation Concepts

pragmatic and achievable aim (Appelbaum added to missing parts of a work to comple- 2007), while real reversibility is seen as an im- ment the overall design or morphology of possible concept in terms of its application to the image. This process allows for an overall the treatment of works of art senso stricto. aesthetic integration of the work, while on The aim of an intervention that allows close inspection, observers can distinguish for retreatability is to ensure that what has been themselves what has been added, without the done to an artwork in the past does not impede need for special equipment, as the tratteggio the treatment or retreatment of the artwork additions can then be observed. in the future. For example, the impregnation The notion of artist’s intention is import- of ancient Egyptian monuments with epoxy ant for restoration and conservation actions, resin in the 1970s has acted as a major bar- since the aim of any treatment should be to rier to the retreatability of the monuments, adhere to the wishes of the artist, his or her as the epoxy resin cannot be removed from stated intentions, or the apparent relation- the stonework. It is a cross-linked polymeric ship between the original materiality of the structure, insoluble, and potentially stronger work and what actions are taken to valorize than the stone itself. What was once viewed that relationship. In the context of this book, as the latest application of advanced scientific which is much concerned with notions of au- technology to the protection of works of art thenticity across several fields of inquiry, the is now seen as counterproductive to the abil- artist’s intention is a complex topic. It will be ity to protect a monument by being able to the subject of several discussions in the chap- retreat it in the future. ters that follow, particularly chapters 2 and 3. In the restoration of works of art, there Some artworks contain within them- is a tension between restored parts that are selves degradation phenomena that are self- visually discernible and those that are visu- perpetuating and that lead to damage of their ally indiscernible. In keeping with the ethics own accord. This situation is called inherent of conservation, the observer has to be able vice, and the problems created by this kind of to know or to see what has been added to a decay are in works of modern art, work of art. Even if these additions are visu- such as sculptures by Naum Gabo, briefly ex- ally indiscernible, they should be detectable amined in chapter 2. As a consequence of in- by common examination techniques used for herent vice, some pigments may have changed works of art, such as ultraviolet examination, color completely, or objects made of organic X-ray radiography, or infrared reflectogra- materials may disintegrate without any other phy, and all alterations should be fully docu- agency being involved in their decay. They mented. By this means, restorations that are may be saved only through conservation mea- visually imperceptible can be revealed to an sures that seek to stabilize a work in its cur- informed observer, while at the same time the rent state. Ritual artifacts, on the other hand, visually perceptible features of the work are may be valorized culturally by use. Therefore not impaired by visual inspection alone. To degradation can be seen as part of the intent preserve the vestiges of authentic works of of the original artist. The same argument ap- art, Italian restorers in particular have made plies to contemporary artworks for which in- use of tratteggio, in which a series of very fine herent vice is welcomed as the desired lines of suitably colored watercolor paint are of the work, some works being deliberately

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

ephemeral as a consequence of internal decay. with color and texture to blend with the base So what of restoration? Strictly speaking, or ground of the work, but it is not suggestive a distinction can be drawn between conserva- of a decorative scheme. Similar reintegration tion and restoration, although in continental is produced by finishing the filled area to give , the conjunction conservator-restorer a rough approximation of what was original- is a frequent appellation for the conservation ly present, without fine detail.Exact reinte- professional because of linguistic variations gration restores the filled area to its original in how the words are commonly employed. appearance, with all elements of the design In , are referred to as conser- included and correctly color-matched. vators while conservators are referred to as Restoration is not only differentiated by restorers or preparators. In Anglo-American the mode of physical intervention; it is contex- usage, curators are curators and restorers are tualized. The consequences and way in which either conservators or restorers, which seems restoration is implemented depend upon: the fundamentally more sensible. type of objects (nonfunctioning steam engines, In conservation, the aim of treatment is damaged paintings, fragmentary marble to maintain the currently existing state of an sculpture, decomposing furniture, and grimy object, without the addition or subtraction cathedrals all present different contexts of en- of new or replacement parts or components. ablement); cultural context (Native American This represents a static state; even if in prac- totem poles, Aboriginal sand paintings, tice this state is metastable, it is the authen- Westernized museum displays, and Japanese tic state in which the work presents itself. temple-shrines all embody different needs Conservation, therefore, attempts to present and values); original materiality (brushed sil- an unaltered or unadulterated work of art verware, cleaned frescoes, and revealed origi- in a synchronic condition. Restoration has nal stonework require different approaches to more ambitious aims. Caple (2000:119) de- revelation); and aesthetic integrity (retouched constructs the notion of restoration into the paintings, patinated bronzes, worn stones, activities of reassembly, in which as much as and reconstructed marbles demand different possible of the original is stabilized, reassem- conservation modalities). The contextual na- bled, or incorporated into a restored state; ture of restoration is often omitted in discus- and reintegration, filling in losses to reinte- sions of the subject since it is hard to arrive at grate missing parts into the visual image of a conclusion that the restoration of Metropolis the whole. Caple (2000:119) makes a further II by Chris Burden at the Los Angeles County series of delineations, categorizing reintegra- Museum of Art is analogous to the restoration tion into functional reintegration, background of the painting The Entry of Christ into Brussels reintegration, similar reintegration, and exact by James at the J. Paul Getty Museum reintegration. In functional reintegration, the in Malibu. Contextualization of restoration is working component of a clock may need to crucial to its subsequent debates. be replaced or the binding of an important From the point of view of problems with volume subject to frequent handling may authenticity, the extent of exact reintegra- have to be mended, repaired, or partially re- tion, the process of restoration that is poten- placed to retain functionality into the future. tially the most visually deceptive, provokes Background reintegration aims to fill an area many controversies, but other approaches

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Some Conservation Concepts

to restoration are also very germane to au- Beck (Beck and Daley 1996), criticize the de- thenticity and may impact that attribute in tails of the type of cleaning solution used on different ways. Sagoff (1978a), whose views the Sistine Chapel ceiling without a detailed on restoration will be discussed later, makes a knowledge of the different approaches to distinction between integral restoration, where cleaning a restorer has available and whether new pieces are made in place of original frag- any pigments have been removed from the ments that have been destroyed, and a purist surface during cleaning or not, questions restoration, which limits itself to reattaching that were evaluated carefully in the case of original fragments and requires that noth- the Sistine Chapel restorations. ing inauthentic, nothing not produced by the The techniques and the extent of cleaning original artist can be shown. of artifacts, such as historic silver, the facade It is worth pointing out that a necessary of buildings, or the surface of paintings, may prelude to restoration, especially as regards differ from one institution to another. House the restoration of paintings, is cleaning. It styles of different restoration workshops across is, in fact, the act of cleaning that makes the the globe have not made arguments concern- restoration possible. Discolored varnishes, ing aesthetic responses to appearance any eas- thick layers of grime, deteriorated linings, ier to resolve, because each institution might poor-quality previous retouchings, and fal- take a different philosophical position regard- sifying overpaintings will be removed by ing the extent of cleaning or the extent of cleaning (here justified by the principles of restoration. Examples of these debates, from conservation in accord with scientific em- philosophical, aesthetic, and art conservation piricism) to leave as much of the original perspectives, will be discussed throughout this work as possible. This original work is then book, particularly in chapters 8, 9, and 10. the fundamental basis for subsequent resto- The Australian Institute for the Conservation rations. One reason the restoration of paint- of Cultural Material (AICCM 2014) defines res- ings and other works of art can be so contro- toration as “all actions taken to modify the exist- versial is that what has been removed is held ing materials and structure of cultural material by some observers to represent the loss of the to represent a known earlier state. Its aim is to authentic state or appearance of the work, preserve and reveal the aesthetic and histori- which has been subsequently “ruined” by cal value of an object and is based on respect restoration. Cleaning may itself be regard- for remaining original material and clear evi- ed as involving total cleaning, partial cleaning, dence of the earlier state.” or selective cleaning. Even here it might be The conflicts with authenticity in terms necessary to differentiate between different of actions taken in pursuit of restoration arise modes of cleaning: dry cleaning, wet clean- due to the presumption that a known earlier ing, gel cleaning, laser cleaning, and vacuum state can be re-created during the process of cleaning. The balance between understand- restoration. The representation of a known ing these details as purely technical consid- earlier state may not necessarily be accom- erations and their subsequent impact on dis- plished by using the same materials that the cussions regarding the authentic appearance original work employed. In fact, this might of a work of art is sometimes thrown out of lead to deception and the inability to distin- kilter, as when art historians, such as James guish the restoration from the original.

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

The art historian whose writings on res- trace of the passage of time left on an art- toration were to become influential in the work. Several examples that present both ongoing debate between historical veraci- sides of the debate concerning how the au- ty and aesthetic appreciation of a restored thenticity of an artwork has been affected by work of art was Cesare Brandi (1906–1988). restoration are discussed later in this book. One of my own Brandian favorites is: There can be no uniform prescription for how cleaning and restoration are to be ap- The legitimate moment for the act of plied to a particular work. The remains of restoration is the actual moment of the passage of time are sometimes left in- conscious awareness of the work of art. tact, as in many admired ancient Chinese At this time, the work of art exists in bronzes with thick green patinas, and are the moment and is historically present; sometimes removed, as in the cleaning of yet it is also part of the past and, at the the Sistine Chapel ceilings. Even some cost of not being part of human con- enlightened art historians, such as Brandi sciousness, is thus part of history. . . . (1977), did not necessarily agree with the For restoration to be a legitimate op- cleaning of the Sistine Chapel ceilings be- eration, it cannot presume that time is cause of the removal of patina, or what they reversible or that history can be abol- assumed was patina rather than layers of ished [Brandi 1977:75]. soot and grime over animal glue coatings. Vexed issues related to patina cannot be Another way of looking at this issue is solved here, as arguments for and against the statement by Brandi (1977:48) that res- the elimination of a patina in different cas- toration is “the methodological moment in es could easily consume a whole chapter, which the work of art is recognized, in its but examples are fleshed out in later chap- material form and in its historical and aes- ters. Prominent conservation theorists, in- thetic duality, with a view to transmitting cluding Brandi (1977) and Paul Philippot, it to the future.” This leads to two import- wrote in defense of the patina (especially ant axioms, the first that “only the material in connection with paintings). Philippot form of the work of art is restored” and the (1997 [1966]:374) wrote, second that “restoration must aim to rees- tablish the potential unity of the work of The way the object is perceived is con- art, as long as this is possible without pro- tinuously evolving as a result of the ducing an artistic or historical forgery and historic development of a culture, es- without erasing every trace of the passage pecially aesthetic sensitiveness. . . . It of time left on the work of art” (Brandi should be admitted that the patina is a 1977:49). part of the object’s original substance The tension, in terms of restoration, be- as transmitted to man through history tween what is possible in leaving historical and that any attempt to eliminate it will aspects of a work of art intact and removing damage the original substance and in- them is well expressed here; returning an troduce a historical contradiction, inas- object to a known earlier state is not nec- much as removal will show an old object essarily compatible with not erasing every in fresh, or new looking, material.

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The same thought is expressed by Brandi: Any intervention to compensate for loss should be documented in treatment re- In the process of restoration the re- cords and reports and should be detect- moval of patina as the evidence of his- able by common examination methods. tory is a way of falsifying art works: Such compensation should be reversible the materials, thus deprived of their and should not falsely modify the known age, are forced to acquire a freshness, aesthetic, conceptual, and physical char- a sharp edge, and a new aggressiveness acteristics of the cultural property, espe- that will only belie the true age of the cially by removing or obscuring original work. Therefore, conservation of the material. patina—that special dimming which the material acquires over a period of Compensation for loss, however, invari- time and which becomes an evidence ably modifies the aesthetic appreciation of a of passing time- is not only desirable work of art, usually for the better, and rarely but imperative [Brandi 1977:74]. are these compensatory effects fully reversible (Podany 1994b). These ethical guidelines, Both of these views have been very in- in general, are consonant with provisions fluential and invoke the age-value of the in- of conservation charters that advise practi- tegrity of patina as derived from the subtle tioners regarding ethical standards of conser- interactions between the original materials vation. In an ideal world, every intervention of the work and its environment. The con- is documented, every compensation is revers- cept of age-value is a reference to the work ible, and no original material is affected. In of Alois Riegl (1982 [1903]), which will be practice, of course, this may not always be discussed further below. There is increas- the case. Some documentation now sought ingly a respect for patina as a desired cachet after was never recorded, has deteriorated, or of a diachronic interaction with materials cannot be read on modern computing equip- in situations or contexts where a less sym- ment; not all compensation for loss can be pathetic approach to cleaning would have reversed or retreated; and in the process of removed the patina in the past (Appelbaum conservation, some original material may be 2007). The contextual nature of restoration, compromised or damaged. discussed above, will have an important The ethical codes represent an ideal state, bearing on this issue: Restoring a steam en- something to aim for but something that gine to working condition is not the same as might not be achieved or achievable. The restoring a painting by Carpaccio in which most dangerous assumption is that what is parts of the sky are falling off. achievable through compensation for loss is Instead of thinking about the original actually reversible. The hermeneutics of non- work as being inpainted or retouched, an- reversibility have resulted in the realization other way to look at the act of restoration that not everything can be reversed at a later in general is to provide compensation for time in the life of a work. loss. This is the way that the AIC “Code The interaction between the appearance of Ethics for Conservators” (2012) presents of works of art and issues of restoration will the issue: be addressed in more detail in following

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

chapters. It is an interesting observation that (Gordon 2014; Hermens and Fiske 2009; the terms true nature, reversibility, and authen- Laurenson 1999, 2013; Real 2001). These ticity, which could be regarded as essential at- contributions will be discussed in the chap- tributes of works of art and their treatment, ters mentioned above. have all but disappeared from Western con- servation codes, replaced with more nuanced The Importance of Values and ideas or, in the case of authenticity, with a Their Significance series of disputations. These will be elaborat- The need for a discussion of values that could ed on in chapters 2, 3, and 4. Restorers and be inherent in terms of how artworks were conservators have increasingly shied away presented in their preserved state or as re- from any definitive statements regarding the stored works was presaged by the writings of nature of authenticity or the true nature of a Alois Riegl (1858–1905). Riegl (1982 [1903]) particular work of art. The fact that the con- saw that the desire for a unified concept of temporary world is more concerned than ever authenticity could work only if the values as- with notions of authenticity has had the con- sociated with an artwork or monument were comitant effect that the term has disappeared clearly defined in terms of aims, which later from many scholarly works across a wide international charters attempted to under- spectrum of artistic and conservation litera- take. Riegl’s work was one of the first rela- ture, because to enter into a debate on what is tivistic studies concerning artworks and the meant by authenticity is complex. The debate’s values placed on them by the significance ac- quicksand can be seen as a dangerous territo- corded to the works by that ubiquitous group ry to traverse, but it is one that this book aims of modernists, stakeholders. to take on. Authenticity, which is rarely discussed in This problem is particularly apparent in the context of values, has a direct relationship the burgeoning field of contemporary art, or a complex interrelationship with value. which may represent a series of intangi- Material authenticity has a potential impact ble values associated with particular works. on both artistic and aesthetic value; historical These values form an essential but contest- or aesthetic authenticity, on aesthetic value; ed notion of what is regarded as real or fake. and intangible authenticity on the artist’s in- The intentions of the artist, if alive, may be tent for the work, the artistic value of it. To intimately connected with the values inher- be valued, it is advisable that objects are in ent in the work and how the conservator and fact authentic. There are cases in which this curator interact with the work. The problems authenticity is entirely intangible. The corol- with intangible authenticity are especially sa- lary to this perception is that, in the absence lient in discussions of the medieval period in of criteria regarding authenticity, objects chapter 7, of ethnographic arts in chapter 6, that are considered culturally valued may in and of the postmodern and contemporary era fact be forgeries. Consider the object value in chapter 10. of the Etruscan terra-cotta warriors in the In recent years, significant contributions Metropolitan Museum of Art. They were im- to these issues have been made by art histori- bued with cultural value as Etruscan master- ans (Geary 1978; Lenain 2011), philosophers pieces for more than 60 years and were one (Irvin 2005b; Lopes 2009), and conservators of the most admired exhibits at the museum

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The Importance of Values and Their Significance

(Richter 1937). But in fact they were forg- possible, because in the present they com- eries made in before the First World memorate an event in the past. A shabby War, and they are now consigned to storage appearance would undermine the valorizing (Bothmer and Noble 1961), where apparently of that past. To inhere respect, these types these impressive works are unviewable, even of monuments must usually appear immac- by scholars. ulate, without decay. Those that do show The disjunction between value and au- neglect, such as some First World War me- thenticity in this case is a consequence of the morials in the United Kingdom, suggest that failure to consider issues of authenticity in re- the events they commemorate are no longer lationship to the value invested in or assumed part of the function of the memorials them- to be culturally embedded in an object itself, selves, which have merged into a historical as if it were materially Etruscan. The use- past rather than representing the events or value of the work has been negated by the honoring the dead they bear witness to. overriding importance of the historical value. Present-day values are concerned with Riegl’s work has been nicely summarized both practical and aesthetic requirements and by Sebastiano Barassi (2007) in the context include use-value, which concerns the daily of modern and contemporary art. Riegl use and functions of a monument and which (1982 [1903]) distinguishes between two may be in opposition to age-value. Art-value principal sets of values inherent in cultural is made up of newness-value, the desire to ob- property: memory value and present-day value. serve what is essentially visible to us in the Memory value can be thought of as age val- present, and relative art-value, which places a ue, which promotes a view of a monument as greater emphasis on the purely aesthetic ap- an entity in a potential state of degradation preciation of the . The desire to en- and depends on a visual appreciation of age. hance or preserve this value may suggest that Its cult demands no interference with the an object be conserved or even restored to a natural deterioration process, thus reject- condition approaching that of the original. ing restoration of the monument. Historical Riegl was fully aware that some or all of these value views the monument as representative values can coexist within the same monument of a particular moment in history. The em- or work of art and that in some instances phasis is on documentary value and aims to these different values will be in disharmony keep the monument as close as possible to its with each other. authentic, original state, primarily through This is a pragmatic way to examine the preventative conservation. problems of restoration in relation to the au- Intentional commemorative value applies thenticity of an original monument because it only to intentional monuments. The val- relies on assigning values to the monument or ue invoked here is to keep the monument work of art and deciding which set of values looking “new,” which will be achieve by has greater significance. It has increasingly restoration. This value opposes age-value. been realized that applying fixed criteria of Intentional monuments, such as the memo- evaluation concerning a monument or art- rial honoring the US dead in the Vietnam work and how it is to be restored has become War, erected in Washington, DC, are gen- problematic because of conflicting aims, such erally kept in as pristine a condition as as the valuing of tradition over function or

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

of material authenticity over ability to be re- to values that are culturally determined and used. At the same time, the appreciation of therefore nominally or normatively extrin- different approaches as to how restoration sic. Values that are productive and relatively can be undertaken and still be regarded as permanent may be preferred to those that an ethical action, as invoking the integrity are less permanent. In conservation, the of that action, has become more widespread. value ascribed to a World Heritage Site or Stovel (2008), in the context of the built her- Monument is indeed supposed to be viewed itage, makes a distinction between authentic- as a permanent value. Another common view ity and integrity. He writes that authenticity is that values ought to be selected on the ba- may be understood as the ability of a property sis of self-chosen ends or : This view to convey its significance diachronically and could be considered relevant in virtue of the that integrity is the ability of a property to needs of to self-select secure or sustain its significance over time. their own values and accord them appropri- This is an interesting distinction that needs ate significance. to be thought about in different conservation In Values and Heritage Conservation, Erica contexts. What is needed from authenticity Avrami et al. (2000:7) write: “Values and valu- is different for buildings and monuments, ing processes are threaded through the vari- objects of , , and mod- ous spheres of conservation. . . . Values give ern art, but there are also substantial areas of some things significance over others, and overlap in criteria considered to be relevant thereby transform some objects and places to the debate. into ‘heritage.’” What is rarely discussed in these contexts The conservation community uses the term is exactly what is meant by the word values. cultural significance to encapsulate the multiple Several philosophical texts, in their discus- values ascribed to objects, buildings, or land- sions of the significance of artistic value as scapes, for which the criteria of Riegl seem opposed to aesthetic value, fail to address this very apposite. Bluestone (2000:65) writes: issue. This is understandable, for the word value has several different types of extensive One of the most useful research themes meanings. An anonymous online philosophy regarding the role of values in conser- text (2014) defines it thus: “(1) a value may vation is the characterization of cultur- be a guiding principle, such as honesty; (2) a al heritage as a dynamic process. . . . value may be a goal, such as happiness; (3) a Conservation and preservation work value may be a quality, such as persistence; (4) would be tremendously enriched if it a value may be the artistic or monetary worth could be recognized, drawn upon and of something.” promote a variety of public engage- This seems like a good general account ment with cultural heritage. . . . For of the different functions that the word can example Keith Basso’s anthropologi- fulfill. There may also be a view that intrin- cal work (Basso 1996) on the Western sic values are preferred to those that are ex- Apache develops an alluring portrait trinsic, although in conservation, this idea of the ways in which place becomes may imply valorizing some particularly ob- meaningful through nomenclature and jectivizing view of intrinsic value as opposed storytelling.

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The Importance of Values and Their Significance

Values interact with authenticity salient- of value cannot, in the view of this author, ly here, for the preservation of the authentic be segregated diachronically by valorizing in voice of the Western Apache is through the particular the high arts of the Renaissance signification of the stories and names that while ignoring earlier cultural values attached they ascribe value to. Stories are not usually to works of art and their appreciation, a view considered to be of significance in a scientif- supported by the work of Dutton (2011). ic empirical description because the context There has been a heady debate concern- is insufficiently labile. ing the notions of artistic value and aesthetic For an extended discussion of values in value and how these are related or conjoined. archaeological and anthropological contexts, The concept of aesthetic value as distinct the volume The Construction of Value in the from artistic value has a checkered past and Ancient World, edited by John Papadopoulos present in philosophical circles, with scores and Gary Urton (2012), is a seminal work. of papers addressing the problem (for exam- The discussion of values here is organized ples, see Broiles 1964; Kreitler and Kreitler around four ways of thinking about value: 1983; Norwood 2013; Seamon 2001; and place value, body value, object value, and Sibley 1965), and has recently come un- number value. The most obvious area of der attack by Dominic Lopes. Lopes (2011) relevance for this volume is the discussion strikes many familiar themes in terms of the of object value, although much of the dis- philosophical nature of the discussion that cussion revolves around the value of objects the writers listed above address. as commodities and their relative economic Lopes argues that there is no characteris- and cultural value, such as Renfrew’s (2012) tic artistic value distinct from aesthetic value description of the fungibility and exchange and that believers in artistic value have failed value of precious artifacts. to state clearly exactly what it is. Lopes sets An interesting paper is presented here by out the argument of his opponents as follows: James Porter (2012), and as Papadopoulos If a work of art is seen as valued only aesthet- and Urton (2012: 37) write: “Porter suggests ically, then its value supervenes on its per- that values in a culture generally, and aesthet- ceptible features. The supervenience of value ic values specifically are closely linked. . . . on perceptible features would mean that no Porter moves well beyond the strictly art his- work differs in value from an indiscernible torical and problematic use of the ‘aesthetics’ twin but that some works differ in value from to the Greek word from which it derives: aes- indiscernible twins and therefore the value thesis. . . . Porter makes a strong and import- of an artwork is not wholly aesthetic. As a ant claim—namely that the aesthetic process- consequence, works of art bear artistic value es . . . are actually indices of cultural value.” distinct from aesthetic value. Porter seeks to reconfigure the narrow Lopes (2011:532) says that the denial of avenue on which the analysis of aesthetics this argument would be to deny that the val- has been situated by scholars such as Paul ue of an artwork is wholly aesthetic. Lopes Kristeller (1951) and Larry Shiner (2001), then tackles the problem of the exclusion of both of whom believe there is no concept of adventitious values of works of art and para- aesthetic value prior to the Renaissance pe- phrases Nicholas Wolterstorff (1980:157), riod. Human experience and the assignation who writes that there is value in an artwork

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

to the extent that it serves the purpose for category. Finally, a contra-standard fea- which it was made. Lopes describes as a ture with respect to a category is the ab- “trivial theory” the notion that if (V) is an sence of a standard feature with respect artistic value, it is equivalent to (V) as a val- to that category. ue in art—that any value is an artistic value if and only if some work has been made to These categories have been influential in realize that value. However, a forgery and discussions of how classes of artworks can the original differ in historical value, claims be assimilated. For example, standard mem- Lopes. The fact that the value of a work of bers of a category of paintings would include art is not wholly aesthetic has implications flat objects with painted surfaces. Paintings for the obvious reason that a forgery and the with cardboard figures glued to them would original differ with respect to some value— have been seen as contra-standard until we they differ with respect to some nonaesthetic became accustomed to the idea that paint- artistic values. ings are not essentially flat objects but have The argument here encompasses notions cardboard figures attached to them as a of categories of art that formed the basis of matter of course. Walton (1970:362) writes: a classic paper by Kendall Walton (1970). “Works may be fascinating precisely be- Walton said that categories of art are charac- cause of shifts between equally permissible terized in terms of certain properties of the ways of perceiving them. And the enormous works that belong to the category in question. richness of some works is due in part to the Walton asks how far critical issues about works variety of permissible and worthwhile ways of art can be separated from questions about of perceiving them.” While Walton appears their histories. He writes (Walton 1970:339): to place no particular significance on histor- “It is never even partly in virtue of the circum- ical events that might influence how his cat- stances of a work’s origin that it has a sense egories are evaluated, he does acknowledge of mystery or is coherent or serene.” Walton the diachronic effects on artworks when he argues that an artwork’s aesthetic properties states (Walton 1970: 363), “It should be em- depend not only on its nonaesthetic proper- phasized that the relevant historical facts are ties but also on those nonaesthetic properties not merely useful aids to aesthetic judgment, that are standard, variable, or contra-standard. rather they help to determine what aesthetic Walton (1970:339) states: properties a work has.” The general interest this paper has gen- A feature of a work of art is standard with erated over the last 45 years led to a review respect to a (perceptually distinguish- by Brian Laetz (2010). Regarding the modal able) category just in case it is among concept of categories, Laetz writes: those in virtue of which works in that category belong to that category. A fea- A category could be directly relevant, ture is variable with respect to a catego- comparatively relevant or teleologically ry just in case it has nothing to do with relevant, independently of how it affects the work belonging to that category: the one’s perception of a work. For instance, possession or lack of a feature is irrele- take the standard example of direct rele- vant to whether a work qualifies for the vance: fakes. Although knowing a work

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The Importance of Values and Their Significance

is a fake should affect one’s aesthetic es- To a conservator or restorer viewing the timation of it—most contextualists will same picture, the presence of the under- say—that does not mean that it should drawing would be visually interesting and actually look different to how it would an intelligible feature of the work, even if it look independently of this knowledge. were superficially distracting from the final Whatever the reason status as a fake is version of the painted work. aesthetically relevant—if, indeed, it is— One of the final conclusions Lopes it surely cannot be rooted in perception, (2011:535) arrives at is: “V is an artistic val- as Walton’s use of categories evidently ue = V is an aesthetic value of an artwork as appears to be. K, where K is an art form, genre or other art kind.” The problem of forgeries was not really This is a controversial evaluation of the considered in the Gestalt approach to the two concepts; most writers do not accept perception of artworks that Walton em- this proposition as outlined above. In his ployed, which is why the issue was raised work, which takes up the challenge of try- by Laetz. Laetz (2010) presents an inter- ing to maintain that artistic value is just aes- esting argument concerning the notion of thetic value, Lopes (2011:536) writes: “perceptual features,” previously discussed by Peter Lamarque (2010:61–66). A percep- This theory has several advantages tual feature could be a feature that can be over pure deflationism and the trivi- accessed by the senses with no background al theory. [The trivial theory was concerning the work, or it could proposition that V is an artistic value be any feature that can be discerned from = V is a value of an artwork as art.] It perceptual observation, no matter how delivers a conception of artistic value much background information is required which is stronger than mere value in before that perception can be achieved. art. It does not imply a conception of Two different artworks may be perceptu- aesthetic value as realized in works ally indiscernible in virtue of having the designated as art, but only as designat- same perceptual features in the first sense, ed more specifically. but they may be perceptually discernible in virtue of their perceptual features in the This analysis regarding aesthetic value as second sense. A good example would be the being no more than artistic value has since gradual translucency, or even transparen- been attacked by several philosophers, such cy, of an old oil painting in which parts of as Andrew Huddleston (2012). Huddleston an underdrawing become visible, revealing (2012:706) writes: extensive pentimenti compared with the painted image above them. To the viewer He (Lopes) sets up a dilemma: one ei- with no knowledge of the behavior of the ther collapses the distinction between materials and techniques of old oil paint- values in art and values of art, trivial- ings, and the way they age, the underdraw- ly taking all values of the former to be ing would be visually confusing and, as a values of the latter. This would, how- perceptual feature, perhaps unintelligible. ever, deprive the concept of artistic

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

value of its ability to mark off the dis- says that ’s painting is a great tinctive value of art qua art, or else—as human and that the random Lopes prefers—one equates the work’s painted artwork is not. When aesthetic value artistic value with its aesthetic value. is a value of art qua art, it is only because this aesthetic value has been achieved by the art- Huddleston sets up a thought exper- ist (Huddleston 2012:713). Huddleston ad- iment in which a painting by Giorgione mits that Lopes has a point when he says that (1478–1510), The Tempest (1506–1508), is the assumption that aesthetic value needs to replicated by a random paint generator, supervene on perceptible features might well which produces the same aesthetic object be questionable. But he writes, “If the view as the original work. Huddleston states I have been suggesting is right, then artis- that surely Lopes would say that only the tic value, similarly, is realized in the artist’s painting produced by Giorgione has artistic achievement itself, in being the particular value—that, given the referral by Lopes to exercise of skill and creativity that it is. It Richard Wollheim’s (1987) thematizing con- is another matter what values are realised cept of artistic creation, the work produced through the appreciation, or potential ap- by the random paint generator is not even a preciation, of this achievement.” work of art. By that Huddleston means that aesthetic This argument concerns Wollheim’s value is one of the values realized. The paper analysis of artistic creation—namely that an by Lopes (2011) has also been attacked by artist is engaged in a thematizing activity, that Robert Stecker (2012). Stecker (2012:356) the artist has a “reflexive” conceptualization considers the example of Sherrie Levine’s of being engaged in the activity being under- photographs of Walker Evans photographs taken (Wollheim 1987:24). Wollheim em- (although he does not mention Mandiberg’s ploys this notion as a way of understanding appropriation of Levine’s appropriations, what makes a painting a work of art. He re- which is discussed in chapter 2). Stecker jects what he calls externalist accounts, which states that in a way, the photographs made would, in the institutionalist view, make the by Levine do have aesthetic value, since they status of a painting as a work of art depen- inherit the aesthetic value of the objects dent on the relationship it enjoyed with the photographed by Evans, but that can hard- . Wollheim proposes an internalist ly explain their value as art. However, the account based on the individual psychology statement by Stecker that Levine’s photo- of the artist and his or her self-conception of graphs have aesthetic value also seems to ap- the work. This is in opposition to the views ply to Mandiberg’s photographs of Levine’s of Arthur Danto (1981) and George Dickie copies, but one could argue that they have (1974) concerning the validation of an art- no artistic value but do have aesthetic val- work by an art world public, with which ue. Stecker (2012: 360) writes: “There are Dickie in particular is associated. valuable artworks which lack any aesthetic What features account for the difference value, and . . . even among artworks that in aesthetic value between Giorgione’s art- have aesthetic value, their value as art is not work and the duplicate when both of them exhausted by their aesthetic value.” Stecker share many aesthetic values? Huddleston states, “When he speaks of artistic value (i.e.

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Restoration as a Critical Art of Interpretation

Lopes), he means a type of value not iden- may not regard that view as compatible with tical with, but that may include, aesthetic the original intention of the work, which value. Artistic value . . . derives from a set of may be thought of as encompassing the values relevant to evaluating artworks as art, artistic value of the expression rather than that aesthetic value no doubt is a member of simply an aesthetic value, and so the debate this set but not the only member.” on the instantiation of works of art and their As far as the conservation and restoration values remains a source of contention in the of works of art is concerned, there seem to field of aesthetic studies, which is pertinent be benefits in accepting the philosophical to the topics discussed in this book. (For status quo that there is a difference between examples, see Carroll 2008; Currie 1989; artistic value and aesthetic value. Aesthetic Davies 2004; and Stecker 1997.) value can be altered by restoration, which may have as a consequence a particular state Restoration as a Critical Art of of the work seen as valorized at a specif- Interpretation ic time, and as a consequence the observer John Ruskin (1889) regarded restoration as can then respond to the work in its restored a process that involved the essential destruc- condition. This seems to be more congruent tion of the authentic fabric of a work of art, with aesthetic value than with artistic value. especially historic buildings and monuments. Artistic value may be seen as encom- Ruskin wrote about his concerns with the ac- passing a range of values, of which aesthetic tivities of restorers from the 1840s through value is one. Artworks such as a bath full of the 1870s because he witnessed the complete rotting offal, as exhibited by British artist alteration of several historic buildings during Stuart Brisley (1933–) in 1986, do not ap- this period as a consequence of restoration pear to have any aesthetic value, but they procedures that completely ignored original still possess artistic value. To perpetuate fabric. During the same period, there arose the work, another bath full of rotting offal a series of controversies concerning some would have to be created to conform with of the “cleaned” pictures in the National the artistic value of the work. The aesthet- Gallery of Art, London, and, somewhat ear- ic value in this case, should anyone think lier, in the , Paris (Keck 1983). These that the work does have aesthetic value, can controversies revolved around the question in any event only be carried forward by un- of the authentic appearance of the paintings derstanding the artistic value or intention of concerned, heavily affected by old discolored the work. varnishes used on the surfaces and the desire If actions taken during conservation are to clean away the patina of age in a campaign seen as a purely aesthetic decision, the way of restoration. Some saw only the destruc- in which a work is assessed may then be dis- tion of the original work of art, and others cussed in a different context than the un- saw a cleaned masterpiece, an antinomy that restored work. The state of the artwork so remains unresolved today in the more subtle treated may still differ markedly from that forms that this argument can take (Glanville envisaged by the original artist, whose con- 2007, 2009; Reynolds 1929 [1786]:153–154, cept of artistic value may be a demarcation 158–159; Vasari 1912–1915; Villot 1860; of a particular appearance. Some observers Walden 1985).

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

Sheldon Keck (1983) has reviewed per- tempered by the application of a dark var- tinent information concerning the contro- nish, because the freshly painted pigments versy from the 1840s, when newly cleaned were seen as too bright. This has some bear- works were reviled by some visitors as “in- ing on numerous arguments (Bomford and authentic,” “flayed,” or “ruined.” The com- Leonard 2004:5–7; Glanville 2007, 2009; plaint that paintings were being “ruined” by Gombrich 1956, 1962; Hedley 1990; Walden cleaning even goes back to 1985) that have affected the cleaning of (23–79 B.C.E.), who records the story of a paintings, with some desiring a brighter and painting representing a tragic actor and a cleaner picture rather than one covered with boy by the Greek artist Aristides of Thebes thick layers of darkened varnish, and with that hung in the Temple of Apollo at others viewing the removal of all varnishes (Pliny Book XXXV.xxxvi:98–101): “A pic- from paintings as destroying the aesthetic ture of which the beauty has perished owing balance that has accrued over time (Glanville to the lack of skill of painters commissioned 2009). Some of these concerns will be dis- by Marcus Junius as Praetor, to clean it in cussed in detail in chapters 8 and 9. readiness for the festival of the Games of In France, artworks confiscated from Apollo” (Rackham 1995). foreigners, churches, and royal places in It is interesting, in view of the contro- the revolution of 1792 were cleaned and re- versy over what paintings are supposed to stored, and some of these conservation ac- look like, that a famous contemporary of tions resulted in stringent criticism from in- Aristides, Apelles, is credited by Pliny with formed members of the public (Keck 1983). the invention of dark varnishes. Pliny (Book The restorer Jean-Michel Picault, son of XXXV.xxxvi:96–98) writes, Robert Picault, who was well-known for his transfers of paintings from wooden panel When his works were finished he used to canvas, much in vogue at the time, de- to cover them over with a black varnish nounced the work of the contracting artists, of such thinness that its very presence, claiming they were doing untold damage to while its reflexion threw up the bril- precious pictures. These kinds of disputes liance of all the colors and preserved concerning the nature of the authentic ap- them from dust and dirt, was only visi- pearance of a work of art rarely go away, and ble to anyone who looked at it close up, by 1796, when the Louvre opened its doors but also employing great calculation of to the educated elite of France, the author- lights, so that the brilliance of the col- ities had conceived the idea of exhibiting ors should not offend the sight when some of the paintings half cleaned to show people looked at them as if through how much had been gained by the process of Muscovy-glass and so that the same restoration (Keck 1983). device from a distance might invisibly give somberness to colours that were Authentic Cleaning too brilliant [Rackham 1995]. There were, and still are, dissenting voices regarding the cleaning of paintings. Redgrave It is apparent from this passage that the and Redgrave (1947 [1866]:4), writing in artist’s intent was to create muted colors, their work a Century of British Painters, stated:

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Authentic Cleaning

As pictures aged and lost the freshness of decayed varnish had been removed as far as their youthful complexions, this very de- was prudent.” After the investigations were fect came to be considered a beauty; the completed, a report of more than 1,000 pag- brown hue of successive coats of varnish- es was produced. It suggested that some pre- es was admired as an excellence: “A good cautionary measures to be taken (Anderson picture” said Sir George Beaumont “like 1990): that no picture cleaner employed by a good fiddle, should be brown.” If a pic- the gallery fail to give a full and distinct ex- ture came from abroad in a fresh state planation of the mode and materials of his of preservation, the dealers were too procedure; that no varnish be used in the gal- wise to let it be seen until its pure tints lery without permission of the director; that were subdued to the established hue. any picture to be cleaned be the subject of a Connoisseurs believed that pictures, like previous written report from the director to coins, obtained a patina from age, which the trustees; that, if necessary, a painting be mellowed their tone, and made them examined by three experienced persons, one more valuable than in the state they left being a practical chemist (Anderson 1990). the painter’s easel. These recommendations were ahead of their time in terms of establishing a con- In 1844 Sir Charles Locke Eastlake, sensus among a group of expert observers then keeper (later director) of the National as to the appearance judged to be authentic Gallery, began a campaign of cleaning pic- and the need for a full record of the clean- tures (Bomford 1997). His restorer was John ing and chemicals used during a restoration Seguier, whose work included retreating campaign. The need for documentation ex- paintings with “gallery varnish,” a solution pressed here is now a cornerstone of conser- of mastic resin in boiled linseed oil. Instead vation practice (Appelbaum 2007) but would of applying yet more of this gallery var- have been entirely novel in 1853. nish, Seguier was instructed to begin clean- Cleaning is an irreversible process in art ing many of the paintings in the gallery. As conservation that is intimately connected to a result, by 1846 the first revelation or nonrevelation of discernible fea- cleaning controversy had erupted, leading tures of the work. Cleaning has a strong in- to the establishment of a select committee of teraction with the concepts of damage, pati- the House of Commons in 1853 to consid- na, dirt, and authenticity because the concep- er whether any of the complaints were jus- tion of what clean actually means in different tified (Anderson 1990). An 1847 cartoon in contexts is not straightforward or of universal the magazine Punch showed a series of satir- applicability. For example, to conform with a ical images with uncouth restorers swabbing Western museum’s attainment or adherence paintings with a broom and bucket of water to the ideals of cleanliness, African sculpture on the floor, mashing them in a tub, and ap- in some collections has been cleaned and pol- plying rough-and-ready chemical cleaning ished to a pristine finish, which may misrep- treatments to panel paintings (Leech 1847). resent the desired surface aesthetic and rit- The select committee of the House of ual signification of the original work (Rubin Commons later agreed in respect to one of 1984). In other cases, such as the surface of the disputed paintings that “discolored and a painting from the Brancacci Chapel, Santa

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

Figure 1.1. An apparently complete Madonna and Child by Rogier van der Weyden, the majority of which had been lost through damage. Oil on panel; 38.5 x 28.8 cm. The painting was completely restored by Jef van der Veken. It now appears as a completed and apparently undamaged work by van der Weyden (Vierge a l’Enfant, dite Madone Renders, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tournai). The problem with the restoration was the desire to disguise the fact that any restoration had taken place; even the is painted in to match the old craquelure of the remaining bits painted by van der Weyden. (Image courtesy of Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique, Brussels)

Maria del Carmine, Florence, illustrated in of an original unity and the attainment of an Figures 8.7 and 8.8, a decision to clean the achievable equilibrium are context-dependent painting resulted in features of the work and aim to view the work sympathetically, that were supposed to be discernible to the with the unity of the work connected to viewer becoming more visible. The extent its desired aesthetic properties, and with to which cleaning achieves this aim is a sub- the achievable balance between what is ject continually exposed to controversial as- removed during cleaning, what can never sessments; some observers maintain that too be regained, and what is kept, in terms of much cleaning has taken place, while others honoring the patina or other features of the maintain that not enough has occurred, work, seen as desirable diachronic inter- while yet others think the amount of clean- actions. Koller (2000:6) writes: “Cleaning ing is perfectly acceptable. Philippot (1997 served as a purgative for religious purpos- [1966]:220) writes: “From a critical point of es—for example, as a component of the view, cleaning then becomes the search for rules for the dressing and the food of priests an achievable equilibrium that will be most or the immaculate presentation of vener- faithful to the original unity.” The notions ated .” Cultural associations mark

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Authentic Cleaning

individuated consequences. The surface the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican (Koller cleaning of dirt from an ethnographic work 2000). The deliberate retention of patinat- can reflect deleteriously on its conceptual ed or uncleaned surfaces in selective areas authenticity, which may be presented to of works of art acts to preserve historical the observer by dirt-encrusted ritual affir- events that have afflicted the work and have mations of its authentic presence (Greene subsequently been mitigated or removed by 2006). processes of irreversible cleaning. Similar On the other hand, the cleaning of philosophical modes of thought regarding European works of art, such as panel paint- the retention in some areas of an artwork ings, might require the removal of tobacco­ of what was either unrestored or uncleaned smoke–, smog-, and dirt-encrusted layers to are reflected in Hanna Jedrzejewska’s 1976 observe the vestiges of the original work of paper on the cleaning of Egyptian bronze art. Decisions regarding cleaning and the antiquities, which in one sense updates the retention of evidence of time’s footprint on simplistic approach to cleaning of an earlier an artwork are seen as early as 1702, when epoch, as evidenced by the older textbook during restoration of the wall paintings on art conservation by Plenderleith and by in the Vatican, Carlo Maratta Werner (1971). Evidence of authenticity (1625–1713), head of the academy in Rome, may be compromised or removed during left an uncleaned area in Raphael’s School cleaning, which is another reason there is of (1509–1511), Raphael’s impres- always a tension between the acts of clean- sive fresco in the Stanza della Segnature in ing and noncleaning. Total cleaning can be

Figure 1.2. Crucifix by Cimabue, in the Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence, circa 1268–1271. Distemper on wood panel; 448 x 390 cm. The crucifix had already been damaged in floods in 1333 and 1557. In 1966 severe flooding badly damaged the work, and 60 percent of the painted surface was lost. A complete restoration was undertaken. It took 10 years to complete and required the reapplication of nearly the entire painted surface as well as complete dismantling and reconstruction. According to , after the work was finished, the piece was taken across the globe in a curious post-restoration state—part original work, part masterpiece of modern science—a thirteenth-century/twentieth-century hybrid. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons, Web Gallery of Art)

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

Figure 1.3. Detail of the Madonna from the crucifix by Cimabue shown in Figure 1.2. Distemper on wood panel. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, the Yorck Project. Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH)

instituted by forgers to remove any traces of Selective cleaning is used to indicate that the passage of time on a work, so that its as- only some parts or components of the work sessment can be made independent of time’s are cleaned, while others are deliberately effect upon it, although rarely is this a satis- kept in the condition they presented upon factory situation that results in absolution. initial observation. Gerry Hedley (1990) was one of the first Total cleaning might be necessary in the to articulate the possible relationships and case of works completely obscured by dirt modalities connected with different ap- or filthy varnishes, in which case the only proaches to cleaning. Cleaning, in his view, recourse may be either total removal or could be total, partial, or selective. The con- total nonremoval. Some works are so dam- trol or interpretation of what cleaning was aged that they cannot be safely cleaned at supposed to accomplish was returned to the all, and other measures, such as environ- conservator or restorer, who assessed what mental control, preventive conservation was most beneficial to the aesthetic proper- (Caple 2000; Pye 2001), or storage in inert ties or stabilization of the artwork into the atmospheres, may be necessary to ensure future. Partial cleaning implies that some their survival (Daniel et al. 1993). vestiges of alteration products or deteriorat- Condition assessment is a sine qua non ed surface features will remain on the work of survival into the future, whether an art- following the conservation intervention. work is cleaned or not.

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Visual Discernibility and Restoration Reconsidered

Restoration and Hyper-Restoration percent of a painting is repainted, with use of The dual aspects of restoration and cleaning the same materials the artist used and with ink- form part of the important and ongoing di- ing in the craquelure, then one could judge the alogue between the aims of restoration and work to be inauthentic and not original. Or, the impact it might have on the authenticity at the very least, an observer would have to be of the artwork concerned. When Italian art able to visually distinguish between what was historian Cesare Brandi was writing in the original and what was repainted if the work 1930–1940 period, there were many paint- were not to be considered a forgery. ings being deceptively restored, so that the There are additional reasons for confu- repainted areas were indiscernible from the sion here, as none of Rogier van der Weyden’s original work of art—part of the presumption paintings are dated (Campbell 2004), he em- of the abolition of history on the part of the ployed many assistants in his studio, and sev- restorer. As Brandi (1977) says, the restorer eral versions of the same authentic work exist, must refrain from assuming that he can insert along with the fake restored Madonna and Child himself into the creative process of the artist, by Jef van der Veken. Because of the admired an all-too-common approach to restoration completeness of the aesthetic unity of the in the past. In fact, hyper-restoration of works work, even if most of this is entirely imaginary, of art may grade all too easily into the cre- there would be no desire to remove van der ation of a forgery. Veken’s repainting and retouching: the image A typical example of this approach to res- is now a hybrid of van der Veken and van der toration are some forgeries produced by the Weyden, and that is how it will be appreciated highly skilled art restorer Jef van der Veken into the future, from its authentic state from (1872–1964). Madonna and Child by Rogier 1940 onward. There is no point, apart from an van der Weyden (1399–1469), of which the overarching desire for scientific , to at- majority of the painted surface had been lost, tempt to return the picture to a former state, was completely restored by van der Veken even if van der Veken has achieved fame here (Figure 1.1) and now appears as a completed as essentially working as a forger. and apparently undamaged work by van der Weyden (Verougstraete et al. 2005:62–77). Visual Discernibility and Restoration This is an act of hyper-restoration, effec- Reconsidered tively synonymous with a forgery in that the Part of the legitimacy that Cesare Brandi en- restorer did in fact insert himself into the cre- visioned was the use of visually discernible ative approach of the original artist. repainting and retouching methodologies Van der Veken used the same media as van applied to works of art to eradicate the kind der Weyden, attempted a complete match of restoration exampled here by Jef van der with the pigments, and created a craquelure Veken’s work. This approach resulted in the to blend with that of the original, which re- development, from 1945 to 1950, of a variety sults in confusion concerning what is original of inpainting philosophies. The least integra- and what has been restored. tive method was that of neutro, which involved If limited to small areas of a work of art, the retouching using watercolor only with sepia, to decision to restore may be legitimate, usually which a little ocher, burnt sienna, and natural in a completely different medium. But if 70 umber would be added (Rothe 2003:16). This

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

uniform approach gave way to the tratteggio many of the missing areas of the surface in (rigatino) retouching technique, developed at a visually indistinguishable manner, which the Istituto Centrale del Restauro in Rome, would have been the technique employed in which has already been referred to above. the United States or the United Kingdom for Tratteggio and associated techniques re- areas of design that could be readily extrap- sult in an infill consisting of a series of fine olated. Some of the fills are toned to match lines of paint, chosen to match the original the painted detail, but no inpainting has been in terms of color and intensity. From a dis- carried out over some of the filled losses, this tance, they help integrate the appearance of approach abiding by the Brandian concep- the whole image while respecting the au- tion of the retention of the authentic image thenticity of the original, with which it can- of the damaged original without making it not be confused on close inspection (Grenda appear aesthetically unified. 2010:4). The story of the historical damage to the This technique was used to complete miss- Cimabue Crucifix marks a departure from ing areas of the di Bondone (1266– the general consensus that if 60 percent of 1337) frescoes in Padua, which seemed very a painting is reconstituted or restored, one appropriate to this observer. A Florentine might regard it as a fake or a pastiche. The variant, developed by Casazza and Baldini honest intention not to deceive is the principle (Casazza 2007), is known as selezione cromati- of this action that can be considered authen- ca (selezione del colore). In selezione, the painted tic here, not a summation of percentages, lines may not be vertical but are filled in ac- whereas a similar amount of a genuine paint- cording to the image composition. Chromatic ed surface restored by van der Veken rep- selection means finding characteristic fea- resents an intention to deceive. The philosoph- tures of the desired hue and recomposing ical question that remains to be answered is: it by creating the impression of a color that If we are ignorant of the intentions of the reintegrates the image. Another Florentine restorer, does that have an impact on the aes- derivative of tratteggio is astrazione cromatica thetic appreciation of the artwork when the (Casazza 2007), consisting of primary colors painting is viewed? We will return to that and black, used in an interweaving style, and question in a later chapter. employed in the restoration of some paintings As mentioned above, Brandi (1977) pro- damaged in the Florence flood in 1966. These posed two axioms that any attempt at resto- include The (circa 1268–1271) by ration should abide by. But first he defines Cimabue (circa 1240–1304) in the Basilica di his own view of what is understood by res- Santa Croce, Florence, which had lost about toration: “Restoration is the methodological 60 percent of the painted surface and whose moment in which the work of art is appreci- restoration took 10 years to complete (Baldini ated in its material form and in its historical and Casazza 1983; Viladesau 2005), illustrated and aesthetic duality, with a view to transmit- in Figure 1.2. ting it to the future.” The Byzantine influence on the faces here This is an interesting definition, because it is more apparent in the close-up of Figure 1.3. speaks of the work of art in terms of the con- In restoring the image, the conservators reat- scious awareness that one may have of it, at tached the lost paint flakes but did not restore the moment when restoration is about to take

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Intertextuality

place. There is no prohibition here on using Intertextuality particular approaches to carrying out the res- An argument could be made that authentici- toration. The practical and ethical problems ty is not an independent unitary creation but in deciphering the restoration histories of an activity that relies on intertextuality—that ancient stone sculpture and the conflicting is, on references to an entire complex web demands for aesthetic understanding and of past and present discourses within a par- authentic fragmentation of falsifying recon- ticular cultural setting. This is a process that structions will be highlighted in chapter 5. Bakhtin, writing in 1934, called heteroglossia. In discussing the impact of Brandi’s Heteroglossia works against an establishment thought, Sebastiano Barassi (2007) extracts view of culture by calling into question some four principal axioms of significance: (1) the of the precepts on which an interpretation is unacceptability of creative conservation; (2) based, which may not be immediately appar- the imperative need to preserve the patina; ent without careful analysis (Holquist 1981). (3) the complete reversibility of any conser- Bakhtin thought that language was pervaded vation work; and (4) that conservation of a with different intentions and meanings and work of art has to consider the individual that authoritative discourse creates a series characteristics of that work, with a decision of differentiated texts or meanings that must based not just on general principles but on be assimilated by the observer. Bakhtin was the individual needs of the work at hand. Of largely concerned with the ways in which these tenets, the first two are directly related readers interact with texts, but the concept to the retention of the authentic original. A could also be of interest in the field of the vi- variety of arguments can be advanced here sual arts and conservation. concerning the retention of patina, as rep- Intertextuality and intertextual relationships resentative of historical events that have oc- can involve a number of different approach- curred to the work over time, or the removal es to the subject–object interaction (Agger of patina, as revealing more closely the origi- 1999; Fairclough 2003). Intertextuality may nal intentions and work of the artist. depend on the intention of the artist and the Part of a modern trend is that intellec- significance attached to a conservation deci- tuals of all persuasions are prepared to em- sion to reference that intention in how the bark on a sustained attack on present-day work is treated. For example, a fifteenth-cen- conservators, particularly art restorers, who tury Renaissance triptych may be framed are apparently lacking in any philosophi- in a fine nineteenth-century gilded ornate cal grounding whatever, the clay feet of the frame, which may be subsequently replaced 1960s object–subject dichotomy having been with a plainer version to simulate a sixteenth- swept away from them in the tempting wa- century appearance. The meaning of the ters of postmodernist anxiety concerning work in its various frames is influenced by the the independent nature of the artifact itself, intertextuality of the restorative events that whether mediated or not, which is part of the have altered our perception of the work as ei- interaction with a human agency, a semiotic ther conforming to a view seen as authentic by process much emphasized by many commen- the Victorians or a view from the twenty-first tators. Some discussion of these views will be century that now regrets having taken the given in chapters 8 and 9. decision to remove the nineteenth-century

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

Figure 1.4. Eighteenth-century portrait of Pope Innocent XII before and after restoration. Artist un- known. The restoration was commissioned by Din I-Art and sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers. (Image courtesy of Pierre Bugeja and PreArti, Malta) frame in the 1970s. Dodd (personal commu- knowledge of what the artist intended, inde- nication 2016) comments: pendent of the observer’s own interpretation of the work, could be considered essential With regard to the Victorian frame for a proper understanding of the painting mentioned above, intertextuality would and what was intended to be conveyed to the include the visual reference to oth- viewer by the artist. er frames of valued works of art at the Most pertinent for art conservation is time, or connected to museum curatorial optional intertextuality: The way in which a practices, or to the effect of descriptions work of art is restored may shift understand- of high value in literature or be- ing of the work and how it is perceived by an ing transferred to the instance in which observer. For example, an early Renaissance a decision to use a more ornate frame painting might display angels with black was made. So here, authenticity is real- wings on which a whole series of arguments ly a form of cultural relevance at a given and observations are based, but after resto- moment of restoration. There are two ration, it might become known that there possible centres of discourse—one is were no black-winged angels: they were diachronic, one is synchronic. blue-winged angels that had turned black due to inherent vice. Consequently, since it There are different ways of thinking about would be unethical to restore the blue wings intertextuality. The painting by David Bailly by repainting them, the textual reading of shown in Figure 2.16, Vanitas Still Life with the work becomes dependent on the resto- a Portrait of a Young Painter, can be seen as ration intervention or the revision of what an example of obligatory intertextuality, since the perceptible properties of the work are.

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Intertextuality

Figure 1.5. Victorious Youth, Greek bronze retrieved from the Italian coast of the Adriatic Sea near Fano, 300–100 B.C.E. Bronze with inlaid copper; 151.5 cm height x 70 cm width x 27.9 cm depth. The bronze has been cleaned not to its original yellow-bronze color but to a corroded form that closely matches the “orig- inal surface” of the bronze, now preserved in a disparate corrosion crust of variegated color and composition. In this case, we have no desire to see the bronze as it was originally viewed in its golden yellow color. The work is contested: reclaimed by the citizens of Fano as a stolen and looted work of art, a legality now endorsed by the Italian state. (Image courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu)

Works may also be appreciated for what in Constantinople and which were more valu- they signify to the observer in terms of an able than gold or precious stones could pos- admired aesthetic experience. An exam- sibly be. The True Cross, in particular, was ple is Gentile Bellini’s circa-1496 painting imbued with intangible spiritual strength and Procession of Fragments of the True Cross, shown agency. Knowing nothing of these (sub)texts in Figure 7.2. The painting commemorates prevents the observer from the realization of an event that took place 50 years earlier, on an experiential veracity: an optional intertextu- April 25, 1444, when a Brescian tradesman ality of interpretation. knelt before the relic and prayed that his dy- Accidental intertextuality might elaborate ing son might recover. When he returned to a cultural connection in a work of art with a Brescia, his son had indeed recovered (De personal experience that might be indepen- Vecchi and Elda 1999). The subtext is the dent of the intention of the artist. For exam- spiritual power conferred upon the supplicant ple, a painting by Mondrian might remind and reflected self-referentially on by me of my mother’s square tablecloth with the gift, purchase, or theft of the fragment of red and yellow borders around white rectan- the true cross, whose origins were to be found gles with black lines, but this experience of

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

mine concerning Mondrian’s work is com- of more than 40 volumes, whose intentions pletely unintended by the artist, who knows are to unravel the metaphysical presence be- nothing of this particular tablecloth, which hind apparently simple readings of texts or predates his work. documents to understand the basis on which The writings of Kristeva (1980) could they have been previously assumed to rest; be adapted to reference the visual arts here, his work has been received very critically by since she is principally concerned with lit- Anglo-American philosophers in general. erary semiotics. Kristeva’s concept of hori- Barthes (Culler 1983) analyzed the struc- zontal and vertical axes of discourse in rela- ture of language, probing the narrative au- tion to intertextuality could be used to state thenticity of texts to expose underlying as- that the horizontal status of the discourse in sumptions and culturally related bias that terms of the visual arts is its simultaneous influences the way in which a text is read or orientation toward the artistic subject and understood. For example, the language of the observer. The vertical status would then ethnography as it relates to ethnographic arts be seen as the simultaneous orientation of is an area widely seen as problematic because the discourse between the art historical de- of the cultural bias of Western writers and scription of the image and its current (re)sit- conservators in describing a work. Another uation in the contemporary context. example is that of an Australian conservation description of a rock art site. It is discrete as a Contemporary Developments site in itself, and the anthropologist described may seem particularly daunt- it as a rockshelter containing images of the ing to conservation theory, as it tends to refute Wandjina and some kangaroos, turtles, and the concept of a grand narrative, and aspects snakes (MacLeod 2000:32). An elder, David of these modern and contemporary issues Mowaljarlai, told how: have been thoughtfully reviewed by Salvador Muñoz-Viñas (2011), some of whose writings The site was sacred to the initiation will be referred to in later chapters. rites of the indigenous population, and The old certainties of the Venice Charter demonstrated how the cave site was a of 1964 have been buffeted by the philo- focal spot in a whole range of hills, part sophical tide of the present. Aspects of this of a massive land form that reached back charter will be discussed in detail in chapter into the sea and the surrounding islands. 3, the principal criticism being the scientif- Having stated that the site involved ini- ic empiricism assumed within its boundar- tiation rites he took a sharp stone and ies. Deconstruction, promoted by Jacques cut open several wounds in his hand and Derrida (1930–2004), views on narratives by covered them with earth from the site Roland Barthes (1915–1980), the anthropol- [MacLeod 2000:33]. ogy of Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009), the strictures against some kinds of anthropology The native interpretation of the site would by E. E. Evans Pritchard (1902–1973)—all not have been evident to the Western mind- affect views of the authentic or the authen- set. Levi-Strauss (Doran 2013) is an import- ticities of the present. During his lifetime, ant figure in anthropological studies, being Derrida (Bennington 1987) created a series the first to really question if there is any real

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Authenticity, , and Overcleaning

difference between the “” mind and perhaps, as a work of Hans the the “cultured” mind. This structuralist ap- Younger (1497–1543). Portrait of Alexander proach to the nature of society and kinship Mornauer had been overpainted with a small- was of fundamental importance to the way in er hat and a blue background entirely invent- which native societies, kinship, and culture ed in the nineteenth century to conform to were understood. Evans-Pritchard (1965) the taste of the time. The decision of whether thought that anthropology was not a natural to remove or leave the overpaint is not nec- science but, because of its interpretative na- essarily based on the authentic condition of ture, should be classed with the humanities. the original work but on a complex of factors This was because of the translational and cul- that have to be evaluated by a group of multi- turally influenced activity of anthropology in disciplined experts before a consensus can be its interpretation of primitive societies, which reached. Evans-Pritchard saw as fundamentally flawed On the other hand, the patina of a Roman as an objective phenomena, a view that has bronze, created by centuries of slow cor- become highly influential over the past 50 rosion in the soil to form a complex green- years. For example, in terms of ethnographic colored corrosion crust, does not represent arts, the voices of indigenous peoples them- the authentic aims of the original artist, who selves are now recognized as increasingly valued a bronze with a golden-colored sur- relevant to any discussion of what happens to face, not an encrusted and corroded green such artworks. The incorporation of different object that no longer even looks metallic. cultural stances in many ethnographical dis- There has been a consensus that ancient plays is now a trope of the modern museum bronzes should not look new and shiny; and its aims and audiences. they should not be cleaned beyond a cer- More recently, the increasing prominence tain point, because we have come to value given to the object itself, in terms of its own the patina as representative of a historical interrelationship with culture, has resulted in process in itself and as an aesthetic entity, as a reassessment of the importance of material- the Greek bronze in Figure 1.5 illustrates, a ity and how materiality may itself shape cul- desirable product of interaction between the tural interactions (Paine 2013). corrosive environment in which the bronze was buried, the historical veracity that it rep- Authenticity, Overpainting, and resents, and the alloying constituents of the Overcleaning bronze itself (Scott 2002). In general, if a painting has been overpainted, The obscuring patina, in a manner of the overpaint might be completely removed speaking, has become part of the object from or kept , depending on how observers an aesthetic perspective. Retention of patina want to interpret the work and value it aesthet- is also useful for the scientific evaluation of ically (Foister 1991; Wieseman 2010). An ex- condition, as it provides evidence for the au- ample is Portrait of Alexander Mornauer in the thenticity of ancient bronzes; without this pa- , London (NG6532), tina, a great deal of evidence of age has been painted by a unknown artist with the appel- removed. There are complexities here that can lation Master of the Mornauer Portrait, cir- be explored further. For example, Scott (2011) ca 1460–1488, and overpainted to appear, in a detailed study of Chinese bronze ,

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

provides several categories of potentially vary- museum context. Phillips (1997:191) states, ing authenticities concerning these mirrors, “It is not obvious in the permanent displays of which span 4,000 years of production. each museum, in which house style in conser- There can be a distinction between what vation is presented as the of authentic- the general public is presented with as an au- ity, but it is very much on show, though never thentic work and what an informed conserva- acknowledged in major loan exhibitions. This tor can see as being only partially authentic uneven pattern of emphasis and reticence is, of when utilizing infrared or ultraviolet radia- course, sustained in the name of authenticity.” tion. These techniques may reveal areas filled In the restoration of archaeological mate- by recent attempts at compensation for loss, rials, a stricter interpretation of what authen- or old overpaint or retouching. Different ap- tic remains actually are, compared with res- proaches to this problem have been invoked toration, means that it is highly problematic by conservators, depending on the artwork to create an entire compensation for loss that is concerned. Some employ tratteggio for fres- not immediately visually apparent. In the case coes. Others complete design elements in of paintings on panel, the restoration aims ways that do not always respect the ability to create a visually indistinguishable holis- to distinguish the original by visual means. tic union of compensated and original parts. There may still be doubts about the extent Approaches to this question may rest not only to which aesthetic reintegration of a work on the material nature of the object; they may has succeeded or has tried too hard to re- also be culturally influenced. create the appearance of the original. Figure 1.4 is a typical example of a restored work of Contemporary Authenticity the eighteenth century that most observers Cesare Brandi was opposed to the concept of would regard as conforming to expectations of replication in art or conservation, and this en- what a restored work of art should look like. tails severe limitations for the applicability of David Phillips (1997) has written a salient his theories to modern art. Replication denies text here on the connotations of the exhibi- part of the historical reality of a work of art, tion of authenticity. He points out that there which Brandi (1977) sees as being an essential are three different sets of information which part of its nature. He maintained that repli- are encompassed in this matter, the first is the cation is a forgery and emphasizes the differ- evolution of novel perceptual ways of look- ence between an original object and a modern ing at works of art, such as the development replica, “which cannot replace the original in of perspective, or of , secondly, there its full phenomenology, and cannot but result is the history of the ways in which time and in a historical and aesthetic falsification.” later practices of re-presentation have trans- In terms of what has happened in modern formed perceptual anomaly and meaning with art, the replacement of the original by a copy, it, and thirdly, variation in current approaches however certified, is quite a common occur- to conservation. Phillips (1997:190) writes that rence, and one that brings with it a number the first set of developments is acknowledged of concerns regarding authenticity and what in museum presentations, the second is only actions conservators can legitimately take rarely presented in detail, and the third is al- in creating an indistinguishable copy to be most always passed over in silence within the placed on display. Illuminating philosophical

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Contemporary Authenticity

explorations of the problems of indistin- Modern artistic production encompasses guishability are provided by Arthur Danto works with inadvertent inherent vice, such as (1981:115–164), Sándor Radnóti (1999:103– the sculptures of Naum Gabo (1890–1977). 154), and more generally Nelson Goodman He believed, erroneously, that when some (1968) and Martin Heidegger (1935–1937). of his works disintegrated, it was the fault of In some cases, these replicas themselves the collector, which it clearly was not. There have to be replicated as they decay and disinte- are auto-destructive works of art and art that grate, especially if the concept of decay is part is deliberately self-destructive, such as sever- of the manifestation of the artwork itself, as al works by Jean Tinguely (Tinguely 1988). with some works of Dieter Roth (1930–1998), Some artists are dismayed by inherent vice, who used chocolate, sugar, yogurt, mince, spic- and some are not worried by alteration and es, and other foodstuffs to create his art. They decay, while other artists do not wish their slowly transformed as they become infested decaying works to be restored and others do. with beetles and microorganisms, a process of Many artists never intended for inherent vice degradation deliberately accelerated by Roth to destroy their art, while some do not care. (Skowranek 2007). As the artist was very in- Some artists have thought about the prob- terested in the structural morphology of decay lems of decay and have deliberately sought and the natural mutation of things, this pro- out high-grade art conservation materials; cess of degradation is an essential component some artists would like to do so but cannot of the authenticity of the work of art itself. As afford the materials suitable for longevity. far as the preservation of this kind of art is con- Some artists never realized that the sup- cerned, there are a number of possible options: posedly stable modern materials they were (1) create a replica for exhibition purposes; (2) using were in fact unstable. Most problem- create a replica as a replacement (in the case of atically, some artists deprecate conservators’ lost or damaged elements, this could be com- attempts at documentation of their original pared with inpainting [Skowranek 2007:3]; (3) work and state that no archived documenta- create a replica as a duplicate that can be shown tion of their work is permissible. contiguously with the original, which may now In many cases, the wishes of the artist must be unrecognizable; (4) create a replica of the or should be adhered to by the conservator, original in terms of materials and aging con- and as many modern artists are still living, ditions as a starting point for a new aging pro- there are a huge range of authenticity prob- cess; (5) preserve the memory of the work by lems related to the conservation, restoration, documentation using a digital recording from duplication, reenactment, recording, emula- installation to complete decay (this would be tion, preservation, and destruction of modern a very long recording); and (6) allow the art- art (Darby 2012; Degen 2012; Downey 2012; work to decay until it is thrown out with the Szmelter 2012; Vere 2012). garbage. These are just some of the authentic- But what can be done with objects whose ity questions that, intriguingly, now haunt the true condition renders them undisplayable or conservation of modern artists’ materials and whose inherent vice results in their unprevent- work, whether ephemeral, conceptual, instal- able disintegration? Brajer (2010) advocates lation-based, self-decaying, slowly aging, or “authenticity of condition” over any other never intended to degrade. form of authenticity, whether it be authenticity

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Authenticity and Conservation: An Introduction

of materials and substance, form and design, the painting had recently been relined, re- use and function, tradition and technique, stretched, and fully restored, all testaments to location and setting, or spirit and feeling. authenticity. The fact that on visual inspec- This might not always be possible with tion of the reverse, the relining, framing, and modern art objects, which might have to tacking would disguise potential evidence exist as surrogates of themselves into the of fakery was another boon for Hebborn’s future. This could be a problem with eth- skilled creation. nographic artifacts, where the cultural re- In the eighteenth century, Bartolomeo quirements of the tribe elevate the spiritual Cavaceppi (1716–1799) recognized that the requirements of the object over its present ostensibly authentic condition of a restoration condition, resulting in the artifact being re- was best faked by making it appear broken and coated with unguents, resanctified, and then fragmentary, and subsequently “repaired.” reburied (Clavir 1994, 1998, 2002; Moffett His Roman bas-relief of Nessus and Deianera et al. 2002). The authenticity of condition in the Townley Collection is one example moves forward in time as the object moves (Vaughan 1992:42, 1996). A large proportion forward, representing a different condition of this bas-relief is eighteenth-century mar- for the object concerned, but it may still be ble restoration work, which convincingly im- a useful concept. Utilization of the authen- itates an antique relief, making it appear to ticity of a condition of a work of art has been have been broken and skillfully reassembled. of help to highly skilled art forgers. For ex- These are just two examples of the interaction ample, lacking any original lapis lazuli, Eric between conservation, restoration, and fak- Hebborn (1991, 1997) produced his own ery. The aura (Benjamin 1970) of legitimacy versions of eighteenth-century oil paintings, of a work by Hebborn can be enhanced if the using correct pigments, such as burnt sien- viewer is made aware of the fact that the work na and raw umber taken from eighteenth- is so potentially valuable that several hundred and nineteenth-century paint jars, applied pounds have already been spent on its resto- to eighteenth-century canvases pared down ration, disguising its authentic condition by to the lead white ground layer. Hebborn creating another to structurally obscure the would then deliberately damage a canvas in fake painting, giving the work a semblance of the one area where the lapis lazuli was es- a genuinely restored work before it reaches sential. He would take the damaged canvas the house. to a professional restorer, who would reline Despite the increasingly sophisticated use and restretch the canvas, carrying out visual- of scientific evaluations of authenticity, a con- ly indistinguishable restoration for the dam- siderable amount of work to integrate art his- aged blue paint, now completed in Prussian torical and scientific connoisseurship remains blue in acrylic medium, before the restored to be done (Bucklow 2009). Technical art his- picture was revarnished with dammar resin tory (Bomford 1988; Hermens and Townsend (Hebborn 1991, 1997). 2009) strives toward this aim, but there are When the painting came up for auction, difficulties in the wider sphere of art conser- art connoisseurs could see that the style vation because the evidential bases of the two and paint of the picture was correct for the disciplines are quite different and may be in presumed period of fabrication and that conflict with each other.

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Chapter 2 The Cult of Authenticity

Concepts of Authenticity Intention and Representation Contexts and Practices The Platonic Ideal and Exhibiting in History Illusionism and Form The Artist’s Intention Philosophers on Authenticity Fakes and Forgeries

We now add to the concepts of individuality and novelty, a further and probably more general notion: the aspect of historical authenticity. This means the assumption that, in a manner that is partly revealed and partly concealed . . . the original work of art contains its own history. —Sándor Radnóti, The Fake: Forgery and Its Place in Art

Introduction attained: the real, the genuine, the authentic. Authenticity remains one of the most desir- The cult of authenticity, as it is often called, able attributes in the twenty-first century, but is the result of this upsurge in dissatisfaction, it remains ever more elusive and evanescent. frustration, and longing in the effort to ac- When we try to define authenticity, it slips quire the authenticity a person may desire from our grasp like an eel, falling back into but often fails to find. As a result, we increas- the lake of our longings for a real life, a gen- ingly turn to experts—their labels, docu- uine picture, a faithful representation, not a ments, and pronouncements—to assure us reflection of reaching out for what cannot be that what we are eating, thinking, or looking

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The Cult of Authenticity

at is authentic. Simultaneously, we express Can the postmodernist approach to art en- anxiety as to whether the thing or sensation tail a meaningful discussion of authenticity is actually authentic or not. There may be a or is the concept irrelevant to conservation concern that a Max Ernst (1891–1976) paint- actions taken on behalf of these objects? ing bought for $20 million is not by the artist How can the scientific nexus of authenticity at all but by a German forger; that authentic be integrated into a wider approach to the identities are not really that authentic; that subject? Are there degrees of authenticity or our personal details, credit cards, and driver’s inauthenticity rather than an absolute? How licenses have been copied or forged; that our can the notion of authenticity be applied to Gucci handbags are actually mass-produced ethnographic arts, such as those from Africa, in a Chinese factory and our Maori relics or to the intangible cultural heritage that made in Somerset by an English woodcarver. conservators are more concerned with than The word authenticity is used in an aston- ever before? What about restoration of art? ishing variety of contexts, from discussions of Do alterations of substance affect the mate- the authenticity of one’s own self and culture rial authenticity, conceptual authenticity, or (Heidegger 1935­–1937; Sartre 1943; Vannini meaning of art objects? and Williams 2009) to considerations of au- This chapter includes diverse content thenticity in rock music (Moore 2002), folk- that seeks to examine the connotations of the lore (Bendix 1997), early musical renderings concept of authenticity and its applications (Kenyon 1988), linguistics (Coulmas 2008), to art objects. Many philosophers, includ- (Allen and Charfi 2003), antiquity ing Emmanuel Kant and David Hume, are (Brilliant 2005; Lowenthal 1989; Tilley et al. not included in the discussion. This is partly 2000), anthropology (Filitz and Saris 2006), because of necessary space restrictions and archival studies (MacNeil and Mak 2007), so- partly because these writers are more directly ciology (Peterson 2005), (Banks concerned with art and aesthetics rather than 2006), psychology (Huang 2001; Newman with notions of authenticity. More recent phil- and Bloom 2012), philosophy (Baugh 1988; osophical writings related to authenticity and Dutton 1983a, 1983b; Radnóti 1999; Sagoff restoration are discussed in chapters 3 and 4. 1978a), and conservation (Brandi 1977; The topics included in this chapter are in- 2014; Muñoz-Viñas 2009, 2011; Philippot tended to be foundational and of use in later 1997 [1966]), to name only a few examples. chapters in this book, as well as avenues for fu- The questions in relation to authentic- ture thought on the part of the reader. ity relevant to our discussions here include: No field of inquiry is currently safe from What does authenticity mean? Who defines the intrusions of scholars who wish to apply what an authentic or inauthentic artwork is? the concept of authenticity to its context, con- How has the concept of what constitutes the tent, aims, materials, and manifestations. It is authentic changed over the past few thousand noticeable how many of the papers and books years and how might this concept interact cited above, representative of a tiny fraction with conservation and restoration? Do differ- of published literature, were produced post- ent cultures have different views on what au- 2000. The reader is currently besieged with thenticity is, and if so, how does this difference new works that explore authenticity and asso- affect the notion of forgery or restoration? ciated problems in every imaginable realm.

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Critics of the Authentic Past

There is also a renewed interest among whether an artwork is actually by the artist it is scholars and the general public in the prob- attributed to or is a copy, a pastiche, or a fake. lems of the inauthentic, namely the world of Although these fields rarely talk to each oth- fakes and forgeries. In this book, the topic er, all have been instrumental in refining how primarily concerns the art world: works of art perceptions of what is and what is not authen- and their condition, restoration, replication, tic are negotiated, and whether authenticity is emulation, appropriation, and falsification, all a definable concept or subject to continuous of which may be implicated in or enhanced culturally related revisions that undermine the by the forgery of the works themselves. The supposedly objective nature of our study. postmodern period ushered in a new herme- Inquiries related to authenticity go back neutics regarding the evaluation, reverence, to ancient Greece, with the works of or dismissal of replicas and copies, which has (423–348 B.C.E.) and Aristotle (384–322 impacted the sheer number of books devoted B.C.E.), and continue through the major to the topic. philosophers to the writings of J. J. Rousseau The great majority of the papers and (1712–1778), Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), books mentioned above take it for grant- Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), Karl Marx ed that there is general agreement as to the (1818–1883), Denis Dutton (1944–2010), meaning of the word authenticity and that no Nelson Goodman (1906–1998), Arthur C. further discussion of the concept is necessary Danto (1924–2013), Mark Sagoff, Sándor before delving into a detailed exposition. Radnóti, and others too numerous to list here. There are exceptions to this general ob- servation, however, including how notions Critics of the Authentic Past of authenticity affect the fields of literature, Many scholars have voiced criticisms regard- philosophy, and art restoration. For those ing the concept of authenticity as it relates to concerned with literature, the concept has to cultural heritage and art preservation. One of be manipulated and examined rather carefully the most vocal and effective has been David from many different perspectives because of Lowenthal, whose work has sought to decon- the mediated nature of the interpretation of struct the concept of authenticity as applied texts. For the philosopher, disentangling the to cultural heritage. Lowenthal’s work spans concept in its various fields of operation in- several decades, and he has written eloquently volves extensive hermeneutical debates, espe- of the problem “What do we mean by authen- cially discussions of the supposed differences ticity?” Under the category faithfulness to orig- between a perfect fake and an original work inal form and substance, Lowenthal (1992:82) of art, the problem of indiscernibles. For art includes the material authenticity of original restoration, the way in which authenticity is artifacts, noting that all art decays or disin- defined, or its operational parameters, has tegrates, losing the identity that once made direct implications for the conservation and it seem authentic. “The authentic worth of restoration of historic monuments, ancient unrestored objects divested of recognizable works of art, and the places or landscapes of form,” writes Lowenthal (1992:82), “is solely significance associated with them. academic; aesthetic defence of time’s erosions Art historians are much concerned with is a quixotic passion for pentimenti and limb- the topic as it relates to spoliation, reuse, and less torsos.”

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From the perspective of 2016, it could In art as in architecture, ruinations of be pointed out that some curators have em- time and misfortune were routinely re- braced the mystique of broken fragments of paired. . . . Only in the late eighteenth ancient art as worthy of display, celebrating century did wholeness succumb to the the authentic purity of the fragment in it- contrary cult of fragments and ruins. . . . self. Lowenthal, however, is right to raise the To be authentic, an object, a structure, question of the aesthetic value of unrestored or a must be truncated or frag- fragments, a subject that particularly affects mented. In contrast, nineteenth-century the conservation of ancient marble sculptures, conservators “restored” venerable struc- which have often been extensively damaged, tures and traditions to what they ought restored, de-restored, and rerestored in dif- ideally to have been. Authenticity meant ferent periods of history, sometimes changing replacing defective original remnants the identity of the sculpture in the process, with modern realizations of the spirit of which will be discussed further in chapter 5. antiquity. Anti-scrape advocates altered Lowenthal’s second category is faithfulness to the principles of restorers more than the context. The question is: Which context is au- practices; most who claimed to respect thentic? The artist’s personal and cultural mi- original works were, consciously or not, lieu? The locale that inspired a work’s themes beautifying, antiquating, or modernizing or forms? Items and icons characteristic of an them. Not until the mid-twentieth centu- era? Perhaps all of these are important, but ry, in most of , did improving the Lowenthal sees each context as potentially in- past give way to archeological exactitude, cluding or excluding the other. The conservation a scholarly purism that deplored tamper- evaluation of the relative value assigned to each ing with what was original. Honest au- context is today, one could argue, less rigid than thenticity now came to mean intervening when Lowenthal was writing in 1992, which is as little as possible and making manifest now more than 20 years ago. Nonetheless, there every unavoidable alteration, even to the are valid concerns regarding contexts that frame sacrifice of visual integrity. the authentic nature of different artworks. Paul Philippot (1997 [1966]) wrote, “The The lessons of each successive conserva- big failure of archaeological conservation was tion policy may well be those learned in fu- that it could not re-establish the continuity of ture years by generations to come, but at least lived history.” The recognition of the histor- there is now some historical perspective on ical progress of time as an essential compo- decisions made in the past and on how these nent of the authentic story of many ancient decisions were reached. These debates help works of art would be acknowledged by most frame the increasingly sophisticated discus- conservation decisions taken today. What sions that works of art engender in the twen- might seem to be an authentic work of art in ty-first century, particularly regarding the one context could easily become an inauthen- problems of authenticity of ethnographic and tic work of art in another, but Lowenthal is . wrong to imply that considerations of these Lowenthal’s third category is faithfulness questions do not form part of the conserva- to aims, which he thinks is as wayward as tion dialogue. Lowenthal (1995) writes: contexts: Aesthetic intention may grant art a

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deathless status unaffected by context, decay, not in the public domain in terms of museum or changing taste and cumulative experience, exhibitions. (Lowenthal 1992:83, 1998). By placing great- An example used by Muñoz-Viñas (2009) er emphasis on the artist’s intent, other ap- serves as a reminder of the sacred aims of proaches to authenticity are denied. The aims much early art. How hap- of artists, patrons, and rulers may be negated py would curators in a national gallery of art in the approach taken to what is considered be if an Italian nun knelt in front of a heavily authentic, and Lowenthal cites the artwork restored fifteenth-century panel painting of of (1933–1963), whose white Saint Ursula, lit candles around it, and prayed linen squares were supposed to be periodical- for hours in front of it? The answer to this ly washed or overpainted to retain their pris- question is quite obvious: even in the Sistine tine whiteness. However, museums and col- Chapel, this would not now be allowed. The lectors ignored the artists’ wishes and value aim of the original artist has been subsumed the unrestored yellowed linen. in the modern appreciation of the restored What is undocumented in past restoration artwork as an aesthetic entity. When it is treatments may remain unknown today, and realized that the entire face of Saint Ursula for that reason modern-day conservation the- has been badly damaged and repainted by a ory puts great stress on the value and preser- restorer, there is an understanding that the vation of documentation of current states of faithfulness to the original aims of the artist existence. Not only must the artwork itself be have been superseded by the aesthetic desire preserved, but its accompanying documenta- for a completed image, unaffected by original tion must be preserved with it, and the medi- context or decay. um on which the documentation exists must In museum contexts, encouragement of be preserved as a corollary. A further category minority ethnic groups has become a political of faithfulness could be added to Lowenthal’s objective. Venerations of works of art held in insightful list: faithfully made by the original museums are now happening in the United artist or producer. Those artworks made by the States and the United Kingdom; this would artist himself or herself may be thought of as not have been tolerated in the past (Paine intrinsically authentic. Problems arise with 2013), although there are several exceptions. artworks that have to be replicated by con- For example, the Newark Museum in New servators, from originals that have decayed or Jersey, founded in 1909, contains a large and suffered from inherent vice, to create a dis- significant collection of Tibetan Buddhist art played work. Objects produced in series de- for which an altar was set up for devotees in rived from an original form may not be faith- 1935 (Paine 2013). fully made by the artist but made by assistants The Sultanganj Buddha in the or later craftsmen using models made by the City Museum and , acquired in artist. A deeper appreciation of the authentic- 1867, stood for years at the top of a stair- ity of the aims of the artist could be provid- case with a simple label, but in 2006 it was ed and made visible in such cases, but this is removed to a shrine-like niche. Since then, seldom on display; debates concerning these local Buddhist groups venerate it in the gal- matters, as well as more complex and nuanced lery every year during the Buddhist festival of issues regarding authenticity, are generally Wesak (Paine 2013).

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Authentic Survival future, which we have no way of knowing When viewed as products of commodifica- about now, however much we conserve. tion, art objects might be valued and might This does not mean that we should not survive into the future, or they might become conserve what is meaningful to us. At the devalued and be discarded as just so much very least, this serves the task of bringing cultural detritus. If a work of art reaches the to consciousness the question of what we point of being of no value, it will be discard- are: a self-conscious image of our culture ed. But objects frequently go through a series is a good thing to pursue, even if it turns of transitions, from being admired works to out not to coincide with whatever image becoming rubbish to becoming valued again of us the future will form. The histo- as authentic vestiges of the past. Examples ry of in art since 1860 as it include Bakelite telephones, Victorian plas- evolved, enfranchised folk art, Oceanic ter casts, and rusting steam locomotives, all art, African art, children’s art, the art of which will be rescued in the twenty-first of the insane, thrift-shop art, the fami- century from their early twentieth-century ly snapshot, trash, animals in tanks, etc. demise as being of little worth. The history of Modernism is the histo- The view that art can be preserved into ry of such enfranchisement but take any the future as authentic remnants of the pres- moment of that history and it would be ent without any philosophical problems exist- impossible to know what should have ing in such an endeavor is well critiqued by been preserved for the future. Arthur C. Danto (1999:10–11): In terms of the interaction of different It is a distinctive trait of our culture that modes of production of art objects, or the in addition to such inadvertent ruins and values attached to the enfranchisement of remnants that may survive as a matter them, Clifford offers his version of a ma- of chance, we deliberately endeavour to chine for making authenticity. In A Machine conserve a certain portion of our culture, for Making Authenticity, Clifford (1988:224– specifically in order that the future might 226) argues that cultural materials move see us much as we see ourselves. And this through authenticatory systems. He con- is because we try to see our own culture structs four zones in opposition, creating from a historical perspective as well—to horizontal and vertical axes. see ourselves as we will be seen by future Objects can be located in a specific zone, generations looking back. For structur- ambiguously in transit, or oscillating between al reasons inherent in the asymmetry zones. Objects can move from the bottom, of history, the future is now as a inauthentic realms to the top, achieving an leaf as a past culture would be that left authentic aura, which is considered a positive nothing behind. Part of what is hidden movement. Tourist art, fakes, and readymades from us is precisely what interests the occupy the least authentic parts of his diagram. future will have in us which, we may be These may be reclassified as masterpieces or quite sure, will differ from the interests as genuine artifacts as they ascend toward we have in ourselves. Countless truths realms considered more authentic. They may about the present will be available to the be reassessed by art connoisseurship and the

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1 (authenticity) 2 Connoisseurship History and folklore The The ethnographic The museum material Culture, craft

art culture original, singular traditional, collective

(masterpiece) (artifact)

not culture not art new, common reproduced, commercial 3 4 Fakes, inventions Tourist art, commodities The museum of technology The curio collection Readymades and anti-art Utilities (inauthentic)

Figure 2.1. The art-culture system: a machine for making authenticity. (Diagram after Clifford 1988:224) art museum as they make their way toward between revelation, investigation, and preser- becoming authentic objects. vation, may have implications on what is and Clifford (1988:224) illustrates change in is not considered authentic. To authenticate a value with Kuskokwim Eskimo masks from work of art, it may be necessary to subject it the Museum of the American Indian shock- to destructive analysis; a small sample of the ingly sold to surrealists in the 1940s. The object might be taken to investigate either its surrealists placed them on exhibition, shifting chemical composition or its age. Revelation their value from objects of science to objects may be akin to restoration here, as the in- of art. This shows how objects can be reclassi- painting of a work of art may completely dis- fied. Clifford does admit that his view is pro- guise any losses it has suffered. Preservation crustean and represents a historical view of a may imply that an attempt is being made to system in constant flux. keep the object in its present state for as long The actions taken to alter or investigate as possible into the future, and one option for a work of art are subject to a host of possi- doing this, especially with an archaeological ble different interpretations of what conser- monument, is to rebury it. It has been found, vators or restorers actually do with them. located, excavated, examined, documented, The RIP triangle (Figure 2.2), proposed by and published, and now it will be reburied so Caple (2000), which represents a discussion that the same procedure can occur at some

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Investigation

Destructive analysis

Nondestructive analysis

Archaeological conservation

Fine art conservation

Recording Working objects conservation

Gap filling Reburial Inpainting

Revelation Preservation Aqueous washing Lining and backing (paper and textiles) (paper and paintings)

Specific processes General areas of conservation

Figure 2.2. The RIP triangle of Christopher Caple, which maps out the activities of preservation, revelation, and investigation. We can envisage different types of activity in relation to these three com- ponents. For example, the inpainting of pictures, on the far left of the diagram, close to the revelation corner, concerns actions of restoration, while reburial, on the far right, involves potentially no alteration to the existing artifact or monument except the act of reburying it. (Diagram after Caple 2000)

indefinite time in the future. This action cre- deal with the issues of safeguarding authen- ates a time in the future when such an event ticity, here understood as an epistemologically could be contemplated. relative term associated with the kinds of things A tripartite distinction between concepts this volume reviews. Kemp (2012) includes here important for the study of authenticity in rela- authorship or intention, conjoined with the ob- tion to restoration is presented by a diagram of ligation to execute minimal physical interven- Kemp in Figure 2.3, which examines the nature tion to aid reestablishment of structural and of techniques executed over time. His node, aesthetic legibility and meaning while allowing maintaining identity, represents an attempt to future treatment options for the artwork.

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Authentic Survival

Investigation before intervention

Conservation dynamics

Evaluation before removal Maintaining identity

Figure 2.3. Conservation dynamics. Kemp uses the same kind of triangular concept to express the dynamics involved in executing conservation actions. Investigation before intervention: the injunction to perform research on, and documentation of, all relevant evidence before and after any intervention. Reburial Evaluation before removal: respect of the process of history in its cumulative record of activity reflected in the object and identified as denoting varying cultural beliefs, values, materials, and techniques execut- ed over time. Maintaining identity: safeguarding authenticity, understood as an epistemologically rel- ative term associated with the material in an object and its authorship or intention, conjoined with the obligation to execute minimal physical intervention to help reestablish structural and aesthetic legibility and meaning while allowing future treatment options. (Diagram after Kemp 2012)

A more ambitious effort to relate a series values related to works of art and our appreci- of values in relation to actions taken regarding ation of them. The first plot deals with relative a work of art is discussed by Michalski (1994), axes of emotional value, knowledge value, and who takes issue with the conventional means by perceptual value. The second plots impersonal which works of art are restored, pointing out narrative value, personal narrative value, and that many historical repaintings did not stop scientific value. The third shows a plot of re- abruptly at the physical join between two parts, maining original value with re-created value. the contiguous nature of the original and the Michalski’s second plot in particular is success- restored. Figure 2.4 illustrates part of this per- ful in illustrating the values attached to a per- ceptual problem, while a gradation of tonal val- sonal X-ray image, as compared with the X-ray ues disguises an abrupt transition between what image of the Mona Lisa. The intersection of is original and what is restored, enhancing the the plane of pure restoration with re-created aesthetic appreciation of the integrated image. value in terms of how the significance of copies Michalski (1994:figure 19.3) presented and replicas can be assessed makes clear that another way to examine the problems of the this aspect of the physical nature of an object value of objects in relation to the characteris- can be a matter of graduation from a clear case tics of the art itself and its place in our per- of a replicated work to one that has undergone ceptions of the real as a way of investigating an honest restoration.

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Figure 2.4. Aspects of perceptual defects that should be viewed from 2 m away. (a) The wide transition on the top makes the contrast between left and right much less visible. At the sharp transition at the bottom, we see only the difference. We also see dark and light bands as part of the visual enhancement. (b) We see one disorientated element distinctly, but in sufficient number, such elements reduce to a pattern. (c) We see intermittent defects in edges and corners distinctly. In large numbers (top right), these defects reduce to surface texture. (d) Prägnanz, a term from Gestalt psychology: Defects are seen as superimposed entities, not absence of the original. We see a triangle of dots partly covered by a white square. We see that the center area was once perfectly square. The left blob is ambiguous. Is it a hole or a patch? (Diagram after Michalski 1994:figure 19.2)

The Platonic Ideal these are only reflections, not real things, Plato, in the Republic (X:X:595–601) sets out Plato agrees and states that a craftsman cre- to show that the products of an artist are ates objects exactly of this kind, mirroring themselves imitations of a life, which is an in- reality but unable to grasp the essence of it. ferior kind of reality compared with the ide- Plato sees art as a form of representation, al forms that are so much a part of Platonic and as such it cannot begin to portray the thought, and he shows that a single essential ideal forms it strives after. It is a long way form corresponds to each class of particular removed from truth. According to Plato, art things (Lee 1955). Plato uses the analogy of objects involve three fields of inquiry for the a mirror held up and turned around by the painter: use, manufacture, and representation. observer to create images of all the objects The artist can have no direct experience or in one’s view. On hearing the objection that incorporation into his art of how things are

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The Platonic Ideal

actually used, or of the techniques of - years or so, pieces were actively cleaned or facture of the things he paints, of which he is scoured with abrasives and mineral acids to usually ignorant. The resulting representa- remove the ancient surface, damaging what tion is just that, an inferior version of things polychromy was left. or an illusion created by the artist. Before the First World War, many The Platonic concept of an ideal object German scholars were aware of this situ- or form has been an influential reference ation and debated the meanings of ancient point in many discussions concerning art, polychromy (Brinkmann 2007), but this fakes, and forgeries. It is particularly rele- knowledge and subsequent restorations ig- vant to this book, which deals with represen- nored the scholarly past to such an extent tation in different contexts, from the “origi- that many volumes on ancient sculpture by nal” representation of the artist to the copied such luminaries as John Pope-Hennessey representation of the forger and the desire (1913–1994) and Erwin Panofsky (1892– for legitimate replicas of famous works that 1968) never mentioned pigmentation. Pope- invoke a Platonic sense of a real form, even Hennessey (1958) and Panofsky (1964) sim- if that form is distant in time, space, or both ply pretended to be to polychrome from the replicas that carry the message of classical and Renaissance sculptures and dis- the artwork with them (Malenka 2000). cussed them at length without ever mention- For example, Plato’s philosophy regard- ing their painting, coloring, or polychro- ing the idea of pure form has had an import- matic decoration. One can only suppose that ant influence on Renaissance and neoclassi- they thought painted sculpture to be rather cal preferences for marble sculptures to be vulgar and lacking in taste. pristine, smooth, white, and translucent. In an attempt not to be completely over- Many philosophers have set up a dichot- come by ancient polychromy, some scholars omy between the activities of painting and resorted to a blue–red bichromatic option sculpture, with the distinction being that for Greek coloration, but scientific connois- the two activities are fundamentally differ- seurship reveals that this art historical finesse ent and that sculpture does not utilize color, does not represent the truly polychromatic because to do so would negate the search for authenticity of the past. the ideal abstracted form of the body, which Conservators and restorers have been can be revealed only by contemplation of a complicit in the loss of polychromy on pristine marmoreal absolute. However, the some of these artworks. In their cleaning majority of ancient Greek and Roman mar- campaigns, they used hydrochloric or other ble sculptures were painted with polychro- strong mineral acids and extensive scrubbing matic finishes; this is true for both Archaic or scouring of surfaces to get back to the as- and classical sculpture and also for Cycladic sumed state of stark white purity, the ideal figurines (Gill and Chippindale 1993). The form. In the process, restorers falsified evi- existence of these colored sculptures was dence of vestiges of colors of the past (Oddy mostly denied, ignored, or forgotten in the 2004). past, although in the twenty-first century, Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717– the polychrome features are attracting atten- 1768), whose most famous work dates from tion (Brinkmann 2007). During the past 500 1764 (Irwin 1972; Potts 1994), recognized

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Figure 2.5. Above, left: Marble sculpture of Augustus Caesar as the Augustus of Prima Porta in the Vatican discovered in 1863. White marble, 204 cm high. (Photograph courtesy of Till Nierman) Above, center: A remarkable polychrome version published by Ludvig Fenger in 1886. Above, right: A more recent polychrome version cast by Brinkmann in 2007, in the Vatican Collection. Reproduced by permission of the Vatican Libraries.

that some Greek sculpture might have been the form of the sculptural entity, which color painted, and several German scholars of would only ruin or detract from. Hegel takes the nineteenth century reported on exam- a particularly dim view of much non-Eu- inations of ancient sculpture that showed ropean classic art and holds that defects in traces of paint or gilding (Brinkmann 2007; art of other cultures are not necessarily due Panzanelli et at. 2008). The scientific verac- to unskillful fabrication but due to a funda- ity of empirical observation of these sculp- mental inability of these art forms to devel- tures, influenced by the logical positivism of op toward the ideal form, a thought then that time, was largely forgotten after the First much in vogue among European writers. World War; certainly British and American Hegel (1974–1975) states: “Defectiveness of scholars rarely mentioned the topic. form arises from defectiveness of content. So, for example, the Chinese, Indians, and Illusionism and Form Egyptians in their artistic shapes, their forms In keeping with this tradition, both Hegel of deities, and their idols, never got beyond a (1770–1831) and Schopenhauer (1788– formless phase, or one of a vicious and false 1860) opposed the illusionism of color in definiteness of form, and were unable to at- works of art such as sculpture, following on tain genuine beauty.” from thoughts of the Platonic Ideal. Instead This excerpt shows that however great a they held firm to the idea of the purity of mind Hegel was, he was unable to see past

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Illusionism and Form

the deeply embedded Eurocentric con- leaves the artist several degrees removed cept of what constituted authentic artistic from the handling of his wax originals. creation. For Hegel, writing around 1820 Reff (1971) highlights the in- (1974–1975:706–708), sculpture was one of novative use of multiple media in Degas’s the arts that “present the classical idea in the creation of his wax figurines, incorporating spiritually permeated human figure and its pigments, satin, dolls’ hair, and linen. A pa- abstractly spatial form,” and “consequently tinated bronze version can be only a simula- it avails itself not of a painter’s colours but crum of the pigmented wax original. It cannot only of the spatial forms of the human body.” be aesthetically an equivalent instantiation of This concept—the view that the use of poly- the original work, which is what Reff (1971) chromy in sculptural works subverts the ap- implies. preciation of the essential aspects of sculp- In fact, Degas thought that his wax figures ture or the ideal of its formal existence—was would have no useful afterlife in the event of to become very influential. his death, but the very opposite has come to Schopenhauer, writing in 1851, in his pass. The afterlife of the wax figures, which Parerga and Paralipomena (2000:422–424), Degas saw as a means to represent and refine states that the primary function of art is to movement, has been reified in a static and “bring us to a knowledge of the (Platonic) unchangeable bronze cast that was never the Idea. It is therefore essential to the work of artist’s intention. art to give the form alone without matter. . Making bronze copies from Degas’s wax . . Here is to be found the real reason why originals involves very careful application of wax figures make no aesthetic impression molding material over the delicate wax sculp- and are, therefore, not works of art.” tures. A plaster model of an original is made Schopenhauer goes on to admit that wax from a master matrix. Molds are then taken sculptures are still to be preferred in terms from this plaster intermodel to create wax of their actuality over a mere painting, but models for lost-wax casting. The wax in these it is perplexing that Schopenhauer should castings is melted out and bronze is poured in. have singled out wax sculpture in particular. Castings are then finished by hand and pati- Even in the nineteenth century, works of nated. As can be seen from the details of this art made in colored wax were rather highly procedure, the artist cannot retain the tactile regarded. Examples are the originals of the feel of the original wax models, especially as many small dancers shaped in wax by Edgar it is a multistage process to create the bronze Degas (1834–1917). They are correspond- replicas, which are several stages removed in ingly more authentic, one could argue, than the cycle of production from their wax origins. the numerous bronze castings subsequently Most of us would not be able to accept made by various foundries and successors Schopenhauer’s views regarding art today; from the wax originals long after the artist’s nor would we accept his insistence that death, which sell for about $40 million each. sculpture cannot be seen as a work of art it Here Degas saw wax as an interesting medi- if is trapped in a mirage of colored images, um that could be pared down, added to, ma- which could be viewed as inauthentic due nipulated, colored, or reshaped as desired, as to the desire to see sculpture as monochro- something distinct from a cast bronze, which matic and purely representative of an ideal

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form. Schopenhauer (2000) took the view be seen as a more authentic act than does that common objects in still life seem trans- Plato, although Plato may have had ambiv- figured and that paintings resulted in every- alent notions as to whether things such as thing appearing poetry were good for one or not.

in a supernatural light . . . then we Authenticity in Sartre, Heidegger, no longer look at things in the flux of Adorno, and Benjamin time and in the connection of cause There is not space in this volume to flesh out and effect. . . . On the contrary, we are this short historical account without concen- snatched out of that eternal flux of all trating on just those authors who are particu- things and removed into a dead and larly important for the subject matter of this silent eternity. In its individuality the book. For example, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905– thing itself was determined by time and 1980) had strong views regarding actions of by the [causal] conditions of the under- the authentic self and the consequences of standing; here we see this connection bad faith, but while these views may pertain abolished and only the Platonic Idea is to the actions of the art forger himself, the left [2000:424]. awareness of bad faith, and the loss of an au- thentic mode of action as a human being, they Aristotle (Richter 1989) did not employ do not necessarily have immediate application the Platonic Ideal in his description of the to the subject of per se. In relationship between art and nature, al- terms of the intention of the artist, bad faith though he too uses a threefold separation could be seen as a possible intention in its in his discussion of art: medium, mode, and own right, one that is then legitimized by the object. The medium is what the artwork is fake itself; the fake is the authentic expression created out of. The mode, which is more ap- of the bad faith of the faker. The complexities plicable to dramatic written works, pertains of discerning the nature of an artist’s inten- to the field of human activity with which it tion will be discussed later. is engaged, whether tragedy or comedy. The The philosophy of Martin Heidegger object is what is created by the representa- (1889–1976), on the other hand, has much tion. While art was still seen as a mimetic to say about the subject (Heidegger 2008 event, Aristotle views the disparate nature [1935–1937]), and as a consequence his views of the world as observable phenomena. concerning both the tangible, material reality Aristotle does not dispute the idea that imi- of works of art; alterations of them through tation does not create admired copies of an time; and the intangible associations of au- original form, but he describes imitation as thenticity (which have become more import- a creative process of the artist, who may use ant to consider in terms of ethnographic art, a particular selection, translation, or trans- modern art, and contemporary art), have formation of a work into a different medium become influential. Those parts of hisThe to achieve an artistic creation. In that sense, Origin of the Work of Art, written around 1935, although art is seen as an endeavor that is that are devoted to this subject are among the flawed by its mimetic nature, Aristotle al- most understandable of his writings, which lows for the production of a work of art to tend to be hermetic to the uninitiated. These

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writings are especially germane to conserva- the centre of the authentic self, Heidegger tion and restoration of art because Heidegger created, in Adorno’s words, a theodicy of views the art object as a being in time, as a death. For the inexorable consequence of historical entity, the conceptual and physical this move is the negation of that self—the origins of the work being important in the of being and non-being is dissolved, continuing life of the object. However, equal- and death, the principal of non-being, reigns ly important is the ongoing, dynamic life of triumphant. Adorno states his conclusion the work, which is an essential part of its be- starkly and unambiguously—Authenticity is ing within the sphere of art. For Heidegger death.” For many artists, the aging, dying, (1935­–1937), these alterations with time are and ultimate death of their work is of crucial evaluated as events that are not reversible. He importance. The death of an artwork is hard writes: “World-withdrawal and world-decay to reconcile with conservatorial or curatorial can never be undone. The works are no lon- desires for institutionalized preservation into ger the same as they once were.” the future, and it is usually these latter voices The issue of nonreversibility has rele- that are listened to, not the voice of the artist. vance for the restoration of works of art, since Harbin (2008:66) writes: many ethical codes pronounce that nothing that cannot be reversed may be done to alter Heidegger’s distinction makes possible a work of art; that reversibility is a tenet of his further claim: when considering the ethically sustainable conservation; and that role of preservation, excessive focus on conservators should strive to create reversible the “object being” of an artwork threat- solutions to any treatment they undertake. ens its authenticity, while attention to However, it began to be realized that there the “work being” of an artwork furthers was, senso stricto, no such thing as a fully revers- it. . . . If only the “object being” is pre- ible conservation treatment—that world-de- served, the artworks are not allowed “to cay could never be undone. The emergence be” at all, their lives are stunted and their of the artwork that occurs as its creation, says authenticity oppressed. If the “work be- Harbin (2008:65), summarizing Heidegger, ing” is preserved, the artworks and the represents only the beginning of a series of truth involved in them emerge newly ongoing emergences, which will take place over time. over the span of an artwork’s life. Heidegger distinguishes between “the object being” and This puts the case for the interaction be- the “work being” in the authenticity of art. tween authenticity and our intentions. It is The object being of a work of art refers to the the stakeholders, not supposedly objective properties and materials of the artwork itself. criteria, who will decide what judgment they This term describes the physical existence of will make concerning the authenticity of a the art object. Work being refers to the ongo- work of art. The natural degradation a work ing development of authenticity as a histor- of art may undergo is part of its continuing ical event, a diachronic phenomenon, which authenticity over time. Heidegger’s work cannot be interfered with without artificial presages the importance of the concept of the consequences for the work of art. As Lloyd intangible authenticity of art objects. This Jones (2010:xiv) writes, “In placing death at has become a matter of some significance in

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the twenty-first century, as Western nations Onlookers have taken away fragments of try to decide what to do with stolen Native the destroyed work, so the memory of the American art, unearthed skeletal material, event is contained in the materiality of the commissioned ethnographic arts, commercial dispersed fragments, the reminiscence of the shrunken heads, postmodern art, and com- entire event being only the conceptual mem- pletely rebuilt historic buildings; the intangi- ory of it. Statements of present-day ephem- ble authenticity of place or artistic intention eral artists, such as Andy Goldsworthy is of special importance and needs to be pre- (1956– ), echo the Heideggerian perspec- served or recognized as an essential element tive, Goldsworthy writes: “Each work grows, of the work of art or artifact. Artistic inten- stays, decays—integral parts of a cycle which tion is, however, not an unproblematic con- the photograph shows at its height, marking cept in itself, in terms of what constitutes the the moment when the work is most alive. intention or intentions of the artist, or how There is an intensity about a work at its conservators or restorers should preserve the peak that I hope is expressed in the image. artist’s intention, or even what is meant by an Process and decay are implicit.” There is a artist’s intention. difference, however: Goldsworthy envisages Can the relationship between the exis- the work as most alive not when it has be- tence of the artwork and its object being and gun the process of deterioration but fixed work being be definitively separated out, as within the photographic image of itself at Heidegger seeks to do? The object being may the presumed moment of its perfect state of have a strong influence on the work being in existence, perhaps an equilibrium between the sense that some materials resist degrada- newness and aging. tion almost entirely. Consider a pre-Hispanic One of the most effective critics of the gold figurine from Costa Rica dating views put forward by Heidegger is Theodor to 500 C.E. Made of 92 percent gold and 8 Adorno (1973:27), who writes: percent silver, it is practically immune from corrosion. The work being carries this muse- It is nonsense to appeal to some sort of um artifact long into the future, way past our primal experience, some basic human own life span. As apart from being molten in qualities. In the universally mediated a fire, the effigy is practically indestructible world everything experienced in pri- and uncorrodible. On the other hand, works mary terms is culturally preformed. of art whose object being involves their own de- Whoever wants [to contact] the other struction, such as Homage to New York by Jean has to start with the immanence of cul- Tinguely (1925–1991) (Tinguely 1988), fulfill ture, in order to break out through it. all too well Heidegger’s view of an authentic But fundamental ontology gladly spares work of art as being allowed to undergo de- itself that, by pretending it has a start- terioration. As Homage to New York saws itself ing point somewhere outside. . . . It into pieces when set in motion and bursts into claws itself firmly into its blindly social flames, resulting in its total disintegration, fate, which—in Heidegger’s terminol- here the object being implies and contains the ogy—has thrown one into this and no work being within its essential existence as a other place. That was according to the work of art. taste of fascism.”

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The absolutism of Heidegger is clear- of the work of art in terms of its authentic ly something that has to be tempered in the existence may be a sympathetic notion, espe- field of art conservation because of the differ- cially in its connection to modern and con- ent cultural assignations of value, which does temporary art, but there are limitations to it, not enter into Heidegger’s views. The way in as Adorno reveals. which Rovira (2003) reviews these issues is relevant here. He writes: “Authenticity, says Intention and Representation Adorno, is a word that tends to shift defini- Intention and representation in works of art tion depending on context. In Heidegger, the are the subjects of a well-known paper by subject is authentic to itself, the very defini- Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) dating from tion of authenticity, so one’s own subjectivity 1933 (Benjamin 1970). It is often quoted by art is the judge of what is authentic.” historians, as his views were written some time This is the principal problem with the per- ago, have permeated widely, are not stated very vasive notion of authenticity that Heidegger clearly, so there is latitude in the interpretation espouses and that acts to differentiate his views of what he says. He proposes that original from those of Adorno, whose criticism of the works of art contain an “aura” that copies and jargon employed by some philosophers is it- replicas lack. Benjamin (1970) holds that cop- self hard to follow because of the dense style ies and reproductions undermine the authen- in which he writes about authenticity. A useful ticity of a work of art in “its unique existence in interpreter here is Harris (2015), who writes: the actual place it happens to be.” Here Benjamin seems to be referring both I am struck by the continued relevance of to the singularity of the original work and the critique to current notions of authen- the historical location in which it is currently ticity or personal sincerity. Authenticity situated. There is no doubt that the authen- has been extensively discussed in tourism tic location of a medieval triptych is as a reli- studies, for example, especially “existen- gious installation in the church in which it was tial authenticity” . . . a cult of sincerity dedicated rather than the National Gallery in affects a number of recent efforts in so- London where it might currently reside. In the cial science, such as auto-ethnography, church, the triptych fulfilled an important re- the ideas of performance or narrativity ligious function as well as being a work of art. in a number of areas, including educa- The test of authenticity of a work of art or a tion and ethnography. relic in the medieval period was the artwork’s ability to create miracles rather than to con- Harris (2015) makes the point that the form to a modernist notion that to be authen- social context of authenticity in tourism and tic, it had to possess the correct material man- site visitation seeks some vestige of a nostal- ifestations. So from the medieval perspective, gic past in which “indigenous folk are to be the triptych should reside in the church; in the allowed to benefit from authentic tourism by twenty-first century, there is an increasingly setting up craft stalls to sell ‘authentic’ souve- strong consensus in the preservation and con- nirs.” . . . This is an intertextual phenomenon servation field that the original location of the which runs counter to the analysis offered by work of art is an important component of its Heidegger. The acceptance of internal decay authentic state, and should not be transposed

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without good reason. There are similar prob- characteristic blind stamp, but there were lems with returning some artworks to an ear- much earlier master forms from which many lier, more authentic condition today. Artworks copies could be produced. Examples are that have been repainted and kept on display in Hellenistic plaster molds of earlier Roman a church setting for 200 years may be viewed or Greek sculpture, which enabled the pro- as devotionally authentic works, even if they duction of scores of copies, identical to the represent a completely fictitious version of the original, and master molds of Moche ceram- medieval original. The congregation’s collec- ic jars, in which clay could be pressed, dried, tive memory will have no point of reference and fired, reproducing the original many to the original, and the intangible associations times over. Benjamin was much concerned of the repainted surface, not the original work, with “mechanical reproduction” rather than demand its survival and reverence. handmade reproductions, but since an aura In echoing some of Heidegger’s thought, must accompany each print made from a Benjamin’s view of the authenticity of an art- woodblock carved by the original artist, so work encompasses the entire historical even- must the aura of each version of a Moche pot tuality of the artwork, laying an emphasis on accompany each successive ceramic version changes in the physical state and condition of molded after the original matrix, taken from the work. Benjamin (1970:23) writes: a master form by the original artist.

Precisely for the fact that authenticity A mechanical reproduction of a wood- cannot be reproduced, the intensive block print involves the artistry of paper, advance of certain copying methods of pressure, variety of ink and its viscosity and a technical nature helped differentiate stickiness, medium, colors, and a uniform rate between the various grades of authen- of drying in the same way that the artistry of a ticity. One of the important functions ceramic reproduction involves the right kind of the art business was the establish- of clay, tempering, forming, drying, firing, ment of such differentiation. . . . We and surface decoration. Both processes are might say that with the invention of mechanical only in the sense that successive the woodblock printing the quality of stages of production need not concern the authenticity was attacked at its roots, original artist, who may have moved on to before it was able to burst belatedly create other works of art. These historical into blossom. At the time of its making, antecedents to the concept of aura in terms a medieval Madonna was still not “au- of reproduction are not considered by philos- thentic”; and only became that in the ophers of art, but they seem equally viable in course of subsequent centuries, in the terms of their application to Benjamin’s work. last century perhaps more intensively In his reference to the “various grades of au- than at any time before. thenticity,” Benjamin (1970) suggests that au- thenticity may not necessarily function as a set Woodblock printing could produce a of fixed criteria but rather as a series of pos- number of equally authentic originals from sibly variant authenticities that would func- the initially carved block of wood, usually tion with the work of art in different contexts. signed in the block by the artist and with a As a consequence of the phenomenological

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problems currently of relevance to works of indicate that they are not original works by art, this may be a significant approach to the Gabo. The surrogates are fabricated to mimic examination of what authenticity means in a the original cellulose acetate or cellulose ni- particular setting, which will be explored fur- trate construction but are constructed from ther in this book. a modern acrylic polymer instead, not from In considering the passage from Benjamin the same materials that Gabo used. In that quoted above, Sándor Radnóti (1999:66) sense, a replica displays only the visual ap- writes that it contradicts the view of authen- pearance of the work but does not attempt ticity that Benjamin had himself described to replicate the materials used by the original earlier. Radnóti writes that when Benjamin artist. This difference will have subtle conse- quences for the viewer, as the refractive index, talks about authenticity, he does so at translucency, hardness, sheen, polish, touch, times in the ontological sense, as if it and smell of a surrogate cannot be the same had general relevance to every object as that of the original work. The breakdown, and at others in the sense of attribut- as Figure 2.6 clearly reveals is self-perpetu- ing a characteristic historical role to ating and non-reversible (Hackney 2007). As authenticity, one which is connected for the existing authentic sculpture, should it to the belated blossoming . . . when be preserved in an oxygen-free case and kept the various techniques of copying un- on display, be removed to storage where its dermine material permanence and in acidic decay products might affect other ma- consequence also endanger the histor- terials, or simply be discarded? Here, decay is ical testimony of the works. According nonreversible: the fragments of this sculpture to Benjamin, this danger sparks off the cannot be glued back together to reconstruct consciousness of the works: this is why the original shape. There will be additional “authenticity” belongs to the modern conservatorial problems with the surrogates world of art. in that they will age at a different rate than the original work. Their aging process began The question of whether techniques of in 2007, and they themselves might have to copying undermine the material permanence be replicated in another 50 years if they start of a work of art is not straightforward. Some to discolor or lose physical stability. copies of an original may in fact present a The decision to replicate, or the making more permanent version of the original than of a surrogate as it is sometimes called, re- the original itself. An example of this prob- sulted in several papers addressing this top- lem is the re-creation of decayed originals of ic at the Conference held in 2007 in Naum Gabo’s (1890–1977) cellulose acetate London. For relevant texts concerning the or cellulose nitrate sculptures (Heuman and replication of modern works of art, see the Morgan 2007). online papers, all published in 2007, by Harry The Tate Gallery in London has removed Cooper, Christiane Berndes, Lydia Beerkens, some of the original Gabo works from dis- Margaret Iverson, Ulrich Lang, Sebastiano play, and reproductions have been placed on Barassi, Jackie Heuman, and Morgan Lyndsey. public exhibition in their place; these surro- Some of them wrote statements defending a gates may or may not carry labels that clearly Gabo replica, while others remained critical.

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Figure 2.6. Naum Gabo artwork in cellulose acetate or cellulose nitrate. The circular relief (1925– 1928) and other works have undergone autocatalytic degradation, resulting in the sculpture disintegrat- ing on display. The sculpture shown here is Construction in Space: Two Cones, 1927, Philadelphia Museum of Art. In this example, inherent vice destroys the artwork without the need for human agency. (Image courtesy of Luke Barley, http://architizer.com/blog/naum-gabo-plastic-sculpture-decay/)

For example, Margaret Iverson (2007) writes, diachronically the aura of the original. In the “In practical terms this might mean that Tate creation of an honest exhibition of the replica should display Gabo’s plastic sculptures in lies the crux of the public perception of what such a way that the history of their failed ex- has happened to the original. If ontological, perimental material is acknowledged.” Ulrich knowledge of the substitution may be an im- Lang (2007) believes that “rebuilding a work portant aspect of perpetuation of its aura, since of Gabo’s would crucially deny [the] historical the historical veracity of itself as a replica re- component, and if the degradation is unstop- mains problematic. The authenticity of display pable, we might reconstruct it for educational has been the subject of an insightful text by reasons but not for display as a work of art Phillips (1997), which will be discussed later, in a public exhibition.” The diverse opinions but it is pertinent to the problems posed by regarding the authenticity of this replica are this kind of museum exhibit, because Phillips is part of the tension in this discussion. much concerned with the kinds of information The reproductions, it could be ar- that should accompany each exhibit, in which gued, do not undermine but carry forward the authenticity of condition is often glossed

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Figure 2.7. Modern replica of Construction in Space: Two Cones, 1927, shown in Figure 2.6. The Gabo project at Tate, which sought to create a modern replica of this and other works by the artist, is discussed by Heuman and Morgan (2007). (Image courtesy of Luke Barley, http://architizer.com/blog/ naum-gabo-plastic-sculpture-decay/) over in the name of an artistic purism in terms abandonment of the interconnections of tra- of informing the viewing public exactly what dition. There are arguments on both sides of they are looking at. this issue. For example, Picasso’s (1881–1973) It is interesting to note the point made by painting Luncheon on the Grass is in a sense Radnóti (1999) concerning these ontological embedded in the tradition of the painted im- and historical aspects of authenticity in respect age Luncheon on the Grass by Édouard Manet to Benjamin’s work (Benjamin 1970), as these (1832–1883), which dates from 1863. From are not often discussed by art historians, who this one traditional source, Picasso produced have tended to focus on the aura as a concept 200 , 27 paintings, and five linocuts— in itself, vested in every original work of art, individuality born of an interconnected tradi- rather than on the intricacies of the argument tion, a classic case of intertextuality. One could on which the notion is based. Benjamin (1970) argue that this work also abandoned tradi- wrote, “The authenticity of an object is inherent tional painting to create the 27 versions of the in the totality of all its intrinsically transmitta- original source of Picasso’s inspiration. ble aspects, from its material permanence down Figure 2.9 illustrates a painting by René to its historical testimony,” but these thoughts Magritte (1898–1967), of which there is an have limited application in the transmittable exact replica created by the artist. One is in properties of a work that has to be substituted Brussels, and the other is in Birmingham City by another example of it (Beardsley 1983). Art Gallery. In other cases, works of art are Radnóti takes issue with Benjamin’s idea duplicated without any limits; all the replicas that the individuality of a work of art is equiv- may be considered authentic. There are, for alent to its embedment in the interconnec- example, works by Magritte that were copied tions of tradition. Radnóti (1999:70) thinks by him and used to create variant works or the opposite is true, namely that the growing exact copies of the first work. In postmod- awareness of individuality can be linked to the ern art theory, there is a trend in favor of the

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Figure 2.8. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by , 1907. Oil on Canvas; 244 x 234 cm. Museum of Modern Art, New York. The painting was inspired by Manet’s 1863 work Luncheon on the Grass. Picasso produced 200 drawings, 27 paintings, and five linocuts of this work: a good example of intertextuality. (Image in the public domain in the United States)

unlimited reproduction of the original work, sculptures were direct copies, others were which still retains its interactive status be- suited to Roman cultural norms tween the subjective nature of its reception and the altered societal meanings that the and its material existence. works now assumed. In the abandonment Radnóti (1999) is surely correct in draw- of the Greek tradition could be said to be ing attention to the emulation of Greek art the emergence of Roman authentic sculp- by Roman artists, who reproduced copies of ture. Emulation or even copying does not Greek sculptures to create Roman versions of necessarily preclude originality. A revamped the originals. Although some of these Roman hermeneutics in the interpretation of copies

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Figure 2.9. La Saveur des Larmes (The Flavor of Tears) by René Magritte, 1948. The work has a replica, also by Magritte. One version is in Brussels, and the other is in Birmingham, England. Magritte wanted the verisimilitude of his art to become problematic in its own right. (Image courtesy of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham. Reproduction rights held by Bridgeland Inc., New York)

has been gaining renewed credence, writes Authenticity and Authentication Radnóti (1999:71). New, albeit assimilative, As for authenticity, one can recognize prob- original works are created through the imi- lems with the way the word is used without tation or emulation of the prototypes, which necessarily avoiding being drawn toward the are seen by art critics or informed postmod- desire for “authentic” works or being encour- ern observers as authentic works of art. The aged to uphold a particular version of “au- controversies generated by these modern em- thenticity” that could be as loosely defined ulations will be discussed in chapter 5. as a semiotic construct, as sought after and as

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hard to define as the aura of a work of art, as difference, identity, and nationalism are or as singularly authentic as a being discussed in connection with postcolo- self-portrait that has been enthusiastically en- nial studies, the problem of authenticity is of- dorsed by the Rembrandt research committee ten ignored, but it might be quite important after five years of study. to address. If authenticity is seen as a purely subjec- This is one of the crucial concepts this tive concept, then there are difficulties with book has to grapple with: what to make of works of art that one person may regard as the words authentic, authenticity, and authen- authentic and the next as inauthentic. If au- tication. Authentication can be used in a more thenticity is regarded as a completely objec- defined context, compared with the wider tive concept, then further disputations arise usage of authenticity. Authentication may be in persuading people with conceptual views of thought of as a particular process of evalua- what authenticity means into accepting that tion of a work of art and an attempt to de- there can be any such thing. The title of an cide if it is authentic, original, or unadulter- article by Richter (2009), “Authenticity: Why ated. This might be viewed as a tautology or We Still Need It although It Doesn’t Exist,” a universal truth: authentication is sought to betrays the modern preoccupation and anxi- decide if something is authentic or not. A me- ety with the attractions and repulsions of the diated danger exists in this process. Within concept. Richter is concerned here with the the limited field of the art market and the notion that observers do not have direct ac- conservation of art, authentication can be cess to reality, that everything that is observed thought of as a kind of empirical and scien- and discussed is mediated by linguistic, repre- tifically objective process of establishing the sentational, and cultural conventions, partic- properties and constitution of a work of art, ularly as it applies to works of literature. The whether these properties are consistent with paradox of authenticity, as seen from a liter- the object being from the presumed period of ary standpoint, has been articulated by Culler manufacture, or whether evidence suggests (1988:126), who writes, “To be experienced as that it dates from an entirely different period. authentic [an object] must be marked as au- Authentication may also encompass a host thentic, but when it is marked as authentic it of other voices, such as indigenous peoples, is mediated, a sign of itself, and hence lacks ethnic groups, or religious devotees. These the authenticity of what is truly unspoiled, groups or commentators might pronounce untouched by mediating cultural codes.” something to be authentic in their terms, while The work that Richter discusses in her Westernized, scientific cultural groups might article is drawn entirely from the field of declare it to be inauthentic. Cornet (1975) literary studies, where the concept is often proposes that an object may be considered au- avoided altogether and may present inher- thentic when it is created by a traditional artist, ent problems, exposing often contradictory conforms to traditional forms (exhibits mean- assumptions and beliefs. Although the term ingful canons that are recognized and accepted is deeply flawed, due to its mediated nature, by individuals within a culture), and was creat- even after decades of deconstructivism and ed for a traditional purpose or was culturally anti-essentialism, it has proved impossible to used. From this definition one can proceed in get rid of it, says Richter. Where issues such a seemingly straightforward manner to look

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for the physical properties of authenticity. Is a different account of the evidence in yet an- Dogon figure modeled with the required rev- other document. erent pose and iconography and appropriately One of the few writers to draw atten- patinated indicating use on a shrine? Among tion to the fact that scientific truths may be the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria, girls common- necessarily tentative as regards artworks and ly carry plastic ibeji figures, representatives of their evaluation is Arnheim (1983:242), who deceased siblings that are fed and cared for to reminds us that scientific statements hold un- placate the spirit of dead relatives (Chemeche til new facts call for a revised interpretation. 2006). In former times, ibeji figures were hand- This is scientific connoisseurship because carved wooden , much sought after by the results of the examination are not a new the Western art market. Now that they are theory but involve the application of scien- made of Western-style plastic dolls, they are tific knowledge to works of art. This work still imbued with the same cultural authentic- is dependent on a rigorous understanding of ity, but Western markets regard them as in- materials and their terminus post quem, deg- authentic, as not an artistic expression of the radation, restoration, and dating techniques. Yoruba people, implicitly divorcing aesthetic In prior decades, a commonly accepted authenticity and material authenticity from practice was for an art historian to write an the conceptually authentic. opinion on the reverse of a large photograph As modern African art begins to encounter of an artwork. This process conjoined the the Westernized concept of what art designed individual work examined with a dated and for museums and private collectors is actually handwritten evaluation of the authentic na- for, these plastic dolls might eventually be- ture of the work. The only problem was that come authenticated, collected, and preserved. this document was sometimes insufficient to In the traditional Western sense, the pro- allow all the available evidence to be stat- cess of authentication rests not on cultural ed. This was not an issue in more definitive norms but on art historical connoisseurship times, when authorities were absolutely cer- and scientific connoisseurship, concepts in- tain of the veracity of their pronouncements troduced in chapter 1. These usually function and when the opinion of a recognized “au- in concert with each other, and the work will thority” was all that was needed for the trade be examined by sets of experts, with a re- to be quite sure that a work of art was authen- port detailing conclusions and evidence on tic. In a more relativistic age, authorities may which this is based. The resulting document need to present very comprehensive docu- becomes a “certificate of authenticity.” The mentation of a work of art to substantiate any certificate itself may be held up to scrutiny as claim to authenticity, and even this might not containing debatable evidence, which could be sufficient. In the case of particular paint- be validated or confirmed by the opinion of ings, the supposedly impartial Wildenstein several other experts, potentially invalidated Institute in Paris may regard the old-fash- by further research, deemed to be inadequate ioned handwritten assessment of authenticity and inconclusive, or discovered to itself be a as the final word on the subject and ignore forgery, therefore requiring a certificate or the detailed work of many experts. One could document denying that the certificate of au- argue that this constitutes an intangible au- thenticity is itself authentic and presenting a thenticity: The aura and historicity of the

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Monet expert in 1925, and his pronounce- examination of the work strongly supports ments about a painting, long held in rever- the opinion that the work dates from the ence, trump the scientific and documentary eighteenth century; no indications for the evidence of 2012, as exampled in chapter 1. use of , binders, or other materials It is not a very convincing argument, but if inconsistent with an eighteenth-century date the intangible association is allowed to be a were found.” In other words, no evidence for method of evaluation of authenticity, then it modern manufacture was determined during is necessary to define the terms under which the study and the materials from which the it is allowed to operate. work of art was constructed are in accordance If the objects in question are African with what one would expect from an eigh- sculptures, which 100 years ago were carved, teenth-century work. However, if the work modern African carvers who create versions is an eighteenth-century fake of an earlier of the same sculptures today are not regarded eighteenth-century original, there may still as being engaged in making authentic tradi- be doubts about the significance of the state- tional sculpture. This is not how present-day ment contained in the report; it may be as far artists define their work: To them, their work as one could go without a full-scale investiga- is equally authentic and imbued with an in- tion lasting weeks or months. Neither the in- tangible authenticity based on their rights tegrity nor the professional knowledge of the and privileges as wood carvers. Thus tourist person signing the certificate of authenticity art and authentic primitive art may conceptu- constitutes any certain proof in this matter, ally be of the same status. which is why the famous art connoisseur David Lowenthal recounts a story in which Bernard Berenson did not necessarily place a woman complains about a work of art she any credence on certificates of authenticity, has purchased. It was thought to be authen- documentary history, or signed statements of tic but was subsequently condemned as a fake. ownership. These are all fungible statements The work of art came with a certificate of au- about a work of art, not the work of art itself. thenticity. “That should have been your first Descendants of the artist, especially in clue,” writes Lowenthal (1992), condemning France, hold a very firm grip on what, in their the modern view of what authenticity actual- view, constitutes the authentic production of ly is: all too often, simply a fictional state to the artist concerned, and they might decide satisfy current desires. It is certainly true that collectively that an unknown work is actual- artworks whose status is hard to define as be- ly by the artist himself, or decide that it is a ing either inauthentic or authentic in this sense forgery, without the transparency of public gain considerably from the procurement of a debate on the issue. If deemed a forgery, un- certificate of authenticity, which may repre- der French law the work may be confiscated, sent only an opinion about a work, although returned as a fake, or destroyed, as occurred most such opinions are given not in the sense recently with a very presentable version of a of “bad faith” as viewed by Sartre but as honest painting supposedly by Chagall, which had expressions of art connoisseurs’ appraisals of been purchased in good faith for $165,000. the nature of works of art. It was retained by the Chagall authenticating A statement commonly used in such committee and destroyed under the provisions certificates is: “The scientific and technical of French law rather than being returned to

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its English owners (Mould and Bruce 2012). recent definition ( English Dictionary As Lowenthal (1992), remarks, any a poste- 2005) offers “authentic as true to oneself,” riori family declaration may indeed have the “authentic as original,” or “authentic as trust- same value as testimony regarding the work worthy statement of fact.” The emphasis on in question and may condemn the work original is part of the crux of the matter for without a fair hearing. Another example is art objects, except since what constitutes the a typically French one: In 1984 a Paris court “original” or “original condition” of a work of issued a ruling concerning three paintings art is often a matter for dispute, depending on attributed to Mondrian that the Centre what is regarded as the desired or significant Pompidou had purchased for $675,000. A state of the object concerned. later investigation discovered that the three For our discussion here, authenticity needs paintings were forgeries. An elderly artist to be considered on a more multidimensional and critic, Michel Seuphor, who had been a platform. Indeed, Denis Dutton (1944–2010) friend of Mondrian’s, was entrusted with the refers to authenticity as a dimensional word task of authenticating the paintings. He pro- (Dutton 2003:135), a term whose meaning re- nounced them to be perfectly genuine and is- mains uncertain until what is being discussed sued a certificate of authenticity accordingly. is defined and described. A useful question to When the discovered that ask, writes Dutton, is: Authentic compared the three paintings in question were actually to what? Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar’s 2010 forgeries, Michel Seuphor was arrested for poem Authenticity Is Not Art is relevant to our fraud (Isbell 1984). discussion here: However, it rapidly became apparent that Seuphor had actually believed that the three Authenticity is not Art. paintings were authentic and that the certifi- Reality as such is not Art. cates had been issued by him honestly and in Art should highlight something good faith (Isbell 1984). The court stated that From the remaining in shape. he was not capable of judging the authen- Art should pinpoint something ticity of the Mondrian works, even though From the remaining in acts. he had known the artist well; there was no Sartrean “bad faith” or desire to deceive in- Narration of occurrence volved in this case. The individual concerned And rendering of incidence was neither an art connoisseur nor a scien- In authenticity tific connoisseur of Mondrian’s work. Even if Without any artificial twists Seuphor had known the artist, he was unable Will render the Art to distinguish between the authentic and the Lifeless and spiritless. inauthentic. Michel Seuphor was released. A cartoon is a perfect art. Authenticity and Its Agency It differs vastly from the real It is not easy to define authenticity in art And yet reminds of the real. beyond its dictionary definition of “reliable, Imaginary is an art. trustworthy, original, and of undisputed ori- is an art. gin” (Oxford English Dictionary 1956). A more Don’t mar the art with authenticity.

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Dutton (2003) divides authenticity into decide are authentic Huichol works of art. So “nominal authenticity” and “expressive au- here the personal creation is what gives these thenticity.” Nominal authenticity is the hon- objects their expressive authenticity. est identification of an origin, the authorship Dutton (2003) makes the point that in or of an artwork. Expressive au- many discussions concerning the authentic, it thenticity is connected to an artifact’s charac- is the audience that has been relegated to a ter as an expression of a person’s or culture’s purely passive role but that the involvement values and beliefs. This analysis is potentially of art in its social connection is also a factor helpful in art conservation, as the observer that has to be discussed. Even here there are may think of the need to probe into the origi- major problems: It is all very well Dutton de- nal and provenance of a work of art as part of ciding that in this case the audience is relegat- its nominal authenticity. The identification of ed to an onlooker status, but in many contem- the artifact may imply that one aspect of that porary situations, regarding, say, Aboriginal identification is the material comprising the artifacts in an Australian storeroom, it is the identified artwork, while the intangible au- native audience who collectively decides that thenticity that cannot be seen, of a sanctified the objects in question must be returned to African idol, for example, as compared with them and reburied; the museum experts are its physically identical tourist double, consti- overridden by participation in a wider social tutes part of its expressive authenticity. context of what happens to authentic art. Expressive authenticity involves aspects The nominal and expressive categories of intention. For example, playing a historic may not quite be enough for us. Concern with piece of music may involve the creativity of articulating the philosophical dimensions of the performer and the authentic rendering of the topic is also evident in a discussion of- the notes laid down on the score. But the per- fered by Lawrence (personal communication former cannot ape the style of another. Those 2013), who writes: who wish to give an honest performance, must find their own way to making a genuine In its application both to the person expression of the original. Dutton cites Coote and to the artist and artwork, in practi- and Shelton’s account (1992) of the art of the cal philosophy and in aesthetics, and in Huichol from northwestern Mexico. Huichol their interconnection through the con- art is bound up with rituals. It may invoke cept of human creativity, the notions of exchange relations between human and su- human action as a fundamental form of pernatural beings and between wife-givers creativity, and of artistic action as a cen- and wife-takers. Huichol “yarn paintings” tral expression of that notion, the ter- are wooden tableaux that depict mythologi- rain—the typography—of the concept cal scenes. The yarn is brightly colored com- of authenticity is complex in philosoph- mercial material embedded in beeswax. Work ical terms. It is more a matter of “family is also made for the market, but Coote and resemblance,” with both “internal” and Shelton (1992) regard this as inauthentic, “external” variety. Internally, “authen- lacking continuity and audience. But native ticity” is deployed, even within a sin- makers regard the work as authentic produc- gle area, like aesthetics, in a variety of tions, regardless of what Western art experts related ways. Externally it varies in its

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interactions, similarities and contrasts approach the question through the examina- with other concepts: creativity, integri- tion of essential and contingent properties of a ty, authority, genuineness, purity, spon- work of art (Gracyk 2012). The facts that the taneity, “bad faith,” exploitation, stulti- object is a painting portraying Venus and is an fication, alienation; mere respectability erotic work form the essential properties of the and conformism; , adultera- artwork, while the property created by Mary tion, copy, fakery and forgery. Richardson by slashing the painting with a cleaver and slicing through the canvas This is a much richer and more nuanced is seen as a contingent property. Contingent way of thinking about the issues of authen- properties are part of the history of the art- ticity in art than, for example, the analysis work that do not form part of its identity and provided by Muñoz-Viñas (2009, 2011), in are seen as less important than essential ones. which the use of the appellation authenticity So here there are two competing analyses: is reduced to a fiction if it does anything but The first maintains that the authenticity of regard the current state of the object as that the work has been altered by returning the which is designated as its authentic state of painting to a state prior to 1914, except of being. The consequence of this argument is course this is not really possible, because ex- that the word authentic regarding the condi- tensive and very skillful restoration has been tion of a work of art has to refer entirely to employed to disguise the fact that any damage its present condition; other previous states of occurred in 1914. the object are therefore regarded as entirely The second argument proposes that the fictitious. essential properties of the painting have not Muñoz-Viñas (2011:37) gives the example been impacted because the events were only of the Diego Velázquez (1599–1666) paint- contingent ones and the restored state brings ing The Toilet of Venus (1647–1651) in the back the essential characteristics of the work. National Gallery, London, which was slashed The problem with the contingent view as be- by suffragette (1882–1961) ing of secondary importance in terms of prop- with a meat cleaver in 1914. erties of the original is that it takes no account The painting is now displayed with the of restoration and the effect that restoration slashed canvas completely restored. By recov- may have on properties considered to be es- ering the authentic Velázquez, what has been sential for the identity of the artwork. Many relinquished is the historical authenticity of restored Roman sculptures, for example, the state of the painting in 1914. Some as- have parts created in the Renaissance, which pects of the concept of authenticity have been some observers might view as contingent but gained by this immaculate restoration, while which have become essential parts of the way others have been lost. What is important here in which the works of art are perceived. On is regaining the aesthetic authenticity of the the other hand, historically important con- original work, not retaining evidence of dam- tingent events, such as a bullet hole through age to the painting. Admiral Nelson’s tunic, will not be repaired Rather than thinking of the events of 1914 and rendered visually indistinguishable from as they impact the Velázquez painting as a the undamaged tunic (Muñoz-Viñas 2011). problem of authenticity, some philosophers Although a contingent event, the shooting

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Figure 2.10. The Toilet of Venus, also known as Rokeby Venus, by Diego Velázquez, circa 1647–1651. Oil on canvas; 122 x 177 cm. National Gallery of Art, London. The painting was slashed several times in 1914 by suffragette Mary Richardson. Expert restoration has removed all visible traces of this event in the life of the artwork, and the brief notes accompanying the image on the National Gallery website make no mention of the authentic state of the work in 1914. (Image in the public domain) that punctured the tunic killed the admiral which this discussion could roam, the concept and is one of the momentous events in the of authenticity continues to be of importance life of the jacket, which is now valued as a tes- in relation to the appreciation of art of the timonial of the event itself. past and the present, theories of restoration, Restoration in itself may not be able to the production of fakes and forgeries, the create a more authentic condition for the present appearance of works of art, and their work of art than what currently exists, but physical or metaphysical reality. restoration does not operate in a field in In the field of literature, interest in the me- isolation; it interacts with art history, artist’s diated nature of the written word, compared intent, aesthetics, museology, art connois- with events described as occurring in the real seurship, restoration, and scientific authenti- world, has revealed the complex nature of the cation. A conservation intervention may not relationship between our own writings as a be able to produce a more authentic work of subject of inquiry and how others may inter- art, but the consequences of the action taken pret these writings. Funk et al. (2012) give a impinge on a wide variety of concerns about synopsis of the postmodern view of authen- our perception of authenticity. Despite these ticity, especially as it pertains to literary and problems and the potentially vast terrain over artistic writings. Here many authors have

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contributed to the current debate concerning a unified inherent quality, an aesthetic anal- why authenticity is still an important concept ysis reveals it to reside in multiple sources, in in literary studies: Anton (2001), Guignon the piecing together of disparate elements. In (2004), Haselstein et al. (2010), Lindholm the field of art, the fragmentation stretches (2008), Richter (2009), and Vannini and across and between the disciplines involved, Williams (2009), have important things to say from the ethnographer to the medievalist, about the topic, to name only a prominent few. from the restorer to the art historian. It is Handler (1986) discusses the place of contested because it is debated in academ- authenticity in an anthropological context. ic discourse, implicated in power structures, He takes authenticity to be firstly, a cultural ideological constructions, and the politics of construct of the modern Western world, and signification. It is performative because as an secondly, a cultural construct closely tied to aesthetic construct, it is deeply implicated in Western notions of the individual. He says the process of communication that is realized that the bonds uniting authenticity and in- in the relationships between production, an dividualism remain congruent in both com- aesthetic object, its context, and its reception. monsense and anthropological ideas about Dutton (2011) also considers the notion of culture. Handler (1986) writes, “In summary, performance to be important and remarks the concept of authenticity is as deeply em- that all art includes an element of human per- bedded in anthropological theory as it is in formance that is admired and esteemed in a the self-conscious ethnic ideologies of many way that a false work cannot be. Forgery is of the groups that we study.” From Handler’s therefore misrepresented performance. analysis, it is clear that anthropologists may One way of visualizing the dimensions of regard authenticity as something of a fiction, authenticity is shown in Figure 2.10. The im- even though it is an integral concept in terms plications for conservation are germane to the of the societies that form part of anthropo- argument here: Authenticity is contested be- logical theory and on which the observations tween artists, restorers, conservators, muse- of those societies inhere. Handler does not ums, and audiences, each of whom may have discuss how the problem of forgeries might a different viewpoint. It is fragmented because interact with this anthropological analysis. If the discussion regarding authenticity is not the construction of authenticity is seen as a transdisciplinary: It does not at present bring Western branding of native works, does that together the different voices of the art histo- legitimate anthropological or ethnographic rian, the , the restorer, works we regard as forgeries? The answer the philosopher, the aesthetician, and the might depend on the relevant cultural setting. general public. It is performative because the Funk et al. (2012) grapple with the prob- exploration of the nature of a work of art or lem of authenticity and recognize that there its interpretation for the viewer, or the artist’s is no simple solution to the problem of defin- intention as represented in the work, involves ing the terrain over which the concept may a mediated process of potential interpreters operate. Funk et al. (2012) arrive at three or presenters of the artwork. Each of these principal conclusions: that authenticity is concepts may involve a discussion of how fragmented, contested, and performative. It is assessing the authenticity of the work of art fragmented because instead of representing under these rubrics incorporates or ignores

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the origination, restoration, and degradation reconstructions retain ambiguity of inter- outlined above, and each may be dependent pretation? How far can a virtual world es- rather than mutually exclusive. cape contested notions of how original mon- The idea that authenticity is not a unified uments looked in light of patchy evidence of field of inquiry pertains to works of art, just their materiality? as it does to literature. The concept can be As far as artworks themselves are con- viewed as operating over many different au- cerned, there are three arenas of impor- thenticities or as a synopsis of many disparate tance to us here: conceptual authenticity, elements. It is performative and contested, material authenticity, and aesthetic authen- one could argue, because in its embedment ticity. Conceptual authenticity refers to the in fields of communication, it encompasses intangible associations of the work, which the intangible authenticity that is part of the may have no physical basis for existence but modern dialogue between objects and their which forms an essential role in the function, cultural representatives. purpose, or meaning of the object. Material There are also factors to be considered authenticity refers to the constitutive prop- in the expression of authenticity in “real” erties and compositions of the artwork and virtual terms—for example, in virtual re- how it is fabricated or prepared, and its po- constructions of ancient monuments or sites tential alteration through degradation, in- (Kensen et al. 2004): How far can digital herent vice, auto-destruction, restoration, or

Contested

Authenticity

Fragmented Performative

Figure 2.11. Concepts of authenticity. The differentiation of concepts of authenticity across many fields of inquiry results in the concept becomingfragmented because it fails to represent a unified inher- ent quality; contested because it is a matter continually under debate within the fields of conservation, restoration, connoisseurship, and art history; and performative because it is an essential component of aesthetic, literary, and conservatorial discussions and affective states, particularly in literature and music. These three categories are not mutually exclusive, and debates about authenticity may, for example, extend across the performative–contested spectrum or any of the other axes of the fields involved. (Diagram by the author; after Funk et al. 2012)

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alteration over time. Aesthetic authenticity valued and its condition, or what has hap- refers to appreciation of the artwork in its pened to it, or how its historical life is per- current state, as an entity that is recognized ceived, and these views can be debated using as a work of art and that is in a sufficiently some of the criteria outlined here. legible condition to be understood and val- It may well be that the conceptual authen- ued. As far as gradations between these var- ticity of something is opposed to the material ious states are concerned, Sartwell proposes authenticity of the object involved. A good a 21 step gradation between authenticity and example is a Japanese shrine, rebuilt inauthenticity and writes: “The authentic and every 20 years of entirely new materials but inauthentic are continuous with one another conceptually absolutely authentic. In the . . . cases can be adduced to any desired de- opposite case, an African idol may be exact- gree of intermediary” (Sartwell 1988). Elkins ly the same in composition, style, and ma- (1993) disagrees with this analysis and states teriality as its neighbor, yet one is authentic that in his view, the sequence from original and the other is not. Aesthetic authenticity to copy is not continuous but proceeds in may trump material authenticity in the case historically determined stages. The subtle ar- of works of art by Naum Gabo, where the guments concerning the difference between original has suffered from inherent vice, but originals, strict copies, reproductions, imitations, an observer may still be desirous of seeing variations, and versions are the crux of the ar- what the work of art looked like, so a repli- gument presented by Elkins, which aim to ca carries the aesthetic value into the future. undermine the easy dichotomy between what Fervent desire for material authenticity may is authentic and what is inauthentic. Knaller involve a purist revelation of only those mate- joins her terms referential authenticity, the at- rials regarded as original, with the result that tribution of objectivity and facticity, and sub- a reconstructed marble sculpture may have ject authenticity, represented by the attribution its remodeled arms and ancient head from a of subjective composition and individual ar- different sculpture removed, destroying part tistic expression, to formulate her version of of its aesthetic and historical authenticity in what is meant by aesthetic authenticity, which is the process of revealing its material authen- perfectly reasonable. The presumed historical ticity. Dodd (personal communication 2016) authenticity of a work of art can be seen as part makes the point that virtual reconstructions of this formulation, since it relates to both the create a useful tool in such cases, allowing the material of which the work is composed and observer to address the relationship between the artistic expression of the producer who “evidence” of the original and its reconstruc- made the artwork at some time in the past. tion and experience in virtual terms, or vir- The desirability of these attributes cannot be tual forms of reconstructions that are more approached in a linear way by adding up the “really” experienced or able to be experienced different criteria and arriving at the conclu- as such. As digital products, these reconstruc- sion that one work is more or less authentic tions are subject to processes of inherent vice, than another, because of the many dimen- degradative effects that are all too common in sions in which the concept is operating. From attempts to preserve laser disks or the authen- our own personal perspective, there might tic testimonies of Holocaust survivors via the be conflicting views on how a work of art is University of California Shoah Project.

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Material

Authenticity

Conceptual Aesthetic

Figure 2.12. Arenas of authenticity. The important arenas over which authenticity operates as far as works of art are concerned are the material authenticity of the original and its possible alterations with time; the aesthetic desire for completed works whose value lies in their visual appreciation, which may also be a historical event; and the conceptual, which relates to the increasingly important function of works of art to exist independently of any physical form or fixed materiality, as in ethnographic and postmodern contexts, where the intangibility of the artwork is of paramount importance. (Diagram by the author)

The mediated nature of the discussion Suzanne Knaller (2012) examines the con- based on the fragmented and contested nature cept of authenticity in terms of normative of the subject must also be factored into these and non-normative narratives. In philosophi- conceptual pictures. Thus these three crite- cal terms, normative statements make claims ria—aesthetic, material, and conceptual—may about how things should or ought to be and be subject in turn to being evaluated in the how to value them. Normative claims are context of their fragmentary nature or level of usually contrasted with positive, descriptive, understanding and their contested nature, in or explanatory claims when describing types which a variety of arguments favoring one or of theories, beliefs, or propositions. Knaller another approach to the object can be put for- (2012:25) writes that the referential and em- ward, often influenced by different philosoph- pirical components of the meaning of authen- ical positions, or can be performative in differ- ticity that have determined the concept from ent contexts, requiring a variety of approaches the beginning are perpetuated in terms of aes- to the object for different cultural needs or art thetic value; that an artistic object can be au- historical significance. It is also important to be thenticated when it is not adulterated. In terms mindful of the points raised by Sagoff concern- of our discussion here, this straightforward ing individualizing—relational, historical, and assertion cannot accord with the multiplicity cognitive criteria for the evaluation of authen- of states that restoration may mean for a par- ticity (Sagoff 1978a), which are discussed later. ticular artistic object, so the issue of authen- It is this level of complexity that creates such a tication may not always represent an unadul- rich field of inquiry into art and authenticity. terated state as Knaller suggests. It might also

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depend here on what aspect of authenticity is the object. This creates a tension between an being considered and what is meant by not individual or subjective viewpoint, the nature being adulterated. In fact, many works regard- of the subject–object relationship, and the ob- ed as authentic have been heavily adulterated jectifying process of authentication. In Words over the centuries, but that does not usually from Abroad, Adorno (1991) writes: stop us from considering that they are authen- tic. Knaller (2012:26) states that authenticity is It is supposed to be the characteristic employed as an ontological concept to deter- of works that gives them an objectively mine the difference between art and non-art: binding quality, a quality that extends be- yond the contingency of mere subjective At the bottom of this normativity thus expression, the quality of being socially lies the differential relationship, constitu- grounded. If I had said simply “authori- tive of a modern concept of art, between ty” using a foreign word that has at least authenticity and inauthenticity. The con- been adopted into German, I would have structedness of the same is recognized indicated the force such works exercise by , who notes that every but not the justification of that force by conception of authentic art as something a truth that ultimately refers back to the irreproducible and singular is legitimized social process. through “authorial authenticity” and presupposes an abstract and conceptual Knaller argues that the strength of au- notion of truth. Adorno was the first to thenticity lies in its possible application describe consistently how the notion of as both a normative and a non-normative authenticity, as an aesthetic concept of critical concept. Authenticity is normative validity and value, mediates between the when the concept as a category of singulari- empirical, form, and . For ty makes the claims of subjective impressions Adorno, authenticity is also not simply explainable and describable. Authenticity is some subjective category of expression: non-normative when it relates to a spatial and “No artwork, not even the most subjec- chronological concept reflecting both medi- tive, can completely merge with the sub- ality and formation. In this case, the concept ject that constitutes it and its content.” of authenticity retains its validity even when the traditional implications of the artist as That important point has been stressed someone constituted by craftsmanship and by several authors; the separation between a creativity no longer form the basis of art. In work of art and its subject that results in con- the case of photography, Knaller (2012) gives sequences for concepts of authenticity that an example of the attribution of objectivity function on different planes. and facticity, which she calls referential au- The capability of authenticity to be used thenticity. The attribution of subjective com- in the sense of supporting the validity of a position and individual artistic expression, work of art and to carry out aspects of its cer- called subject authenticity, are fused into and tification is one basic strand in this argument. constitute an aesthetic concept, hence aesthet- The other, argues Knaller, is to determine a ic or artistic authenticity. In spite of the delega- recursive dynamic between the subject and tion of manufacturing work from the artist to

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professionals, the demand for the work and The Exhibition of Authenticity the author to be original is upheld, and there Ameri (2004) considers how the authentici- is psychological evidence, one could argue, ty of artworks relates to their disjuncted lives to support this point of view (Newman and as art exhibits in a museum setting. He sees Bloom 2012). the museum as institutional resistance to Minimalist artists who worked with in- representation; spacing is authenticity’s in- dustrial materials rejected the replications of dispensable alibi, and the museum is seen as their work put together for an exhibition at its incessant realization. According to Ameri, the Guggenheim Museum in the 1990s. They the art museum is only about 200 years old, issued the following statement: “Neither the dating from the opening of the Louvre in objects themselves nor the plans were suffi- 1793, and this aspect of the concept of the cient to create replicas equal in value to the museum is important for his argument con- originals, because chance can unexpectedly cerning the way art has been recontextualized change the appearance during production, so since the Renaissance. Ameri states that the that the materiality of the individual work has desire for the private practice of art collect- significance and the necessary authenticity ing traces its history back to the beginnings of can therefore only be attributed by the art- the Renaissance, but it seems that even here, ist” (Tietjen 1998:43; translation by Knaller ignoring the collections formed by ancient 2012). This is only one way of looking at Egyptian and Babylonian elites renders this intrinsic problems related to authenticity in view very doubtful. modern art; a plethora of interesting cases In 1925 Sir Leonard Woolley (1880– and conflicts are to be found. For example, 1952) discovered an astonishing collection there is “destruction art,” in which the art- of 2,500-year-old artifacts while excavating work is part of a performance of destruction a Babylonian palace that once belonged to or has the inherent intention to destroy itself. Princess Ennigaldi-Nanna, who had careers as Artists Gustav Metzger and Raphael a school administrator, museum curator, and Montanez Ortiz are well-known in this field; high priestess. This is a site of memory, very Ortiz ritually smashed old grand pianos to much a premodern example. Some of the col- pieces with a hammer (Stiles and Selz 2012). lection of this museum was excavated by King Stiles (2005) remarks that destruction art is Nabonidus, the princess’s father, and many interdisciplinary and multinational and that artifacts were from around 2000 B.C.E., long it combines both media and subject matter. before the museum exhibition was made and Destruction art addresses the phenomenol- 2,500 years before the site was excavated by ogy and epistemology of deliberate degrada- Woolley (Wilson 2009; Woolley 1982). tion. Ephemeral art represents another prob- The exhibited material included a kndur- lem in this regard: whether a reenactment ru, a Kassite boundary marker inscribed with can ever be authentic in the sense that the a snake and emblems of several gods, and part original has irrevocably decayed, while some of a statue of King Shulgi (ruled 2029–1982 art is purely conceptual and, according to the B.C.E.). Remarkably, the museum exhib- commentators’ point of view, cannot be au- its were labeled with tablets or clay cylinder thentically re-created. Some of these themes drums with descriptions in three different will be examined further in chapter 9. languages, a multilingual approach that most

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museums today could not match. The works foundation] one finger-length,” which pro- of art in this museum were from many differ- vides a very early example of preservation: ent times and places and were neatly arranged an attempt to keep something in the state in and labeled. Some of the artifacts were as which it was found, without undue alteration old to the princess as the fall of the Roman of form or substance, an ethic entirely mod- Empire is to us. This remarkable discovery ern in archaeology and conservation. by Woolley, in its neatly labeled Babylonian A sixth-century B.C.E. tablet museum context, shows that the human de- (Grayson 1973:47) reads: “He also discovered sire for forming museum collections of ar- inside that old foundation a statue of Sargon, tifacts from past societies, which performed father of Naram Sin. Half of the head was functions within those societies that the arti- missing, crumbled so that no one could dis- facts were now separated from, predates the cern his face. On account of his reverence Western conception of the desire for collect- for the gods and respect for sovereignty, he ing artifacts of different civilizations. The brought expert craftsmen and had the head of rarity of the survival of this kind of archae- that statue and its face restored.” ological evidence suggests that this is not a Not only does the evidence indicate that unique case, just one that managed to survive the concepts of both restoration and pres- and be recognized for what it was. ervation can be traced back at least to King According to Ameri, the Middle Ages Nabonidus, the intangible authenticity asso- were as unaware of the nature of “art” as were ciated with the artifacts as cult objects in ancient Greece and Egypt, an idea not every- Babylonia resulted in spoliated statues being one would agree with. Nor would everyone removed, usually to , where they re- concur with Benjamin’s observation concern- mained in captivity until their possible return ing the reclassification of statues from their to the original shrines (Beaulieu 1993:241– “cult value” to their “collectible” status as 242). Rather than incur the capture of their being part of a modern interaction with ar- gods and the resulting implications of such tifacts of this kind. However, the museum capture—namely, that the gods were aban- collection of Ennigaldi-Nanna also includ- doning the city and calling for its destruc- ed statues, seen as collectible artifacts 2,500 tion—cities often tried to prevent the transfer years ago, and the multilingual labels suggest of the statues to enemy territory, as the stat- that visitors to the museum were able to read ues were imbued with the sacred essence of the labels in the language of their choice to the god himself. This is a well-documented obtain information concerning the cultur- example, but there are probably many others al affiliation of the artifacts and where they that are less well-known or that have been de- were from. Ancient Babylonian documents stroyed in the course of time. show that Ennigaldi-Nanna’s father, King The Great Sphinx, probably erected during Nabonidus (reigned 556–539 B.C.E.), was the reign of Pharaoh Khafra (circa 2558–2532 one of the first examples of an elite personage B.C.E.), has been the subject of several cam- engaged in restoration, in repairing a statue paigns of restoration (Hawass 2005). Pharaoh of Sargon of Akkad (died 2215 B.C.E.), and Thutmose IV (died 1391 B.C.E.), who around that Nabonidus built a new temple over the 1400 B.C.E. freed the Sphinx from the des- old (Grayson 1973) “without altering it [the ert sand that had almost completely buried

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Figure 2.13. Ruins of the city of Ur, site of one of the first museums in the world, dating from about 530 B.C.E. The museum was formed by Princess Ennigaldi-Nanna, who had been tutored by her father, King Nabonidus, an antiquarian and antiques restorer. (Image by M. Lubinski, courtesy of Creative Commons Share Alike 2.0) it, erected his famous “dream stelae,” built a in forming a collection for a cabinet was on retaining wall to hold back the sand, and car- the authentic. However, this did not prevent ried out restoration of part of the body of the collectors paying huge amounts of money for Sphinx, with limestone blocks carved to hold entirely spurious forgeries made from different up part of the surface. This restoration cam- animal components, as Figure 2.14 illustrates. paign, some 3,500 years ago, may be one of The object is a merman. In the medieval period, the earliest such interventions with a work of these were collected as real beings. They were art, and how fitting that this should be for the also collected as authentic, or at least extraordi- great enigma of the Sphinx. nary, artifacts, for cabinets of curiosities in the Ameri highlights the importance of Renaissance period as well. The fact that they the collections of the Wunderkammer and still reside in museum collections testifies to Kunsthammer, the cabinet and the gallery, their historical existence as real artifacts from a which catalyzed the demand for works of art, different time and culture of belief. spurring the creation of numerous fakes for the Regarding the desire to collect only orig- collector and in turn creation of the field of art inal works of art that are not copies, Ameri history to determine if collected works were (2004:84) writes, “The copy poses no ap- authentic or not. Amir states that the emphasis parent threat so long as it is in reference to

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Figure 2.14. Ningyo specimen; papier-mâché body and fish tail. The medieval period is a complex one in terms of its relationship with material authenticity. This merman entered the Wellcome Collection and was purchased by the Horniman Museum and Gardens on September 2, 1919. (Image courtesy of Horniman Museum and Gardens and Heini Schneebeli) another reality, at the end of the journey, in artworks because an original is undisplayable another place, so long as its origin is on the or has been totally lost to degradation. Some outside. The museum is, in other words, the of these surrogates and their public display indispensable reserve to the economy that as works of art often prove controversial. regulates the widespread and free circulation In ethnographic conservation debates, the of images outside the museum.” This is a mu- intangible significance of what is authentic seological view of the nature of the problem may be greater than the material authenticity of copies, which will be examined in greater (Clavir 1994; Jadzinska 2012; Mundy 2007; detail in a later chapter. Skowranek 2007; Starling 2007). To expand upon the theme of the contin- Authenticity: Contingences and gent nature of authenticity, it can be regard- Intentions ed as a concept that is valid within a certain The conservator-restorer may still be largely cultural milieu, a semiotic embedding of the wedded to the material authenticity of a work nature of what authenticity is; that is one way of art, but even within the conservation field, of looking at the problem. Vanlaethem and that is not true for many kinds of objects. Poisson (2008), quoted in Hermens and Fiske Conservators create surrogates of modern (2009:10), write of a pragmatic semiotics that

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offers a theory of production. They argue, subjective or emotional reactions to a work “Authenticity is not a particular quality of [a] of art are irrelevant to the authentic nature monument—the continued existence of its of the work itself, since its objective structure material or its ‘prime’ signification (the one itself should contain the meaning of the work. invested in it by its creator)—but a judgment, This has resulted in the formation of two a semiotic construct, inseparable from the schools of thought regarding the issue of the context in which it is developed with the in- intent of the artist: the intentionalists and volvement of people and from the aims being the anti-intentionalists. An early pragmatic pursued.” stance invoking neither camp was taken by This puts the case for the interaction be- Henry Aitken (1955), who thought there was tween authenticity and our intentions; it is nothing mysterious about artists’ intentions. the stakeholders who will decide what judg- They were not, in Aitken’s view, private enti- ment they will make concerning the authen- ties to which no one could gain access. He be- ticity of a work of art. As far as works of art lieved that knowledge of intentions regarding are concerned, it is also highly relevant to a work could be arrived at in dozens of ways think of the problems inherent in authenticity to allow a synthesis of relevant information debates to be analyzed in terms of conceptual, concerning an artist’s intentions. aesthetic, or material authenticity rather than Intentionalists argued that the creation of as semiotic constructs based on aims and con- the artist, his or her psychological state, and text alone. his or her personality affected the disposition An essential question here is: How re- of the artwork itself and that the art could vered is the artist’s intent and what is meant not be understood without that inquiry. Anti- by reference to an artist’s intent? Is the intent intentionalists argued that the relevance of explicated by the created work of art or is it intent is only to be found within the artwork only understood by referring to the psycho- itself, not in the unknown inner workings of logical state of the artist? Can an intention the psyche of the artist (Dykstra 1996). A re- be fully revealed by the artist or does the in- lated issue here is the view that when an art- tention only become obvious when the work work leaves the artist, it is in the state that de- is explained to you, the viewer? These kinds fines the original; this is known as ontological of questions gave rise to a famous paper pub- contextualism. The opposing view is that of lished in 1946 that sought to define the prob- the constructivist approach to art, which sees lem of intent as “The Intentional Fallacy” the ongoing relationship of the work of art (Wimsatt and Beardsley 1946). with time as defining its meanings, not nec- The intentional fallacy is the assertion essarily related to its time of creation (Gracyk that the meaning of a work of art does not 2012). necessarily reside with the intention of the In terms of both ethnographic art and artist and that artists may not be capable of modern art (Gordon 2014) the artist’s intent deciding what their works mean to a viewer may be viewed as desirable if not fundamental or exactly what their intentions were or how to the conservation of contemporary artistic effectively these intentions can be interrogat- creations. However, this aim may be com- ed. Wimsatt and Beardsley also argued for an promised or liable itself to various disputes “Affective Fallacy,” which proposes that the concerning “intention” over and above the

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problem of the so-called intentional fallacy. realization of aims and inclinations. Under Dykstra (1996) enumerates 11 different states the category artist’s speaking, artists can be or agencies that may have import on the prob- thought of as interlocutors who communi- lem of intention, namely: the biographical cate to viewers through their work, making motives of the artist; aims and outcomes; ex- an analogy between artwork and language. pression in terms of media; inherent creative The artist’s telling refers to another sense spirit; the artist’s speaking; the artist’s telling; of conveyed meaning, in which artists are the artist’s expressive character; the artwork’s uniquely situated to be seen as the authen- aesthetic expression; the artwork’s appeal for tic interpreters of the meaning their work reference and characterization; the artwork’s conveys. The expressive character approach to aesthetic agency; and the moral effect of the intention maintains that the artist’s personal- artwork. On the subject of biographical mo- ity and worldview are reflected by his or her tives, there may be ulterior motives connect- work and represented in it. The artwork’s aes- ed to fame or commercial success. Dykstra thetic expression is often stated to relate to the (1996) writes that when curators and others artwork exhibiting an intention itself. This approach an artwork with this perspective, approach reflects the contemporary herme- they are motivated to uncover evidence of ar- neutical idea that a work of art is a potential tistic, social, cultural, or romantic influences source of discourse that interacts with the on the life of the artist, which tends to affirm viewer in different ways. The artwork’s ap- the ontological contextualism of the object peal for reference and characterization is related as a single fixed entity. Under aims versus to Gestalt art theory. A work of art may be outcomes, Dykstra (1996) writes, “When we thought to have an intention because it makes think that the artist aims at a certain result, analytic demands on the viewer. The power we may be thinking that the artist conceives of an artwork to make an appeal for relevance the work in his or her head and is confronted is determined by its ability to create a reality with the problem of realizing it in a chosen common to the viewer and the artwork itself. medium. This way of thinking divides artis- The artwork’s aesthetic agency can be seen as tic creativity into two parts: purely techni- part of idealist art theory in that a work of cal skill with media follows a purely mental art in itself possesses the means and ability to formulation.” act and create particular effects. The moral ef- By expression in media, Dykstra (1996) fect of the artwork is taken from the work of includes the characteristics of a chosen media, Kuhns (1960), who finds that some works of which may itself influence the development art, in all their artistic and aesthetic qualities, and realization of the creative concept. From are subject to evaluation of what they ought this point of view, a becomes an to do or be. The artwork has an intention in incidental disclosure that reveals the course that it exhibits moral and intellectual content. of the creative effort of the artist. Dykstra (1996) draws some interesting Inherent creative spirit relates to the con- conclusions from his work: that following the ception of artistic creativity as broadly purpo- artist’s intention could not be a basic princi- sive; artistic creativity can be viewed as a per- ple of art conservation; that its narrow focus sonal quality. From this viewpoint, artists and brought it into conflict with art connoisseur- their media share equal responsibility for the ship, the degradation of artist’s materials, and

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Known intentions

Modes of intention

No intentions Unknown intentions

Figure 2.15. Modes of intention. The problem of artist’s intention interacts with the construction of authenticity in the work. The artist’s intention can be framed in a variety of ways, from an ontological contextualism as a fixed entity, from the intentionalists to the anti-intentionalists. Even the declaration that the artist has no intention in creating a work, especially in the postmodern milieu, can be taken as an intention in its own right. With artists who are no longer alive, or who lived a long time ago, we may only be able to guess at their intentions. (Diagram by the author)

different historical explanations. According of interpreters, the epiphenomenal nature of to Dykstra (1996:24), “Critical debate sur- intentions if they have minimal importance rounding the intentional fallacy illustrates in terms of description, and the desire of in- significant obstacles to defining and judging tentionalists to overcome these arguments. artist’s intent, and philosophical explanation Livingston notes that, on the other hand, an of the autonomy of artworks contradicts its exclusive focus on the self-understanding of authority over the artwork as a whole.” In the artist can obscure crucial dimensions of calling for an informed interdisciplinary de- the context of creation. An alternative view bate on this subject, Dykstra had to wait was presented by Roger Collingwood (1938), several years before seeing these concerns who thought that all art was a collaborative as increasingly critical to the preservation, venture and who was heavily critical of “aes- destruction, and replication of modern and thetic individualism,” emphasizing the debt contemporary artworks in the twenty-first that the artist paid to the cultural milieu and century. Meanwhile, the philosophers have the material reality of the work. been engaged with this topic extensively, Intentionalist psychology is used to refer especially since the 1960s (see, for example, to an attribution of conscious or unconscious Carroll 2000; Livingston 2005; Noordhof mental states, while intention could be defined 2002; Olsen 1977; Savile 1968; and Scruton as a subjective probability that a person will 1974). Paisley Livingston (2005) has devoted perform some behavior. These minimalist an entire book to the subject of art and in- views have been criticized, since not all inten- tention. It reviews the post hoc constructions tional activities are motivated or created by

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a single act of volition. Livingston (2005:4) nineteenth/early twentieth century, a colored writes, “We could say that if a sculptor in- varnish was added over the painting after the tends to create a statue, what this means is discolored varnishes of previous restoration that the artist desires or wants to create the campaigns were removed. The most recent statue and has some relevant beliefs about restoration operation was in 1994, when re- means to that end. It may also mean that the moval of the varnish layer applied in 1956 was artist believes that they will create the statue, carried out and damaged areas of original oil or at least try to do so; in another version . . pigment were retouched in water color pig- . what the artist believes is only that it is not ments over a protection varnish (to allow for impossible to create the statue.” later removal if necessary). The fully restored The complexities of the intention of the painting was then varnished with dammar artist in terms of literature and music are resin with the addition of a UV stabilizer. more closely related to the activities of phi- In all probability, the will have losophers, who deal primarily with words, so to be cleaned and revarnished again in 50 to it comes as a disappointment that the insight- 100 years. The problem with the philosoph- ful book by Livingston is completely preoc- ical evaluation of this action by Livingston cupied with literary text, fiction, authorship, is the pejorative view that the action consti- works, versions, and fictional truth, despite tutes “such beliefs.” In the context of trying being called Art and Intention. to remain true to the artist’s original inten- Livingston discusses only three artworks tion, the belief in the necessity for yet further in the entire book, noting that it is quite com- restoration procedures is well founded. It is mon to draw a distinction between complete based on a critical appraisal of the surviving and unfinished works of art, giving the exam- evidence of the nature of the work and what ple of a painting by (1632– has happened to it over its several campaigns 1675), View of Delft (1660–1661), which was of restoration. covered with layers of colored varnish by The material authenticity of the desired “inept” restorers to give the picture an allure restorations underlies the perpetuation of of age. Vermeer had added several pentimen- the conceptual authenticity of the painting ti (Wadum 1996), including painting over a itself as a work of art. When a work of art figure in the foreground. Livingston writes: is considered to be completed and possesses “Such beliefs orientated a costly and elabo- all the characteristics desired of it, Livingston rate restoration that was begun in 1994 and (2005:54) describes it as an example of “aes- terminated two years later.” In fact, there was thetic” completion without assuming that this nothing particularly inept about the histor- completed image is purely a matter of sensual ical restorations carried out on this seminal recognition or validation. He contrasts this work by Vermeer, which was restored several with Romantic and Baroque monumental or times after 1822. The painting suffered an ac- sculptural fragments that deliberately lack cident in 1876 when a curtain rod collapsed aesthetic completeness. The work is aesthet- on it and created a hole in the center (Wadum ically complete qua ruin. Livingston calls 1996:69), which was subsequently filled and these examples of “genetic” completion and restored. The painting was relined in 1875. says that a work is genetically complete only In keeping with the desired aesthetic of the if its maker or makers decide it is so. How

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helpful these distinctions are is debatable. The author-function is not spontaneous- Another way of looking at the intentionality ly created as the attribution of a discourse of works is to invoke the concept of age-value to an individual. It results from a complex (Riegl 1982 [1903]): that incomplete works operation that constructs a certain ratio- are actually aesthetically complete because nal being called the author. Of course they incorporate the conception of time’s ef- critics try to give a realistic status to this fects on a hypothetically complete column, rational being, discerning in the individ- arch, or sculpture. ual, psychological “depth,” creative pow- In any event, Livingston does not engage er, a “project” and the originating site of with the language of restoration or its atten- writing. But in fact what in the individu- dant hermeneutic concerns, which are in fact al agent is designated as author (or what more subtle than the analysis he presents makes an individual an author) is but our here. In discussion of the appreciation of aged projection, in more or less psychological monuments, Riegl (1982 [1903]:73) writes, terms, of the treatment to which we sub- “Imperfection, a lack of completeness, a ten- ject texts, the connexions that we make, dency to dissolve shape and color, character- the traits that we establish as pertinent, istics that are in complete contrast with those the continuities that we recognize, the ex- of modern, newly created, works.” These clusions that we practice. All these - follies can be enjoyed as a historical trope as tions vary according to periods and types part of an associative longing to experience of discourse. the effects of age on materials as they become embedded in a landscape or garden, appearing Livingston (2003:67) objects, remark- to have stood there for generations. There is ing that if the psychology of the author is less sympathetic understanding of paintings a projection and never a discovery, how can that are deliberately unfinished, with missing Foucault (1979) claim that the psychology portions that have fallen from rotten canvases of readers and interpreters is any different? or worm-eaten wooden panels. These paint- Should Foucault speak only of reader func- ings, if created by well-known masters such as tions or interpreter effects? But this could Vermeer, will be restored to complete the im- result in an endless series of regressions, ages of the works. Similarly, if an admired ruin and Livingston clearly does not agree with begins to crumble away, it too may be restored Foucault here regarding the intention of the to allow the original intention of the fragment- author and trying to come to grips with it. ed work to remain on view for the century to The only salient example Livingston dis- come, which does not imply that it will be cusses in the visual arts is the painting by re-created in more than its ruined state. David Bailly (1584–1657) Vanitas with Self- In the intellectual battle between the inten- Portrait, 1651, whose production, in terms tionalists and the anti-intentionalists regarding of the artist’s intention, cannot be authen- works of art, one of the most influential fig- tically deduced from a visual examination ures of the twentieth century has been Michel of the painting itself, however many other Foucault, who has questioned the authen- significant inferences or aesthetic judgments tic existence of the author as such. Foucault an observer could draw from trying to un- (1979:145) writes: derstand it.

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Figure 2.16. Vanitas Still Life with a Portrait of a Young Painter by David Bailly, 1651. Oil on wood; 89.5 x 122 cm. (Image courtesy of the Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden, and Jan Arkesteijn, uploaded from Web Gallery of Art)

The painting shows a youngish man sit- of parchment with the artist’s signature and a ting next to a table arrayed with numerous date of 1651. objects that signify the transience of life. He If the viewer assumes that this is a holds up what is almost certainly a painting self-portrait made when the artist was young, of himself as an older man, in keeping with the viewer will naturally think that this is a the vanitas subject matter of the work. The self-portrait showing an artist who has depict- image is replete with dying flowers, a skull, ed himself holding up an image of his aged a snuffed-out candle, an hourglass, and many self in a time to come. The painter therefore other objects. The bubbles are a symbol of shows himself as anticipating a future of ag- the impermanence and fragility of life. The ing, transience, and death. But the picture viewer can tell he is a painter by the maul- may not be correctly interpreted in this sense. stick he holds in his right hand. The stick is In fact, when Bailly painted this picture, he padded with leather and used to support the was actually much older than the young man brush close to the canvas. The man holds a sitting at the desk; the present moment de- portrait, perhaps a painting actually by the picts the image of the painter as his younger artist himself, in which he is shown as a much self. His actual appearance is shown in the older man. Hanging from the table is a piece portrait of the older man he is holding.

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There is a further complication here: The small portrait may well be of Bailly’s wife Bailly was 67 years old when he painted the in life, but it is not possible to know the full picture and would have looked even older extent of the artist’s intentions here, so our than the oval portrait of himself, yet another own ponderings are our own thoughts on the reflection on the passage of time and a very work, not the intentions of the artist, even if clever allegory by the painter, invoking sev- knowing something of the artist’s intentions eral states of being at different times of his deepens our understanding of the work. life on the passage to death. As Livingston Freedom of the audience to construe their points out (2003:172), the interpretation own meanings regarding works of art is one of of the painting is dependent on the histori- the perspectives discussed by Andy Hamilton cal facts of the life of the artist and when he (2008, 2013), who invokes Adorno’s dictum painted it. An interpretation of an anti-inten- on the inexhaustibility of interpretation of high tionalist sort would not be able to decide if art, how succeeding generations value or re- the depictions of the painter were prospective assess works of art and how these interpreta- or retrospective. There is a further question tions may differ depending on the cultural mi- here: Since many vanitas paintings were made lieu in which these views are expressed. One in Calvinist Leiden, is the viewer supposed to of the troubling features of Hamilton’s 2013 ascribe to the Calvinist philosophy that our essay is its distinction between the relative present lives are simply degraded and venal? merits of “high art” and, by implication, “low Is our appreciation of the skill of the artist in art” and the assertion that high art has aimed depicting our vanities yet another layer of our for truth and that the act of artistic creation, inability to see beyond the surface of things to in terms of high art, is essentially truth-di- their ultimate meaninglessness? rected (Hamilton 2013:258). The distinction This account privileges the factual histori- between high art that aims for truth and low cal intent of the picture over the viewer’s phe- art that apparently does not is hard to accept nomenological understanding of the painting in the twenty-first century. Is a personal love for himself or herself. If an experience of poem by Leonard Cohen sung by the artist viewing the painting is an authentic event for himself in 1983 an example of high art or those concerned, if they derive an aesthetic low art as seen from the perspective of 2016? reaction qua the painting, does it invalidate Does the phrase “God saves” from the Sex their response to the work if they see it as a Pistols song “God Save the Queen” invoke picture of a younger man holding up a por- rich philosophical questions as to whether trait of an older and think it is a self-portrait there is a God to save or not save; whether, if of the young artist as he existed at the time the there is a God, he or she saves or not; whether painting was finished? After all, the numerous God can be asked to save the queen in partic- levels of symbolic meaning attached by the ular at the expense of less-elevated members artist to the objects on the table cannot all be of the British population; or whether God is recovered and are debated by art historians. capable of saving at all? It is an example of What is the significance of Saint Sebastian? a series of higher thoughts regarding truth Is that related to the plague that took Bailly’s emanating from a low and degraded artistic wife from him? Does it have significance in expression, which is how Hamilton might terms of self-sacrifice or death in general? categorize the songs of the Sex Pistols, as

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compared with a song written by Schubert? meanings intended by the artist are not in fact Or is Hamilton’s entire concept based on a meanings of the work and that these may be false premise? The argument is beyond the unintentional. Livingston (2003:141) writes: scope of the present text. The principal point “Absolute anti-intentionalism holds that au- at issue is how authenticity interacts with the thorial intentions are never decisive or deter- artist’s intentionality. minant with regard to a work’s meanings, and The tendency of the conservation profes- that the former are in some sense irrelevant sion is to hold the opinion that the meaning to the interpreter’s tasks.” of a work and the intentions of the artist are A good example of issues related to this logically equivalent, a view that Livingston discussion of intentionalism is the work (2003:139) describes as “absolute intentional- of Tino Sehgal, a German artist living in ism.” This implies that all authentic meanings Holland, whose includes This of the work exist in a direct relationship with Is New (2007), in which a museum attendant the artist and that no other voice holds this barks out headlines to museum visitors from authentic message. Livingston gives a useful the day’s newspaper. For This Objective of That summary of different stances here: Antirealist Object (2004), five people with their backs to absolute intentionalism holds that all mean- the visitor chant, “The objective of this work ings of the work are intended by the author is to become the object of a discussion.” If the but regards such meanings as projections of visitor does not respond, they slowly sink to the interpreter; fictionalist intentionalismin- the ground. If the visitor says something, they volves the interpreter imagining or believing then enter into a discussion (Lubow 2010). that the artwork was created with an array The intention of the artist is that nothing of decisive intentions. Here the artist is not of the work is recorded or documented, not thought to be identical to the agent or agents even the instructions given to museum atten- who actually created the work. Under this dants. Seghal’s work could be regarded as the rubric could be included posthumous casts intention to preserve no specific intention re- of Degas’s wax dancers, which are fictional to garding his work. It is all ephemeral and can- the aims of the artist but carry forward the not be reperformed as a result. Absolute in- intention of his agents and successors to en- tentionalism of this kind, the determined in- sure that bronze versions of the wax figures tent not to document, is at variance with the are reified by museum acquisitions.Moderate conservation paradigm to preserve, so whose fictionalist intentionalism is similar while allow- voice gets followed: the voice of the artist or ing that some meanings of a work were not the voice of the museum conservator and cu- intended by the author. Textualist intention- rator? The museum often invokes the con- alism holds that meanings are determined by cept of conditionalist intentionalism for many intentions, where these intentions are viewed contemporary works on exhibition, negating as immanent in the artwork and can be read or ignoring the authorial intent of the origi- by an observer as if the artist intended it to be nal artist. In such cases, the idea that what is such. Conditionalist intentionalism regards the being followed “could have been the intent of possible set of meanings discerned in the work the artist” is one of the legitimating claims; to be those the artist “could have intended.” another is: “We are preserving the artist’s Absolute anti-intentionalism holds that some work so that future viewers can experience

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what the artist intended.” Neither of these buried in San Marco on the rialto. This bit of conditionalist stances can be easily reconciled fakery was inserted into the older legends of with the intention of the artist. the peregrinations of the saint to establish a ‘.’” Here the intention was to create Intentionality and the Production a forged past, but a past that supported and of Fakes re-created the legitimacy of Venice as an an- Problems with the artist’s intent are import- cient city-state. Such historic forgeries cannot ant for how the original artist’s creation is re- be uncreated and are accepted as real and au- garded. It may be that the intent of the artist thentic by most observers. When wandering was to ape, copy, or re-create works of art in around St. Mark’s Square, few wonder what the style of another artist. If the intention was happened to the chapel of Saint Theodore to deceive, these works may be fakes, forger- of Amasea or contemplate the forged docu- ies, or a complex postmodern manipulation of ments that made his presence authentic both the audience. This book investigates how the materially and conceptually. interaction between intention and forgeries There are many other scenarios. For ex- can be revealed. ample, during the medieval period, the cre- Even here, there are problems with the ation of fakes was intended to provide the intent to deceive and the purposes of that Christian faithful with yet another head of intention. When Venice was newly built, John the Baptist to be venerated and to per- cities were supposed to have pedigrees that form miracles for the believer. enabled them to claim that they had been Some fakes made with the intention to built in the distant past. Fake sculptures were deceive have been on display for decades or therefore fabricated to create an admired even hundreds of years. A typical example past for Venice, linking it to Saint Mark, an is the ancient Egyptian limestone statue of association that in fact never existed (Hoving Queen Tetisheri (Seventeenth–Eighteenth 1997:41–43). The original saint associated Dynasty), shown in Figure 2.17, discovered with Venice was Saint Theodore of Amasea, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (1857–1934) in but because he was seen as too closely linked Luxor in 1890. It has been on exhibition in with the old power of Byzantium, he was re- the British Museum for 100 years. Its inscrip- placed with Mark the Evangelist, whose body tion was found to have been copied from a was stolen from Alexandria in 828 C.E. Geary now lost fragmentary version. Two hiero- (1990:92) notes that documents suggest that glyphic offering inscriptions that run along the body of Saint Claudia was substituted for the lateral faces of the throne were shown by Saint Mark in Alexandria and that merchants British Egyptologist W. V. Davies in 1984 to responsible for the theft hid the body of Saint be a cause for concern. The statue was iden- Mark under on its way to Venice to de- tical to one in Cairo, but a few signs were ter the Saracens from examining the cargo. missing or wrongly interpreted. The cracks In commenting on the documents that le- and wear looked to Davies as if they had been gitimized this switch, Hoving (1997) writes: made with a chisel; he thought the statue “The first is a forged document, known offi- was a fake. He was right. Scientific analysis cially as the Praedestinatio. According to this showed traces of modern pigments. Does the Saint Mark had a vision telling him he’d be endorsement of scholars and the admiration of

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the public over several generations have any been removed from view. One could argue, impact on the biography of this object? Some however, that the context in which the appre- scholars still believe the statue is genuine, but ciation of the sculpture developed is a judg- with added inscription, and still maintain that ment that involved many people over an ex- the sculpture is authentic even if the inscrip- tended period of time, a semiotic process that tion is wrong, although the traces of pigment functioned independently of scientific eval- that were thought to be modern, determined uation of whether the sculpture was ancient through scientific connoisseurship, may be Egyptian or nineteenth century in terms of additional evidence for fakery. origins. The view that observer appreciation is Does that mean that the semiotic con- more important here could be called an exam- struct of the authentic work, validated in aes- ple of contextualism. The semiotic construct thetic terms by millions of visitors over the of Vanlaethem and Poisson (2008) is only con- past 100 years, has to be negated? In general, cerned with the presumed paramount impor- it does, and the fake Egyptian sculpture has tance of the material authenticity of a work of art, which is seen as antithetical to its contin- ued diachronically authentic state. The valida- tion of the context of its existence, its presently existing condition, or the need for restoration is made by groups of people invested with spe- cial interests or cultural relationships with the artwork in question. The difference is the variable applica- tion of criterion to the problem of deciding what is authentic or not. Let us suppose that the artwork Vanlaethem and Poisson are talking about is itself a fake. For example, it can be scientifically demonstrated that the stones used to build Anasazi cliff dwellings at Manitou Springs in the 1900s were tak- en from several hundred miles to the south- west, from actual, collapsed Anasazi dwell- ings near the Four Corners area (Lovata 2007:49). The construction is a fake. Does that mean it can be taken back to its orig- inal location or placed in storage to avoid clouding the modern mind with its inau- thentic presence? The answer, of course, is no: There is no going back. Tourists flock Figure 2.17. A fake limestone statue of Queen to the “site,” and no one is about to deny its Tetisheri. In the collections of the British semiotic import. The two cases are viewed Museum, the statue was on display for 100 years very differently, even though scientific ev- and was a very popular exhibit. (Image courtesy of idence has been brought to bear on both the Trustees of the British Museum, London)

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events. Both works are deemed to be inau- that discontinuities in the knowledge that thentic, but different decisions were reached accompanies the movement of commodi- regarding each example. The case-sensitive ties create problems in terms of authenticity nature of decisions regarding authenticity and expertise, resulting in authenticity and does not necessarily mean that scientific the expertise to establish that authenticity testimony can be endorsed in all of them becoming increasingly necessary. If objects or that scientific testimony can be ignored partake of social lives, if they are allowed to in all of them either, however troubled the possess social biographies, then part of a bi- viewer may be by fake monuments or fake ography could involve a change in status, a works of art. change in value in terms of being viewed as What may be troubling in an archae- a commodity or in terms of how authenticity ological context, which relies heavily on is perceived by viewers. Object biographies scientific methods of evaluation, is that the are potentially important in terms of con- fake monument is an inauthentic archaeo- servation. Deciding which biographies have logical construction, which the purist would particular significance at any given time may not regard as real. If such a restoration or be problematic, but a decision made by the creation were carried out last month, there conservator will impact these biographical would be international outcry over the des- states. The narrative favored by the conser- ecration of an authentic, collapsed, and de- vator becomes the story of the artwork itself. serted Anasazi structure on an archaeolog- In an essay on the concept of the “signa- ical site. The semiotic process recognizes ture” in the modern art world, Baudrillard this dislocation but argues that what has (1981:103) writes: happened in terms of human appreciation of the monument is more significant than Until the nineteenth century, the copy any attempt to return the monument to a of an original work had its own value, more conceptually authentic state. it was a legitimate practice. In our own Can the same logic be applied to the time the copy is illegitimate, inauthentic: Egyptian statue of Queen Tetisheri? Does 100 it is no longer “art.” Similarly, the con- years of the ongoing biography of the object cept of forgery has changed—or rather, on display to the public validate its continued it suddenly appears with the advent of existence as a museum exhibit? After all, both modernity. Formerly painters regular- are archaeological artifacts. In terms of repre- ly used collaborators or “negroes”: one sentation of the Anasazi to the public, it could specialized in trees, another in animals. be argued that the conceptual authenticity of The act of painting, and so the signature the site is of greater significance than the ma- as well, did not bear the same mytholog- terial authenticity of its existence, while in the ical insistence upon authenticity—that case of the much-admired statue of Queen moral imperative to which modern art is Tetisheri, its materialistic falsity cannot be dedicated and by which it becomes mod- allowed to override its semiotic existence. ern—which has been evident ever since In the influential bookThe Social Life of the relation to illustration and hence Things, Appadurai (1986:10–45) writes of the very meaning of the artistic object artifacts viewed as commodities. He writes changed with the act of painting itself.

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An ancient reversal concerns a but legitimate surrogate for the original work Mesopotamian ritual of the eighth to fifth of art. This work may no longer be extant or centuries B.C.E. known as the Mis-pi (Dick may have had no definable material authen- 1999). The Mis-pi incantation involved the ticity and exist only as a conceptually authen- creation of a divine being in material form. tic event. Its authenticity depended on denial by crafts- Sherrie Levine and Elaine Sturtevant have men of their agency and identity as creators been engaged with the subjects of replication, of the cult object. with the craftsmen taking emulation, and difference over the past 20 or their signatures off the statue, it became au- 30 years. Levine is best known for her work thentically divine (Dodd, personal commu- After Walker Evans; Levine rephotographed nication 2016), an interesting antecedent to images taken in Alabama from an Evans ex- some of the authenticity studies of the medi- hibition catalog dating from 1936 for her eval period. own exhibition in 1979. The estate of Walker The concept of the emergence of the ob- Evans did not approve of this exhibition ject as an artistic event in itself can be traced and regarded the appropriation as an act of back to the Renaissance (Appadurai 1986:46), copyright infringement, acquiring all the re- and this is where some commentators stop. photographed photographs to prevent them Lenain (2011) argues that the notion can from being sold. The self-referential nature be backdated to the early medieval period. of some of this art is a commentary on the art But this concept of the object could also be itself. In the case of Sherrie Levine, another thought of as implied by Pliny in 79 C.E. for artist has created works on a website called the Greek and Roman world or, following the After Sherrie Levine.Com, a commentary on examples cited by Dutton (2012), for Chauvet the commentary on the replication of mod- cave paintings of 30,000 years ago (Clottes ern art. This site even provides download- 2003) and Acheulian hand axes approximately able photographs, created by artist Michael 900,000 years ago (Kohn and Mithen 1999). Mandiberg, of the rephotographs of the pho- Some of these hand axes were never used and tographs. Each downloadable print comes were exceptionally finely made in order to be with a certificate of authenticity. The site in- admired and seen as aesthetically beautiful in cludes a one-act play by Mandiberg, consist- the Paleolithic period itself. It has to be recog- ing of a supposed interview between Sherrie nized that the opinions of Baudrillard regard- Levine and Jeanne Siegel, that has every sem- ing modern works of art—perhaps here one blance of veracity. What Levine thinks about should say postmodern to allow Baudrillard this site and its authentic state is unclear. an escape clause—are completely outdated. In the sense that the work of Levine un- In the twenty-first century, the copy per se dermines the uniqueness of the original, the is no longer an illegitimate child but an object artist copying Levine makes a statement con- that challenges the concept of uniqueness. cerning the legitimacy of copying her copies The work may be deliberately created by the as another revolutionary act, another state- artist himself as a valid form of artistic expres- ment in the face of authenticity. One could sion, as a copy or replica as a commentary on also argue that the apparently facile produc- originality, or in emulation of previous artists. tion of copies of copies of photographs, which The work might be used as a controversial are, in a sense, facsimiles of the human beings

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being photographed, is a deliberate act by Six years later, Sturtevant opened The Store Mandiberg to undermine the concept of the of Claes Oldenburg, with numerous replicas of artistic legitimacy of Sherrie Levine’s work. Oldenburgian plaster pies. Oldenburg was The problems of conceptual authen- initially supportive but became increasing- ticity, which in conservation are associated ly irate at being “ripped off.” Sturtevant has with the intangible authenticity of artifacts, been re-creating other artists’ work for more are explored by Downey (2012) in an article than 40 years, in an engagement of the issues concerning the appropriation art of Elaine of authenticity, originality, and the conceptu- Sturtevant, although some do not consider alization of singularity. Sturtevant claims that her productions to be an act of appropriation. throughout her oeuvre, she is engaged in the In 1961 Claes Oldenburg opened The Store, “understructure” of an artwork and that by which was full of painted plaster models of engaging with the same techniques used by blueberry pies, outsize hamburgers, and a an artist such as Warhol, she creates wholly wide selection of handmade undergarments, original artwork. Since X-radiographs, in- most of which have subsequently been inad- frared reflectography, and microstratigraph- vertently destroyed, lost, or discarded. ic features of a work of art are commonly

Figure 2.18. Untitled by Michael Mandiberg, 2001. Digital photograph of a rephotograph by Sherrie Levine of a photograph of a sharecropper family taken by Walker Evans in Alabama in 1936. A commen- tary on a commentary of emulation, each image comes with a downloadable certificate of authenticity pro- vided by Mandiberg, legitimizing his photographic re-creations. (Image courtesy of Michael Mandiberg)

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referred to as the understructure or as reveal- time to which the work refers (a mo- ing of the understructure, it is hard to accept ment, a scene, a situation, a sequence of Sturtevant’s view of this in any physical sense events; the time of the diegetic referent, rather than as an intangible presence. of the story told by the picture), the time These works are not facsimiles, according it takes to reach the viewer once it has to Downey (2012), as apparently most were been created (the time of circulation), produced from memory. Nor are they an at- and finally, perhaps the time the paint- tempt at fakery, as all works are signed and ing is. This principle, childish as its am- dated by her. Nor can they be dismissed as bitions may be, should allow us to isolate appropriationist or recuperative. Rather, they different “sites of time.” are manifestations of a concern for rethinking how the ideals of originality and authenticity The diachronic criteria invoked here do prefigure the value of a painting as a concep- not make any allowance for the time of res- tual event. Sturtevant, says Downey (2012), toration of a work of art, the time of its de- produces a moment when the edifices of orig- cay, and the time during which a similar or inality and authenticity, their agreed condi- identical work (which may be forged) is cre- tions of possibility, crumble into the unreal- ated. The reception of a forgery may include ity of difference through forms of repetition. all stages that an artwork undergoes as ref- Do Sturtevant’s paintings of Warhol’s flowers erenced by Lyotard. Bracha Ettinger (1992) represent an image of those paintings, or are views the authenticity of works of art as en- they more about the artistic “understructure” tirely bounded by the relationships between and the thought processes that produced object and observer. Griselda Pollock (2011) these images? This distinction is critical: Are quotes a salient passage from Ettinger’s work: viewers looking at copies or are they engaging with the practice of producing art? That is a Artists continually introduce into cul- difficult question to answer. From the per- ture all sorts of Trojan horses from the spective of the viewer, the works may indeed margins of their consciousness; in that appear to be free copies of Warhol’s work, but way, the limits of the Symbolic are trans- simultaneously they may be authentic works gressed all the time by art. It is quite from Sturtevant’s viewpoint as she investi- possible that many work-products carry gates the way in which art is produced by pro- subjective traces of their creators, but ducing free copies of his work in the present. the specificity of works of art is that their Many philosophers have things to say materiality cannot be detached from about the concept of time and when an art- ideas, perceptions, emotions, conscious- work is produced. For example, Lyotard ness, cultural meanings etc., and that be- (Benjamin 1989:240) writes: ing interpreted and reinterpreted is their cultural destiny. This is one reason why A distinction should be made between works of art are symbologenic. the time it takes a painter to paint the picture (the time of production), the Not all of us might be enthralled by the time required to look at and understand view that the materiality of a work of art the work (the time of consumption), the cannot be detached from ideas concerning

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it and the varied cultural meanings attached points out, there are subjective factors in de- to it. Where does that leave works of art that ciding if fingerprints match each other or not, have been replicated and that now replace and the case has not been resolved in favor of the original. Can they still be regarded as the thrift-store Pollock. The ramifications of symbologenic? the biological past have not yet been fully ex- How to evaluate traces of biological ma- plored in terms of its impact on authenticity. terial of an original artist or original artwork The concept of authenticity as set out by is an interesting question. How does that play Gavin Lawrence (personal communication into issues of replication? Relics, such as bone, 2012), even within the field of art and resto- , or blood that can be characterized at a ration, can be employed internally in a variety molecular level, are the most obvious works of ways, while some of its external relationships that have significant biologically character- relate to bad faith, forgery, and creativity. Here istic components. Organic materials, such as a useful distinction can be made between a fake feathers, wood, and textiles, can be preserved and a forgery. A fake is a copy or work in the in corrosion products on important bronze style of an artist that is not made to be passed antiquities; such organic materials could not off as the genuine article. For example, it may be replicated in a bronze copy of the original. be a copy of a made for the back- Biological markers are currently being inves- drop of a stage performance. This is a fake van tigated to allow artists to sign their works not Gogh. But if the fake is then offered for sale only with their signatures but with synthetic or given as a genuine van Gogh, it is classed DNA (Olewitz 2015). The Locard Exchange as a forgery. This is the sense in which Dutton Principle states that every interaction leaves (2003) uses these two words. Not all authors a biological trace. Lorenzi (2016) writes of make this distinction, and many assume that the discovery of a large seated bronze Buddha the words fake and forgery are essentially syn- with a completely mummified Buddhist onymous. Some authors take an unusual view monk inside it in the collections of the Drents of this subject. For example, Whittaker and Museum in the Netherlands. The bronze Stafford (1999:204), in the context of twen- form of the Buddha could be replicated, but tieth-century production of flints, the hidden association of its monk skeleton state that replicas are made for educational or is unique, an intangible authenticity from the experimental purposes; fakes for deception. point of view of perceptual properties. Cole In discussion of the problems of authen- (2006) records that Italian anthropologist ticity, particularly as it relates to the medieval Luigi Capasso has reconstructed a print of period, Thierry Lenain (2011) discerns three Leonardo’s left index finger from traces left in essential components of the subversion of the ink on 52 pages he had handled. Fingerprints authentic: stylistic mimicry, artificial aging, and have also been used to authenticate a drip the setting up of a spurious context of reception. painting attributed to found These are useful criteria to bear in mind. in a thrift store by a retired truck driver. Peter Stylistic mimicry has been used for copying Paul Biro, a forensic art expert, states that a art of all periods, often with no intent to de- fingerprint found on the store canvas match- ceive. The mimicking of a style may produce es one in paint from Pollock’s East Hampton, artworks identical in appearance to known New York, studio. However, as Cole (2006) works of the artist concerned, or variations of

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the originals but in a closely matched style or part of the illusion of authenticity in creating technique. For example, Michelangelo carved a pedigree for the artwork, to provide it with Sleeping Cupid in 1496 in imitation of the an essential historical existence. The context original Roman version; stylistically it could of reception could be innocently created, as be mistaken for a Roman original. Artificial in a play in which fake paintings by Monet are aging may be used to create the appearance employed for the purposes of the plot. that an old work of art should possess, as in More commonly, the serious forger must modern distressed furniture, but if this ag- create an apparently real context in which the ing is clearly known to the buyer, then no fake exists, such as its documentary history, a forgery is actually committed, just the illu- certificate of authenticity, the deceased relative sion of age. For example, André Mailfert, from whom the artwork came, the country a twentieth-century French faker of Louis house in which it has resided for hundreds of XVI furniture, produced high-class repro- years, or the site from which it was excavated. ductions that he did not represent as actually In fact, additional criteria or desiderata can dating from the historic period they appeared easily be added to these three categories, as to originate from (Embree and Scott 2015; Figure 2.19 illustrates. Some forgeries, such Mailfert 1968), despite the replication of as the best work of German forger Christian original joints, aging, and patination. Some Goller (Hoving 1997), who used only old of his productions ended up on display at the materials in creating versions of paintings by Louvre, where they had been assessed as au- German expressionist Otto Mueller (1874– thentic period pieces of Louis XVI (Embree 1930) or Eric Hebborn (1934–1996), who and Scott 2015). used old paper or parchment and bistre ink or In the case of Michelangelo’s Sleeping silverpoint for his classier drawings of minor Cupid, the marble sculpture is reputed to have Renaissance masters, employ only materials been buried in an acidic earth to artificially appropriate for the supposed period of man- age the . The Baldassare ufacture of the work of art (Hebborn 1991). del Milanese bought the masterpiece from It is these four prerequisites that are required Michelangelo and sold it to Cardinal Riario of to create the perfect fake. The authenticity of San Giorgio, a noted art collector. However, condition as far as the fake is concerned relies when the cardinal learned that it was in fact upon an understanding of the deterioration carved by Michelangelo, he demanded his and degradation that materials used in the money back, which led to satirical comments construction of art objects undergo over the about his lack of appreciation for the work of course of time. Stylistic mimicry and artificial the young genius. aging, for example, overlap in a larger zone Re-creating the authenticity of age that of Figure 2.19. A fake that looks as if it were passes muster scientifically can be practical- made by the master being copied, aged to give ly impossible, which is why such details as the appearance of being produced some time surface deterioration, pigment degradation, ago, but without a decent provenance, would bronze corrosion, varnish alteration, and not be able to be sold as a forgery, even if the stone patination are so important in terms use of old materials only required a scientif- of authentication. The third criterion, the ic evaluation to confirm. Often this is never spurious context of reception, is an essential carried out.

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Use of old materials Artificial aging

Perfect fake

Spurious context of reception

Stylistic mimicry

Figure 2.19. The four criteria for the production of the perfect fake. Three of these criteria are after Lenain (2011), and the author has added the fourth: the use of old materials. The apparent authenticity of the artwork has to be created in terms of style, history, materials, and degradation. Each has to be carried through to a high standard to strive toward the illusion of perfection. (Diagram by the author)

Many organic materials disintegrate com- of the authentic passage of time and the exis- pletely, and ancient examples of artifacts such tence of the object over that time. as woven baskets are scarce. Some materials, In their efforts to create an artificially aged both natural and synthetic, used in wide vari- work of art, forgers have placed paintings in ety of artworks are unstable and will naturally damp cellars, urinated on them, dried them alter and degrade, especially through inher- in the blazing sun, added an already old re- ent vice or through exposure to unsuitable dissolved varnish to the surface, deliberately display or storage conditions. damaged them so that parts of the work have Some kinds of deterioration are viewed as to be professionally restored, and created the damage, while others are regarded as desirable craquelure associated with age by a whole aspects of aging. For example, a Renaissance plethora of means. Furniture has been thrown painting with craquelure, where large patch- into the sea, kept in a pigeon loft and covered es have fallen away revealing a bare ground with manure to try to patinate the wood, and layer, is considered to be damaged, while a shot at with buckshot. Bronzes have been Roman bronze with a smooth green corro- buried in old fish and regularly doused with sion crust is regarded as attractive. In con- saltwater before being taken to a Viennese temporary practice, the green patina would wine cellar to be carbonated, followed by not be stripped away to reveal a gaudy bronze boiling in mud. Paper and parchment have metallic form (Scott 2002) because the patina been smoked in slow-burning straw and has come to be valued as an inherent quality stained with tea or coffee. Ceramics have of the object itself, as an essential indication been broken or buried and filled with wine

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or unguents, which are allowed to evaporate diminishing returns, in which copies of cop- away, leaving authentic chemical residues. ies of copies became legitimized by virtue of Stone has been buried in soil (as with one of the artists’ intent to subvert the authenticity the famous works of Michelangelo), heated, of the original in the name of an increasingly cooled, soaked in oxalic acid or vinegar, and vacuous exploration of the nature of artistic struck with a small pick to create the kind of creation. There are aesthetic questions here surface damage associated with age. There is too: If one work by Mandiberg is visually in- no end to the variety of techniques employed distinguishable from a work by Levine, and to create an artificially aged work of art. By both are in fact works by Evans, which are utilization of increasingly sophisticated scien- also visually indistinguishable from the other tific techniques, it is often possible to deduce two artists’ work, how are they to be appreci- evidence of artificial aging as opposed to nat- ated and accorded significance? ural ageing, although this may not always be the case. Drawings, such as those produced The Appreciation of Authenticity by Hebborn, may defy easy differentiation The appreciation of authenticity for an indi- between artificial aging and natural aging, es- vidual viewer is very much part of the perfor- pecially if old materials were used to create mative component of authenticity. It may per- the forgery. tain to the notion of what an observer thinks Definitions of the meanings of some com- of as “authentic” or “real,” or a “copy” or “in- mon words, such as replica, imitation, emulation, authentic,” and that may simply be a mental and copy are hard to achieve in art history and construct. This is illustrated by the work of restoration, but it would prove useful in further Huang et al. (2001) using functional magnetic discussion of the topic of authenticity if some resonance imaging of the brain and different agreement could be reached. For example, the versions of Rembrandt portraits. Some works glossary of terms at the end of this book makes were labeled as “copies” rather than “authen- reference to editioned replica, authenticated repli- tic.” The researchers found that the designa- ca, and three different versions of what replica tion “copy” evoked stronger responses in the may mean, depending on context. viewer’s frontal polar cortex (FPC) and right How can these descriptive terms be ap- precuneus, regardless of whether the painting plied to the works of Levine, Mandiberg, and was authentic or not. Sturtevant mentioned earlier in this chapter? Advice given to participants about authen- In referring only to itself as a phenomenon, ticity had no direct effect on the cortical visu- which Mandiberg does twice over, treating al areas responsive to the portraits, but there art and its replicas as encapsulated within the was a significant psycho-physiological inter- sphere of art itself, Mandiberg’s work exists action between the FPC and the lateral oc- only within this narrow sphere. That appro- cipital area, suggesting that these visual areas priated sphere of art could refer to itself again may be modulated by the FPC. The designa- if someone were to create yet another site af- tion “copy” resulted in stronger activations in ter Mandiberg’s work. Internally, this action the FPC and right posterior precuneus, while could be viewed as entirely reasonable, as a the designation “authentic” activated only the personal expression of the artist, but external- orbitofrontal cortex, the latter being associat- ly, the observer would be faced with a series of ed with reward and monetary gain

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The research tended to support the view version of the work especially high. In the fi- that aesthetic judgments regarding authentic- nal experiment, 256 participants read about ity are multifaceted and multidimensional. The either a sculptor or a craftsman and his work production of new artworks is generally held creating either a bronze sculpture or a piece to initiate a transaction between the artist and of furniture, respectively. prospective viewers, within a social and cultural For the participants who read about the context that is often fuzzy and soft-edged, and sculptor, those who heard that the process therefore very susceptible to direction. It is in- was very hands-on tended to rate the val- teresting that cognition is mentioned by some ue of the sculpture much more highly than philosophers in the context of our view of what those who read that the creative process was authenticity may mean for us. This demon- hands-off. By contrast, this distinction made strates that an observer will respond to the far less difference to the valuations made by concepts of copy and authentic in different ways. participants who read about the work of the A further psychological study was con- craftsman. So when an original piece of art ducted by Newman and Bloom (2012), who is desired, it seems that it is valued not just as investigated why originals were considered an end product but for the originality of the more valuable, looking at two possible expla- performance that created it. The work of art nations for any differences. First, original art is thought to have a special quality because was thought to be more valuable because of it came from the hand of a particular artist. the creative origin of the work and the art- Copies and forgeries, no matter how close to ist’s production. Second, observers felt that the original, do not achieve the same feeling an original work was somehow infused with in the individual, according to the authors of the unique essence of the artist. In one ex- this study. periment, 180 participants were asked to es- These two experiments are open to a num- timate the monetary value of two paintings ber of possible arguments as to how successful they had not seen before, both depicting the they were in proving that the essence of the same scene, one titled Son of a Covered Bridge artist is of paramount importance. Perhaps if and the other titled A Covered Bridge, both both works of art used in the first experiment by Jim Rilko. Half the participants were told were highly valued Renaissance works, the that two different artists had painted the same appreciation of the second work might result scene by coincidence. The other participants in it being rated more highly. The authors of were told that one artist had produced one this study may have a valid argument as a re- of the paintings and that another artist had sult of their work, but in particular cases, this seen it and decided to make a copy. All the generalized notion of the devaluation of cop- participants were told that there was only one ies may break down, especially if the copyist is of each painting in existence. Participants viewed as a great artist in his or her own right. who thought that the two paintings showed For example, a print from Battle of the Sea- the same scene by coincidence tended to rate Gods, a copper engraving, first state, by Andrea them as having a similar value. By contrast, Mantegna (circa 1431–1506), was copied by participants who thought one painting was a Albrecht in 1494 as a pen-and-ink copy of the other tended to value the second drawing and now resides in the Devonshire painting especially low and to value the first Collection, Chatsworth, England. The copy

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made by has become more famous an engraving of an engraving is a “different than the original by Mantegna. So is this not thing altogether” from a copy of an engrav- a defective copy but a new work of art? ing, “although it might exactly resemble a The experiment of Newman and Bloom copy” for another reason. A copy is defec- (2012) may be generally valid in terms of ex- tive, for example, insofar as it deviates from perimental participants valuing the original the original, but the question of deviation is work over the perception of a copy of it but simply irrelevant if it is an engraving of an en- may not be universally valid, as this example graving. If deviation is irrelevant, so is nonde- illustrates. A copy of an engraving need not viation. Others think this is not right: A class be another engraving; it could be presented of “free copies”—copies of originals that are in a different medium. Danto (1981) says that not defective—can be recognized.

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Chapter 3 Authenticity, Monuments, and the International Charters

The Reconstruction of Monuments Chartres Cathedral ICOMOS Charters The Grand Midland Hotel Debates Concerning Appearance

It is therefore of fundamental importance to our task that we fully clarify this difference in the perception of artistic value, since it influences the principal direction of all . —Alois Riegl, The Modern Cult of Monuments

Like those architects, pupils of Viollet-le-Duc, who, fancying that they can detect, beneath a Renaissance rood-loft an eighteenth-century altar, traces of a Norman choir, restore the whole church to the state in which it probably was in the twelfth century. —Marcel , À la recherche du temps perdu

Introduction international importance. Charters concern- This chapter contains a more detailed dis- ing cultural heritage have had a seminal im- cussion of monuments and how interna- pact for a huge range of artifacts, monuments, tional charters came to be recognized as of and sites, but this chapter concentrates on

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monuments and two particular cases: the whenever this is possible; the new ma- restoration of Chartres Cathedral, which is terials used for this purpose should in all proving to be controversial, and the complete cases be recognisable. When the pres- makeover of the defunct Grand Midland ervation of ruins brought to light in the Hotel, which has been the subject of only course of excavations is found to be im- muted criticism. possible, the Conference recommends International charters have a much wid- that they be buried, accurate records er significance than those sections of them being of course taken before filling-in that relate specifically to monuments, but the operations are undertaken. principles of the discussion offered here are applicable to several broad fields within the This charter’s insistence that original frag- ambit of international charters. Authenticity ments should be used and be recognizable in interacts with values in a multitude of ways, any reconstruction, constituting anastylosis, from individual or cultural values to the dis- and that any new materials employed should tinction between artistic and aesthetic value. be recognizable as well, is one of the first This has an important resonance in this book, clear statements made regarding the need to including implications for the discussion of differentiate between what is (or was) original forgeries and restoration practice involved and what has been restored. with how these values are debated. Thirty-three years after the Athens meet- ing, the Venice Charter for the Conservation Authenticity and Reconstruction and Restoration of Monuments and Sites After the heavy destruction of artworks and (ICOMOS 2004) set out to address some of monuments during the First World War, these concerns again, as a consequence of many were summarily rebuilt, restored, or the still greater damage and loss of art fol- demolished without the benefit of any inter- lowing the Second World War. The charter nationally agreed-upon framework to guide was formulated in the belief that heritage nations in dealing with their damaged her- was important for all of humankind and that itage. As a consequence, many inauthentic similar appraisals of restoration and conser- reconstructions and gross alterations took vation were needed for all countries. The place. One of the first international charters first paragraph of the preamble to the Venice to express a serious interest in how original Charter (ICOMOS 2004), in referring to fragments of artworks were to be regarded as historic monuments, states: “It is our duty authentic and how they should be restored to hand them on in the full richness of their was the Athens Charter for the Restoration authenticity.” of Historical Monuments of 1931 (ICOMOS At this stage, there was still a belief in a 1931). In the section dealing with conserva- readily definable or determinable scientif- tion, the charter states: ic concept of authenticity as a unified thing in itself that could easily be justified without In the case of ruins, scrupulous conser- the need for further discussion. Article 12 of vation is necessary, and steps should be the Venice Charter (ICOMOS 2004) essen- taken to reinstate any original fragments tially contained the same message as the pas- that may be recovered (anastylosis), sage from the Athens Charter quoted above,

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namely: “Replacements of missing parts must valued especially in virtue of avoiding re- integrate harmoniously with the whole, but at painting parts of it altogether, or is great- the same time must be distinguishable from er emphasis placed on the work’s aesthetic the original so that restoration does not falsi- value with the aim to restore it to appear fy the artistic or historic evidence.” without damage and loss, although it may Being able to distinguish between the no longer be possible to discern what was original and restored areas of a work of art is original? What values are placed on each? still important in art restoration. Today, it is The difficulty of answering these questions not always possible to distinguish restorations and the realization that the Venice Charter from originals by visual means, although the of 1964 enshrined a logically positivist view conservation profession has taken other mea- of the nature of authenticity have led over sures to adhere to the ethics of distinguish- the past 50 years to a whole series of con- ability of substance. These measures include servation charters whose approach to the undertaking restorations in a different media topic has been influenced by tangible and or paint; alteration of the finish or appearance intangible factors that were not considered under different types of lighting, such as ul- relevant by the Venice Charter. traviolet or infrared; or providing explanato- In 1972 UNESCO adopted the World ry labels indicting which parts are authentic Heritage Convention (UNESCO 1972). In to which period in history or in which res- 1977 the World Heritage Committee defined toration campaign they were introduced. criteria for the inclusion of cultural property Article 9 of the Venice Charter states: on the World Heritage List. The guidelines stated that to be so designated, a monument The process of restoration is a highly had to “meet the test of authenticity in de- specialized operation. Its aim is to pre- sign, materials, workmanship, and setting.” serve and reveal the aesthetic and histor- Even in this era, there were notable excep- ic value of the monument and is based on tions. For example, Warsaw, obliterated by respect for original material and authen- German bombing in the Second World War, tic documents. It must stop at the point had been completely reconstructed as a repli- where conjecture begins, and in this case ca by the Poles. This city replica was added moreover any extra work which is indis- to the World Heritage List in 1980 (Jerome pensable must be distinct from the ar- 2008). Despite the rebuilt Warsaw being chitectural composition and must bear a a modern replica and not adhering to the contemporary stamp. The restoration in World Heritage statement that added mon- any case must be preceded and followed uments must meet the test of authenticity in by an archaeological and historical study design, materials, workmanship, and setting, of the monument. there is general consensus that the intangible authenticity which the city represents within There are cases where the aesthetic its environment should be recognized. Part and historical values of a work of art are at of the problem of definitive codes of ethics odds with one another. In some artworks regarding these matters is that they are sub- this could present a logical contradiction: ject to interpretation on a case-by-case basis Is the historical authenticity of the artwork (Kelleher 2004).

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Figure 3.1. Warsaw, Poland. As a result of bombing by the Germans in World War II, Old Warsaw was completely destroyed. The new city buildings were constructed as replicas of the old. (Image courtesy of Posoka.com)

On the other hand, Jokilehto (1985) writes some historical structures as being too “inau- that the old Hanseatic town of Lübeck on thentic” to enter the hallowed ranks of those the Baltic was not accepted for inclusion on designated as World Heritage Sites. the World Heritage List because too much The exclusion of Lübeck and the inclu- of the fabric had been lost in recent decades sion of Warsaw on the World Heritage List due to war or commercial development: reflects the conservation assessment of au- Reconstructions do not qualify as part of the thenticity at that time. This assessment has authentic urban fabric when evaluated in a become more sophisticated since the 1985 ar- manner fully consistent with the guidelines. ticle, and a recent article by Jokilehto presents The concept of anastylosis, if it cannot be ap- a more modern approach (Jokilehto 1995). plied, may disqualify rebuilt structures from His influential textA History of Architectural attaining the state of grace of authenticity. Conservation (1999a) does not mention au- Internally, one could argue, authenticity has thenticity in the index, and there are still been utilized in conservation in a number of substantive points of debate. For example, different ways, for example, in assessing the au- in considering whether reconstructions of thenticity of ancient buildings or cities whose New Lanark (UNESCO 2001) are authentic architectural critiques have often elevated the in terms of reinstituting the appearance of Rieglian historical value over other concerns Lanark at the time of the Welsh social reform- in a simplistic and linear analysis, condemning er Robert Owen (1771–1858), the founder of

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utopian socialism, Jokilehto (1999b) writes, sources about these values may be understood “This approach to ‘period restoration’ relies as credible or truthful.” This appears to be on choosing an earlier period as a guideline very reasonable. The only problem is that how for the choice of what to keep, what to re- intangible values that may or may not be con- use, and what to reconstruct. At the end of sidered as “truthful” might generate debate. the restoration, the historic building tends to Additional documentation may be required to have lost its authenticity and become a mod- determine the current truth of an assertion of ern interpretation.” intangible importance. The Nara Document The question “Do different cultures have goes on to state in Article 10: “The under- different views on authenticity and if so, how standing of authenticity plays a fundamental does this affect restoration?” is of direct con- role in all scientific studies of the cultural heri- cern to developments in the conservation tage, in conservation and restoration planning, field addressed by the Nara Document on as well as within the inscription procedures Authenticity (UNESCO 1994), formulat- used for the World Heritage Convention and ed under the auspices of the International other cultural heritage inventories.” Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Exactly what is meant by “scientific stud- 30 years after the Venice Charter for the ies” in the context of a document that is try- Conservation and Restoration of Monuments ing to escape from the scientific strictures of and Sites of 1964. The Venice Charter has codes based entirely on a material evaluation been one of the most influential international of substance is not clear. Indeed, Article 10 agreements concerning the organization and does not advance the argument for cultural implementation of conservation measures. relativism as successfully as the often-quoted It has even generated detailed reviews of its Article 11: accomplishments in the post–Second World War environment (Hardy 2009). All judgements about values attribut- Limitations on how intangible heri- ed to cultural properties as well as the tage was to be assessed within international credibility of related information sourc- frameworks led to formulation of the Nara es may differ from culture to culture, Document (UNESCO 1994), which was an and even within the same culture. It is attempt to escape from the scientific rational- thus not possible to base judgements ism of earlier pronouncements in conserva- of values and authenticity within fixed tion charters, which had stressed the material criteria. On the contrary, the respect authenticity of the artifact, site, or monu- due to all cultures requires that heri- ment. In reevaluating the need for more in- tage properties must be considered and clusive criteria, the Nara Document invoked judged within the cultural contexts to the societal values with which cultural mon- which they belong. uments are imbued. For example, Article 9 states: “Conservation of cultural heritage in This new relativism in how authenticity all its forms and historical periods is rooted was to be judged liberated the concept from in the values attributed to the heritage. Our the narrow confines of materialistic con- ability to understand these values depends, cerns and enabled a whole array of different in part, on the degree to which information arguments about what might be regarded as

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authentic, especially the intangible associations historic, social, and scientific dimensions of artifacts that different cultures may consider of the cultural heritage being examined. as important as the material substance. Article 13 of the Nara Document states: The materialistic approach to the concept of what constitutes an authentic object was Depending on the nature of the cultural particularly challenged by the Nara Document heritage, its cultural context, and its evo- (UNESCO 1994) because, writes Stovel (2008), lution through time, authenticity judge- the Japanese wanted to extend the range of at- ments may be linked to the worth of a tributes through which authenticity might be great variety of sources of information. recognized as legitimate. The Japanese practice Aspects of the sources may include form of periodic dismantling, repairing, and whole- and design, materials and substance, use sale reassembly of historic wooden temples and function, traditions and techniques, would, under the old tests of physical integri- location and setting, and spirit and feel- ty, fail to satisfy the World Heritage criterion; ing, and other internal and external the new document allowed Japan to nominate factors. The use of these sources per- a historic structure to the committee with con- mits elaboration of the specific artistic, fidence that it could be ratified.

Figure 3.2. Nikko, Japan. The recognition of intangible authenticity in the Nara Document enabled the Japanese to list as a World Heritage Site the shrines and temples of Nikko, a single complex of 103 religious buildings within two Shinto shrines. They testify to a centuries-old tradition of con- servation and restoration as well as the preservation of religious practices linked to a site considered sacred. Under previous criteria of authenticity, these Shinto shrines would not have qualified, as they are continuously rebuilt; their intangible authenticity would not have been recognized. (Image cour- tesy of UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

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Delusions of Authenticity

Delusions of Authenticity four authenticities: design, material, workman- Stovel (2008:39) states that a benefit of this ship, and setting (Stovel 2007). For buildings new approach was acknowledgment of the and monuments, these four authenticities and existence of many long-standing technical their values can be discussed and compared delusions related to authenticity, which the with other criteria when evaluating a course conservation field had taken for granted. The of action for a particular historic structure. principal delusion, according to Stovel, was ICOMOS has been much concerned with the view that authenticity was a value in its the debate regarding authenticity. In 1996 own right. This was stated quite definitively the ICOMOS National Committee of the when the World Heritage Committee de- Americas released the Declaration of San clared in 2003, “Authenticity is not a value , which is primarily concerned with itself . . . properties must demonstrate first interactions between conservation and au- their claim to ‘outstanding universal value’ thenticity. The committee recognized that and then demonstrate that the attributes car- authenticity has many contexts that interact rying related values are ‘authentic.’” with the sphere of conservation across a wide The second delusion was refutation of the range of activities and values. It identified idea that authenticity could be considered an seven areas in which the concept operated: absolute property. The third was the challenge authenticity and identity; authenticity and to the idea that authenticity had to be present history; authenticity and materials; authentic- in all attribute areas, and fourth was a clar- ity and social value; authenticity in static and ification on improving understanding of the dynamic sites; authenticity and stewardship; importance of authenticity, which was never and authenticity and economics. mentioned in earlier conservation debates. As The declaration, largely focused on what Stovel (2008) writes: “One of the two major these concept areas mean to cultural groups issues skirted in the Nara Document was how within the Americas, recognized that cultural to ensure that acceptance of cultural content heritage creates a “rich and syncretic pluri- as essential in assessing conservation actions culturalism” that forms the dynamic of the and approaches would not result in efforts to continental identity. In terms of “authenticity cloak arbitrary or ad hoc decisions within the and history,” the document understood that all-forgiving mantle of cultural context.” the authenticity of a heritage site depended on The other major issue was the lack of an an assessment of the significance of the site by exact definition of authenticity, but since the those associated with it or those who claimed word, as shown in chapters 1 and 2, eludes a it as part of their history. “Authenticity and single meaning outside of a defined context, materials” encompasses the material fabric of that is perfectly understandable. Because the a site. The document states: definitions carried immediate practical con- sequences for historic structures, their treat- The degree to which documented miss- ment, and how they were to be evaluated, ing elements are replaced as part of res- the use of authenticity in preservation codes toration treatments varies within the for conservation professionals has import- Americas in accordance to the cultural ant consequences. For example, the World characteristics of each country. Some Heritage List offers an evaluation based on national policies indicate that what is

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lost can only be part of our memory and constituted authorities must be provided the not of our heritage. Elsewhere, policies means for the correct knowledge and evalu- encourage the replacement of fully doc- ation of the heritage, its protection and con- umented elements in facsimile form in servation, and the promotion of its artistic and order to re-establish the site’s full signif- spiritual enjoyment, as well as its educational icance. Nevertheless, we emphasize that use. For “authenticity and economics,” the only the historic fabric is authentic, and emphasis is on cultural tourism, which is often interpretations achieved through resto- a substantial source of revenue. Nevertheless, ration are not; they can only authentically the limited values that tourists may place on represent the meaning of a site as under- a site and the economic concerns for tourism stood in a given moment. Furthermore, revenue cannot be the overriding criteria in a we universally reject the reliance on con- site’s conservation and interpretation. jecture or hypotheses for restoration. The different authenticities envisaged by the San Antonio Declaration are laudatory, This part of the declaration presents a but they may subsume practically every con- similar set of concerns for material authentic- servation decision under the umbrella of au- ity to those articulated by the Athens Charter thenticity, creating an imbalance with respect in 1931, but there are essential differences in to values and ethics. This is a minor quibble scope. The San Antonio Declaration recog- in a vibrant response to the problem of what nizes that certain types of heritage, such as we mean by authenticity. The San Antonio cultural landscapes, may represent traditional Declaration breaks this problem down into a forms and encompass embedded spiritual val- series of areas. There may be sui generis de- ues that may be as important as the material bates about which stakeholders should make authenticity of the site itself. “Authenticity decisions regarding authenticity, particularly and social value” as a category also invokes when extensive material changes to the mon- the spiritual meaning manifested by customs ument are undertaken as part of the ongoing and traditions, forming part of an intangible evolution of its use or existence. heritage. The declaration maintains that these The varieties of authenticity are now rec- intangible associations must be carefully iden- ognized as important considerations in their tified, evaluated, protected, and interpreted. own right across an increasingly wide field of “Authenticity in dynamic and static sites” in- areas of significance. For example, the opera- cludes cultural sites still in use as well as ar- tional guidelines for a 2005 UNESCO World chaeological sites no longer used by descen- Heritage document state that monuments dants. The declaration states, “Some physical may be understood to meet the conditions of changes associated with maintaining the tradi- authenticity if their cultural values are truth- tional patterns of communal use of the heri- fully and credibly expressed through a variety tage site do not necessarily diminish its signifi- of attributes, including form and design; ma- cance and may actually enhance it. Therefore, terials and substance; use and function; tra- such material changes may be acceptable as ditions, techniques and management systems; part of on-going evolution.” Under the cate- location and setting; language and other gory “authenticity and stewardship,” the doc- forms of intangible heritage; spirit and feel- ument states that both communities and the ing; and other internal and external factors.

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Dutton (2003) ponders a pertinent ques- and the philosophy underlying the decisions tion that has been raised previously: Authentic that have been made. Alternatively, he sug- compared with what? The terms of reference gests that we stop producing charters and re- are so broad and all-encompassing that the interpret the old ones; that we start practicing only inauthenticity left would be if the cul- what has been preached, thinking inclusively tural values were not truthfully and credi- and embracing other disciplines in the debate bly expressed—that they were fake cultural to allow people who are affected to make in- values. The inclusion of “other internal and formed choices. This critique is certainly part external factors” grants considerable leeway of the difficulties of coming to terms with in reaching a decision as to whether a monu- scientific conservation pronouncements that ment or site meets World Heritage guidelines represent a Western intellectual tradition of for authenticity. validation whose relevance is only now being There are plenty of critics of these laud- questioned. able international charters. The most im- mediate criticism is that there are too many Early Debates Concerning Authentic charters and that they are often contradictory Appearance concerning how urban fabric is to be pre- Long before these international charters were served. Some have expressed doubts about formulated, the problems of the authentic how successfully the messages of the charters nature of ancient buildings and art objects, have been communicated to people who are which were often summarily restored, had al- affected by them or to wider audiences con- ready become a matter for debate. Regarding cerned with the realities of the human situa- early attempts to clean oil paintings at the tion and development. Authentic appearance, National Gallery in London or the Louvre in according to UNESCO documents of 1976, Paris, people asked: What was the authentic may involve the removal of disfiguring poles, appearance of these paintings: murky shades pylons, or telephone cables, but in one East of brown or amber varnish through which African country (Kulikauskas 2007:66), the some details could be only vaguely discerned, developmental dream is to have a concrete or startlingly bright pigmented surfaces that block house with a tin roof and piped water, looked as if they had been painted yesterday? destroying the “authentic” nature of the sur- Could ancient buildings be fully restored roundings. In Vilnius, a Renaissance palace has to appear completed in a manner never in- been destroyed by rebuilding so that only the tended by the original architect? Could mon- subterranean part of it remains, violating ev- uments be satisfactorily restored at all? ery clause of applicable charters (Kulikauskas The term restoration began to enter com- 2007:66). Yet no protests regarding the dem- mon parlance in the eighteenth century. In olition were made by the international bodies 1755 Samuel Johnson wrote in his famous responsible for the strictures of the charters dictionary that restoration was “the act of that should have been applied to this import- replacing in a former state. To give back ant monument. Kulikauskas has some sugges- what has been lost or taken away” (Johnson tions for a realignment: six points relating to and Walker 1828), while the Oxford English the possible formation of new charters, in- Dictionary of 1956 offers “attempt to bring cluding an assessment of reality on the ground back to original state by rebuilding, repairing,

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repainting, emending etc.” The definition is destruction. For example, Lord (1788– quite apposite for our purposes here. Even 1824) writes in Don Juan: the “attempt to” that this dictionary includes is perhaps a subtle hint that restoration may Who after rummaging the Abbey strive to regain an original state but perhaps through thick won’t always succeed. And thin, produced a plan whereby to erect Anxieties concerning restoration were New buildings of correctest conformation first felt in the West with the repair or alter- And throw down old, which he call’d ation of ancient buildings, briefly mentioned restoration. in chapter 1. This is why the international charters gained increasing significance. The As Madsen (1975) reminds us, the for- principal protagonists in the arguments con- gotten name of Edward Freeman deserves a cerning the restoration of these monuments mention here. His 1846 volume on the res- were John Ruskin (1819–1900), Eugène toration of churches distinguishes between Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879), and George three systems or varieties of restoration. The Gilbert Scott (1811–1878). Scott was often first system is theconservative, which exact- seen as the villain of the restoration contro- ly reproduces details of the original; the re- versy in England, although in his A Plea for stored church in its new state is a facsimile the Faithful Restoration of Our Ancient Churches of the old. The eclectic system represents a (1859), he sometimes protested that he un- middle way with some rebuilding according dertook rebuilding only when it was necessary to conservative principles and some remodel- to save the structures concerned, although ing. In the destructive system, the entire work a great deal of restoration was sometimes is rebuilt. In Freeman’s time it was probably deemed essential, much to Ruskin’s disgust. rebuilt in Decorated Gothic design, eliminat- Stephan Madsen (1975) divides Scott’s work ing the material authenticity of the original. into three groups: first, his preoccupation In France, thanks to architect Eugène with saving authentic monuments, which Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, a “stylistic” kind could be considered laudatory and conform- of restoration was established. Its principal ing to his expressed views; second, his de- aim was to complete the work of art to reach struction of structures (for example, at St. a “unity of style,” with the restorer assuming John’s College, Cambridge, where he demol- the right to act on behalf of the ancient artist ished a chapel dating to 1516), which seems (De Angelis-D’Ossat 1948:51). This repre- to represent quite the opposite philosophy; sented an almost postmodern idealistic con- third, the work that he undertook, strongly ception of what the building should look like influenced by a high Victorianism, the mani- rather than the actual materiality of the work. festation of which was a horror vacui. It is too facile, however, to simply dismiss Plenty of debate concerning these mat- the depth of scholarship that Viollet-le-Duc ters went on in England at the time. These brought to his practice of restoration, which debates influenced the rebuilding of historic in fact saved dozens of French churches from structures on the continent. Many voices in either total destruction or completely inept the early part of the nineteenth century at- amateur restoration (Reiff 1971). The exten- tacked restoration as essentially an act of sive damage and destruction of parts of Notre

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Dame during the French Revolution and be- proposed restoration based on accurate and fore inevitably resulted in any restoration be- detailed historical research. The research ing viewed pejoratively, since a cathedral was could be direct, such as studying the artwork either going to remain partially wrecked or itself, or indirect, such as examining docu- be imaginatively restored. A fair summation mentary or archival evidence. The restorer is offered by Reiff (1971:30), who writes, ap- thus becomes a sort of historian-, ropos of Notre Dame: whose goal is to study events that character- ized the shape of the monument or condi- The nave chapels were more decorated tion of the artwork and then reconstruct or than evidence warranted; the crossing reintegrate it according to the results of the spire more complicated than the origi- research, avoiding arbitrary stylistic choices. nal; the grotesques on the former more The second approach, philological restoration, fanciful than the remaining vestiges could had its greatest exponent in Camillo Boito possibly hint. All was done, however, with (1836–1914), who expressed the basic points great scholarship, and for specific rea- of his theory in his Questioni pratiche di belle sons: the decoration to give the chapels a arti. First he stressed the importance of the more complete aesthetic effect; the carry- “monument as a document” that he wanted ing bays reconstructed in twelfth-century to “read” without additions, modification, form to give art historians tangible proof or reductions; he wanted to be sure that ev- beyond the traces he found of what they erything was the “authentic” production of originally were like; the spire elaborated the original author. In his opinion, the mon- to make it more imposing; the chimeras ument was deprived of almost all its impor- to visually unite the façade. tance when its form was altered by “stylistic” additions (Boito 1893:7). He thus preferred The opposing view of the architectur- to talk about conservation, carried out with al purist, promoted by Morris and the application of scientific methodologies, John Ruskin, resulted in this scholarly re- and not about restoration (Boito 1893:8,11). imagination of the restoration of an original Boito insisted that the original, or old, artistic monument being denounced as a lie. Ruskin aspects of a monument had to be preserved presages Heidegger in preferring to let the by any means; additions were to be contem- monument decay naturally or, if one wants plated only where there was material proof of to ensure that it still exists for future genera- the original position of the fragments and the tions, to preserve the remains without resto- profile of the shape. Any addition had to be ration of any kind. This viewpoint takes into completely recognizable as a modern opera- consideration the importance of “authentici- tion, using modern materials, sketching the ty” meant as originality of materials and orig- basic shape of any decorations present, and inality of intention. adding the date of restorations or a conven- In Italy, on the other hand, there devel- tional sign to indicate the details of any in- oped two new theories that were in an inter- tervention. Before any restoration, especially mediate position with respect to the French in the archaeological field, every part had to and English examples. The first,historical be examined and documented with drawings restoration, exemplified by Luca Beltrami, or photographs. These images, as well as any

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components that were removed, were to be restored old buildings in the nineteenth cen- on exhibit close to the monument for educa- tury. Some may be considered problematic. tional purposes (Boito 1893:17, 24). For example, differentiation in style between Boito’s philosophy represents an idealis- the new and the old was rarely achieved, as to tic purist vision, since he refuses to accept as do so could create a strange pastiche between authentic all kinds of restoration and is in fa- the original style and the restored parts, not vor of destroying all old additions, as they are something that would have had much appeal merely representative of the invention of a to Scott. The emphasis on honest documen- new artist. Only in one case does Boito accept tation of the actions taken is a laudatory part them: when there are known or demonstrable of Boito’s recommendations, as is the idea to sources or images of the original morphology exhibit contiguous material remains that have (Boito 1893:58). The philosophical shift in been removed from the original building. denying the historical authenticity of resto- This is an interesting concept as a referent to rations in general characterizes the late nine- the processes undertaken, resulting in the al- teenth century. teration of the building but retaining the au- Boito was influenced by the arguments of thentic components removed in the process both Viollet-le-Duc and Ruskin and formulat- of restoration. One could regard that as an ed his own restoration thesis in his 1883 docu- ideal state, since it has rarely been enacted; ment Prima Carta del Restauro, in which he laid the space consumed by exhibiting the mate- out eight principles to guide restorers in their rial removed during restoration could result approach to the authenticity of existing mon- in large areas devoted entirely to fragmentary uments: (1) a differentiation of style between material remains, which would overwhelm the new and old parts of a building; (2) differ- the visitor and consume tracts of land in per- entiation between the new and the old in the petuity, entirely for a purist philosophical use of building materials; (3) suppression of crusade. The use, completion, or alteration moldings and decorative elements in new fab- of a building is rarely exposed to a critique ric placed in a historical building; (4) exhibi- based on elements that have been removed. tion in a nearby place of any material parts of a As much as one might say that the authentic- historical building removed during the process ity of the entire operation has therefore been of restoration; (5) inscription of the date (or a enhanced, it is often simply impractical. conventional symbol) on any new fabric in a As Madsen (1975) writes, following the historical building; (6) descriptive epigraphic end of the eighteenth century, the replica- documentation of the restoration work done tion of past periods and styles became preva- attached to the monument; (7) registration lent. After the neo-Gothic followed the neo- and description with photographs of the dif- Renaissance, neo-Baroque, and neo-Rococo. ferent phases of restoration, with the register After neo-Victorianism in the 1950s came published or placed in the monument or in a neo– in the 1960s and neo–Art nearby public place; (8) visual notoriety of the Deco in the 1970s. Much of this has since restoration work carried out. been swept away by modernism, which was These recommendations are remarkably not prevalent at the time Madsen was writ- modern and transparent in their aims. They ing. The impact of Ruskin and later William were certainly not adhered to by many who Morris on attitudes about restoration on the

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continent was a strong one. Morris, for ex- This idealized approach to restoration ample, prevented alterations to St. Mark’s in was anathema to Ruskin, who responded Venice by the force of his writing and beliefs. in his work The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Between 1870 and 1900, many people began in a section called “The Lamp of Memory” to have qualms about what had happened (1898:353–357): in the name of improvements to ancient buildings. Neither by the public, nor by those who Viollet-le-Duc carried out several resto- have the care of public monuments, is ration campaigns without any qualms at all, the true meaning of the word restoration even at Notre Dame de Paris, substantially al- understood. It means the most total de- tering the nature of the original fabric of the struction which a building can suffer: a building. Viollet-le-Duc (1990 [1854]:195), destruction out of which no remnants in opposition to Boito, wrote, “Restoration can be gathered: a destruction accom- is a means to re-establish [a building] to a panied with false description of the finished state, which may in fact never have thing destroyed. Do not let us deceive actually existed at any given time.” ourselves in this important matter; it is

Figure 3.3. Uppark House in Sussex. H. G. Wells’s mother was once a housekeeper here, and the house is featured in some of his novels; details of life in the house are reflected inThe Time Machine. In 1989 the house burned to the ground. It has been restored, much as a time machine would allow it to be re- stored. Even new carpets were matched to the original weave of old; architectural finishes were replicas of the original. In theory, what could never be replaced has been replicated in the name of the use-value of the property, not its historical or material authenticity. (Image courtesy of Valerie Ann Scott)

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impossible, as impossible as to raise the On the other hand, Ruskin could be in- dead, to restore anything that has ever voked here. If repair was no longer possible, been great or beautiful in architecture. he would surely have advised to pull down the entire building, to undertake deconstruc- Ruskin’s work was a great influence on tion honestly, and not to set up a lie in its (1834–1896) and the Arts place. The decision to reconstruct Uppark, and Crafts movement that followed. In which cost the National Trust, or its insur- 1877 Morris founded the Society for the ers, more than £20 million and four years of Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), work, did not meet with universal approval. which sought to prevent inauthentic addi- SPAB, taking its inspiration from William tions to and alterations of buildings, the lat- Morris, regarded a total reconstruction as ter described by Morris as “forgeries,” echo- an inauthentic existence for a building, now ing Ruskin’s view (1898:356): “Do not let us beyond resurrection. Eggert (2009) claims: talk of restoration: the thing is a Lie from “[Something] that clarified the (philosophic) beginning to end. You may make a model of confusion surrounding the competing claims a building as you may of a corpse, and your of the aesthetic and the historical would model may have the shell of the old walls have been preferable. The catastrophe that within it as your cast might have the skel- Uppark suffered demanded it, but the house eton, with what advantage I neither see nor did not receive it.” care: but the old building is destroyed, and The diachronic existence of many build- that more totally and mercilessly than if it ings is a complex affair. It does not represent had sunk into a heap of dust.” a linear evolution of change but a semiot- SPAB continues to fight for the cause to- ic mingling. Nor are many of the problems day, and in the case of complete restorations, amenable to the Brandian concept that resto- such as that of Uppark House in Sussex, ration cannot presume that time is reversible England, which burned to the ground in or that history can be abolished, a statement August 1989 and was completely rebuilt as more applicable to works of fine art than to a replica of the original, SPAB may not ap- standing monuments or buildings. prove. When the house caught on fire, the The actions inherent in the conservation, roof, top floor, and main staircase were en- refurbishment, or adaptive reuse of ancient tirely destroyed; the ground floor was heavily buildings place these activities firmly toward damaged by fire, smoke, and water, and the the restoration end of the RIP spectrum and ceilings collapsed (Nicolson 1990). some distance from preservation, which, as In the face of a partially burned wreck, was stated in chapter 1, carries the connota- the National Trust decided to reconstruct, tion of trying to keep artifacts in their current replicate, and restore the entire building. condition indefinitely into the future. The National Trust’s surveyor of conser- So how to counter the claim that phil- vation, Nigel J. Seeley (1942–2004), wrote: osophic confusion reigns in the judgment “Seeking out information from incomplete between the aesthetic and the historical con- evidence applies to works of art just as it notations of the Uppark reconstruction? The does to forensic science; precisely the same most obvious candidate in our defense as far analytical techniques apply” (Seeley 1996). as historic buildings are concerned is the range

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of values that can be incorporated into a dis- include Coleshill in 1953 and Dunsland in cussion of how the building is to be treated or 1967 (Gomme 1989). Gomme takes issue that are emphasized, depending on the needs with a variety of purist arguments that should of that ubiquitous group of modernists, the a building be restored, the interiors should stakeholders, and that were clearly enunciated be plainly stated as a backdrop to the sal- by Alois Riegl (1982 [1903]). David Lowenthal vaged furniture and paintings. As Rowell (1985) might say, in relation to Uppark, that and Robinson (1996) remark, the purist we are attempting to remake the past in the approach to building restoration has been image we want of it, regardless of historical ve- further enhanced by the intellectual legacy racity. Building conservators might argue that of architectural modernism, which rejected Uppark is an example of adaptive reuse—the the use of traditional techniques or the or- of a charred hulk into a simulacrum namental in favor of severe designs with new of what it once was. Riegl might say that what materials such as concrete, steel, and glass, is invoked is a purely aesthetic value by virtue and was antipathetic to traditional structures of reconstruction; Seeley (1996) that the pre- that had no relevance to the modern world. sentation of the new Uppark is informed by Here can be seen a reflection of the philo- reference, as far as possible, to a scientifically sophical purism that sought the removal of documented re-creation of materials, leaving eighteenth-century marble restorations from parts of the charred remains on view as contig- Roman sculptures, which were seen as visu- uous reminders of the refabricated decorations ally deceptive, and their replacement with to preserve evidence of what occurred at the smooth beige modern fills, which revealed structure for future reference. the contrast between ancient and modern. The values that Riegl so incisively out- lined are very germane to the current debates Chartres Cathedral and Its Various concerning the fateful or fortunate decisions Authenticities conservators may take regarding a particular An important example is that of Chartres building or monument. In assessing the degree Cathedral. Its interior is now partially re- to which different values pertain to how an an- stored, partially repainted to resemble what cient monument is to be treated, the question was thought to have been its thirteenth- that has to be asked is: Who assigns the values century appearance. There are always prob- that Riegl enumerates? The conservator? The lems with a complete restoration of this kind: curator? The architect? Members of the pub- electric lights in the interior have not been lic? In the case of important old buildings, it removed, and the condition of the interi- will generally be a consensus of all who have a or has changed markedly since the original say in the process, but each should be informed building was finished. Medieval French ca- and educated in the subject area. Knowledge thedrals such as Chartres suffered from dras- of or training in restoration is not the same as tic alterations following the decisions of the being a trained architect, and a conservator or Council of Trent: the cathedral was closed art historian may have no insight into how the for a few days, and all the medieval chantry local population regards the monument. chapels were demolished. This was followed In prior decades, historic buildings dam- by periods of neglect by the ancien régime, fol- aged by fire have been demolished. Examples lowed by periods of various “improvements”

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that altered the building to the taste prevail- of respect of the historical appearance of ing at the time. the cathedral, invoking no need for alter- It is therefore difficult to assess how the ation of substance whatever (Cascone 2014; cathedral would actually have looked in the Furman 2015; Hamburger 2015; Penketh years following its completion, yet many and Willsher 2014). commentators regard the complete repaint- Windows are not necessarily judged ing in the “original” colors as a triumph of by the same criterion applied to buildings. scientific restoration, while others think that Stained glass was supposed to allow light to what has occurred is a complete desecration filter through to allow intense colors to en- of historical authenticity. This kind of po- thrall the visitor. If the stained glass becomes larization is quite common and is enhanced covered with a film of dirt and deterioration by lack of technical knowledge of the subtle products of the glass itself, is it then still ful- issues inherent in conservation and resto- filling its original function? In general, the ration decisions on the part of both sides of answer is that it is not, that stained glass must the argument. be cleaned, conserved, stabilized, releaded, The architect-in-chief of the Historical consolidated, and repaired to retrieve the Monuments Department in France, Patrice color and stability of the original windows Calvel, talks of the authenticity of the use of (Cascone 2014). There is generally more stones from the Berchères quarry (Cascone agreement concerning conservation work 2014). The quarry provided the stone used that would be undertaken on the stained- in the original building. In the strictly ethical glass windows of Chartres than about work codes of conservation practice, an observer on the building itself. Similar repairs and should be able to distinguish between the old, restoration of stained-glass windows have original components and the modern resto- taken place at many other cathedrals, such rations, especially when they are fashioned as York, without any controversy. This lack from the same stone used in the fabrication of of controversy may be because outsiders are the cathedral itself. The observer might be in- not aware that conservators might replace terested in learning what conservators have to missing pieces of glass with modern equiv- say about this restoration and how they inter- alents that have the same transmitted color pret it, since clearly a detailed debate among intensity, so that in some cases a stained-glass the various stakeholders is required. For ex- window is a pastiche of original and modern ample, have the principles of anastylosis been components. This argument is based entirely adhered to. If not, with what justification? on the materiality of the window rather than In the case of Chartres Cathedral, there on its aesthetic authenticity, which is usual- exists a dichotomy between what present-day ly the paramount consideration in the resto- stakeholders want and what observers more ration process. What the viewer sees is not interested in traces of the “original” might the glass itself but the light filtered through regard as appropriate in terms of restoration. the glass. However, in the case of Chartres There are two competing claims for authen- Cathedral, the conservators chose to install a ticity: one desirous of the present need to un- double-glazing system that altered the way in dertake a total restoration in terms of clean- which reflections of colored light can be ob- ing and repainting, and the other desirous served within the cathedral. The stained-glass

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restoration has been criticized by experts on glass, and therefore diffuses the trans- the Glass Is More website. Florian Lechner mitted light. Thus you don’t get the (2014) writes, “Windows that no longer patches of coloured light on the floor like spread, expand and make tangible their ra- you used to. On the other hand, from the diance and imaging in the space, become outside, the protective glazing looks like mindless, neutered, stripped of an essential the original glass and is presumably less property. This is happening in the Cathedral noticeable. Plane glass protective glaz- of Chartres.” Udo Zembok (2014), writing on ing has been criticized because, from the the same website, adds: outside, the windows look flat and fea- tureless and you get distracting reflec- I think it would be appropriate also to tions of the surroundings. So, basically, describe the changes to the light (enter- you can’t win. The approach which has ing the cathedral through the windows) been used by some English stained glass from a purely optical perspective, in oth- conservators is to use flat glass for the er words the physics. Without the ther- external protective glazing, but to break moformed glass protection, light rays it up so as to follow the main outlines of pass through the stained glass filtered the figures. That way, you still get light only by the transparent coloured glass. transmitted as before, and the reflections By the laws of physics light rays are par- as seen from the outside aren’t as notice- allel and this is what causes coloured able, though it still doesn’t look quite lights to be projected onto the walls and like the original glass. floors. By adding the external protective skin, which is translucent and thermo- Aesthetic decisions that will have different formed, the light rays are now diffused consequences have to be taken: Either the in- and enter through the coloured panes in ternal reflections and transmittable properties an indirect which in turn further of the windows will be valorized and a resto- diffuses the projected light. ration treatment that minimally affects these discernable properties will be chosen, or the The problem here is to understand exactly choice will be a treatment that places greater what has happened to the stained-glass win- emphasis on the external appearance of the dows in virtue of the thermoforming treat- windows as observed from outside the cathe- ment. Knight explains the basis of the process, dral while substantially altering the transmit- which is a commercial procedure conducted table features of the light penetrating through by the company Debitus (2016). Knight (per- both the thermoformed glass and the restored sonal communication 2016) writes: stained glass. In my opinion, the French deci- sion was ill-advised, given the extensive alter- The complaint of Zembok . . . does ap- ations already undertaken within the decora- pear to be justified. Rather than using tive schema of the cathedral. plane external glazing, which wouldn’t As regards the restoration of the building greatly affect the properties of the trans- itself, an approach that does not accord with mitted light, the thermoforming process any regard for historical value or age-value may reproduces the texture of the original be viewed as a controversial decision whose

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justification is doubtful. But if Muñoz-Viñas’s with cream-coloured paint, the resto- (2009) views regarding the entirely subjective ration means that there is a very signif- nature of decisions concerning conservation icant increase in the ambient light, as it objects are accepted, then the stakeholders re- reflects back off the whiter surfaces. The sponsible for the decision to repaint the interi- result appears to diminish considerably or of Chartres and to clean, restore, and ther- the effect of the stained-glass windows, moform the stained-glass windows are perfect- as you can see when you compare the ly free to do so if they think this is how the windows of the west end with those of cathedral should look. The present-day values the transept. The walls and ceiling of this decision invokes seem opposed to the view the transept have not been cleaned, and that Chartres is a building whose historical ex- as a consequence the colours of the rose istence in the present should be respected as windows stand out against the blackness far as possible, refraining from any attempt of the uncleaned walls. The effect is mag- to restore it to a condition that never existed ical: the rose windows look like the gates while ensuring its present-day function. of paradise. . . . The other effect of the The more conservative or literary British restoration of the interior walls and ceil- press often comments negatively on resto- ing is that it makes the restored parts of ration decisions about whose nuances it is usu- the church look brand-new. In 2017, the ally ignorant. Thus Alasdair Palmer (2012), date when the whole restoration proj- writing in the Spectator, comments that the ect should be finished, when you enter cathedral has received an ill-conceived make- Chartres cathedral you will no longer be over that has robbed us of the sense of the confronted by something that looks as if it passing of time. After agreeing that some of was built nearly 800 years ago. It will look the scenes depicted in the stained-glass win- as if it could have been finished yesterday. dows could not even be seen before cleaning, That, for the restorers, is part of the point Palmer writes: of the restoration. They have said that they want to make the church look as it But the restorers are also cleaning the would have done when it was finished in interior walls and ceiling of the church, the 13th century. But it is far from obvious and here the results are more question- what “returning the cathedral to its orig- able. The cleaning of the west end of inal state” should, or could, involve. The the church has now been completed. most natural way to interpret the idea is to Centuries of grime have been removed: say that it would mean that we could “see the stone has then been covered with a Chartres as the people who built would thin layer of plaster, and painted a cream have seen it.” That, however, is impossi- colour. Lines that look as if they follow ble. We don’t know exactly what Chartres the joints between the under-lying stones looked like 800 years ago: the restorers have been painted in a lighter colour. The know that the sculpture was painted, for bosses in the roof have been gilded. The instance, but they do not know with what capitals of the pillars have been painted a colours. They will leave the sculpture un- brilliant white. This has two effects. One coloured, which is certainly not how it is that, in replacing the blackened stone would have originally appeared.

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In Paris Match, restorer Luc Pelletier and be to add additional material to complete an Irene Jourd’heuil, curator of historic mon- aesthetic conception but to preserve the orig- uments, present the opposing view (Feron inal traces of color without repainting. There 2012). They write that the restorers “made is a tension here between attempting to create a very bold choice. For the first time in the an aesthetically uniform appearance and the history of restoration, it was decided to re- desire for preservation of the historical mate- store the interior back to its initial state. riality of the interior. Generally, restorers will go back to the last The view of critics such as Palmer restoration and if we had followed that logic, (2012) is not sufficiently differentiated. A we would have stopped at the work done in finish that is practically black because of the XIXth century.” Jourd’heuil states: “The dirt, smoke, and grime is an indication of orange ochre wash of the XIXth and XVth a lack of maintenance, not an authentic fin- centuries disintegrated easily. Below them ish of the cathedral interior revealing its the original layers of XIIIth century enduit historical presence. The cathedral is often were virtually intact clinging to a rough reviled as the “most dirty monument in the stone work foundation.” But intact for how whole of France,” and the black patina is a long? “This is the issue. For the XIIIth cen- record of the extent of air pollution over the tury original is now vividly exposed and no past 200 years rather than a reflection of the longer protected by subsequent restorations. intention of the original artists, craftsmen, If nothing is done to protect this enduit or and patrons. Criticism of the restoration, plaster, it will be black again in less than half and its consequences for the appearance of a century.” the interior, has to be separated from the The devil of these cases is in the de- effects of cleaning away decades of grime. tail. One concern, from the point of view As far as cathedrals are concerned, these of material authenticity, is why the restorers are often two separate activities, and each painted in fake lines of a whiter shade to im- has to be discussed in its own context. What itate the grouting? If the aim is to reveal the methods of cleaning are involved? Do they thirteenth-century interior finish, then it is a involve chemical application? Are the swabs matter of debate if it is reasonable or not to examined for removal of any paint along paint over the original grouting with lighter with dirt, as they were in the case of the lines in imitation of joins between contiguous Sistine Chapel? Were the revealed surfac- blocks of stone. An approach that would re- es consolidated? If fifteenth-century paint spect the historical authenticity of the different is removed, how can it be determined that time periods represented in the multilayered no thirteenth-century finish was affected? Chartres interior would be to preserve selected Repainting the entire decorative scheme to areas of the different finishes in certain areas of simulate the original painted decoration is the cathedral to allow the fifteenth- and nine- problematic because it may create a histor- teenth-century finishes to be observed, as well ical fiction if carried to excess, making the as to preserve a section of the grimy surface of interior of the cathedral appear as if it had the twentieth century as a reminder of what been painted last week. The list of questions has been removed. The intention in these is long and requires detailed publication by twenty-first-century restorations should not the restorers to answer them.

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Figure 3.4. The Black Madonna of Chartres before restoration. In some areas, the appearance suggests that the black or dark gray patina has been worn away to the wooden base of the sculpture. While differ- entiated, the surfaces are not unattractive and possess an appearance of age. (Image in the public domain)

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Figure 3.5. The Black Madonna of Chartres after restoration. The black faces have been complete- ly repainted to match white flesh, with rosy cheeks. (Image courtesy of Meredith Cohen)

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The windows, which have already been the centuries, which is part of the historical discussed, are a different matter. The in- realization of the passage of time for the win- ternal decay of the glass, and the resulting dows. No value was placed on the corroded accumulation of obscuring salts and deposits state of the stained-glass windows: they are such as syngenite, means that conservation there to let in the colored light and to illu- of the stained-glass windows, often involv- minate the story or images they depict. They ing replacement of cames and of missing or are not there to be preserved as historical heavily deteriorated fragments of glass, is testimonies to decay, despite the regrettable less controversial. The aim is to stabilize the decision of the French authorities to install windows, clean the glass, and position the thermoformed coverings. glass securely to allow light to penetrate as The case of Chartres is quite different originally intended. No one argued that the from that of Reims, the latter being partially patina of age needed to be kept to preserve destroyed by German bombing during the the authenticity of material degradation over First World War, on September 20, 1914.

Figure 3.6. The Cathedral of Reims as a ruin following German bombing in 1914. The cathedral’s authentic condition could also be considered to be its state as a ruin, but the cathedral will be re- built as a replica of itself. Replication is an essential function of human intervention with decayed originals whose desired function cannot be negated. Here the Rieglian use-value again takes prece- dence over historical authenticity. (Image courtesy of the Dayton Marian Postcard Collection)

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The Grand Midland Hotel

Scaffolding that had been erected around the as a symbol of rebirth after the devastation north tower caught fire, which spread to all of World War I, all of which demanded the parts of the wooden superstructure. The lead reconstruction of the building as a replica of of the roofs melted and poured through the itself to fulfill these requirements, its pres- stone gargoyles, destroying in turn the bish- ent condition being incompatible with its op’s palace. The partial destruction of Reims intended use. Cathedral was used in a propaganda cam- paign by the French against the Germans, The Grand Midland Hotel blaming them for the deliberate destruction Many buildings are subject to a precarious of many historic buildings in France, with existence once their original function is no regard to their universal human value. It over. England has demolished scores of fine is somewhat ironic that a Christian nation Victorian buildings that were deemed by the such as Germany would target Christian authorities to have outlived their purposes monuments such as Rheims for destruction, or that stood obstinately in the way of tower but such is the lack of any real regard, in an blocks for the working classes in the 1960s authentic sense, for Christian values: nations or car parks for the middle classes in the are better at lip service than at the principles 1970s. Witness the events surrounding the of conservation of historic structures, even if near-demolition of ’s they practice the same faith. Grand Midland Hotel at St. Pancras, North Restoration work began in 1919, un- London, which for decades was misused der the direction of Henri Deneux, a na- as a collection of dowdy offic- tive of Reims and chief architect of the es and storerooms, with rubbish, discarded Monuments Historiques; the cathedral was box tops, obsolete signs, piles of old paper, fully reopened in 1938, just in time for the broken glass, and cracked windows covered outbreak of the Second World War. The with dense layers of grime visible from the reconstruction of Reims is quite a different Euston Road. matter from the restoration of Chartres. This state of shocking destitution en- Leaving Reims as a ruin would have been a tailed the entire building being recom- reminder of German bombing and the hid- mended for closure as a fire hazard, being eous destruction that the First World War deserted by British Rail, and being ripe brought to Europe (Reims Cathedral 2016). for potential demolition, before Sir John Some might argue that this, in fact, was the Betjeman (1906–1984) took up the cudgels authentic state of the cathedral at that stage and fought for the hotel as few others at the in its life: a charred ruin. Any attempt to time were prepared to do. I cycled past the re-create something from the burned build- neglected hotel for more than 28 years, from ing would, by definition, be inauthentic be- 1959 to 1987, often wondering why on earth cause the only authentic state is the state in such a magnificent building in the center of which it exists in the present. An heuristic London was not fulfilling its authentic pur- view of its existence, on the other hand, pose and function: it seemed very sad as well might consider that the reconstruction ame- as an outrage of undeserved neglect. The liorated part of the scars of war, made the poem Buildings in Need by Keely Mills (2009) much-loved building usable again, and stood is very germane to our discussions here:

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There is Poetry in the Walls Never stop listening to the tales, that are recorded in the walls. Stories trapped in brick, that ache to be told. Slithers of epics that breathe from out of gates and guildhalls. All past kisses and their hopes gathered in. Conserve every detail, as though sweeping off dust from a jewel. Buildings can be demolished like love pacts. Scrubbed away, one day strong like the ground beneath, then— scratched from the view, without a slab to see. Look up at edifices till the sky bleeds into every aspect, bring to light— the possibilities that beat from within. Understand that even hollow spaces are not empty, just uncharted prospects. Look down and you will not see the same old street, instead a platform where markets bustled and brimmed with traders and town subjects. Look closer and there are masterclasses, Where lions fight unicorns and kings from centuries sit above, watching. Treat the heart of the city as though it was indeed your own, crystallized. Appreciate its jagged curves and doors. Delight in its finery, the nuts and bolts which make it peculiar and prized. There is poetry in the walls and you must listen harder to hear it, stare closer to see it, become aware that— The buildings that surround you need a to stop and recognise.

In the case of St. Pancras, the champion who the face of a familiar friend, as Prince Charles stopped and recognized the authentic worth of once wrote of the National Gallery extensions, the building was Sir . The line but in keeping with the desire to enhance the “conserve every detail as though sweeping dust restored original. There are debates as to how off a jewel” is an apt description of the degree successful certain parts of the restoration have of care the trained conservator brings to his been in keeping to the aims and design of the or her work in the act of preservation. original work, an inherent problem with many When the tide of opinion turned against architectural replicas. the authorities as a result of Betjeman’s pro- In the first stanza of “East Croker” from tests and those of others, the entire structure Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) writes: was turned from a shabby and disused British Rail office into a Grade I–listed building to be In my beginning is my end. In succession saved for a new purpose: to be a five-star hotel, Houses rise and fall, crumble, are not of great utility to the neighborhood’s impe- extended, cunious inhabitants, such as myself, but at least Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in the totally refurbished building would perform their place a function akin to a resurrection. Various ad- Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass. ditions were made to the structure (Pearman Old stone to new building, old timber to 2009), hopefully seen not as a carbuncle on new fires,

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The Grand Midland Hotel

Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth another bypass. This is a more sympathetic Which is already flesh, fur, and faeces, approach to the varying diachronic function Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf. of buildings than many allow for in account- Houses live and die: there is a time for ing for the restoration of Uppark. For where building one might see only philosophic confusion, And a time for living and for generation a cogent argument for the actions that took And a time for the wind to break the place could be envisaged. loosened pane Different buildings may require different approaches to their conservation or restoration, The recognition by Eliot (1943) that the all the way from age-value to relative art-value, building still exists despite being extend- from historical continuity to aesthetic appre- ed, removed, or restored allows it to live in ciation, from adaptive reuse to demolition. different contexts before it makes way for When viewed from this perspective, there is

Figure 3.7. Hotel designed by George Gilbert Scott at St. Pancras, North London. In the 1860s Scott won a competition to design a new hotel for St. Pancras, entering after the contest deadline had closed. He got the contract, and the hotel opened in 1873 at twice the proposed budget. By 1935 it had closed due to running costs. For 50 years it was misused as neglected offices for British Rail. Parts of the build- ing would sporadically fall off, creating lawsuits for damages. Closed as a fire risk and almost scheduled for demolition, the building was championed by Sir John Betjeman and saved at a cost of £250 million. Many features are replicas of the authentic original, reflecting a desire to return to the past of Scott’s creation. (Image courtesy of Valerie Ann Scott)

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no philosophic confusion over which approach a different sense than the original, much as to take regarding Uppark, only a series of nothing of such historic homes is ever tru- choices based on an assessment of which values ly original to its maker. Such homes usually are inherent in the conservation options open shoulder numerous accretions, additions, or to us. Uppark could have been judged purely alterations of the original fabric to accommo- on age-value and left in the condition in which date the changing use of the structure. The the fire created for it in 1989, its authentic state fire itself will become a historic event in the at that time. Or it could have been completely future, so that others, looking back on this reconstructed as an aesthetic object, its relative tragic event, will be able to contemplate it as art-value being evaluated as more important to part of the ever-evolving history of Uppark. emphasize than its age-value, and its authentic In any case, England has plenty of ad- existence based on its aesthetics. mired Ruskinesque ruins, quietly moldering One could also argue that its historical away, and there is general agreement that existence has been kept alive, since the alter- these form part of the landscape, a landscape ative, undertaking no reconstruction, would that has an authenticity of its own in terms of probably have resulted in demolition of the being subject to no need for restoration and building altogether. The decision regarding no need for reconstruction. The ruin under- which way to proceed involved all who had an going a process of natural decay in its native interest in the process of conservation, and a landscape has long been an object of romantic consensus to attempt a complete reconstruc- fascination with time and decay. Of course, as tion was reached. It was not a decision made Lowenthal (1985) would point out, some of in haste by one individual; it was the con- these ruins are themselves romantic falsifi- sidered view of the National Trust as to the cations of an imagined past that should have philosophical approach to be taken regarding existed but never did. The need of the pres- Uppark’s present existence. The future use ent to invent historic ruins, such as a roman- of the building may incorporate the story of tic folly, represents a desire for a past whose its burning and the continuation of its life in authenticity has been created in the present.

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Chapter 4 Different Approaches to Authenticity

Michelangelo’s Pietà The Forgers van Meegeren and Bastianini Philosophers on Restoration Craft vs Art Degrees of Restoration Fields of Authenticity Authenticity and Culture Problems of Indistinguishability

A major problem for the philosophy of art on the one hand, and the philosophy of perception on the other, concerns the range and scope of seeing-in. —Richard Wollheim, Art and Its Objects

Introduction Another important example for discussion is This chapter gives attention to philosophical that of Michelangelo’s Pietà, which has also arguments pertaining to authenticity and res- been used extensively in philosophical discus- toration, and how the perception of authen- sions of restoration. This chapter also touch- ticity affects the works of artist-forgers such es on a host of other issues regarding authen- as , whose case is frequent- ticity, including authenticity and rehabilita- ly cited in the philosophical literature on au- tion and the problems of indistinguishability, thenticity and is often used as a study of the which are important in discussions relating problem of distinguishing between authentic to both restoration and . There is works of art and their inauthentic imitators. some dispute regarding whether forgeries are

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works of craft or works of art. This chapter art historians, or poorly served in terms of as- takes up this in attempting to extend the dis- sessing or evaluating the actions conservators cussion regarding artistic forgeries and relat- and restorers take in their interactions with art ed issues back in time to earlier epochs. objects or indeed the nature of artworks them- Art historians, conservators, and philoso- selves. This fragmentation of the hermeneutic phers all approach the issues involved in the inquiry into the topic continues to create bar- authenticity, conservation, and restoration of riers to communication. This chapter aims, in art differently, which has had a major impact part, to uncover and discuss these issues. on the discussion of art fakes and forgeries. Scholars in these subject disciplines often en- Michelangelo’s Pietà gage in a discussion of authenticity without Mark Sagoff (1978a), in his paper on restoring having read what the other disciplines have and reproducing art, suggests that authenticity to say about the subject, which in the case is a necessary condition of aesthetic value— of art objects results in a fragmented field of that a work of art cannot be appreciated simply inquiry into the same kinds of objects. This for its appearance or for the feelings it induces situation has conservational, philosophical, but must be appreciated for other conceptual art historical, and practical consequences for factors. In practice, this is not always the case, the works themselves and some of the the- and some admired artworks may indeed be ories of art and aesthetics that are written quite recent forgeries, known and accepted as about them. It also influences the approaches such, but that retain an aesthetic value. to restoration, nonrestoration, derestoration Sagoff (1978a) takes this position in oppo- or rerestoration. Thus conservators rarely sition to the views of Arthur Koestler (1965), mention the work of Denis Dutton (1983a, who maintained that if a forgery produced the 1983b, 2003), Mark Sagoff (1978a), Richard same aesthetic effect as a genuine work of art, Wollheim (1980), Nelson Goodman (1968, then insistence that the forgery was inferior 1983), Arthur C. Danto (1981), or Sándor to the genuine work was a kind of snobbery. Radnóti (1999), while philosophers rarely Sagoff (1978a) maintains that it is relatively mention the work of conservators and re- easy for a skilled forger to create a version of storers such as Cesare Brandi (2007), Paul an original painting from 200 years ago. In Philippot (1965), Chris Caple (2000), or fact, the problem is to reproduce the deterio- Salvador Muñoz-Viñas (2009a, 2009b, 2011); ration the work has undergone. art historians such as Ernst Gombrich (1956, These are indeed two separate phenome- 1962, 1978), James Beck (Beck and Daley na: the ability to produce an indistinguishable 1996), and Martin Kemp (2006) do not men- copy of an original, and the ability to artifi- tion the work of Kneller, Goodman, Danto, cially mimic natural degradation of the art- Brandi, Lowenthal, or Philippot. work. However, Sagoff does not engage with In a field with such potential for transdis- the ability of scientific examination to distin- ciplinary communication, these missing in- guish between a painting from the eighteenth terconnections between scholars undermines century and a twenty-first-century copy of the possible between disciplines and an eighteenth-century painting, regardless of leaves conservation and restoration, in partic- the art historical connoisseurship brought to ular, often misunderstood by philosophers or bear on the problem, which may not be able

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to reach a satisfactory conclusion. The premise produced by the original artist, can be shown. of this argument is therefore false, but is not Sagoff thinks that in some cases, a purist res- the principal thrust of Sagoff’s article, which toration is safe while an integral one may is more interesting. A theme often explored further damage a work of art. In the case of in contemporary aesthetics is that fabrication the Pietà, a plaster cast had been taken in the processes used to create a work of art and 1940s, and replacement parts made up of mar- their epistemology have nothing to do with ble dust bound with a synthetic polymer were the actual appreciation of the work, that only molded in the casting shell used to produce the the aesthetics of the surface matter, and that plaster replica. Sagoff says that the purist has the perceptual object is simply the carrier of missed the point—that one cannot object to the aesthetic message or feeling. These argu- the integral repair on principle and still assume ments in aesthetics have received attention that the value of a work of art depends solely from scores of authors as a result of Nelson on its appearance. He says that the authentic Goodman’s seminal publication, Languages of and the inauthentic are aesthetically different, Art, in 1968. The book compares the aesthetic not necessarily because they look different but effect of a perfect forgery with the effect de- because they are different things. rived from the real artwork, a topic that will This idea pertains to the arguments of be discussed later. Sagoff uses restoration work Goodman (1968), who says that a musical carried out on Michelangelo’s Pietà to high- performance of is still a work by Bach, light his discussion of restoration. even if played by two different orchestras In 1972 a crazed geologist attacked the in two slightly different ways. He calls such sculpture with a hammer, shouting, “I am works that adhere to notation the allograph- Christ.” He broke the arm of the Madonna, ic arts. But no notation decides whether two knocked off her nose, and badly chipped her sculptures are instances of the same work, left eye and her veil. Onlookers took away and these works are called autographic arts by many of the shattered fragments of marble. Goodman. Goodman concludes that the only Mary’s nose had to be reconstructed from a way to identify whether or not a painting, block cut out of her back. The complete res- such as and the Blind Tobit, was made by toration disguises any visual evidence of the Rembrandt is to establish that it is the actual attack, although restored areas can be seen object made by Rembrandt and that it con- under ultraviolet examination. Some scholars forms to the class of paintings that experts doubt that the position of the restored fingers have decided are by Rembrandt. matches Michelangelo’s original. As a result of In some cases, what Goodman assumes protective measures taken to ensure that this by establishing whether a work is by a par- kind of damage cannot occur again, the sculp- ticular painter or not must rely not on visu- ture can now be viewed only through bullet- al evidence but on evidence hidden beneath proof glass. Sagoff distinguishes between an the outer layer of paint. A good example of integral restoration, which provides new pieces this kind of perceptual issue is the discovery in place of original fragments that have been of a copy of Raphael’s long-lost Madonna and destroyed, and a purist restoration, which lim- Child in Alnwick Castle, Northamptonshire, its itself to reattaching original fragments and by Nicholas Penny in 1991. This copy, in fact, asserts that nothing inauthentic, nothing not was the original Raphael and not a copy at all.

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Figure 4.1 Pietà by Michelangelo, 1498–1499, St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Marble; 174 x 195 cm. Four fingers on Mary’s left hand were broken during a move and were restored in 1736. Twenty- four known replicas by various artists exist. One, in Ninh Binh, Vietnam, has been destroyed (Hibbard 1974). (Image courtesy of Stanislav Traykov, Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0)

The evidence for this decision was based on be produced or reproduced in the same way an infrared reflectographic image of the de- one can create a painting in imitation of, or tailed underdrawing of the picture, which as a copy of, an original based on only what would have been beyond the capacity of any is visually observable. This dual connoisseur- copyist to produce (Penny 1992; Roy 2007). ship, of the art historian (Penny 1992) who The underdrawing would have been covered recognizes quality commensurate with an by paint applied by the original artist, and original, and the scientist (Roy 2007) who is drawings from an artist’s own hand cannot able to compare an underdrawing with other

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infrared reflectrograms of paintings known to therefore be visually distinguished from the have been produced by Raphael, has resulted original using special lighting arrangements. in the copy now becoming the original. The outstretched left hand of the Madonna In the case of the Pietà, Sagoff, while ad- is mostly an eighteenth-century restoration, miring the completion of the work, comes but this integral restoration, in Sagoff’s terms, around to the view that the thinking that was executed in marble and will not show an motivates an integral restoration is probably ultraviolet fluorescence as will a twentieth- wrong in that it completes a work of art with century restoration made out of marble dust material that can no longer be seen as form- and synthetic resin. Restorations at different ing part of the original. historical moments have utilized the same If a restoration incites the same feeling, kinds of substances that the work was com- experience, or aesthetic appreciation as the posed of, namely marble, and totally different undamaged statue, does this matter? The res- substances, such as a synthetic resin filled with toration of the Pietà, according to Sagoff, can marble powder, whose long-term stability is easily be examined in its heavily damaged con- always in doubt but which enables the purist to dition under ultraviolet light, as all the restored view the additional restorations under ultravi- parts produce a bright green fluorescence. As olet light. The unity of the image, in Brandi’s far as conservation ethics are concerned, this terms, is what is important here for the observ- approach to restoration is permissible in the er, and there is always a danger that different sense that restorers are adhering to the prin- campaigns of restoration result in varying aes- ciple of reversibility, or at least retreatability. thetic judgments about veracity, authenticity, or Since no conservation actions taken regarding physical and chemical stability. Compensation for a work of art are truly reversible in the scientif- loss has been provided in the twentieth century ic understanding of that concept, perhaps the for parts known to have been shattered with a action should be described as discernible. But do hammer and, more speculatively in the eigh- observers want these restorations to be visually teenth century, with creation of an outstretched discernible? To be visually discernible would left hand. If the purist might object to any con- not accord with the idea of the aesthetic com- servation action, it is the eighteenth-century pletion of the image. restoration, but few would argue that these The argument that Sagoff makes in his should now be removed from the sculpture in article is hard to follow. He does not men- order for us to better appreciate the unrestored tion the well-known conservation concept masterpiece. But there are sculptures for which of anastylosis, in which the aim, set out in restored completions have been removed, re- the Athens Conference of 1931, is to repair turning the sculpture to a fragmentary authen- a monument or work of art using the origi- ticity rather than a state of aesthetic completion. nal components and incorporating additions Examples include sculptures from the island of that can be visually discernible from the orig- Aegina, discussed later in this book. inal, avoiding any charges of falsification of In claiming that art objects are appreciated the original artwork. In the case of the Pietà, in terms of things that are loved, as individual it could be argued that the principles of ana- entities rather than as Platonic Ideals, Sagoff stylosis have been upheld, since the restored endorses the view that love is based on the parts fluoresce under ultraviolet light and can characteristics of a particular individual (or a

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particular work of art), not a set of enjoyable As a consequence of inherent vice, the characteristics, a philosophy associated with artwork bears within its material composi- Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle em- tion the seeds of its own inevitable disin- phasizes the primacy of the person; one loves tegration. In the case of Naum Gabo’s cel- the individual one knows, not his or her lulose acetate or cellulose nitrate originals qualities per se. Many observers appreciate that have become undisplayable, unless one the Pietà in this Aristotelian way—that is, as wishes to contemplate the act of disintegra- a particular object with a particular history tion itself, which is also a part of the au- and not merely as a bearer of properties, says thentically postmodern approach to art, the Sagoff, who suggests that justification for the contemplation of decay as a work of art is integral repair of a work of art can be scruti- now a reflection of the artistic process of nized under the umbrella of four principles: creation and may actually constitute it in cases where the artist considers inherent Individualizing: works of art are not decay to be part of the function and meaning interchangeable unless, among others, of the artwork in itself. they are instances of the same work. The four criteria individualizing, histor- Appreciation is historical, because it ical, relational, and cognitive deserve further identifies an art work as the result of a attention. They seem to have been rarely particular process; it is relational in that evaluated by other scholars. it judges a work so identified, in the Under individualizing, if a work of art is context of others similar to it in period, an example of the same object, it can still be place, and kind. Appreciation is cogni- seen as an individual and authentic produc- tive, finally, because our feelings make tion. Additional legitimizing circumstances us aware of the properties, not merely can result in a copy of a work being regard- the surfaces, of things. ed as authentic—for example, if the copy is actually produced by the artist himself. Of course, very little of what Sagoff has to An example is the bronze casting of the God say applies to modern works of art in which Mars by Giambologna (1529–1608), which the original work has long since decayed exists in about 14 authentic replicas. Many away and been replaced with a surrogate of copies were produced after the artist’s death itself, an entirely new work that in one sense by his successor Pietro Tacca and in the pretends to be the original work. Some of nineteenth and early twentieth century by Naum Gabo’s sculptures are examples of this unknown Italian foundries and more re- ethical or restorative problem, as they have cently by Francesca Bewer, the latter strict- been replaced with exact replicas of the orig- ly for study purposes. The term historical inals, although exact here does not mean that refers to processes by which the artwork the materials used to make the surrogates are was made. The degradation that many art- the same as those Gabo used, only that they works undergo over time could be included appear visually to be the same as the origi- as an essential concomitant of the histori- nals at the time the surrogates were placed cal component. By this means an observer on display. A surrogate may not age in the could distinguish copies of the God Mars same way as the original work either. produced in 2012 from those produced in

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Historical Individualizing

Relational Cognitive

Figure 4.2. Concepts important for establishing authenticity, based on Mark Sagoff’s ideas: Unique works are appreciated not interchangeably but because of their individual properties (individualizing); awareness of works is in the context of the art and its history of production (cognitive); the work is evaluated in the context of other similar works of art in terms of period, place, style, or materials (rela- tional); processes by which the artwork is made are extended to include possible degradation over time (historical). These concepts are not mutually exclusive. (Diagram by the author)

1785. Relational refers to judging a work of works are multiple: capable, in principle, of art in comparison with other known works having multiple instances. In principle, it is and creations of the presumed period of possible for there to be as many instances of manufacture. Under the category cognitive, a painting as there are instances of a novel. the viewer is aware of not just surfaces but Currie (1989:8) writes. “Thus the theory I also feelings associated with a bronze pro- propose is monistic in two ways; it says that duced by Giambologna, or the foundry with there is only one kind of thing that a work of which he was associated, rather than those art is, and it says that there is only one kind associated with a recent copy finished by of relation between a work of art and its in- the author or even one fabricated by Pietro stances.” He also holds that works of art are Tacca in Florence after the artist’s death. action types and that all kinds of works belong One of the few cogent arguments relat- to the same ontological category, which he ing to Sagoff’s paper is the discussion of- calls the action type hypothesis (ATH). Sagoff, fered by Gregory Currie (1989), partly be- however, following Goodman (1968, 1983), cause Sagoff is a firm advocate of resistance argues that the authentic and the inauthen- to the instance multiplicity hypothesis (IMH), tic are aesthetically different, not necessarily much discussed by Currie in his ontologi- because they look different but because they cal studies. The IMH states that all kinds of are different things.

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opposed to an individual.) At the end Reconsidering Categories of of your remarks on Sagoff, you say that Restoration: A Commentary Sagoff makes it sound as if all changes to UCLA philosopher Andrew Hsu responded an artwork compromise our relationship to my request for his take on the four cate- to that individual. I agree that Sagoff gories suggested by Sagoff. His thoughts makes it sound that way, but this sec- are of some interest here, since few philos- ond strand in the article is independent ophers have had anything to say in response of the first and, in fact, in some tension to Sagoff’s theory. Hsu (personal communica- with it. When Sagoff writes of artworks tion 2014) writes: as historical and material links to partic- ular artists, builders, etc., he seems to be I’ve been thinking about what you write thinking of durable objects, ones which about Sagoff. You make it clear that actu- are not in the normal course of events al cases (Gabo . . .) are a challenge to his maintained by replacement of parts, re- view. He would at the very least have to painting, etc., etc. He thinks of marble elaborate his ideas even to address your statues rather than of wooden temples, cases. It appears to me there are a couple e.g. In the latter case, changes of mate- of different strands in Sagoff’s thinking. rial composition are from the beginning The more prominent and important one envisaged to keep the object in existence. is the claim that aesthetic appreciation I can imagine someone who thinks and value are “individualizing” (and, “These are the very timbers shaped by therefore, historical). Aesthetic appreci- builders of old” being saddened by the ation and value attach to individuals as discovery that the timbers have been re- opposed to sets of properties or expe- placed many times— Sagoff sounds like riences that individuals stimulate. This such a person—But this attitude is differ- claim doesn’t imply that fakes, copies, or ent from the “individualizing” attitude integral restorations have to be bad (or which Sagoff insists on as part of aesthet- even inferior to originals). A copy that a ic appreciation. It requires a different ex- great artist makes of an original might be planation. To be fair, the cases of resto- interesting and valuable in ways the orig- ration Sagoff mentions differ from rou- inal is not. Your observation that “some tine maintenance. Sagoff seems to think admired artworks may indeed be quite that integral restoration of the Pietà isn’t recent forgeries, known and accepted as merely a modification of an artwork by such, but . . . retain aesthetic value” is Michelangelo, but the conversion of consistent with Sagoff’s main idea. (He a Michelangelo into a Michelangelo- may have some [ethical?] objection to de Campos, as it were: One individual fakes, because they can—and are intend- work of art—a Michelangelo—is lost ed to—confuse our relationships with and replaced by a hybrid entity. Sagoff individual artworks and the artists who evidently thinks of this as a bad thing, produced them—but that’s a different though it doesn’t strictly follow from the problem from getting attached to a mere general thesis that aesthetic appreciation bundle of properties or experiences as individualizes. That thesis applies to all

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sorts of artworks—but it will apply to possible diachronic degradation that the art- different kinds of artworks (allographic, work may be subjected to, is relevant to the autographic, material, immaterial . . .) in hermeneutic concerns here. As an example, different ways. Sagoff is relying on an consider, for the sake of argument, an artwork intuition about when a particular mate- in a condition created by burial, a miniature rial artwork passes out of existence. For portrait bust of a Roman woman in the col- him, the Michelangelo is rather like a lections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, shown saint’s relic; replacing bits the originator in Figure 4.3 on the left. The bust is shown touched endangers its existence. People in a conserved state in Figure 4.3 on the sympathetic to Sagoff’s general thesis right. Neither of these conditions represents that aesthetic appreciation individualiz- the appearance and condition of the origi- es may not agree with Sagoff about the nal bronze, which would have either been a particular case. bright yellowish or golden bronze or a toned bronze with a thin glaze or patina. Neither Currie (1989:93) finds some agreement of the present states represents its original with the four categories outlined by Sagoff physical form. There is no reasonable case to but does not think that from any of these be made that the appearance of this bronze as criteria the original painting can be aesthet- instantiated in its condition from burial could ically separated from instances of its copies. ever be satisfactorily replicated by a copy that Currie’s arguments, however, are principally could not be distinguished aesthetically from concerned with examples from the fields of the buried bronze bust in its uncleaned con- literature and music, which may not be com- dition. There has been a fundamental alter- parable to those of works of the visual arts. ation to the instance of the work in a sense In discussion of how the same considerations entirely different from the degradation of an apply to music, Currie (1989:94) states that to early literary Roman manuscript on parch- appreciate a musical work is to understand the ment, which can be read and deciphered. composer’s use of musical conventions, the The Latin text of the manuscript can be historical context of what he has produced, deciphered and read, just as it was read 2,000 and the relational properties of it compared years ago, but the appearance of the bronze with other musical compositions to which it bust as it was 2,000 years ago cannot be might be connected, as well as the individual re-created. Additionally, endless digital cop- achievements of the composer. He says that ies of the Roman text can be made and dis- what is needed here, and what Sagoff does seminated around the globe. Copies of the not provide, is a premise that points to fea- uncleaned Roman bust from burial can be tures possessed by paintings and sculptures, fabricated, perhaps using a very sophisticated and not by literary and musical works, and three-dimensional printer, but the pustular that indicates how the possession of these degradation of the bronze would be only an features in the one case and their lack in the imitative version of its morphology, not the other makes painting singular but literature substance of its formation itself. If an attempt not. What is needed, he says, is a differential was made to clean the pustule, feel it with a explanation. But the diagram in Figure 2.2, fingernail, or reveal the pitted surface of the included within the historical context, the corroded bronze, the deception would be all

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too obvious. Deterioration due to age cannot cleaned and removed. Stylistic mimicry of be replicated in the same way that deteriora- the uncleaned bronze is possible, but the cre- tion due to age has formed from the original ation of a perfectly indistinguishable replica material of the bust per se. would not be possible. The corrosion could The superficial appearance of a perfect be mimicked but not reproduced. Unlike the three-dimensional representation would not exact three-dimensional copy, the original be the same as the representation the artwork has a dynamic interaction with time in the creates for itself, from time and its internal form of bronze disease, which renders the degradation. Broadly the same criticisms cleaned bust metastable rather than stable of Currie’s instance multiplicity hypothesis (Scott 2002). This metastable equilibrium are made by Noël Carroll (1998:221), who has nothing to do with the original condition discusses how this theory could possibly ap- of the bust but everything to do with its dia- ply to site-specific artwork such as Robert chronic degradation. Smithson’s (1938–1973) Spiral Jetty (1970), The arguments concerning purist as op- which was created in the Great Salt Lake posed to integral restoration raised by Sagoff in in Utah, a site known for unique algae that 1978 became of interest to philosophers again produced the reddish tonality sought by the after a 30-year hiatus. For example, Caroline artist. What was to be appreciated in terms Korsmeyer (2008) asks the pertinent ques- of the artwork was the shifting physical tion: How restored is too restored? Invoking appearance of the work as the water lev- the Rieglian (1982 [1903]) age-value, she asks el changed. The vicissitudes that artworks how much original construction must be re- of this kind undergo in the course of time tained for age-value to remain? are part of their existence qua works of art, Rafael De Clercq (2013) offers the re- deliberately sought in many cases by the ply, “A work is too restored if the purpose artist and therefore part of a continuum of of restoration could have been achieved in a events in time that cannot be replicated. The less invasive way, in particular, by preserving Roman head and Spiral Jetty cannot be mul- more of the (original) parts of the work and tiples of themselves because the processes of by adding fewer new ‘parts.’” There are two alteration, mineralization, and degradation issues here: first the problem of visual dis- are not seen as a multiplicity of repeatable cernment of any restored areas, and secondly events of these instances. the problem of adding new parts. In terms of Figure 4.3 illustrates the Roman bust in the forgery by Jef van der Veken of a paint- two of its three possible states. This Roman ing by Roger van der Weyden, discussed in women would have worn gold earrings, now chapter 1, an ethical approach to completion lost. Her hair is shown in a complicated of the image would have allowed a visual or braided and knotted style popular during the technically achievable discernibility to areas reign of Emperor Augustus. The fine detail inpainted by van der Veken. The question of the hair required much hand carving to of age-value is secondary here because van sharpen the contours from the cast condi- der Veken would have made every attempt to tion. The pustular corrosion is due to bronze retain the original vestiges of the work; any disease, and the cleaned version on the right additional loss would be counterproductive. is still potentially unstable with the pustules De Clercq’s view (2013) that the restoration

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Figure 4.3. Miniature Roman portrait bust of a woman, 25 B.C.E.–25 C.E.; 16.5 x 6.7 cm. Left: the unrestored bust. Right: after cleaning and stabilization. Possibly kept in a shrine, the bust retains inlaid eyes of glass paste—an unusual survival, as the eyes are usually lost. (Image courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu) could have been achievable in a less invasive materials employed by the original artist. It way, by adding fewer new “parts” in accord would ensure that any restoration work on with the principles of minimum intervention, the painting was reversible or retreatable and also misses the point here. The intervention could be discerned by commonly available has to be seen for what it is, and not be con- methods of examination, such as UV pho- fused with the original via efforts to match tography. The problem is that with so much the binding media, craquelure, and pigments of the artwork missing, van der Veken effec- of the remaining painted surface. Fewer new tively invented what van der Weyden may “parts” could not be used because the im- have intended, but this restoration was not age would be aesthetically incomplete, but based on any evidence of what the original completion by adhering to modern resto- artist had produced. It represents a skillful ration philosophy would not involve using surmise by the restorer.

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In earlier centuries, such as the sixteenth aesthetic properties it presently has but not in through the nineteenth, restorers often “cor- respect of properties it timelessly has. These rected” sculpture or paintings to accord with timeless properties are seen as fixed around the taste of the time, seen as giving relevance the time of completion of the work, an inter- to older costumes or idioms (Darrow 2001; esting metaphysical concept that is further Giusti 1999; Talley 1998). Even during the discussed by De Clercq (2013), who main- early modern period, from about 1900 to tains that a particular conception of the rela- 1970, Brandi’s axiom that only the material of tionship between aesthetic and artistic value the work of art should be restored, that the in the context of restoration debates may have work should not be adulterated by fanciful in- to be adopted—that artistic value is a proper- ventions, was often not adhered to. ty of the work at a particular time, close to its De Clercq (2013) divides his discussion fabrication, while aesthetic value can change of restoration into two questions: What is over time, showing that artistic value is not restoration supposed to achieve, and what entirely the same as aesthetic value. are the means that a restorer can legitimate- To the objection that the work may not be ly employ? These questions become entan- in its optimal condition at the time of com- gled with ontological problems and issues pletion, De Clercq (2013) replies that the surrounding the identity of artworks, as well condition is principally determined by the as their perceptual and aesthetic properties artist’s intention. For example, the artist may (Carroll 1998; Danto 1981, 2007). De Clercq have the intention that a patina will develop. (2013:27) concludes, The desire for degradation is an intention expressed by several contemporary artists, The purpose of restoration is not to which provides some evidence to support reveal the inalienable perceptual and De Clercq’s claim regarding restoration and aesthetic properties of a work, either intention (see also Heidegger 2008 [1935– by changing its appearance (Wollheim 1937]). However, there are instances in which 1980) or by changing its current per- the desired aesthetic appearance associated ceptual properties (Savile 1993a, 1993b). with a work of art is not dependent on the in- Rather, the purpose of restoration is to tention of the artist but on subsequent diage- return or leave intact those perceptual netic processes. Some of these processes may properties that the artist intended the entail a dramatic alteration of the appearance work to have and which, at some point of the work. after completion, it actually had. Consider a Chinese bronze ding from the Warring States period, inlaid with copper The point of the reference to Richard strips and malachite intaglio (Scott 2002). In Wollheim (1980) concerns his statement the original state, the ding would have dis- about the incorruptible nature of a work of played yellow, golden-colored bronze, with a art, regardless of whether some of its percep- contrasting inlay of subtle reddish copper and tual properties are now very different than green malachite. It could be artificially pati- those created by the artist, while Savile (1968, nated at this stage, but that does not affect the 1983) states that an artwork can under- logic of the present argument. Thousands of go changes in respect of the perceptual and years later, the ding now displays a variegated

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malachite patina interspersed with bright red obliterates are not expected to be significant cuprite, which obscures the bronze metal com- for future observers; the third, that present- pletely. A liver-red cuprite covers the copper ing the object in its original state is worth the strips, and the slightly darker green of the loss of historical information embedded in original malachite inlay can be seen, the entire the object. The shift from truth-based theo- ding partially covered with a burial concretion. ries of conservation to the meanings associ- A restoration intervention that attempted to ated with objects ascribed by contemporary recover the original appearance of the bronze, observers, advocated by Muñoz-Viñas (2011), or some earlier condition of it, would destroy allows for an entire panorama of legitimate the aesthetic of the aged patina and corrosion, debates based on the relative significance of which has come to be valued highly in ancient the states of the artwork. Chinese bronze vessels. Here, our own cultur- al norms are imposed on what the desired aes- Artworks and Manuscripts thetic appearance of the vessel actually is, re- Some of the material conditions of paintings gardless of the intentions of the original artist. and sculptures are not possessed by works of During restoration, the burial concretion will literature or musical performances. The abil- be removed, but the deeply corroded surface ity to reproduce the text of a 2,000-year-old will be left intact as the conservator skillfully Latin manuscript shows that once the text works to retain the vestigial “original surface” has been replicated, it will not continue to of the bronze, now embedded in a mass of cor- degrade. Although Goodman’s distinction rosion products (Bertholon 2001, 2004; Organ between the autographic and allographic arts 1963; Scott 2002). has been criticized as not always applicable, in The problem with De Clercq’s (2013) that a piece of music could actually be a fake principal conclusion is that it is insufficient- performance of the original work (Dutton ly labile: Not only are there good reasons for 1983a), there is still a strong case to be made aesthetic decisions that have little to do with that forgeries in terms of works of art consti- the intentions of the artist, but there must, at tute different cases and instances than forger- the very least, be cases in which the aim of ies of literature or music. For example, Mark restoration is to change the perceptual prop- Rowe (2013) discusses at length issues related erties of the work from those it currently to how Jane Austen’s works were received at manifests, not necessarily to bring the work the time she was writing compared with the to a state closer to the original conception of assessment in a blind trial of three chapters of it but to bring it to a state that present-day Northanger Abbey in 2013 by several publish- observers find the most acceptable in terms of ers, who rejected the supposedly newly cre- aesthetic properties. ated work presented to them for publication. Relevant to the discussion here are the This is not really relevant to the problem of three options regarding restoration proposed creating the perfect fake in the sense of the by Muñoz-Viñas (2009a, 2009b). The first criteria illustrated in Figure 2.19. These were option is that the original state is considered stylistic imitation, a spurious context of reception, more appropriately meaningful for present artificial aging, and the use of old materials observers than the nonoriginal states; the sec- only. For a literary fake, as discussed by Rowe ond, that the meanings the restoration process (2013), only stylistic imitation was involved

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in the deception; Austen’s book was given a visually indiscernible rather than invoking an fake title, and the names of the principal pro- impossible chemical mutual identity. tagonists were altered. This was all that was Rowe also says that all works of art are types required to present the new work for scrutiny identified by their physical properties and their to the publisher’s readers, who rejected the history of production (Rowe 2013:157). It is work as not suitable for publication. In fact, difficult to extend the concept that all works the use of old materials and artificial aging are of art are types identifiable by their physical not relevant to the text itself but only to the properties and their history of production to medium of its delivery. those works that are dependent on the non- The perfect fake, in literary terms, would manifest properties Rowe also mentions. An be a newly discovered work on fifteenth-cen- example is given by Denis Dutton (1983a): tury parchment, written in the correct kind The African wood carvings of the Igorot of of iron gall ink, aged artificially so that some northern Luzon traditionally represent a of the lettering had burned through the granary guardian figure, abulul, ceremonially parchment, aping an unknown work by a fif- treated with blood, producing over the years a teenth-century divine, in Old English with no deep red patina, partially covered with a black spelling inconsistencies, and with the right deposit from food offerings. These were al- kind of documentary evidence attesting that ready being made for tourists in the 1920s, and it had been found in an old monastic ruin in one famous carver made many both for tour- Northumberland. The discussion of this kind ists and for ritual use during this time. After of literary fake would have been of interest, the Second World War, none were carved, so but Rowe (2013) does not consider this kind the local inhabitants then bought the tourist of perfect fake in his paper. He states that art from the market and turned the inauthen- sameness of manifest type is not enough for tic works into something culturally significant sameness of work; that a work is identified by making new libations of blood and grease. not only by its manifest features but also by The history of production of these sacred the nonmanifest features of its context, its works therefore does not represent a type that history, and the intentions with which it was is identifiable and necessarily authentic be- made; and that the relevant difference may cause of their history of production and phys- reside only in the different intentions with ical properties. Instead, their historical past as which the work was created. Rowe also sug- a tourist production has been reappropriated gests that comparing an original and a copy by the Igorot as a conceptually authentic bu- produced molecule by molecule, exactly mir- lul, and the history of how they were produced roring the chemical and physical structure has been superseded by their performance in of the original, could be envisaged as a real a ritual setting. event. However, this is a scientific impossibil- Sagoff’s work has been criticized in that ity in terms of works of art: a work cannot be he overlooks the fact that there are copies replicated in a molecule-by-molecule fashion that are not forgeries, there are copies that as Rowe suggests to make the original and the are forgeries, and there are forgeries that copy completely indistinguishable. Rather are not copies. Equally untenable according than suggest that this fantasy could be possi- to Radnóti (1999) is his conclusion, “An art- ble, what is more pertinent to consider is the ist cannot forge his own work but creates an

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original work with every copy suggests the self-destructing materials, often designated truth that paintings are not classified as forg- as ephemeral art. eries or as fakes if they can plausibly be count- The historical events affecting an object’s ed in some other way.” At the same time, a material existence are seen by Heidegger as painter might produce or copy a work in the deeply connected to alteration and decay, in manner of his earlier, more successful style. keeping with his view of an art object as a be- Postdated memoirs that record events from ing in itself. In this sense, conservation must a fictitious earlier period of the writer’s life, fight against the natural perishability of all such as Mussolini’s diaries. are not unknown. things. The works are no longer the same, Sagoff appears to be saying that any alteration in the Heideggerian view, as they once were, to an artwork over time is seen as an unwel- and this natural process of decay is part of come, external, and perhaps avoidable threat, the cycle of life. Some writers, such as Eggert but as outlined above, changes to a work (2009), hold the view that the genuine work could include not only the external but also of art has been eradicated by conservation the internal alterations that may occur with actions. He writes: “It is they themselves, to time, as suggested in Figure 4.2. be sure, that we encounter there, but they The opposing view, one could argue, is themselves are gone by. For Heidegger presented by Heidegger. As far as the mate- the very activity of subjecting a work to an rial substance of works of art is concerned, art-historical study—when it has been ren- the inevitable demise of the material is seen dered the object of a science . . . for him, the as a precondition for authenticity. Heidegger very activity rendered the work inauthentic.” (2008 [1935–1937]:143–212) claims that the Eggert (2009) does not present an alterna- material used in art: “is all the better and tive argument to this statement, which could more suitable the less it resists perishing.” be construed as an extreme view of the subject. The inability not to perish is a premise It could be argued that when an art object is with which many modern artists, as well as rendered as an object of science, it is viewed some Native American tribes, would agree, in a certain dispassionate manner that does the ephemeral being part of the raison d’être not result in the object becoming more or less of the artwork or artifact itself. For example, inauthentic or authentic than before it was ex- Clavir (1994) notes that a Zuni cultural repre- amined. The physical and chemical properties sentative stated that there is not a single item of a work of art can be evaluated by scientific in Zuni culture used for religious or ceremo- examination, but this process does not neces- nial purposes that is meant to be preserved in sarily interfere with the physical state of the . All are gifts to the gods that are work of art, as no sample or physical intrusion meant to disintegrate back into the earth to into the work may take place. For example, de- do their natural work (Clavir 1994). tailed scanning of the Mona Lisa employing in- Some modern artists deliberately make frared to ultraviolet light, and numerous wave- use of the process of natural degradation. lengths in between, reveals that the left hand This has become more prevalent since the of the Mona Lisa is actually holding a cloth or 1960s, with performance art and art fabri- a piece of material (CNN 2007). The Mona cated from materials suffering from inher- Lisa is discussed in greater detail in the chapter ent vice, made of transitory, perishable, or dealing with Renaissance art.

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Authenticity and Rehabilitation such as those of Brandi (1977), are the cause The conclusion that inauthenticity is neces- of problems in evaluating what is authentic or sarily a consequence of the later investiga- not, as they are based on objective criteria that tion or rehabilitation of works of art is only create impossible or contradictory demands one way to interpret what Heidegger says. on hallowed notions of conservation, such as Heidegger claims that the ongoing dynamic revealing the original object, the artist’s intent, of the artwork is of importance to its authen- or the true nature of the work of art, or under- ticity, that the life of the artwork necessarily taking its reversible treatment, facets of con- includes change. servation philosophy discussed in chapter 1. The authentic artwork will not always Muñoz-Viñas (2011) holds that artistic merit, be determined by factors established at the style, color, shape, material, and so on are the time of creation, because the life of the art- meaning-bearing features; they are valued work will have introduced new factors into for what they “mean” to people, not for their its identification. Heidegger believes that ex- relation to “truth.” His theory calls for an cessive focus on the object-being of an artwork adaptive application of modern conservation threatens its authenticity, while attention to to works of art in which scientific objectivism the work-being of an artwork supports it. He is supplanted by a relativistic approach to ac- argues that at any particular synchronic mo- tions that need to be taken regarding works of ment in which the artwork is examined, its art. From this perspective, it is ethically cor- authenticity is not completely represented, as rect to reintegrate missing parts of a religious it is an ongoing process that cannot be judged sculpture in an indiscernible way if other per- only at a singular moment of existence; pre- ceivable techniques are not acceptable to the serving the artwork as it is at one given point devotees. It is the affected people who know of time will restrict further developments in intimately what meanings the object possess- the authenticity of the object, thus confining es and how it will best convey those meanings. the artwork to a less authentic state. Interpretation of this statement could involve The question is whether preserving the a hermeneutic inquiry into the context of the Mona Lisa as it is at a given point of time, in work and the cultural setting in which the the condition following its last known con- work resides. The point at issue would be a servation intervention, or its physical state in contention by some that reintegration of the 2015, is stunting its authenticity in its ongo- image of the religious sculpture in an indis- ing existence, or whether conservation is un- cernible way would disguise its material au- dertaking a legitimate function in seeking to thenticity to such an extent that the finished preserve the artwork in its current state for as state could be viewed as akin to a forgery. On long as possible. There may be several types the other hand, if completion of the image is of answers to this question. considered essential by the devotees, then the The approach taken by Heidegger has aesthetic authenticity overrides every other much in common with the view of Muñoz- consideration, even if that creates an image Viñas (2011), who says the stakeholders are that is partially a falsification of the original the ones who decide on what authenticity or a complete replacement of the original. means in a given case. Muñoz-Viñas (2011) ar- Care has to be taken to make a distinction gues that truth-based theories of restoration, between a religious sculpture—the case put

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before us here by Muñoz-Viñas—and a reli- This damage would then be hidden by pro- gious painting, for in the latter case, many ob- fessional restoration, but the damage would servers are in agreement that the retouching be documented, useful in the subsequent life and repainting of a damaged painting should of the work as a piece that had undergone real be visually indiscernible, because the original restoration. This was false old damage dis- and the repainting can be distinguished under guised by genuinely ethical restoration. Silks ultraviolet or infrared light. used for repair in Japanese paintings on silk Muñoz-Viñas (2012) also draws attention have been damaged artificially using gamma to the concept of damage to a work of art and radiation, ultraviolet light, or ozone to render what should be done about it. Alteration of them physically deteriorated, the preferred an object may or may not be deliberate, and methodology for Japanese conservators this may or may not be considered positive. (Sugiyama 2014). The silks will subsequently If not deliberate and positive, this alteration degrade themselves, requiring replacement could be called a “patina.” If deliberate and with another set of laboratory-knackered positive, it could be called “restoration.” If silks. negative, it is described as “damage.” “What Restoration can itself cause damage, es- makes us consider this negative or positive is pecially in disguising missing parts or in the a result of taste and prejudices that can vary overpainting of pictures to improve the ap- among persons, cultures, and with time,” says pearance in accord with contemporary tastes Muñoz-Viñas (2012). This view of the issue or to add to their value by including more of damage and loss remains an important desirable features, often by associative de- concern for us in terms of what constitutes sires for famous names to be attributed to the an authentic state of an artifact or art object. work. All these actions may damage the orig- Jonathan Ashley-Smith (1995) provides some inal. Ashley-Smith (1995) proposes that dam- insight into possible definitions of damage, age be defined as “something that by an effect whose consequences for works of art are not on our level of understanding and enjoyment liminal. The problem with damage is that it or on the object’s life-span causes a decrease can be seen as accidental or deliberate, and in total benefit.” This may hold for authentic depending on the phenomenological ap- works, but for some forgeries, apparent dam- proach, opinions regarding what constitutes age results in an increase in total benefit. damage may be divergent between art histo- rians, conservators, and curators. Authenticity and Cultures Old damage may be seen as an indication There are problems with the concept of one that an object is authentic because of what it culture, one heritage and with one unified has suffered in some previous century, not approach to properties such as damage, sig- necessarily what it is in itself. A typical ex- nificance, context, decay, value, or function. ample are some of the forgeries of Han van Further complexities exist in seeking a com- Meegeren, who scoured his painted surfaces mon ground for discussion of the preserva- in places to remove part of the finished paint- tion of heritage. Universality, the assumption ing he had just produced to create functional that some heritage is meaningful to all hu- damage that might be associated with a sev- mankind, may be a basic tenet of art resto- enteenth-century Dutch canvas by Vermeer. ration, although the idea is being questioned

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more frequently in the twenty-first century. thought through Sartre, the latter more as- Postmodernism substituted the idea of cul- sociated with the authentic human existence tures for that of culture, asserting that there and its problems of dissimulation than with are no superior or inferior ones—they are objects of art. Baugh argues that works of art, just different types of culture. As applied to like human beings, make their own “world” restoration, the point is that the very notion by revealing it in a singular manner and that of universal culture is a Western construct, a it is in this that artistic authenticity resides. sort of cultural , and as the com- He argues that works of art, like human be- modity value of culture increases, so does the ings, depend on their historicity for their au- Westernization of culture itself. thenticity; that authentic works must be sin- Scientific conservation, a consequence of gular—they must be the irreplaceable basis of classical theorists appetite for truth, has creat- their worlds, which they can be only if they ed the ever-increasing influence of science in establish their own organizational principles. conservation. Science performs a number of Baugh (1988:483) writes: “The originality of basic tasks: It establishes how the restored ob- a work of art does not consist in its either ig- ject should be by determining precisely how it noring or fleeing the past, but in determining was at a given moment in time. It determines what the past has made possible for the pres- which conservation techniques and materials ent. Originality lies in returning to the past are the most effective. It monitors the develop- and reinterpreting it in a way that the present ment of a given conservation process. It dates is liberated from the current, dominant in- the materials of a work of art, when pigments terpretation and working-out of its past.” It came into use, how old a piece of wood is, and would help the reader here if Baugh were to whether the composition is acceptable for the give particular examples of works of art that alleged period of manufacture. It performs a illuminate the application of the Sartrean variety of functions, but it cannot create values view of art and aesthetics. In his emphasis on in terms of conservation action. the past, and the liberation of the present, Muñoz-Viñas (2002) argues that notions Baugh consigns many works of art to a form of authenticity and falsehood are meaning- of oblivion, since appropriation art would not less even in the case of deliberate forgery. represent an authentic work that could be Forged objects are undisputable, tautologi- experienced outside of the world of art itself. cally authentic objects, even if they have been It would have a past that was another artist’s incorrectly identified. A painting thought to past, not the past of the present work. By sin- date from the sixteenth century primed with gular, does Baugh mean that the work of art is titanium white and painted with cadmium exampled only by one particular created form, pigments is still a true painting: a contempo- or does he mean that the work is singular be- rary painting imitating an earlier formal style. cause it is quite unlike any other work that it Our belief that this modern painting should might be compared to? In chapter 2 Luncheon date to the sixteenth century is wrong, but on the Grass was mentioned, a work by Picasso the painting itself is not wrong. No less than that exists in many different forms. Each is beauty, falsehood is in the eye of the beholder. singular, one could argue, but whether all are Baugh (1988), in Authenticity Revisited, equally authentic in the Sartrean view could essentially follows the Heidegger train of be problematic.

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Figure 4.4. La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans by Edgar Degas. Height 104.8 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Sculpture in stone, terra-cotta, wood, or bronze may give rise to complex identities, particularly when not produced by the orig- inal artist. (Photograph by Frank Kovalchek. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)

Problems of Forgeries constitutes a reproduction is a phenomeno- Even more problematic for the view of au- logical problem of an artist’s oeuvre (Levene thenticity presented by Baugh is what an ob- 2011), especially salient in the case of these server would make of the bronze dancer by sculptural productions from Degas’s studio or Degas illustrated in Figure 4.4. It was not produced by his heirs, other artists, or later actually made by Degas himself. Nor was it foundries. Although it is commonly known produced in his own lifetime or made in wax, that Degas never had any of his sculpture cast which was Degas’s preferred medium for in bronze, you would never know this from these sculptures (Arseneau 2006). What are displays at the Metropolitan Museum of Art we to make of the plaster versions and bronze or the Louvre (Lindsay et al. 2010). Yet in the copies originating from the Valsuani Foundry art world today, the cast bronzes circulate at in Paris, which are conventionally regarded as huge prices—$30 million is one recent exam- authentic works (Failing 2013). Particularly ple—and these works are accepted as origi- in terms of what defines an original and what nals by Degas (Failing 2013; Levene 2011).

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The wax original of La Petite Danseuse between wax models, plaster versions, and de Quatorze Ans, circa 1881, and other wax bronze casts and to determine which were ac- figures made by Degas were “rediscovered” tually produced by the artist and which were in 1955. Through their purchase by Paul fabricated after his death and in what context. Mellon, they mostly ended up at the National Those produced after the death of an artist Gallery in Washington, DC. The assertion would fail to satisfy the intangible authen- of rediscovery is itself a myth (Failing 2011), ticity of their supposed association with the as the wax figures, long thought lost, were hand of the artist or his intentionality—that known of years before this revelation, with would be the usual response of an informed the delay probably designed to enhance the observer regarding art that valorizes a specific supposed authenticity of the bronze copies. individual artist. In connection with the argu- The original tutu Degas used for La Petite ment that the plaster casts are all original to Danseuse is completely different in construc- the artist, Patricia Failing (2013) writes, tion and aesthetic effect than the limp mini- skirt worn today by the posthumous bronze The photograph of Dancer casts (Barbour and Sturman 2010; Berrie and Ready to , the right foot forward Quillen Lomax; Failing 2013; Lindsay et al. presents another kind of challenge. In the 2010). There is also an interesting series of photograph, a substantial external arma- plaster casts of replicas of highly finished wax ture extends from the base of the sculp- models whose material correspondence to ture to the top of the figure’s head. Large the original mode of production of the works wires attached to this metal rod hold has been clouded by the intimate relationship each arm in a curved position around the between Degas’s heirs; the Hébrard Foundry head. When the external armature was in Paris, which cast 73 of the wax originals removed before casting, Sturman and in bronze; and the plaster versions in the Barbour observed (Lindsay et al. 2010), Valsuani Foundry, which has also issued the left arm drooped so that it is now ren- bronze casts (Sturman and Barbour 2010). A dered almost perpendicular to the body complex argument (Failing 2013) concerns in a compromise of the original intent. the status of a series of the plaster casts from The drooping left arm is in the same po- the Valsuani Foundry, which were used in the sition in the Valsuani plaster. Why didn’t 1990s to cast at least eight series in bronze. the “lifetime” plaster preserve the artist’s Some hold that these plasters were made original intent instead of replicating an during Degas’s lifetime and are, in fact, more error that resulted from the casting pro- authentic than the wax version of the Little cess years after the artist’s death? Dancer in the National Gallery. However, no major Degas scholar has defended this Scientific connoisseurship seems to proposition. Gary Tinterow, director of the provide here a terminus ante quem for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, says, “There Dancer Ready to Dance as compared with the is nothing that demonstrates that Degas had plaster cast and presents physical evidence a set of plaster casts made of his sculptures to support the view that the Valsuani plas- during his lifetime” (Failing 2013). The ters, and correspondingly the bronze cast- problem here is to decide on the relationship ings made from them, are not authentic in

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that they do not represent the intentionality problem: What does it mean for a copy of a or materiality of the artist himself. Failing work to be a genuine instance of that work? (2013) writes: “The Valsuani plasters seem For example, the authenticity of a Piranesi suspended in a gap between two concepts of print becomes complex when considered in original, the plasters as first and lifetime re- the autographic sense of Goodman (1968); cords of Degas’s sculptural oeuvre, versus the to qualify as an original Piranesi print, says plasters as independently created interpre- Hick (2010), it must have been printed from tations, variations or emulations of Degas’s the original plate and perhaps authorized by work by another hand or hands.” Piranesi himself. That is all very well, but it is What is accepted as real today was never known that Piranesi bequeathed his printing real in the lifetime of the artist. This inau- plates to his descendants and that scores of thentic authenticity has been fashioned out of prints were produced as posthumous editions; the desire for the essence of the artistic ex- even the plates themselves had to be recarved pression associated with Degas. The observ- due to excessive wear to create a few score er is quite happy that these works are, in one more “original Piranesi” prints. By Hick’s cri- sense, fakes of the real. terion, one would have to sort out the prints The existential view of authenticity to the produced by Piranesi during his lifetime and self, permeated by the honest representation declare that these were the only authentic of the past and the previous life of these sculp- versions of the artwork, which would create tures, which constitute a Sartrean view of an problems in terms of what to do with those authentic self and its actions in the world, deemed inauthentic, or the philosophical would render all these works as representative principles may be seen as entirely unrealistic. of an inauthentic existence. The technological possibilities that al- Darren Hick (2010) takes up the question low these plates to be reproduced impact the of copies, stating that it is curious that mu- views of Margolis (1983:156), who thinks that seums knowingly display reproductions that “authenticity is a distinction of an intentional are not by the original artists but by copyists. and normative sort that is bound to reflect the These works of appropriation seem to have shifting practices and technological possibili- much in common with forgeries, so why are ties of different societies.” they valued at all? Hick (2010) thinks that Peter Strawson (1959) suggests that it is to understand what is not wrong with ap- only because the necessary reproductive tech- propriation art requires us to understand nology is lacking that artworks such as panel what is wrong with a forgery. According to paintings are invariably regarded as inherent- Hick, following Levinson (1980), referential ly singular in nature. This seems an overly forgeries are direct copies of existing works, optimistic statement by Strawson, since the inventive forgeries are of the artists oeuvre complexity of a painted surface cannot eas- but are not copies of any existing work, and ily be reproduced in a form that appears to pastiches represent selected, reproduced, or match the original. In fact, paintings contain combined aspects to create a new fictional within themselves a host of compositional and artwork. Hick says that forgeries of art of the chemical detail that precludes their easy re- inventive category present few philosophical production. Even 60 years after Strawson was issues but that referential copies present a writing, there are much greater problems with

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marble sculptures and ancient bronzes than As this case is so famous and has been writ- with paintings. Some sculptures, such as the ten about extensively, philosophers have been famous dolomitic Getty Kouros, have resisted drawn to it as an example of how forgery and every scientific test thrown at them. The kou- aesthetics are intertwined, how the percep- ros has remained an enigma: It is either from tion of the time was embedded in the cultural the sixth century B.C.E. or it is a modern forg- milieu in which van Meegeren was working ery, but no one can actually tell for sure, which (the resemblance of Greta Garbo to one or does not mean that no one will be able to tell in the various paintings), and how in the future as a result of new perceptions or it was possible for art historians to be fooled new states of knowledge, à la Goodman (1968). into thinking that Van Meegeren’s works were genuine Vermeers because they confirmed a Authentic Works by Han van past that could have existed for Vermeer but Meegeren and Bastianini did not (Radnóti 1999). A twentieth-century forger who has achieved Alfred (1983) suggests that what both general recognition for his achievements, is wrong with a forgery is that, in the case in terms of monetary reward, and posthumous of van Meegeren’s forgeries of Vermeer, he philosophical fame is Han van Meegeren was “passing off the inferior as the superi- (1889-1947), whose forged works now com- or.” Lessing thinks the other problem with mand higher prices than lower quality (or at forgeries is that they lack originality and do least lesser known) genuine works from the not have historical veracity. The problem seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Lopez with Lessing’s argument is that forgeries 2008). This disgruntled Dutch artist spent that enter into a state of historical existence years perfecting a style of painting that could may become admired for what they are rath- pass as early examples of paintings by Vermeer er than what they are not. Even the Victoria (1632-1675), thought by art historians to pos- and Albert Museum purchased Giovanni sibly exist. Van Meegeren then produced the Bastianini’s bust Lucrezia Donati, the work works, thus confirming the art historians’ sur- of a nineteenth-century sculptor that was mise that early works had been produced by known at the time to be a forgery, for the Vermeer but up until then had never been price of an original Renaissance work, which found (Bredius 1937). During the Second War is how it had been described. The bust pur- World, one of the fakes was purchased by Field ports to represent the mistress of Lorenzo Marshal Hermann Göring, which led to van the Magnificent, carved in the style of the fif- Meegeren being tried for treason. As he could teenth-century Florentine sculptor Mino da have been shot, he confessed to having forged Fiesole (1429-1484). It was declared to be the several Vermeers, at least one of which had masterpiece of da Fiesole by the art historian been purchased for the Dutch state. Dutch art Giovanni Cavalcaselle. The bust was exposed historians were aghast, and even into the 1960s by Alessandro Foresi (1819-1897) in 1868 and and 1970s, several refused to believe that the purchased by the museum the following year, works were not authentic. with knowledge that it was a forgery. The rec- Van Meegeren asked for canvas and paints ognition of the forgery per se as an admired to be brought into the court so that he could work of the nineteenth century has resulted demonstrate how the works were fabricated. in a new hermeneutic relationship between

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the ongoing historical life of the sculpture Lessing (1983) does not take into account this and its emergent historical authenticity. The kind of transformation of the original. forgery itself begins to accrue the vestiges of Tomas Kulka (1981) writes that once van historical time, so that it not only represents Meegeren’s forgeries were known as twenti- itself; it represents what in the nineteenth eth-century works, what had being seen as century was admired about works of art that artistic innovations were revealed as a prob- dated from the fifteenth century but that had lem of anachronistic deception. Jones (1992) been reinterpreted in a manner more pleas- adds that when it was discovered that the sup- ing to nineteenth-century tastes. This is why posed early Vermeers were actually forgeries art historians at the time lauded the work as by van Meegeren, it rapidly became obvious one of the best examples of fifteenth-century that some of his work was grotesquely ugly marble carving. Thus the sculptor re-creates and that he had created a body of work that the work as a fiction of the original, but it it- most observers would regard as unpleasant self becomes an original from the nineteenth paintings, altogether dissimilar to Vermeer’s. century that now has an ongoing existence, in Goodman (1968, 1983) used the example storage at the Victoria and Albert Museum. of the forged Vermeers to show that the idea It has now obtained a historical authenticity. of a separate class of Vermeers resulted in the

Figure 4.5. Lucrezia Donati by Giovanni Bastianini. Currently in storage in the Victoria and Albert Museum, this forgery was made in Florence around 1865. The bust purports to represent the mistress of Lorenzo the Magnificent, carved in the style of the fif- teenth-century Florentine sculptor Mino da Fiesole. It was purchased by the V&A for the same price as a Renaissance work and with the knowl- edge that it was by Bastianini. (Image courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

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creation of a new class of works of art to which then created using this authentic frame, can- other forgeries of Vermeer by van Meegeren vas, and ground. The Procuress “by” Dirck van were then added, creating the false legitimiza- Baburen (1595-1624) is a case in point. There tion of the new class of Vermeers, because van are at least three known versions of this paint- Meegeren had succeeded in adding this group ing: one in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, to the oeuvre of the master himself. The suc- one in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and cess of van Meegeren is therefore seen, by one at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, most commentators, as incredible and as an all attributed to (Montias example of the blinkered cultural assessment 1991; Schneider 1991). One version of this of the art historians involved in the attribu- painting was owned by , who tion of them. Some of the fakes were hailed as was the mother-in-law of Vermeer. Vermeer the greatest Vermeers ever painted (Bredius illustrates this painting in the background of 1937), which is doubly embarrassing. A com- two of his paintings. Van Meegeren may have mon observation is that fakes may not be vi- originally produced this copy for his own sually apparent to the faker’s generation but backdrop of supposedly authentic works to be become all too obvious to the generation that painted in subsequent Vermeer forgeries. The comes after, as its members are not culturally painting could be copied in a realistic manner blinkered to the anachronisms that were not rather than invented from a photograph; van noticed by observers in the prior generation Meegeren was known to use authentic props, (Friedländer 1909). such as vases and goblets, to provide the cor- This has often been taken by philosophers rect period atmosphere for his fake paintings. as an observation that can be applied on a Van Meegeren claimed, spuriously, that the practically universal basis. This surmise, often van Baburen had been purchased by his former using the forged Vermeers as an example, is wife from an antiques shop in Nice. repeated in several philosophical writings on The version in the Courtauld was present- the subject of forgeries, so this issue has to be ed to the gallery in 1960 and has remained addressed and discussed in more detail here. controversial ever since, with some art his- Han van Meegeren forged works attribut- torians and conservators evaluating the work ed not only to Vermeer but also to several as an example of an authentic van Baburen other artists, which he did not confess to hav- and others regarding the work as a forgery. ing forged and had no intention of revealing The Courtauld scientific staff conducted a to the world. As a consequence, a few works scientific examination in 2009, an attempt to held in art galleries or museums around the clear up this debate, and concluded that the world may be fakes by van Meegeren. Why painting was likely an authentic seventeenth- have these not been exposed as forgeries century work. At this stage, art historical while his Vermeers have been? opinion concerning the work was still mixed, One reason is the technical competence of with some believing that the work was genu- van Meegeren in re-creating the substructure ine and others believing it was a fake. A gen- of a genuine seventeenth-century painting, uine seventeenth-century Dutch oil painting using an old seventeenth-century frame and would have had a double ground layer, with canvas scoured down to the ground layer and earth pigments such as raw sienna, burnt the correct pigments for the work, which he umber, and yellow ocher, which the forgery

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Authentic Works by Han van Meegeren and Bastianini

by van Meegeren contained. Because he had for his fake instead of phenol-formaldehyde used a genuine seventeenth-century can- resin mixed with oil of lilac? The answer is vas and frame, a double ground layer paint that even this relatively recent scientific ad- construction, and hand-ground or carefully vance might have had difficulties coming to prepared pigments that matched those typ- a conclusive decision regarding authenticity. ically found in seventeenth-century Dutch If van Meegeren had used a traditional me- paintings, the technical examination could dium, the certainty of the determination of find nothing inconsistent with a seven- inauthenticity would have vanished, espe- teenth-century origin. If art historians could cially if he had used old linseed oil, a medi- not definitely state whether the work was um used by Vermeer himself. stylistically acceptable or not, there was no The terminus post quem for phe- way of proceeding further. nol-formaldehyde resin is around 1900, What was missing from the 2009 study while that commonly associated with wal- was a technical examination of the binding nut oil, poppy seed oil, or linseed oil is at medium. Scientific connoisseurship has con- least 1400. Faced with this scenario, the only tinued to make a series of advances in the ex- hope for making a decision on the matter amination of works of art. The advantage of would rest with art historical connoisseur- the scientific method is its ability to revisit ev- ship; scientific connoisseurship would not be identiary material to determine further details able to help, at least not definitively enough of chemical composition or elemental com- to satisfy all the critics. This case has been ponents. Van Meegeren, in his efforts to sim- discussed here at length because it illustrates ulate the natural aging of oil media, in which a number of important points. It contradicts craquelure occurs and the oil media hardens the view of Goodman (1968, 1983) that the with age, used a phenol-formaldehyde resin class of van Baburen paintings made by van (Bakelite) with oil of lilac additions, which Meegeren initiates a new class of works that would harden to simulate the natural degra- can help define a new paradigm in the oeu- dation of age if heated carefully in an oven at vre of supposed van Baburen paintings— 105oC. The oil of lilac probably functioned as namely, the class of van Meegeren fakes. a plasticizing addition to the formula, as the It refutes the ideas of Friedländer (1909), Bakelite is a rather brittle resin. Lessing (1983), and others that the work of The nature of the binding media used in the forger always becomes obvious to suc- the van Baburen picture was revealed in a fur- ceeding generations because of the tempo- ther study broadcast in July 2011 by the BBC ral fixations of the forger in relation to the during the making of episode three of the time he creates the work, and that this is an Fake or Fortune? series. Phenol-formaldehyde unconscious influence on the style in which was never used, or even known, in the seven- he paints or depicts certain images. It refutes teenth century, and therefore evidence for the the view of Jones (1992) that the work of this van Baburen as being a forgery was unequivo- particular forger resulted in the creation of cal (Alberge 2011). fakes that were necessarily aesthetically in- What would have happened if van ferior and that could be readily discerned by Meegeren had been able to use a traditional an informed or impartial modern observer as media such as walnut oil or poppy seed oil obviously wrong.

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Figure 4.6. The Procuress by Han van Meegeren, circa 1940; after Dirck van Baburen, circa 1622. Oil on canvas; 98.7 cm high x 103.9 cm wide. Many believed this to be an authen- tic work by Baburen. It was presented to the Courtauld Institute in 1960, and a scien- tific examination in 2009 could find nothing wrong with the work. A 2011 determination of the use of phenol-formaldehyde resin as the binder resolved the problem definitively. This resin, mixed with oil of lilac, was one of van Meegeren’s paint media. (Image courtesy of Holger Thölking; in the public domain)

In the case of the Vermeers, the common determination of the binding media of paint- rhetorical question was: How on earth were ings. Examination of pigments, ground lay- the experts fooled by that? The forgery of the ers, and microstratigraphic features of the van van Baburen, which some thought was still Baburen fake were not sufficient to determine authentic until the BBC program reached its if the painting was acceptable and attributable conclusion in 2011, illustrates that 70 years to van Baburen or to van Meegeren. Even if after the fake was painted, its aesthetic char- the fakes had been discovered at a much later acteristics transcended the cultural setting in date, an international furor would have taken which it had been created; it was still causing place. Dutch museums would have been very trouble even after all the intervening years. embarrassed, and van Meegeren would have If Field Marshal Hermann Göring had achieved posthumous fame without the agony not purchased one of van Meegeren’s forg- of being placed on trial in 1945 and possibly eries, how long would the early “Vermeers” being shot for selling national Dutch trea- have continued to fool art historians into sures to the Nazis. He succeeded in spite of thinking that they were authentic? The prob- having to confess to the forgeries: a certified able answer is that they would not have been van Meegeren fake is now worth more in the unmasked until late into the 1950s or per- art market than a genuine work of an obscure haps even the late 1960s, when a new gen- seventeenth-century minor painter. The work eration of art historians would have begun of the faker is valued today as a reflection of to study the oeuvre of the artist afresh, with the infamy he has achieved since 1945. Now doubts being raised concerning the early an authentic van Meegeren fake can be pur- Vermeers and the beginnings of the regular chased at auction, and no doubt imitators of

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Is It Craft or Is It Art?

him exist as well, because those forgeries that a famous artwork, described as such for 100 become valued as works of art in themselves years, is shown by scientific connoisseurship often result in a stream of forgeries based on to be a fake, one philosophical response is to the forgeries of the real or authentic, an ap- describe the work as a craft object. propriation of the forger himself. A useful starting point here is a radio The final point is that the conjunction of broadcast by Denis Dutton from 1990. the conservator’s experience, scientific con- Dutton states that craft involves the applica- noisseurship, and art historical connoisseur- tion of a technique. The concept of craft is ship must be made to provide as impartial a historically associated with the production of view as possible of the material and histori- useful objects, whereas artistic creations are cal authenticity of a work and that in some not necessarily utilitarian. Works of art, says cases there will still be a struggle to reach a Kant, are intrinsically final; they appeal at the definitive conclusion. Cases in which one level of aesthetic appreciation or imagination. of these fields chooses to ignore the others Craft invariably involves the application of abound, and they are continual reminders of skill but not necessarily of aesthetic differen- the need for collegial collaboration. They are tiation, although some dispute that. Dutton also reminders that some fakes have, in and (2003) refers to Collingwood’s work of 1938 of themselves, altered the course of art his- (which is admittedly seen as eccentric in torical inquiry by their own interrelationship many circles), in which a salient distinction is with the originals and by being accepted as made between planning and execution, such real in the course of time. The chronologi- that the craftsman produces a work “which cal relationship between fakes and their time is preconceived or thought out before being of fabrication creates a continually evolving arrived at.” This is an interesting distinction hermeneutic awareness of the existence of the that has not been taken up by many other object and our evaluation of it. commentators, although one could equally posit the idea that a work of fine craftsman- Is It Craft or Is It Art? ship arrives at its final state through the ex- There has always been a contention between ploration of the materiality of the production different observers as to whether a particular- of it, not from an a priori set of intentions or ly fine example of a work could be designat- thoughts. Of course, the strict demarcation ed as a work or art or merely as a work of between art and craft probably exists only in craft, and that distinction might affect how the philosopher’s imagination, since all tradi- works are regarded aesthetically. In ancient tionally acknowledged art involves craft, the Greek, for example, there is no distinction application of a technique—often a technique between the words art and craft. Τέχνη is used that has to be learned to surpass what a crafts- for both (Papadopoulos, personal communi- man is simply capable of. The ancient Greek cation 2015). lack of specificity regarding the word forart Regarding the question of whether some- may not be a bad thing as seen from the per- thing is authentic or not in terms of how it spective of 2016, since otherwise there may is appreciated or evaluated, a frequent philo- be a heady dispute over what constitutes craft sophical jibe is to say that the work is an in- and what constitutes art in terms of contem- stance of craft rather than art. For example, if porary art.

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Becker (1978:864) writes, “As a work utilitarian objects but were works of art in ideology, an aesthetic, and a form of work their own right. organization, craft can and does exist inde- Sally Markowitz (1994) makes a distinc- pendent of art works, their practitioners, and tion between the aesthetic criterion for the their definitions. In the pure folk tradition, a designation of a work of art and the semantic craft consists of a body of knowledge and skill criterion. As regards the aesthetic criterion, which can be used to produce useful objects.” characteristics may mark the work as partic- Becker sees the transition to art as including ularly significant and may invoke a certain an emphasis on the concept or appreciation response to the work in an individual at- of beauty, as typified in the tradition of some tuned to the aesthetic contemplation of it. particular art form; on the traditions and As Markowitz notes (1994:56), some inter- concerns of the art world itself as the source pretations require that the artist intend the of how the work is to be valued; on the ex- work to create an aesthetic response, not pression of thoughts and feelings of the artist just that the viewer be able to appreciate the independent of any utilitarian value of what work aesthetically. Whether there is such a is produced; and on the freedom of the artist thing as an aesthetic response has been un- from outside interference in his or her work. der attack in recent years; Markowitz does This is a reasonable working model, which not engage with this question. But an inter- can then be contrasted with the hybrid art- esting defense has been launched by Andy ist-craftsman, who takes the useful function Hamilton (2008), who writes of the neces- of a craft product to a higher level, where the sity to overcome the separation between beauty or artistic appreciation of the work can the concepts of appreciation, beauty, and be seen as such. Becker (1978:865) offers the connoisseurship on the one hand and inter- following definition: “A craft world, whose pretation, meaning, and truth on the other. aesthetic emphasizes utility and virtuoso skill. Markowitz is much concerned with the dis- . . . These artist-craftsmen develop a kind of tinction between the abstract appreciation of art world around their activities; we might a work and its physical function or perfor- reasonably call it a ‘minor art.’” mance, a feature she calls functional aesthet- Since Becker’s writing in 1978, the dis- ic quality and that might characterize craft tinction has become even more contentious, activities more than art activities. However, as artists have expanded the modern rep- the way tea is poured from an exceptionally ertoire of art to include a host of modes of finely made teapot can still be regarded as production and materials: embroidery, bas- an aesthetic event; it possesses a functional ketry, knitting, glasswork, and so on. A good aesthetic quality in a way that contemplation example of a contemporary reformulation is of a painted teapot by Sir the re-creation of Japanese handmade baskets (1723-1792) does not; the contemplation of into an art form by the intervention of Lloyd the latter is often regarded as on a higher Cotsen. Cotsen began to collect outstanding plane than the merely functional. Clearly examples of Japanese handmade baskets un- there are functional craft teapots, and there til he had enough material to publish a lav- are exceptional or virtuoso teapots that as- ish illustrated volume. The result was recog- pire to being works of art, and increasingly it nition that the baskets were not necessarily is recognized that this is the case. Markowitz

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(1994:65) cites the case of Catherine Riley’s and devoid of artistic import would have to be embroidery of a white sardine can, mounted defended. Historically, embroidery has been and framed in white, in which the word sex regarded as craft, even when made into sardine is rendered in bone silk and flowers. Some cans, but that division is less defensible in 2015 critics have refused to call it art, one suspects than it was in 1994. because of the reactionary view that feminist A pertinent example is the case of Venice politics and art do not mix. Clearly, in util- and its faked associations with St. Mark. itarian terms, the sardine can is not a sar- The most famous early Christian Venetian dine can, and by the criteria of Collingwood, sculptures, the four marble columns that the artist may well have had a preconceived support the great ciborium, are carved with notion of what an embroidered sardine can a number of scenes showing miracles and might look like, but there is no general pre- the lives of obscure saints. For hundreds of conceived notion of what an embroidered years, these were thought to be fourth- or sardine can would actually be, except in this fifth-century originals, carved in consum- specific case. mate early Christian style, until a Czech art Markowitz (1994) refers to the concept of historian showed that they could not possibly normative dualism, the distinction between the be real and were forgeries of the thirteenth mental activity of artistic or aesthetic contem- century. Another art historian confirmed the plation and the physical world of materiality, work of the Czech art historian; he found ac- which has been valued less highly than the tual invoices sent by the thirteenth-century mental state of appreciation. Here, arguments fakers to ecclesiastical authorities in Venice based on the perception of elitism filter into while searching for things completely unre- the debate concerning whether something is a lated (Hoving 1997). work of art or a work of craft. She considers The foundations or origin of Venice had this problem via four potential criteria: first, to be seen as much older than they really were that the simplest interpretation of elitism rests to create the historical presence that the city on the claim that there is no real difference be- should have had but as a latecomer in the tween art and craft objects; second, that there medieval world did not have. So, is there jus- is a distinction and that art is superior to craft; tification in thinking of these superlative ex- third, that a distinction can be recognized be- amples of thirteenth-century art, which have tween art and craft but that critical views are been admired by art historians and the in- held of the tendency to value what is distinc- formed general public as genuine works of art tive about paintings over what is distinctive from the fourth or fifth centuries for the past about teapots; and fourth, that justification of few hundred years, as merely craft creations, the art–craft divide is taken seriously but that as some philosophers propose, because they questions are raised regarding the tendency to forge an antecedent historical presence that value the sorts of qualities that art is taken to is entirely fictitious? My own inclination is to actually have. Markowitz regards this fourth answer probably not, but there are as many criterion as the most productive, since argu- cases of forgeries that could meet aesthetic, ments in favor of or against a proposition that semantic, or intentionalist views of what con- saw feminine-related activities such as embroi- stitutes “art” as there are varieties that might dery as belonging entirely to a craft tradition be categorized as “craft” products.

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Fields of Authenticity need of treatment to enable survival into the For any investigation into the authentic and twenty-second century. inauthentic in art, one has to come to terms The three constituents proposed by Funk with the fact that authenticity cannot really et al. (2012)—that authenticities are fragment- exist as a blanket description for everyone and ed, contested, and performative (briefly dis- that the word holds separate and fragmented cussed in Figure 2.11)—are important across interests for the different fields of inquiry re- the wider stage of the operation of the con- garding it. For example, extensive expositions cept because different scholarly groups may of how authenticity is to be regarded in the not agree, in particular cases, on the idea of field of literary studies largely concern how a conceptual realization of authenticity. For the motives, descriptions, and textual inter- example, Denis Dutton (2012) clearly holds pretations of individual works of literature can a low opinion of much modern art, such as be discussed in terms of how the author or the Manzoni’s 90 versions of cans of his own ex- reader interacts with the work and what those crement, one of which sold for 124,000 euros interactions mean for an authentic regard of at Sotheby’s in 2007. The cans were originally the work, its literary merits, or how the au- valued according to their equivalent weight in thor’s intentions are analyzed. Consequently, gold rather than human excrement. Dutton a great deal of significance for art objects can- (2009) contests that such cans constitute a valid not be extracted from literary studies of au- art form and that they in any way form a signif- thenticity, of which there are many. Since au- icant accomplishment in the field of modern thenticity as regards art objects functions too art. The Tate begs to differ and maintains that in multidimensional ways, it can be visualized the can of excrement it purchased for $54,000 in the following two diagrams. is important, as the artist was “looking at a lot There are a number of issues with the of issues pertinent to twentieth century art, ways appreciation of the authentic can be such as authorship and the production of art.” influenced by the origination, degradation, Even the nature of the material inside the and restoration of a work of art. The nature cans is a subject of debate, with some saying of the original will depend on the materials they are actually filled with plaster of paris from which it is composed and these mate- and with Dutton (2011) saying that due to rials’ degradation over time, which will vary improper autoclaving, at least half the cans considerably. For example, a pre-Hispanic purchased by museums and collectors have Costa Rican gold eagle pendant might under- exploded, so they could not have been filled go no effective degradation, while an ancient with plaster. From the point of view of the Egyptian painted tomb could very well be artist, the cans may be seen as performative. in a parlous state. The degree to which the According to Manzoni’s friend Enrico Baj, the work is restored to a supposedly earlier state cans were “an act of defiant mockery of the of being has a direct effect on our perceptions art world, artists and .” The cans of what is authentic. In some cases, even the were each signed by the artist, but that has identity of what the work is supposed to be not prevented them from becoming contested has become altered by restoration. The great iconic works with few imitators. The problem majority of treasured works of art from prior with Tate saying that the cans pertain to a lot centuries have already been restored or are in of issues pertinent to twentieth-century art,

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The Nature of the Indistinguishable

Origination

Factors affecting the authentic

Degradation Restoration

Figure 4.7. Factors that affect our view of the three authenticities outlined in Figure 2.11. Each of these, in turn, is affected by the mediated nature of our relationship with art objects in their fragmented, contest- ed, or performative roles regarding authenticity across many fields of inquiry. (Diagram by the author)

such as authorship and production, is that this a mirror of nature but unable to incorporate statement by itself is insufficient to distin- the essential form of the thing represented. guish between cans of excrement that might Over the centuries, many artists have been have significance, such as those of the artist, accused of creating works by taking molds and a can of my excrement, which could be directly from living models, as if that deni- held to question more intently the concept of grated their artistic accomplishments, which authorship, since here the author is as mys- in the field of modern art it does not. The terious as an artist as a can of excrement is perfect copies of human subjects in polyester in saying anything other than mirroring the resin or polyvinyl by artist John de Andrea are stated intention of the artist of issuing an act cases in point, as they are made from molds of defiant mockery. taken from living beings. But at the time (1840-1917) was working, had his Age The Nature of the Indistinguishable of Bronze (1876) been modeled from a live fig- An important aspect of the present study is ure using molds, it would have been viewed the question of how one work of art may be as deception. The accusation made in Rodin’s considered indistinguishable from another case was entirely false, enhancing the artist’s copy or replica of it. In a famous example, reputation when it became known that he had sparrows try to land on a painted image of carved the original himself. grapes because they were visually indistin- There are a host of problems with the guishable for the sparrows from a real set of indistinguishable in terms of copies and grapes. This idea of an image of nature takes replication of works of art of all periods— us back to the brief discussion in chapter 1 especially in the modern and postmodern mi- regarding Plato’s view of art as being merely lieu, in which copying and replication become

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emulation, appropriation, or even expropria- According to Radnóti (1999:106): tion and an evaluation would have to be made to ascertain the extent to which the intention The “thing” is itself, but where is the of the artist or the work of art itself can be distinction that elevates this thing to regarded as an authentic statement of some art? The entire range of the attack on kind. The beginnings of vicarious copies that modernity in the twentieth century can were considered just as authentic as the orig- be seen as an attack on this distinction. inal date to the medieval period and, in terms . . . While Duchamp’s ready-mades ex- of more recent events, the philosophical as- periment with the supposed sameness of sault on art launched by Marcel Duchamp, everyday objects, Magritte’s art transfers whose work is discussed in greater detail in the picture into the domain of similarity. chapter 10. His Bicycle Wheel from 1919 ex- He turns it into a mirror only to with- ists in several “original” versions. In fact, the draw it immediately from the realm of original was thrown away by his sister. His sense data. Rather than trying to copy, urinal from 1917, which also made several imitate or represent things, his paintings appearances under the guise of an original, only resemble themselves. In his pictures was appropriated from a urinal manufacturer a pipe is not a pipe, an is not an and transformed into a work of art, echoing apple, or, in his painting entitled “Not the title of Danto’s (1981) famous book The to be Reproduced” (1937–1939), the Transfiguration of the Commonplace. mirror does not reflect, as the mirror

Figure 4.8. Fountain by Marcel Duchamp. Dimensions not specified. In the photograph by Alfred Stieglitz, the caption reads: “Fountain by . Mutt.” This is the lost original, refused entrance to an art exhibit by the Independents in 1917. (Image in the public domain)

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Figure 4.9. Not to Be Reproduced by René Magritte, 1937. Oil on canvas; 81.3 x 65 cm. Here a reflection of reality is not a reflection for the person depicted. Although the book is displayed in the mirror as a mirror image of itself, the man is reproduced as he is seen by us, not as he would appear to us as a mirror reflection. The real is a subversive nonreality that is not to be reproduced, faking the reality of the sense of self. (Image courtesy of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam)

image of the man with his back turned to works, they are equally valid as works of art. the viewers also shows his with his back This judgment does not satisfy all comers turned to the viewers; the eye is The to this argument. It is worth recalling the False Mirror (1928). states represented as the four alternatives of Figure 4.10, namely forgeries that are Authenticity and Indistinguishability not copies, copies not intended as forgeries, The riddle of the indistinguishability of forgeries that are copies, and original works. works of art goes back to Goodman’s work Forgeries that are not copies include the clas- from 1968. If two works of art, a forgery and sic Vermeers of Han van Meegeren that do the genuine work, are visually compared and not copy any known work of Vermeer but aesthetically no difference can be discerned that, in Goodman’s terms, create an entire- between the two, they are in effect indistin- ly new class of works: the class of works by guishable. How can progress be made in the van Meegeren that are placed into the class argument in terms of differentiating between of Vermeers. When these are recognized as the authentic work of art and the forgery? a separate class, they create and validate the Arthur Koestler (1965) proposes the radical class of van Meegeren forgeries, which then solution that if an observer derives the same allows the clear perception that this separate aesthetic experience from looking at the two class exists.

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Even in the case of the painting attribut- of the intentions of the artist, this way of de- ed to Dirck van Baburen, the two classes of fining a forgerty speaks about the assertions works remained in confusion after the forgery of the art itself. Radnóti (1999:116) accepts appeared in 1946, and the situation was not this definition with one modification: resolved unequivocally until 2011. Even here, the recognition of the different classes of this A forgery of a work of art is an object artwork did not result from the fact that an ob- falsely purporting to have both the his- server could learn to recognize almost imper- tory of production as well as the entire ceptible differences between the two works of subsequent general historical fate requi- art in the accumulation of knowledge derived site for the original work. Without the from looking at the works as Goodman sug- general historical fate which includes gests but from the intervention of scientific aging and accidental wear and tear the connoisseurship, which was able to show that statement about the history of produc- the binding media of the van Meegeren work tion does not have credibility. Forgery was uniquely used by him and by no one else has as much to do with construction for in history as discussed earlier in this chapter. the sake of illusion of the history of pro- It was a unique signature of the van Meegeren duction as with demolition for the sake style, which is visually imperceptible. of the creation of the illusion of the sub- According to Goodman (1968), the fact sequent general historical fate. that an expert cannot tell an original from a fake at the present time does not mean the A magnificent Umberto Giunti (1886-1970) expert will always be in this state in the fu- fake in a in Siena illustrates ture. In the process of acquiring the skills of that point well (Mazzoni 2004:figure 64). It has discernment, the nonperceptual knowledge all the historical damages that would be associ- that there is a difference between the two ated with the real work. Painted in the style of artworks takes a prominent role. Goodman Francesco di Giorgio (1439-1502), it passed as shares Ernst Gombrich’s view (Gombrich an original work by the artist for decades. If an 1978) that perception and interpretation are artwork, as here, should wear the physical his- inseparable. The aesthetic difference is con- tory of its production on its sleeve, this would stituted by knowledge and opportunity com- limit art forgery to only a fraction of artworks, bined. Opportunity allows other processes to the Goodman autographic. Goodman’s twofold occur. As a result, an observer might learn to criterion of authenticity is made relative by the distinguish the fake. This argument does not activities of apprentices, copiers, imitators, and allow for the nonperceptual or additional per- forgers of great masters, as well as the numer- ceptual tools that scientific connoisseurship ous problems regarding modern and contem- might bring to bear on the problem. These porary art. Radnóti’s seminal work from 1999 could be considered another mode of percep- seems not to be read by philosophers of art or tual evaluation. art conservators; at least there has been little Goodman (1968:122) defines a forgery as seen of it in subsequent literature on the topic, follows: “A forgery of a work of art is an ob- despite the sophisticated approach to its subject ject falsely purporting to have the history of matter. For example, Radnóti is not even men- production requisite for the original.” Instead tioned in Rowe’s (2013) paper on the subject of

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the perfect fake, despite the fact that Radnóti be very hard to specify exactly what it is devotes an entire chapter to an incisive com- merely to look at a picture, rather than mentary on the topic. to look at it in some way that would be Currie (1989:92) reminds us of the state- regarded as not an appropriate way to ment by Goodman (1968) that just because an appreciate its aesthetic qualities (e.g. observer can presently discern no difference through a microscope). between an original painting and a perfect copy, that does not mean he or she will not be Additionally, Currie makes the point that able to do so in the future; concerted effort Goodman’s argument may depend on a too may also instruct us to differentiate the copy restrictive notion of what it is for pictures to from the original. This seems a potentially look alike—that the context of other, similar perplexing argument to Currie (1989:94), objects is necessary to critique the appear- who writes: ance of each supposed original and copy. Goodman is talking about aesthetic differ- It is not clear what this argument is sup- ence here rather than properties that are posed to show. It may be taken . . . as scientifically determinable as constituting a showing that there is a certain vagueness difference between the original and the per- in the idea of merely looking. It would fect copy. The extent to which this is a purely

Copies not Forgeries that intended as are not copies forgeries

Forgeries that Originals that are copies are not copies

Figure 4.10. Problems of indistinguishability. In terms of indistinguishability, a distinction can be made between original artworks, forgeries that are copies of known works by the original artist, forgeries that are not copies of any known work, and copies that are not intended as forgeries. The latter includes copies made by other artists to practice or learn the style or method of the original or copies made, as Dutton says, for a play or performance, in which the works of the artist are simply backdrops. Intention here is an important factor in the innocence of these works. (Diagram by the author)

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theoretical argument is evident here. For ex- perceptual events are concerned and ample, Currie (1989:103) writes, “There is whether or not something is a forgery nothing about the artist’s achievement that depends on the history of its produc- is accessible via the original that is not ac- tion, here Danto and Goodman agree, cessible via the correct copy.” One of the but in Danto’s view, the study of the problems with this argument involves in- receptive and perceptual differences herent degradation with time. This will af- ignores the artistic problem. Danto’s fect the original in particular ways, such as terrain is the art of the twentieth centu- yellowing of the varnish, craquelure of the ry such as Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes, painting, and the fading of certain colors. the counterparts to the commonplace, A copy, unless it was the copy produced by their transfiguration. There was a cer- the artist himself and has the same history of tain sense of unfairness at the time, production and exposure to the same envi- writes Danto, when Warhol piled the ronmental parameters and pollutants as the Stable Gallery full of his Brillo boxes, original, cannot replicate the appearance of for the commonplace Brillo container the original. was actually designed by an artist, an Is it really possible to subordinate the per- Abstract Expressionist, driven by need ceptual and sensory intuitions of the aesthetic into commercial art, and the question experience to knowledge? That is the ques- was why Warhol’s boxes were worth tion Radnóti (1999) asks apropos of the work 200 dollars each when the other artists of Arthur Danto. According to Radnóti’s work was practically worthless. But in analysis, Danto assigns central significance Danto’s view the study of the perceptu- to doubt as to whether the aesthetic response al and receptive differences ignores the constitutes a form of perception. Goodman’s artistic problem. If a known copy of one view that every aesthetic distinction can be of ’s paintings was made by traced back to some perceptual difference is his contemporary imitator and forger, called a “secret prejudice” by Danto (1981) Angelo Caroselli, then this is obviously in his important work The Transfiguration of not an original Caravaggio. But is it an the Commonplace. Danto also holds that just original Caroselli? The positive answer because two works can be perceived as indis- would correspond to the autonomy of tinguishable, that does not mean that distinc- the identical. But if we regard as neces- tions between them will eventually become sary preconditions not only the execu- apparent, although that view could be disput- tion but the creation as well, then this ed. Radnóti (1999:124) has this to say in rela- work is merely a copy of a Caravaggio tion to Danto’s views on the topic: made by Caroselli.

Danto assigns a lesser significance to Danto (1981) proposed a philosophical learning and practice than Goodman. problem in relation to indistinguishability in He claims that is our aesthetic sensi- the following scenario: Picasso paints a tie bility that has changed since the 1930s, with red paint, hence producing the artwork in the Van Meegeren case. Two paint- The Tie. An identical work is produced by a ings may be identical as far as their forger and another identical work by a child.

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Picasso signs the forgery. The original is Danto (1981) says that the tie painted confiscated by the police, and the version by by the child cannot have the same inherent the child is put on display. In our postmod- meaning as that produced by Picasso him- ern world of legitimate appropriations, a self. Although Danto does not mention the fourth tie could be added to the mix: namely intangible authenticity that is now part of the Picasso’s Tie, which is for sale in a prominent conservation dialogue with the object, he ef- art gallery. What is to be said of the differ- fectively places the emphasis on the intention ences and perceptual indistinguishability of of the artist rather than on the inherent qual- the different but identical works? ities of the artwork itself, although the nature Danto says that the status of the forgery of the artist’s intention is itself subject to dis- of The Tie is that the tie stands in the wrong pute, as will become clear later. In conser- relationship to its maker to be a statement vation theory, it can be argued that each of made by Picasso. It only pretends to be a the different but identical objects is invested statement of someone else’s, namely Picasso. with an authenticity that cannot be physical- It is quite possible, in Radnóti’s view, to add ly determined. This intangible authenticity the fourth tie, Picasso’s Tie, the one with art- is potentially worrisome to philosophers, as work status, that is constructed to have a it is neither verifiable nor an objective phe- causal history completely indistinguishable nomenon. This may be viewed as a separated from Picasso’s Tie. concept from the artist’s intention. What is

Appropriation The Tie made of The Tie by Picasso by Picasso

The Tie made The Tie made by a forger by a child

Figure 4.11. The problem posed by Danto, with an addition after Radnóti (Picasso’s Tie). In the original scenario, Picasso paints The Tie, which is identical to one painted by a child and one made by a forger. Picasso signs the forgery. The original is confiscated by the police, and the version by the child is put on display. A fourth version, Picasso’s Tie, is put on display in another gallery. What can be said of the differ- ent origins of the works? (Diagram by the author)

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meant by this term is a matter for some dis- aspect of the example which eliminates pute, and we have already discussed aspects of the affect one’s belief can have on per- this problem. ception. Knowledge can affect percep- Carroll (1993), however, points out that it tion in what we see and how we see it. is not true that every artwork requires inter- He still allows two works to be indistin- pretation or that every artwork has content, guishable visually, which might cause us but a statement by the artist that an artwork trouble, but holds to the tradition of art has no content can be seen as a valid state- as being a living thing. He says certainly ment about content. Even artists who are in trying to understand a particular work normally admired for the intentionality of of art, we try to grasp it and concentrate their content, such as René Magritte (1898- on it as hard as we can, but at the same 1967), may deny any intention to the content time we are trying to build up an overall of their paintings. Of course, for Magritte, picture of art, and so we relate the work this may simply be an intention to deny that to other works and to art itself. an intention exists, as part of a philosophical game with the audience. The definition of the Danto (1981) states that Van Meegeren’s work as having no content is itself a form of a forgeries of Vermeer can now be seen as such, statement of content. not because of chemical analysis but because Danto (1981) accepts copies as valid art they can now be seen as full of the manner- objects only if they have a valid existential isms of the 1930s, which would not have been point of view and content that allows for seen as such at the time. This is an argument interpretation. He mentions Warhol’s silk- often made by art historians and philoso- screen Marilyn x 100 (1962), which incorpo- phers, but as has been seen, in the case of the rates repetition, so the repetition of the imag- van Baburen forgery by van Meegeren, chem- es constitutes an image of repetition. It is dif- ical analysis was the essential component in ficult to follow his argument with regard to, conclusively distinguishing between the real for example, Roman marble copies of Greek and the faked. There are many more exam- original bronzes. Are they existentially valid ples where study of the chemical constitution expressions of the original artist? The execu- of works of art has provided essential infor- tion of the work itself in these cases may be mation in distinguishing between things that seen as the legitimate emulation of an earlier are visually indistinguishable. tradition, even if the intention of the original It cannot therefore be assumed that the artist is not represented by such replicated ability to learn to appreciate subtle visual works. Radnóti (1999:132) writes: differences between works that were former- ly regarded as indistinguishable always con- Wollheim thinks that Goodman uses forms to the theories of Goodman or Danto. the weaker notion of forgery when he Radnóti (1999) makes a distinction be- equates it with execution. This notion tweenthe different ways of examining the could be strengthened by assuming that problem of indistinguishability. There is the the forger equals Rembrandt not only in mimetic model, with a depiction of nature or execution but also invention. Wollheim a perfect similitude of another work of art, regards as subversive the particular creating essentially the perfect fake. This

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Merger of Appropriation historical of tradition horizon of artist and observer

Appreciation or Intention surpassing of of the artist intention

Figure 4.12. A variation on the relationships between artist’s intention, appreciation or surpassing in- tention, the appropriation of tradition that may be invoked by a fake, and the merger of the historical horizons of the artist and the interpreter, based on Hans-George Gadamer’s hermeneutics. The major problem with this view is what to make of “artist’s intention.” (Diagram by the author)

distinction is based on the potential differ- within them, such as the beer cans fabricated ences between depiction and depicted. As a by Jasper Johns (1930-). Johns himself says: second type of indistinguishability, Radnóti “I am interested in that which is not what it (1999:105) writes of the problems posed by was; in that which becomes different from medieval cultic images that “did not so much what it is; in the moment when we clearly represent the sacred person surrounded by identify the thing, as well as in the passing of respect and reverence, did not so much sim- this moment; in the moment of seeing and ulate reality, but rather embodied or at least saying, as well as in the way we come to ac- resembled that person. . . . When the prin- cept this” (Brockes 2004). ciple of identicalness returns in a later pe- Johns’s beer cans were cast in bronze riod, contrasting itself with the principle of and hand-painted by Johns to resemble the similarity, then in this struggle and dialogue cans they represented, but they could not the notion of indistinguishability once again be mistaken for the original cans. There is becomes meaningful.” This statement per- a complex story behind the similitude of tains especially to modern art and the kinds these cans, however. The work was inspired of philosophical games Duchamp has played by a joke made by Willem de Kooning on modernity since 1913. The third type of (1904-1997) that the New York art deal- indistinguishability that Radnóti outlines is er Leo Castelli could sell anything, even that of the re-creation of everyday objects beer cans. Jasper Johns made his two cans that embed the notion of indistinguishability in 1958; Castelli sold the work for $900.

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However, there is a hidden artist’s inten- This chapter has reviewed many promi- tion behind the work: The two cans repre- nent philosophical utterances regarding the sent Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg concept of authenticity. Goodman drew a (1925-2008), who in the 1950s had a ro- distinction between the autographic and al- mantic relationship that ended acrimoni- lographic arts; Benjamin between originals, ously (Radnóti 1999). Both moved from auras, and reproductions. Heidegger present- New York to the South—Rauschenberg to ed his views regarding world withdrawal, the Florida—in 1960. One can is open and light object-being, and the work-being. Dutton and has “Florida” written on it, represent- outlined nominal authenticity and expressive ing Rauschenberg. The other can is closed authenticity. Funk et al. thought that authen- and heavy, representing Johns. The lid of ticity was fragmented, contested, and perfor- the former is punctured, while the other is mative; Knaller that the concept devolves into not. These are clear examples of how the referential authenticity, subject authenticity, of two apparently indistinguish- and aesthetic authenticity; Vanlaethem that able cast-bronze beer cans can represent authenticity is a judgment, a semiotic con- an intangible authenticity of intention that struct that cannot be separated from context, cannot be seen. A simpler example as re- society, and aims. Several authors claimed gards the problem of indistinguishability there was no such thing as authenticity per se would be Andy Warhol’s relatively unpop- and that the concept should be given up. ular reproductions of packages of Kellogg’s The works of Sartre and Heidegger are Corn Flakes. Each is indistinguishable from often discussed in terms of their importance the other as a representation of the original, to the subject of art and authenticity, although and none possess any intangible association these authors are more concerned with how for the artist beyond the reproduction of our thoughts and actions can be viewed as au- the packages themselves. These issues will thentic than with the existence of works of art be addressed in greater detail in the chapter and how their condition, appreciation, and dealing with modern and contemporary art. significance can be investigated.

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Chapter 5 The Ancient Old World

The Ancient Authentic Leda and the Swan Authenticity and Egyptian Art Bacchus from Dresden Authenticity and Spolia The Lansdowne Boxer Egyptian Fakes The Getty Kouros The Re-creation of Knossos The Japanese Paleolithic The Crown of Saïtapharnès Piltdown Man Greek and Roman Authenticity Totonac and Zapotec Ceramics Contexts of Roman Restoration The Manitou Springs Site Marcus Aurelius from the Museum Stonehenge II The Pedimental Sculptures from Aphaea Paleolithic Rock Art The Getty Herakles

The artistic masterpieces of our age may seem a long way from the first daubs of red ochre on a human face . . . yet what our ancestors began, spread across the globe, in high art and low. —Denis Dutton, The Art Instinct

Introduction reappropriated as Roman marbles, but also This chapter is a long one, not only because because in the twenty-first century, views the ancient Old World interacts with itself, of ancient artworks are constantly evolving for example, in the way Greek bronzes were as new scholarship and interpretations are

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presented. These views are part of our own as nationally significant. Still others have as- complex interaction with the past and our sumed a whole new set of meanings in the need for explanations of what is significant, twenty-first century, becoming, in the case important, or meaningful. of Knossos, an authentic expression of the Forgeries of Egyptian art have been very reconstitution of the site in a vision of what influential in spreading the appreciation of the Minoans were supposed to have achieved ancient Egyptian civilization to a wide audi- rather than what they actually achieved. ence, as materially authentic survivors from so long ago are far rarer than is generally ap- The Ancient Authentic preciated. Surviving traces of the Minoans were already copying seashells have been used to reconstitute the Minoan 35,000 years ago, and a necklace from the civilization, as represented at Knossos, into consisted of 118 deer teeth and a fiction of the twentieth century that is still 65 copies carved from bone. A Neolithic carried onward into the twenty-first. hatchet discovered by a Roman in antiquity Restoration, derestoration, and reresto- was thought to be Jupiter’s lightning beam ration have important stories to tell as to (Schulz 2011). how ancient sculpture has been valorized or A most significant forgery of a cruciform altered to suit the tastes of the cultural peri- monument from Sippar (Sollberger 1968) od in which the alterations to the morphol- was created during the first half of the second ogy of the work took place. The authenticity millennium B.C.E., but it supposedly dates of some works, such as the Getty Kouros, to the reign of Manishtushu, king of Akkad is still contested, while notable cases of au- (circa 2276–2261 B.C.E.). It includes an in- thentic art that was once regarded as inau- scription stating, “This is not a lie, it is indeed thentic, such as Paleolithic rock art, speak to the truth.” In having to exhort the reader that cultural assumptions of the ability of early his statement is not a lie, the ancient faker be- man, compared with more evolved societal trays the anticipation of doubt, since the truth environments and the superior abilities pre- of the lie does not come from an innocent re- sumed to accompany them. gard of the past but a false consciousness of Prominent forgeries have resulted in the the present. rewriting of the Japanese Paleolithic prehis- craftsmen were able to pro- tory. More amusing cases included here are duce multiples of spears and palstaves from the site of Manitou Springs, which never in stone molds that would have been visually in- fact existed, and Stonehenge II, which does distinguishable from each other. These molds not purport to represent the real Stonehenge were widely used throughout the Bronze but which has its own allure and historical Age, and experimental work has shown that validity. All of these cases have authentic each was capable of producing from 8 to 12 consequences. Some, such as the forgeries identical castings before being degraded by of ancient Egyptian art, have helped spread heating (Sørensen 2012; Wang and Ottaway appreciation for authentic art that does sur- 2004). The problems related to multiples and vive in virtue of its rarity. Others, such as the indistinguishability therefore recede in time creation of a fake Japanese past, involved a back to the Neolithic, when deer teeth were desired prehistory and therefore were seen simulated by bone, and to the Bronze Age,

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when craftsman produced identical metallic 746 C.E. The desire to get one’s hands on an artifacts, not depending on wax for the cre- original Greek artwork became a mania—a ation of sophisticated castings. sign of educated taste, refinement, and art ap- It is not clear that the ancient Egyptians, preciation. The supply simply was not there, Romans, and Greeks did not have some no- and as wrote, “He who knows a thou- tion of what was authentic or inauthentic in sand works of art, knows a thousand frauds” art. The Romans extensively adapted or even (Radnóti 1999). copied Greek original sculptures, often cre- One of the most skilled fakers was ated in many similar marble versions. These Pasiteles, who wrote a best seller about his marble replicas or adaptations were usually career in the first century B.C.E., sadly now derived from bronze originals, but this work lost. Seneca the Elder (55 B.C.E.–39 C.E.) re- is usually described as an artistic emulation marked that half a dozen workshops in Rome of the admired past, or as an appropriationist made so-called Greek gems and intaglios. desire for the reproduction of the aura of the One art connoisseur of Rome advertised Greek originals by the Romans. The Greek his being able to tell by smell if a bronze was original bronzes have, for the most part, good or not, especially Corinthian bronze been lost, burned, sacked, dismembered, de- (Nobili 1922; Rieth 1970). This idea is not as liberately destroyed, or remelted and are now daft as it sounds, for brass alloys have a dis- almost universally lost to us. The heyday of tinctive smell that some bronzes would not the copying of Greek art by the Romans be- have, and although Corinthian bronze was gan in after Consul Claudius not made of brass, it did have other elements Marcellus (circa 268–208 BCE) sacked the added to the bronze, such as silver, gold, or Greek colony of Syracuse circa 268–208 arsenic. Perhaps too the connoisseur could B.C.E. and galleys full of Greek art came to have evaluated whether the patina of the Rome, then a city of mud brick with a pop- Corinthian bronze was correct or not, and ulation lacking in aesthetic tastes (Hallett its quality. Figure 1.17 reminds us that early 2005; Hoving 1997). The appropriation cultures collected artifacts from still earlier of Greek originals or the direct copying of epochs as museum exhibits and that this mu- Greek bronzes and marbles are described as seological desire for the collection of artifacts acts of forgery by (1997), an from the past originates in ancient Babylon opinion reinforced by the research of Carol and Egypt. Mattusch (1978, 1996, 2003) and Christopher The appearance of art connoisseurs of ev- Hallett (2005, 2012a). Hallett emphasizes ery persuasion can be traced back to Rome. that from his analysis, the Roman works were There were refined art lovers, parvenu col- often forgeries whose material authenticity lectors of little taste, and hoarders of only was sometimes valorized by direct imitation cameos or only Corinthian bronzes, pictures, of Greek originals or deliberate archaizing ivories, marble sculptures, jaspers, ambers, references to the Greece of 500 B.C.E., even silver plate, books with exquisite bindings, if the bronze concerned had a date of produc- tables of citrine, and so on. Rich collectors tion of 200 C.E. were prepared to pay huge prices for art of The longing for Greek art continued un- all kinds for their gardens, dining rooms, abated until the Roman Empire collapsed in peristyles, private libraries, and atria. Ricardo

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Nobili (1922:42) mentions that (Radice 1975; Roberts 2007). Zenodorus, for (100–44 B.C.E.) was a better connoisseur example, copied for Germanicus (15 B.C.E.–19 than his rival (Gnaeus Pompeius C.E.) a cup by Calamis in such perfect imita- Magnus, 106–48 B.C.E.). Through numerous tion of the chiseling that the copy could not be campaigns, Caesar carried with him endless told from the original. Nobili (1922:59) pro- numbers of precious mosaic tables and always vides a salient quotation from the work of the kept in his tent a fine work of a Greek artist, Latin writer Phoedrus (circa 15 B.C.E.– circa a statue of Venus, with whom he claimed a 50 C.E.), which confirms the suspicion that relationship. As Nobili (1922:42) writes: numerous forgeries were being created in all sorts of media: Though he showed eclectic taste in his gifts to the town and temples, he was in Fraudulent masterpieces of painting and private, like a true connoisseur and re- sculpture, often with the forged signa- fined lover of art, somewhat of a special- ture of some great artist, as at present ist, being extremely fond of cameos and times were on the market in Cicero’s cut stones. Of these he had six distinct time [Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 collections that held the admiration of B.C.E.)], his “Odi falsas inscriptions stat- all the connoisseurs of the city. . . . [He] uarum alienarum” is eloquent enough. was also the every-ready patron of mod- Phoedrus seems to complete Cicero’s in- ern art. In this character he paid 80 tal- formation about faking when ents (about 24,000 dollars in 1922) for a he writes: “It is in this way” he says, painting by Timonacus. speaking of faked paintings and sculp- tures “that some of our artists can realize Nobili (1922:47) continues to astound better prices for their work: by carving the reader with the sheer wealth and mag- the name of on a modern mar- nificence of ancient Rome. He quotes a pas- ble, the name of Scopas on a bronze stat- sage from the Satyricon, written by Gaius ue, that of on a silver-piece, and (circa 27–66 C.E.). One of the by putting the signature of Zeuxis to a few works of Roman fiction to survive, it was modern painting. based on what Petronius himself had wit- nessed. In the Satyricon he writes: “I entered The fact that the work of named artists was the Pinacotheca, where marvels of all kinds considered especially desirable and collectible, were gathered. There were works by Zeuxis that forgers were prepared to create works in which seemed to have triumphed over all the imitation of a master, adding a false name or affronts of age, sketches by Prothogenes that signature, clearly reveals that art and the fak- appeared to dispute merits with nature her- ing of artistic works was prevalent in ancient self. . . . There were some monochromes by Rome. In addition, the statement reveals that Apelles which moved me to holy reverence.” higher prices could be obtained for a recog- Pliny the Younger (62–113 C.E.) records nized ancient work of art than for its modern that, as regards forgeries, the Greek artists in equivalent, that art of the past was already val- particular were the most versatile. In Rome orized in ancient Rome, just as a bronze by they reproduced the most esteemed originals Giambologna is valorized and not a modern

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imitation. Art, its collection, pricing, recogni- small opening for offerings. So the sculpture tion of named artists, and faking of paintings was never intended for public display. Hence and sculpture, is a state of affairs completely its original polychromy has survived, even if analogous to events that occurred during the the original intention of the artist or the cul- Renaissance, although this is rarely recognized tural setting has not. or discussed by Renaissance scholars. The reuse value of art within the con- Authenticity and Egyptian Art text of ancient Egyptian culture is usually Because of the long prehistory of ancient referred to as an example of archaism rather Egypt, emulation of earlier artistic norms than appropriation. From the perspective of must have occurred in several settings; the the Egyptian specialist, the word is often used most well-known is the period around th­e to refer to the material culture of the Saite Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, which saw the emula- period, which was marked by widespread rep- tion of earlier Egyptian styles of coffins, buri- licas and free copies of an enormous range of als, and texts. There was the famous pia fraus past sculpture, reliefs, and monuments (Tait (religious fraud), instituted by the priests of 2003:11). If the general tendency in the Saite Amarna, who took credit for events that were period was to reinterpret and adapt the past, the result of other, earlier priestly works to then this is an early example of emulation, establish the supposedly authentic credentials analogous to Roman sculptures being an em- of their own temples. These acts of pia fraus ulation of Greek bronze originals, although were needed to convince religious devotees scholars of ancient Egyptian art seem not that the temple in which they were worship- to use the term emulation. The large funer- ping had a sanctity enhanced by the venera- ary structures of Theban high officials are tion of the ages, a trait often seen in the me- direct copies of Middle and New Kingdom dieval period. tomb and temple scenes. The value of reuse The use of multiples of a particular form of is evident in the Middle Kingdom. For exam- sculpture; the reuse of earlier coffins, inscrip- ple, Wildung (2003:67, figure 4.5) illustrates tions, and temples; or the appropriation of art a granite sphinx of Amenemhet III (ruled from a different epoch from Egypt’s own im- 1860–1814 B.C.E.) in the collections of the pressively long past are subjects little known Egyptian Museum, Cairo. It comes from the outside the specialized field of Egyptology. It Twelfth Dynasty, circa 1810 B.C.E., from was already mentioned in chapter 1 that the Tanis. It was appropriated by Hyksos rulers authentic appearance of ancient sculpture around 1550 B.C.E. and by Ramesside kings may invoke a gaudy polychromy antithetical around 1290–1215 B.C.E. It was appropri- to the Platonic desire for pure form unadul- ated again in the Third Intermediate period terated by vibrant color. Egyptian sculptures around 1050 to 1000 B.C.E. The sculpture is were often colored. For example, various shown in Figure 5.1. figures in a limestone sculpture of the Old These successive reappropriations, which Kingdom from the Fifth Dynasty had colored link together cultural milieus over 800 years, hair, with pale yellow for the lady and pale red seem apposite for the ancient Egyptian set- for the boy and man. Deposited in the serdab ting; such appropriations are rarely exam- of a mastaba, the sealed chamber had only a pled by cultures for which 800 years spans

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Figure 5.1. Granite sphinx of Amenemhet III, from the Twelfth Dynasty, around 1810 B.C.E., from Tanis. It was appropriated by Hyksos rulers around 1550 B.C.E., by Ramesside kings around 1250 B.C.E., and again in the Third Intermediate period around 1000 B.C.E. The successive reappropriations spanned 800 years. (Image courtesy of the Louvre)

completely different cultural environments. Many issues of appropriation, copying, em- In some examples of reappropriation, sculp- ulation, and veneration of past artistic norms tures are resituated without removal of the in and the Old World in general original hieroglyphic inscriptions, in rever- raise interesting problems regarding the no- ence for the conceptual authenticity of an tion of authenticity. Cultural appropriations original. Even if a work’s function or purpose often invoke not the aesthetic authenticity of is very different from the original, the work the artifact that has been appropriated but the honors and valorizes the past. conceptual authenticity of its cultural associa- During the Ptolemaic period, the replica- tions, its meanings within the power structure tion of sculpture from the Thirtieth Dynasty of the society concerned, and its ability to created sculptural representations that are so represent the hegemony of ruling elites. The similar to those of Nectanebo I and II and political advantage of appropriated works of those of the early rulers that scholars have art is that if seen as potentially powerful sym- struggled to distinguish between them (Ashton bolic acts or matters of political goodwill or 2003:213). A fragment of a colossal sculp- expediency, they can be returned to the orig- ture of a Ptolemaic goddess from Hadra in inal culture. Here the conceptual links, the Alexandria, which formed part of a dyad with intangible authenticity the work of art carries the depiction of a male, clearly dates to the as an auratic presence, manifests the magna- first century B.C.E., although the facial fea- nimity of the conqueror—the symbolic act of tures are more typical of works from the third return of a powerful image that has in some century B.C.E. If considered purely on stylistic sense become subservient to the aims of the grounds, the work would have been regarded appropriator. as an authentic Ptolemaic production, but the Lapatin (2010:255) gives several examples, existing male figure shows that the date of such as the Athenian tyrannicides, stolen by both sculptures cannot be earlier than the first Xerxes I (519–465 B.C.E.) in 480 B.C.E. They century B.C.E. (Ashton 2003:214–215). were commemorative sculptures of Harmodios

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and Aristogeiton (died 514 B.C.E.), two bronz- es by Antenor, important symbols of Athenian identity. The Athenians were so distraught at their loss that they commissioned replicas to be cast in their stead. When Alexander the Great (356–323 B.C.E.) conquered Persia, Alexander or one of his generals returned the original tyrannicides to Athens. This action invoked the conceptual authenticity of the originals and the association of the authen- tic nature of the ancient Greek States with Alexander himself. The symbolic denigration of a powerful sculpture is illustrated by the case of Kushite tribesmen who invaded Upper Egypt and pulled down many statues, one of which was an over-life-size bronze of Emperor Augustus of exceptionally high quality. The Roman general Petronius sent am- bassadors to the Kushites, demanding the statue of Augustus be returned. The Kushites refused to repatriate the statue, instead de- capitating it and burying the head under the steps of a local temple to Victory (Lapatin Figure 5.2. Decapitated head of the Roman emperor Augustus, 63 B.C.E.–14 C.E.; inlaid 2010:261), where it was trodden on until it with eyes of glass and stone. In 31 B.C.E., was excavated in 1910. It now resides in an- Augustus defeated Anthony and Cleopatra and other afterlife as an exhibit in the British took over Egypt. Strabo records that statues of Museum in 2015. The intangible authentic- Augustus were erected along the Nile at Aswan. ity of the buried, appropriated sculpture was An invading Kushite army looted them in 25 B.C.E. Although the Romans reclaimed many what mattered: the ritual degradation of the of the pieces, they did not manage to get to emperor and the power of the Kushites to Meroë, where the head of one statue was buried keep the statue for themselves, not as an ad- under the steps of a temple dedicated to Victory mired work of art but as a buried and degrad- as a symbolic trampling underfoot of the em- peror himself. There it remained until it was ed bronze captive. Appropriation itself can excavated in 1910. It now resides in the British be discussed in terms of four categories. First Museum. (Image courtesy of the British Museum. object appropriation, where the physical object © The Trustees of the British Museum) is removed from its original provenance and displayed in a different cultural setting. As can be seen from the examples given here, this of this also come from the ancient world. In kind of appropriation goes back to ancient design appropriation, a particular style origi- Egyptian and Roman times. In content appro- nates in one culture and is then used by peo- priation, concepts that originate in one cul- ple in another. It is often a means of ensuring ture are then taken over by another. Examples content appropriation (Gracyk 2012). In voice

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appropriation, representations made in one and cultural heritage. In the United culture portray the concepts, behavior, and States, the National Congress of the attitudes of another. A good example of de- American Indians and other Native or- sign appropriation is that of chi wara wooden ganizations have denounced appropria- ritual masks (Jones 1992:figure 33), which ac- tion of their cultures as a form of cultural tually show a greater resemblance to horned genocide, a racist eradication of genuine animal carvings. These sculptures are made Native culture. by the Bambara people of Mali in West Africa for ceremonial purposes and have wooden Authenticity and Spolia pegs that enable them to be attached to bas- The appropriation of the cultural voice of an ketwork caps. Carvings based on the chi wara, original has many ramifications in the ancient of the same artistic style, are made for tour- world and beyond. The appropriation of ma- ists in Torajaland, Indonesia. The Indonesian terials, often ancient, for reuse in a different appropriations even come with certificates of architectural context of a later date is known authenticity, informing the purchaser that the as spolia. It might also represent the voice carvings are copyright designs by Torajaland appropriation mentioned above. Richard carvers and are not to be reproduced for the Brilliant makes a distinction between spo- tourist buyer. But the pegs are not present lia in se and spolia in re (Brilliant and Kinney because the true purpose of the carvings has 2011:2), which expands the concept of spolia been lost in translation. This is a particularly to items reused as material remains (spolia in egregious example of design appropriation for se), as well as to virtual aspects of spolia where commercial purposes as compared with the the intangible associations of the material are original intentions of the Mali creators, which more important than the material itself. The involved ceremonial use only. It is far from the virtual has much in common with the con- most contentious case. Navajo sand paintings cept of intangible authenticity, but the differ- fulfill sacred tribal functions and are destroyed ent languages used in the various disciplines after use. The works have an ephemeral exis- rarely make a connection between the pleth- tence. Stabilized versions are produced by the ora of terms, such as adaptive reuse, spolia, and Navajo for sale to outsiders, but these do not appropriation. carry quite the same symbolism of the ephem- Indeed, spoliation can be seen as a form of eral authentic works (Parezo 1991). However, appropriation, distinguished by dispossession if outsiders themselves begin to appropriate or material removal of the object or person the Navajo sand painting designs—those com- from its original context. The authentic voice mercially made by the Navajo for sale—are of ancient fragments reappropriated for a new these seen as legitimate artistic instantiations purpose led to the reuse of pieces of the macel- by the Navajo? The answer is certainly not. As lum of Pozzuoli in the Cathedral of Salerno, Gracyk (2012) remarks: while sculptural remnants from Rome were spoliated for a new purpose in the Cathedral Even when it is not offensive, appropri- of Pisa (Brilliant and Kinney 2011:15). ation trivializes the non-dominant cul- The most total instantiations of this kind ture, confusing its own members about of appropriation result in an entire archi- the significance of its cultural indicators tectural structure being transformed into

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a museum exhibit, as the display of the an- Egyptian temples was displayed by all kinds cient Egyptian at the of works of art heaped around him.” Lucan Metropolitan Museum of Art illustrates. Part (39 C.E.–65 C.E.), in his Pharsalia, was in- of the allure of the temple is the stunning au- censed by the presence in Roman temples of dacity of removal of an entire temple from Isis and Osiris, whom he referred to as deities Egypt and its relocation to an internal space of the entire world (Willoughby 1929). In the at the Metropolitan Museum. Part of its am- second century C.E., Emperor Hadrian made biguity as a museum exhibit is precisely how a Nile journey, bringing back to Rome a great one feels about its displacement—perhaps collection of Egyptian antiquities. In Rome pleasure at its existence in New York and a alone, there are more pharaonic obelisks than sense of dismay that it is not in Egypt in its in Egypt itself. original setting. What does its original set- The desire for collecting relics of the an- ting now look like? The temple becomes an cient Egyptian civilization has resulted in a object of philosophical contemplation, not host of problems regarding the authenticity perhaps as the museum curator imagined it of art objects and monumental sculpture pur- but imbued with various meanings for view- portedly from ancient times but frequently ers, depending on how they conceive of the made since the nineteenth century. The al- exhibition in terms of appropriation, loss of lure of ancient Egyptian art for Western civ- authentic location, and transformation. ilizations was especially great from the early Victorian period onward, spurring the cre- Egyptian Fakes and Fancies ation of a plethora of fakes. Much as contemporary observers are still fas- Problems with the acquisition of authentic cinated by the remains of ancient Egyptian Egyptian art have been exacerbated by a num- cultures, so too were later Egyptian dynas- ber of issues: first its great age, thousands of ties, such as the Saite-period Twenty-Sixth years old, meaning that often only fragments Dynasty. Then, numerous re-creations, adap- of authentic works survive. Second, the work is tations, and replicas of much older artifacts quite rare compared with our perception of how were produced in an archaizing trend as part much has managed to survive into the present. of an appropriation of earlier artistic styles. Third, exports of antiquities from Egypt have There had been a burgeoning interest in been limited for a long time. Fourth, the mania Egypt among foreigners ever since Herodotus for Egyptian art has never really abated. (484–425 B.C.E.), writing around the mid-fifth This mania was also catalyzed by the de- century B.C.E., reported on the marvels of the cipherment of hieroglyphs by Champollion Great Pyramid (constructed circa 2560 B.C.E.). (1790–1832) in 1822, coupled with a con- The Romans were both beguiled and revolt- siderable increase in European travelers to ed by Egyptian art (Fiechter 2009). Antinous Egypt around the 1880s. The demand so (Hausrath 1882), in his romance of ancient greatly exceeds the supply, even at the turn of Rome, writes that Hadrian (Publius Aelius the twenty-first century, that huge numbers Hadrianus Buccellanus, 76 C.E.–138 C.E.) of artifacts—even those currently housed in had been honored by works of temples some museum collections—are actually fakes, he had visited: “In short, the intimacy be- pastiche productions, heavily restored, al- tween him and the monstrous divinities of the tered, or entirely bogus or fanciful creations.

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Figure 5.3. Cleopatra’s Needle on the Thames embankment in London, far from home. The popular name for this obelisk is entirely erroneous, as it was already 1,000 years old in the time of Cleopatra. Made during the reign of the Eighteenth-Dynasty pharaoh Thutmose III, it is carved in red granite. It stands 21 m high and weighs 224 tons. It was erected in Heliopolis around 1450 B.C.E. and then moved to Alexandria and set up in the Caesareum, which was built by Cleopatra in 12 B.C.E., but was toppled over. In 1878 a time capsule of Victoriana was embedded beneath the obelisk. It was bombed by the Germans in World War I, and the damage re- mains unrestored. It was cleaned of grime and old wax coatings in 2005. (Photograph by Valerie A. Scott)

An old bronze sculpture in Turin, a head curiosities for the educated elite, such cabi- of Isis, was not realized to be a fake until the nets being much in vogue at the time. nineteenth century when Champollion visit- As early as the 1830s, Egyptians were pro- ed, declaring the hieroglyphs to be complete- ducing forged ushabtis made of mud and sand ly wrong. The bronze must have been cast a from the Nile and cast in molds, often with long time ago in fascination with the ancient spurious hieroglyphic inscriptions (Jones Egyptian language and art. In one sense, 1990:figure 272; Wakeling 1912:plate vi). then, it was not intended to be a fake. It was a Wakeling, an English doctor resident in Cairo fanciful tribute to the Egyptian past—anoth- for some time, is credited with writing the first er example of Egyptianizing as an authentic account of ancient Egyptian fakes. Classier expression of interest in the culture and its fakes include an example made in a green attainments, or an emulation of the Egyptian stone, in imitation of green-glazed Egyptian past in the Renaissance. faience (Whitehouse 1989), housed in the There are several examples of copies and Oxford or environs since replicas of Egyptian ushabtis being collected the seventeenth century. Another fake is made in seventeenth-century Europe. These copies of bronze and kept in the Kunsthistorisches and fakes, which evinced the desire for emu- Museum, Vienna. Originally belonging to lation of the ancient, were kept in cabinets of the imperial Habsburg collection, it is a

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remarkably accurate rendition of an ushabti desired—substances of reflected glory, or at of the Late period, with a single column of least a collection of ushabti. hieroglyphic inscriptions below the hands, Some Egyptian fakes inspired Oedipus although these have been badly transcribed Aegyptiacus, by Jesuit scholar Athanasius and are not accurate. Whitehouse (1989) Kircher (1602–1680), published in Rome in remarks that this bronze replica may have 1652–1654. The writings presage some as- come from the Kunstsammlung of Archduke pects of fractal morphologies (Scott 2005). Leopold Wilhelm (1614–1662). It was trans- The seventeenth-century emulations of an- ferred to Emperor Leopold I (1640–1705) in cient Egyptian art served not only as objets 1661, a surprisingly early example. Further d’art in their own right but also as exotic re- fake examples cast in bronze are kept in the minders of a distant past whose accomplish- Bibliothèque Nationale, along with fanciful ments one could only marvel at. One could Egyptianizing compositions. also consider that these are in fact fakes whose The desire for Spain to create an admired origination had been appropriated by those in past resulted in the creation of a forged Spanish the seventeenth century, desirous to use them antiquity, in a vain attempt to compete with the for their own ends. wonders of ancient Egypt or Troy. This desire Wunderkammers have returned to fash- to legitimate a nonexistent past led to the cre- ionable status in the postmodern twen- ation of numerous forged Egyptian artifacts ty-first-century art establishment, where the that were acquired by the Museo Arqueológico conceptual authenticity of the miscellaneous Nacional in Madrid between 1872 and 1875 juxtaposition of exotic artifacts has been re- (Pérez-Accino and Cueva 2003:104). validated by the multiple identities of their These fakes established a corporeal con- creations or the choices involved in their col- nection between the past of Spain’s admired lection (Amsel-Arieli 2009; Hoare 2014). achievements and the present cultural need The problem with the aesthetic, material, for validation of a past that had never existed. or conceptual authenticity of Egyptian art is One wonders if this Spanish self-deception such that Jean-Jacques Rifaud (1786–1852), might more easily have been created in a so- who put together a fine Egyptological collec- ciety in which numerous religious relics were tion in 1826, already had to contend with nu- still regarded as powerful entities in their own merous fakes (Fiechter 2009). He mentions, right rather than in a country where the in- in his fictitious memoirs, a saucer cast in lead tangible power of such relics had long ceased with hieroglyphs, a copper saucer also deco- to be active. rated with hieroglyphs, and a host of other The desire to appropriate Egyptian art non-Egyptian items. in the colonial and post-colonial period led A contested real artifact is the magnifi- to the removal of large monumental stone cent head of Queen , excavated by sculptures from Egypt to Italy, France, Ludwig Borchardt (1863–1938) around 1910 Germany, Spain, England, and North and rather quickly hidden from view before America. Everyone had to have an ancient resurfacing as a masterpiece in the Berlin Egyptian stone obelisk as a reflection of their Museums; Egypt still claims that the artifact own power and the intangible authenticity was looted and has conducted a never-end- of the past of ages unknown but exotic and ing campaign to get it back, although there

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Figure 5.4. Egyptian Multiples: The Ushabti 2014, created by the author as a conceptual appropriation of the original as part of a postmod- ern dialogue with repetition and difference. The original Egyptian faience objects were produced as multiples for tomb burials. Here copies were produced as an assim- ilation of the multiplicity of their original function. For purposes of philosophical argument, let us postulate that I am worshiping Osiris and that each object is em- bodied with the intangible authen- ticity of its dedication to the god. (Photograph by the author) is no indication that the Germans have any Being an iconic image does render the intention of returning this iconic object. But sculpture susceptible to exploitation for a Borchardt, who arrived in Egypt in 1895 and variety of works of modern art that seek to stayed put, living in style on an island in the appropriate the aura of the Egyptian original. Nile, did a great deal of work for Egypt’s For example, in 2009 the Hungarian artist archaeology. For example, he initiated the duo Little Warsaw created a conceptual work Catalogue General of the art collection of the (Petrańyi 2003) that resulted in the famous Egyptian Museum in Cairo. head being lowered onto the headless bronze One distracting recent argument, made by statue of a woman wearing a tight-fitting Swiss scholar Henri Stierlin (2009), is that the transparent robe. The Germans had supplied head of Queen Nefertiti is a forgery and that the artistic duo with a plaster replica of the Borchardt arranged for a contemporary art- head so that the bronze, made in Hungary, ist to make a replica from it in 1912. Stierlin would fit exactly when brought to Germany (2009), who has been studying the sculpture for the culmination of the artistic event. The for 25 years and has written books on ancient bronze itself was exhibited at the third Venice Egypt, maintains that stylistically the work without the original head but with a cannot be correct and is a replica of the orig- video showing the head being lowered onto inal. This conclusion is described as ludicrous the body as part of the conceptual nature of by the famous Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, and this work. The event prompted outrage in most commentators regard the sculpture as au- the queen’s homeland and accusation by the thentic, so much so that Stierlin’s conclusions Egyptians that Queen Nefertiti was no longer hardly seem to be taken seriously, especially as safe in Germany. The art historian’s view of they seem to be based on only stylistic criteria. the event is recorded by Petrańyi (2003), who

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writes: “This is the phase in which the work yellowish hue” (Fiechter 2009). Clercq goes of art is legitimated, the step that distinguish- on to describe the faking of statuettes made es creation from mere complementation, a from plaster, funerary scarabs made of paint- symbolic ‘performance’ that validates the ed plaster, carved bas-reliefs of limestone idea of a statue existing in two places by the without the clarity of line of the originals, and act of joining these two parts.” Exhibition of bronzes made in Greece or Italy in the form this conceptual artwork in Venice successful- of Egyptian drop earrings and rings of classi- ly invoked the intangible authenticity of the cal shape. The fine hotels being built during filmed event as part of the overall conception the first decades of the twentieth century ne- of the work and its continued authentic exis- cessitated the arrival of Italian craftsmen for tence as a headless form, or as a divorced and the plasterwork. They then passed on their separated dualism, one inauthentic body and skills to Egyptian forgers. Wakeling (1912) authentically conceptual head. It is very un- mentions some fakers working in plaster and likely that there will be a repeat performance wood, but also in marble or even granite, and outside of the video recording of their brief illustrates a series of wooden models of tombs conjunction. and statuettes made by an elderly craftsman American artist Fred Wilson has made use from Gurna. This forger used old wood taken of casts of Queen Nefertiti in a study related from the coffins of mummies, then in plenti- to repetition and difference in a work called ful supply, to begin his work. The statuettes Grey Area (Brown Versions) 2008, currently in were dipped into semiliquid plaster and then the collections of the Brooklyn Museum. The painted. Modern scarabs were glazed with heads are identical, with the only variation fragments of old artifacts ground down, and being that the tonality of the sculptures be- faience scarabs with inscriptions were ground comes successively darker from one head to off to re-engrave more prestigious cartouches, the next, in a graduation from white to black. which were then reglazed. Appropriation of the queen is part of Wilson’s Reisner reports that several red commentary on race, class, and aesthetics, ac- house models bought by his colleague Lythgoe cording to the Brooklyn Museum website, in 1899 dissolved in a heavy rain (Firth 1912); with the conjunctions of race and class being they had been shaped out of mud by the pot- illustrated by the varying color of each cast. ters of the region of Ballas, who were expert French bibliophile Alfred Clercq (1890– forgers. Because they were stylistically accu- 1961) complained in 1843 that the huge rate, the fakes were hard to detect. numbers of British tourists wanting scarabs, Some fakes have proved very problemat- idols, and ushabtis had ruined everything. He ic and were regarded as authentic for almost writes of fake wooden statuettes: “Makers of 100 years. These include the limestone statue recent and fresh antiquities have a very simple of Queen Tetisheri, illustrated in Figure 2.17. method, with the primary goal of giving them The so-called Mond head in the Egyptian an antique look. They take sycamore wood Museum, Cairo, was declared a masterpiece and carve it to shape, next they boil it in a by Gaston Maspero (1846–1916), director of tobacco decoction and rub it with powdered antiquities, in 1903. Kept in the collections bitumen, thus making them smell of mum- of the museum, the head was admired for de- mies and antiquity and giving them a suitably cades. Charles Boreux, curator at the Louvre,

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enthused, “One begins to wonder if this is not of stylistic criteria but as a result of scientif- the apogee of Egyptian art.” In fact, the sculp- ic examination. Modern soldering, goldwork ture was said to have been made in Gurna and showing regular striations from the use of introduced to Robert Mond’s excavations by commercial gold sheet, and filing marks were his workers, afraid that the English business- typical technical details that were incorrect man might abandon the excavation if he found for ancient Egyptian manufacture. The ex- nothing of interest (Fiechter 2009). Particularly tensive number of gold artifacts involved in in Upper Egypt, excavators also paid workers the forgery seriously undermines the legiti- for finding antiquities, spurring the creation macy of the entire treasure, especially since of fakes still further. By 1934 Ahmed Fakhry both Winlock and Hayes discuss them as if (1905–1973) had recorded the confession of a they are authentic. This is a typical example Gurna workman who had been part of the de- where art historical and scientific connois- ception. By this time, Egyptologists had severe seurship should have worked together to as- doubts about the style of the sculpture. sess the material authenticity of the artifacts Forgeries that create an apparently au- under study. Gold and silver artifacts are thentic presence in a collection of artifacts prone to creating these problems, partially from a particular site are especially pernicious because gold may not undergo general cor- in subverting the corpus of material from rosive deterioration, although some reddish which a stylistic, historical, or archaeological patina, which cannot easily be faked, often interpretation can be reliably deduced. Such forms on ancient gold. Silver has a delicate is the case with the gold and silver treasure patina that is possible to forge. Silver may of the three foreign wives of Thutmose III also be blackened as a result of heavy sulfidic (1481 B.C.E.–1425 B.C.E.). The site in ques- tarnishing, which can also be faked. tion, Wady Gabbanat el-Qurud, had been The retrospective determination of exact- discovered and looted by villagers in 1916. ly who was responsible for the production of Some finds from the site were retrieved and these gold forgeries in Egypt around 1918 is purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of not an easy task, and efforts to track down the Art in 1919 and made public in 1928. A se- forgers failed. The simplest course of action ries of publications by famous Egyptologists was to consign the forgeries to storage in the described the artifacts as fine examples of an- Metropolitan Museum in perpetuity. cient Egyptian gold and silver work, and all The problems with the authenticity of an- were published as authentic Egyptian antiq- cient Egyptian art around the end of the nine- uities (Hayes 1959; Winlock 1948). However, teenth century were considerable (Fiechter in reassessment of the material from the 2009). Borchardt realized that he had been site, Lilyquist (2003), together with Richard fooled by several faked works of Egyptian art, Stone at the Metropolitan Museum, realized at least one of which he had bought himself that a large number of the gold and silver and presented to the Berlin Museum. When treasures were modern forgeries. These in- Borchardt retired, he was determined to ex- cluded Wadjet eyes, acacia spacers, Tawerets, amine as many dubious works in European falcons, Menat-shaped pendants, bowls, and collections as possible. This study took him 20 scarabs, all in various gold alloys. They were years, after which he concluded that there were determined to be forgeries, not on the basis more than 250 high-class fakes in a host of

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museums across Europe and North America. For example, the relief shown in Figure In 1930, Borchardt exposed 56 of these fakes, 5.5 was purchased from Aslanian in May including a limestone relief in the style of the 1924 for 11,000 gold marks. Old Kingdom that he had purchased in 1912 Other works purchased from Aslanian (Fiechter 2009). The publication by Borchardt may have been genuine, heavily restored, (1930), in an obscure German journal, did not or pastiche creations, so there was a com- please most European curators. One hundred plex mixture of goods. Borchardt refused of them wrote angry letters to Borchardt, to accept his own verdict that so many of insisting that his opinion was wrong. He an- these works could be forged, but then he swered all of them. But Borchardt had the eye found other, similar examples, and he then of the true Egyptian connoisseur. His trail realized that his doubts had been justified led him to consider that the forger responsi- (Fiechter 2009). ble was the mysterious figure Oxan Aslanian, Aslanian’s files were discovered in 1968, known as the Master of Berlin. To the few art 30 years after Borchardt’s research had de- dealers who know of his existence, Aslanian scribed the artworks as forgeries. One of was an Armenian who had lived in Italy, Syria, the works was illustrated in the old files. and Greece—a master forger who was never This research by Borchardt represents a brought to justice. Documents signed by H. triumph of art historical connoisseurship. Schafer, head of the Berlin Museums in the Still other fakes led to further investigations early twentieth century, show that he had pur- by Borchardt (1930), which have been well chased about 10 works of ancient Egyptian art described by Fiechter (2009), who carried from Aslanian over a period of some years. As out much of the background research into Fiechter (2009) writes: Aslanian and the Egyptian fakes discussed here. Fiechter’s 2009 book Egyptian Fakes is It was only after Aslanian’s death in a detailed account of the story given briefly Munich in 1968 that antiquary Heinz here and is an excellent work on the sub- Herzer thought of contacting his widow. ject of ancient Egyptian fakes, which has The forger had left two large dossiers of not been greatly explored in the literature photographs illustrating some of his cre- by any other recent writer. Borchardt was ations and other possibly real artifacts put in touch with Paolo Dingli, a Maltese he had also sold or copied or restored. painter, sculptor, and sometime forger, by Herzer published, and once again, muse- an antiques dealer in Cairo. For more than um curators were irate. The reaction to two years, Borchardt would meet him in his work alarmed Herzer, and he aban- his small apartment in Cairo. At the root doned his research, fearing for his job, but of this forgery problem was the Restoration the Egyptologist, Dr. Dietrich Wildung, Department of the Egyptian Museum. then chief curator of the Munich Museum Emile Pasha, who worked in various muse- was made of sterner stuff. In 1983 he or- ums in Cairo for 40 years, had hired Dingli. ganized a large exhibition on the False But who was responsible for the numer- Pharaohs Art at Munich’s Staatliche ous fakes, some of which ended up in the Sammlung, much of which exposed the Louvre, was never established (Fiechter work of Oxan Aslanian. 2009:80).

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Figure 5.5. Old Kingdom–style relief by Oxan Aslanian in the Berlin Museums, pur- chased for 11,000 gold marks in 1924. The workmanship of Aslanian is often too perfect and regular; otherwise, there is little to suggest that the work is a forgery. The relief was on exhibition for 60 years, Wildung exposed the forgeries of Aslanian. (Image courtesy of the Berlin Museums)

Authentic Greenhalgh Productions Princess Amarna was purchased in 2003 by Today, of course, fakes and forgeries contin- the for £440,000, a very sub- ue to be produced, the most astonishing be- stantial sum, and was authenticated by both ing fabricated by the English working-class the Egyptology Department of Christie’s and Greenhalgh family, living on welfare in by the British Museum (Malvern 2006). But Bolton. Starting in 1989, they accumulat- instead of being 3,300 years old, it had been ed $750,000 with a wide range of forger- made in 2001 by in three ies, such as a ceramic faun in the style of weeks in a very modest English garden shed. , which was even authenticated by A wooden sculpture in the collections of the Wildenstein Institute in Paris. Getting the Louvre depicts an elegant carved wooden a work of authenticated by the head on a long neck. It was one of the most somewhat fearsome Wildenstein Institute is popular Egyptian antiquities in the Louvre, no mean feat, and as a result, the faun was reproduced in many expensive books of an- purchased for $700,000 in 1997 by the Art cient Egyptian art, and it was pictured on Institute of , which described it one of the highest-selling postcards until as a major discovery until British scientists 2006, when scientific dating of the wood exposed the work as a fake in 2007 (Artner proved that the sculpture could not possibly 2007). An Egyptian marble sculpture of be ancient Egyptian (Fiechter 2009:140).

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If a sculpture is so admired, does its au- authentic. Watrin was blacklisted from all thenticity reside in its intangible public admi- research libraries in Paris by the power of ration for more than a generation, its social the Louvre, but that did not stop him and biography, and its aura of being made au- his research. Scientific connoisseurship con- thentic by being exhibited in the Louvre for firmed Watrin’s view; the stone used was so long rather than in its material essence? a speckled granite from Aswan, which had The constructivist approach to this question never been used by Middle Kingdom artists, might well take the view that the participa- who preferred more refined stone. A second tion of this sculpture in its public existence court case ensued, and this time Watrin took has been validated by its instantiation as an a prominent role, backed up with a score of admired work of art from the Amarna period. Forgeries may lie about their origins, but they may not commit a lie about their presence if the aura of their existence is accepted by gen- erations of museum visitors as something tan- gible and real. Yet another problem beset the Louvre in the shape of a granite sculpture of Sesostris III. There is another granite bust of the king in the museum in Cairo. The example in the Louvre was held to be authentic by the curators of the Egyptian Department, Elisabeth Delange and Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt. The sculpture had originally been pur- chased by a French multimillionaire named Pinault, for five million francs in 1998. But Professor Dietrich Wildung declared the sculpture suspect. The French curators did not alert Pinault to the views of Professor Figure 5.6. Alabaster torso of an Egyptian prin- Wildung, who decided to publish his opinions cess of the Amarna period, presumed to be 3,300 in a German art magazine, which came to the years old. Because of the high quality of the carv- attention of Pinault. As a result, he sued to ing and the presence of the side-lock of hair, ex- get his money back (Lüger 2009). Desroches- perts at the British Museum held the work to be Noblecourt maintained that the sculpture a depiction of one of the daughters of . The forgery was made in the small garden shed was genuine and dated to a period after the of the Greenhalgh family, living on welfare in death of the king, from the end of the Twelfth Bolton, England, around 2003, and was authen- Dynasty to the beginning of the Thirteenth ticated by Christie’s and by the British Museum. Dynasty. According to archaeologist Luc The Bolton Museum wanted to place the famous Watrin, the work is a fake (Gentleman 2003; fake on display, but it is currently the property of the Metropolitan Police. The connection be- Lüger 2009). Pinault lost the first court case. tween a citizen of Bolton and the Bolton Museum The court decided, due to the testimony of adds to the significance of location. (Image cour- the French experts, that the statue was indeed tesy of Bolton Museum and Art Galleries)

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letters condemning the sculpture from most- achieved is one of the most impressive indi- ly British and American Egyptologists (Lüger vidual achievements in archaeological schol- 2009). The second court case resulted in vic- arship, one made even more remarkable by tory for Pinault and Watrin, and the sculpture the disconnect between Evans’s vision of the of Sesostris III, which even appears in a small Minoans and the factual and artifactual evi- photo book called One Hundred Masterpieces in dence afforded by the site itself. Evans sought the Louvre, is now hidden away in storage. The a prehistory on which European civilization whole affair is a most unedifying spectacle of could be based, and Knossos was the medium self-interest on the part of the Louvre in op- that he used to create the message. The site posing the international expert evaluation of was restored as a re-creation of something the material authenticity of the sculpture of- that never existed in the concrete form, in fered by numerous Egyptologists and validated both senses of the word, in which it is pre- by scientific evidence showing that the sculp- sented to the visitor. Knossos is an economic ture could not possibly be from the ancient success for the island of Crete in terms of its Egyptian period but was a modern forgery. value as a tourist destination. MacGillivary The scarcity of ancient Egyptian art and (2000) notes that it is the second most-visited the West’s avid desire for it are the principal site in the whole of Greece, attracting about factors responsible for the large number of one million tourists a year. One early visitor forgeries, many of which undoubtedly still of refined aesthetic judgment was Evelyn reside in museums today. Waugh, who wrote in 1929:

The Authentic Minoans and Their I think that if our English Lord Evans Re-creation ever finished even a part of his vast un- The nature of the authenticity of the Minoan dertaking, it will be a place of oppressive civilization, which arose during the second wickedness. I do not think that it can only millennium B.C.E., in virtue of the site of be imagination and the recollection of a Knossos and the artifacts associated with it, bloodthirsty mythology which makes has continued to represent a major problem something fearful and malignant of the of interpretation and representation, inextri- cramped galleries and stunted alleys, cably bound up with European projections of these colonnades of inverted, conical mythic proportions, hyper-restoration, and pillars, these rooms that are mere blind extensive forgery (Papadopoulos 2005). The passages at the end of sunless staircases. site of Knossos and the performative nature of the Minoan civilization play a roman à This was a very astute summation by clef role in their relationship to the authen- Waugh (1930) at a time when the ordinary tic remnants of what has become a topos of visitor was in thrall at the vestiges of the the modern imagination of what an ancient Minoan civilization and the restorations that civilization might be like (Leontis 1995). The Evans had fabricated out of painted concrete. very influential work of Sir Arthur Evans Indeed, much of what Waugh saw during his (1851–1941) in single-handedly creating visit did not represent an authentic Minoan the phenomenon of the Palace of Knossos palace but only Evans’s version of what such a and the fame that the Minoan civilization palace should look like.

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Figure 5.7. The North Portico at Knossos, Greece, which is almost entirely a fictional reconstruction by Arthur Evans. (Photograph by Bernard Gagnon, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

When Papadopoulos (1995) visited the The intellectual context and material inau- site and descended the Grand Staircase, hu- thenticity of some of the most revered artifacts man traffic over the previous 70 years had from Knossos are a continuing source of con- completely disintegrated the original pav- cern. Now so far removed from the original ing stones while poured concrete from the context, the artifacts have assumed the legitima- 1920s was still in good condition. However, cy of their social lives over the past 80 years in the “reconstitutions” inaugurated by Evans the sense offered by Appadurai (1986) and have are themselves beginning to fail structurally. created a whole set of meanings and values for This decomposition has the added irony that themselves. The Minoan Snake Goddess, one what never existed as a restored version of the of the prized possessions of the Boston Museum palace in the first place must itself undergo of Fine Arts, has been illustrated in hundreds of restoration to enable the structure to survive books, both popular and academic, and is well- into the future as an inauthentic remnant of known by art history students everywhere. As something that has assumed a whole series Lapatin (2002:14) writes: “Numerous books of new meanings in the twentieth and twen- have featured her image as a frontispiece; she ty-first centuries. has graced museum guides and catalogues,

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handbooks and encyclopedias, and has ap- were designed to conform with Evans’s pre- peared in newspapers, magazines and scholarly dilections of his version of the Minoans; and journals.” Both art historical and scientific con- falsifying restorations that altered the site of noisseurship have failed to conclusively prove Knossos, which themselves have to be restored. what most observers regard as almost certain- The hermeneutics of the re-created site have ly true: that the Boston goddess is a forgery. become part of the story of the historical au- When Lapatin was conducting his study, a staff thenticity of Knossos, a conceptual authenticity, member of the Classical Department of the one could argue, independent of the material Boston Museum of Fine Arts remarked that it and archaeological authenticity of the original. did not matter if the goddess was a forgery, for she had introduced generations of Bostonians La Tiare de Saïtapharnès to the glories of Minoan civilization (Lapatin The Louvre and other major collections, such 2002:187). The historiographical conceit of as the British Museum and the Metropolitan the goddess figures, for there are several, rep- Museum of Art, have been beset with problems resents instantiations of desire rather than fact. regarding the authenticity of their collections. MacGillivary (2000) writes: A famous example is La Tiare de Saïtapharnès, once the pride of the Louvre. The problem In the end only Knossos itself and the here is to decide, based on the intention of the artifacts unearthed there remain as solid artist who created it, if the crown is authentic proof of Evans’s Minoans, but these too or not. The definition used by Tietze (1948) have become problematic. The Palace encompasses artwork that was not conceived— and surrounding buildings are crumbling or in this instance literally forged from gold— as fast as Evans’s intellectual reconstruc- with fraudulent intent. With respect to latent tion of his ancient Minoan society. The fraudulence, Tietze (1948:9) asserts: “The au- building techniques of the twentieth thor of the work or object need not always be century have not withstood the rigours directly involved in the fraud.” Yet if it is exclu- of the Cretan climate or of the relentless sively art dealers who are misappropriating the passage of more than one million visitors item (without any involvement on the part of who flock to Knossos each year. . . . In re- the artist), is it possible to ascribe the work as a storing Knossos we are now not trying to forgery? Or does the criminality of the art ex- re-create some golden past but preserv- change rest on those who misrepresented the ing a building that has taken on a series artwork? To respond to these questions, it will of new meanings in the twentieth century. be important to investigate the nominal shift from an authentic work of art to art considered Knossos and artifacts associated with the a forgery. During the mid-nineteenth centu- site, such as the snake goddess, have become ry, local farmers in the area of the Southern iconic (Lapatin 2002). The tale is a tangled one Bug, Ukraine excavated a number of extraor- of authentic artifacts; artifacts badly damaged in dinary ancient Greek artifacts from meridio- an earthquake that struck Crete in 1926, some nal Russia. These discoveries fostered a strong of which were possibly restored in a deceptive consumer demand, thereby encouraging forg- manner; artifacts forged by workmen and re- ers to make artistic contributions to this region storers associated with Evans’s excavations that of the Ukraine.

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According to Rieth (1970), these knowl- historical intrigue deserved the most admira- edgeable forgers were careful to hide their tion (Embree and Scott 2015). tracks: “They passed their new creations into The crown featured masterfully detailed the hands of farmers who offered them to depictions of scenes from the Iliad: the Greek dealers so as to be able to provide a more or embassy before Achilles (L’ambassade des Grecs less credible provenance” (Rieth 1970:177). à Achille) and the butcher of Patroclus (Le Among the furtively unearthed archeological bûcher de Patrocle). The craftsmanship was discoveries in Olbia (an ancient Greek city on much admired by the public and Villefosse the shore of the Southern Bug estuary in the himself (1896:142), who showered effu- Ukraine) was a golden crown believed to date sive praise over the piece (Embree and Scott to the early . Despite its age, 2015). The language Villefosse employs to de- the gold was in excellent condition, not heavily scribe the artifact emphasizes the captivating corroded or patinated, as it had been well pre- beauty of what he endearingly calls a “precious served beneath the earth’s surface. monument.” Though the success with which When the crown was transported to Berlin these scenes were executed is practically un- for sale, the “inconsequential arrangement of contestable, Furtwängler was correct in point- reliefs on the crown,” as Rieth (1970:119) ing out a number of temporal inconsistencies phrases it, raised immediate suspicion for in the composition, which would eventual- German archaeologist Adolf Furtwängler ly cause scholars to doubt the ancient origin (1853–1907), who prevented a transaction of the crown. Tietze (1948) cites La Tiare de from taking place. Moreover, Furtwängler Saïtapharnès as an archetypal instance of art found the crown’s appearance to be incon- forgery, pointing out a number of specific sistent with its supposed age, principally anachronistic shortcomings in the crown’s because of a lack of corrosive accretions or composition: “The forger used line engrav- patina on the metal. Despite this first refus- ings from a few embossed Homeric scenes. He al to purchase the crown, the seller, named disregarded the fact that they were frequently Hochman, did not relent, pursuing the British inaccurate and taken from sources of widely Museum as his next potential client. Though different date and origin” (Tietze 1948:36). the British Museum initially rejected the item Because many illustrations of ancient civiliza- on the grounds of its alleged inauthenticity, tions shared these anachronistic moments, it its fierce rivalry with the institution prepared would have been very difficult to detect what to purchase the crown, the Louvre, almost didn’t belong without extensive knowledge caused it to reconsider the decision shortly on the subject (Embree and Scott 2015). thereafter. In 1896 the Musée du Louvre pur- Additional material evidence—name- chased the ornate golden crown, believing, ly, the excellent condition of the metal and as it had been told, that the fine design had the inconspicuous solder that was ultimately been made by repoussé from a single piece of spotted as holding the two halves togeth- metal as early as the latter part of the second er—fueled further discussion concerning the century B.C.E. Louvre conservator Heron crown’s (in)authenticity. Furtwängler spoke of de Villefosse gushed effusively in 1896 over the gold’s modern appearance, “which lacked the recently purchased masterpiece, unsure the peculiar reddish brown patina which is of whether its condition, the engraving, or its the chief characteristic of true antique gold

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pieces” (Rieth 1970:122). However, this ob- intent was not on the part of the artist himself jection is deceptive, for it could be argued that but rather on the part of the art dealer. In such the depth at which the crown was buried might instances, we must ask ourselves if the second- have suppressed any corrosion from occurring, ary (or dealer) intent is transferable to the ar- and perhaps the solder had been a modern re- tifact or if it should bear the title of “forgery” pair to reconcile the fragmented state of the since the intent to deceive was appropriated to once solid crown. In other words, the lack of the object post facto. Financial gain played a conclusive evidence meant that for all intents primordial role in the dealers’ misrepresentation and purposes, the crown was genuine—that of the crown. However, at the crown’s concep- is, until Israël Rouchomowsky, a highly skilled tion, the artist sought to emulate a previous goldsmith, made a trip to Paris to present style of art, and no attempt was made either by the Louvre with information it could not re- the artist or the dealers to artificially age the pudiate. As news of the Louvre’s controver- crown to the supposed time period from which sial purchase quickly spread, Rouchomowsky its aesthetic qualities were borrowed (Embree claimed authorship for his work. It was then and Scott 2015). discovered that Rouchomowsky had been commissioned two years previously by two art dealers to complete the crown, unaware that it was to be sold as an ancient artifact. While the Louvre’s art connoisseurs were reluctant to accept Rouchomowsky’s claim, he was able to produce documentation and studio photo- graphs and, without seeing the crown, recall and re-create minute details from the compo- sition (Rieth 1970:127). The weight of this ev- idence was enough for the Louvre to confirm that its latest acquisition was in fact a modern fake. Unfortunately for the public, and for the story of the crown, the Louvre decided to cover up this embarrassing situation by putting the crown in storage for the next century. The al- most too painful irony of the April 1, 1896, pub- lication of Villefosse’s laudatory (to the point of Figure 5.8. La Tiare de Saïtapharnès. Apparently being inaccurate) descriptions came back to from the second century B.C.E., the crown was in fact created by master goldsmith Israël haunt him. In spite of (or perhaps because of) the Rouchomowsky in the 1880s. The artist’s intention attention received by this embarrassing pur- is most important here, as Rouchomowsky had no chase, Rouchomowsky received high praise for intention to deceive or pass off his work as ancient. his craftsmanship and even earned a gold medal That was undertaken by the dealers. The crown was purchased by the Louvre in 1887 as a Greek from a decorative arts salon in Paris. antiquity of great significance. After the truth Though the truth of the crown’s origins emerged, the Louvre kept the crown in storage for took an astonishing number of years to surface, 100 years as an embarrassingly inauthentic object. it is important to emphasize that the fraudulent (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

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It is very possible that the art dealers sim- which, it could be argued, were seen as less ply overlooked this detail, or perhaps they authentic copies than those within the first were well aware of the deceptive aging pro- category. cesses that metallic antiquities can undergo, The kind of distinction that Dionysus of since metallic corrosion often lacks unifor- Halicarnassus makes here is much the same mity and relies heavily on the soil in which kind of judgment that an informed view- a piece is buried (Scott 2002). Thus, in this er could make of an imitation of a David last instance, arguing for a well-preserved Hockney drawing today. Similar thoughts artifact rather than falsifying an identifiably were expressed during the Renaissance and incorrect corrosion on the crown would be have been repeated often since: A skilled the less complicated route to take. faker captures the essential style of the artist by long observation and practice, until the Greek and Roman Authenticity copyist can create a convincing and sponta- We know more about originality, copying, neous imitation. The neophyte simply repro- and emulation during the Greek and Roman duces the lines and colors of the original in a periods than during the Egyptian period. mechanical manner, lacking any insight into Perry (2005:158) quotes an interesting pas- how the original artist worked. sage from the Greek writer Dionysius of Examples include some of the classier Halicarnassus (circa 60–7 B.C.E.): works by British forger Eric Hebborn (1934– 1996), such as his drawing Roman Harbour On the whole, one might discover two Scene, after Giovanni Piranesi (1720–1778), different kinds of imitation as it relates who was inspired by the physical ruins or imag- to ancient prototypes. Of these, the first ined ruins of ancient Greece and Rome. This is natural, and is achieved after much drawing definitively falls into the first category instruction and familiarity; the second, of imitative works: Hebborn studied a cop- which is closely related to the first, is per plate etching by Piranesi, which may well achieved through the rules of the craft. have been reduced in size from a preliminary Concerning the first type, what more drawing. Hebborn then created the imagined might one say? Concerning the second, original drawing on the same kind of paper what can one say but that a certain natu- Piranesi himself used, employing an old sam- ral charm and grace is conspicuous in all ple of eighteenth-century bistre. The drawing of the models, but that [the works] that was accepted by the art market as authentic, are created after these, even if they at- and for a long time the National Museum of tain the highest ideal of imitation, nev- Denmark, Copenhagen, refused to admit that ertheless have something studied and its Piranesi Roman Harbour Scene was a recent unnatural about them. Hebborn creation of a supposedly lost origi- nal, which in fact never existed. Hebborn was a From this statement it can be gathered relatively close friend of the British art histori- that the first category of imitations, those an and infamous Soviet spy Sir formed by the fluid movement of the hand (1907–1983), keeper of the queen’s pictures of the copyist, was regarded in a different and former director of the Courtauld Institute way than the second category of imitations, of Art. But there is considerable doubt whether

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Blunt actually realized that some of the work bronze original rather than from a marble. passing through Hebborn’s hands was by Another plaster fragment has indications of Hebborn himself rather than by Renaissance sculptured hair on the chest of the figure, masters (Carter 2001). which is never portrayed in marble, and other As far as the ancient world is concerned, ref- plaster fragments exactly match large bronze erences in Pliny the Younger (Book XXXIV.47) statues from Baiae. All this attests to a healthy suggest forgery. When an artist named Teucer, interest in duplication, although whether any famous as a worker of plaques in low relief, generations of casts were regarded as more died, the art fell into abeyance, and only the or less inauthentic at the time cannot readi- ancient plaques were of any value. Pliny argues ly be stated. Mattusch (1996:191) refers to a that the age of imitations and forgeries fol- quotation from Lucian strongly suggesting lowed. The metalsmith Calamis, for example, that some bronze sculptures were so admired was skillfully copied by Zenodorus. that a succession of plaster molds were tak- Casting and molding, which today may en from them by different artists. An exam- appear to be fundamentally opposed to the ple is the statue of Hermes in the Athenian authentic in terms of the possibilities of end- Agora, which was, according to Lucian, “cov- less duplication, have been in use for thou- ered over with pitch because of being molded sands of years. Fragmentary evidence shows every day by sculptors.” The pitch covering that plaster molds and casts were used for would ensure that the plaster piece-molds making portraits and for the reproduction of could be easily removed from the surface of Neolithic sculptures from Jericho (Howard the bronze sculpture. 1991). Molds were used for making identical Since indirect lost-wax casting was al- ceramic figurines from Ecuador and many ready known and used in ancient Greece, other cultures, and the Roman imperial work- there is no material evidence linking a spe- shop at Baiae contained scores of casts of clas- cific bronze cast by this process to a supposed sical statues (Beazley 2013; Waywell original model, since multiples could readi- and Laev 1986). Baiae, in the Campania re- ly be produced. Then many bronzes cast by gion of Italy, was a Roman seaside resort, the indirect process were themselves able to where a cache of plaster casts of Hellenistic be copied, as the molds from Baiae show. sculpture was discovered in a cellar, strong- Plaster casts taken from them could be used ly suggesting that numerous plaster copies as models for the sculptor to create a marble were being fabricated there. In fact the frag- version, or wax could be poured around the mented plaster casts from the first century inner surface of the plaster molds to create a B.C.E. match some extant marble sculptures, wax figure. It was subsequently invested with such as the Sciarra and Mattei Amazons, the core material and cast in bronze, creating Athena Velletri, and the Aristogeiton from another series of bronze “originals” derived the group of tyrannicides that stood in the from a bronze cast that might itself have mul- Athenian Agora (Mattusch 1996:191). The tiple identities. Depending on how these later plaster cast fragment preserves only part of casts, versions, or marble copies are conceived the face of Aristogeiton, including engraved of in terms of their cultural context, they may hairs of the beard, which are so finely mod- be regarded as forgeries (Hallett 2014b) or as eled that they reproduce hairs taken from a emulations (Marvin 2008). The complexities

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Figure 5.9. Roman Harbour Scene, attributed to Piranesi (1720–1778), imagined by Eric Hebborn as the preparatory drawing Piranesi would have made for a copper etching plate, which may well have been reduced in size from the original drawing. Hebborn produced this drawing as a forgery of an original that never existed. It was purchased for $20,000 by the National Museum of Denmark in 1969; the local newspaper announced that it was then worth $35 million. A number of international experts, including Erik Fisher and Christopher Fischer of the Kobberstiksamlingen at Statens Museum for Kunst, held that the drawing was an authentic Piranesi. In fact, it is forgery by Hebborn. Once it was seen as such, some experts recognized the quality as not consistent with a Piranesi. Others clearly regarded the work as indistinguishable from an authentic Piranesi. (Image courtesy of Eric Hebborn) of unraveling the material authenticity of that the apparent wax patch on a patch was some of these Roman or Greek bronzes is actually caused by corrosion, that an unleaded well illustrated by the fragmentary cast- bronze composition was evidence of Greek bronze torsos known as the Florence Torso manufacture, and that a bronze worker would and the Metropolitan Torso, which are dis- have smoothed out any impressions of repair cussed in detail by Mattusch (1996:197–206). patches for casting in subsequent bronze ver- In 1892 Kalkmann dated the Florence Torso sions. Mattusch (1996) still maintains that the as a Greek original from the late sixth or early Florence torso is a Roman copy of a Greek fifth century B.C.E. In 1927 Kluge declared original because of the cast impression of the torso a copy, a Roman overcast of a Greek the patch, but there is still no definitive an- statue. Mattusch (1978) noted that a pentago- swer regarding its authenticity. Is it Greek? nal patch was reproduced in bronze, perhaps Is it Roman? Is it a cast made in Greece for a with a patch on top of the original patch, evi- Roman customer? Later Roman bronzes usu- dence of a wax overcast from a Greek bronze ally contain lead, and this bronze torso does original. Formigli (1981) disagreed and stated not. For scientific connoisseurship to say that

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this is a Roman casting, further research is and above all were intensely Roman de- clearly needed. The Metropolitan Torso also spite their apparent Greek formulae and reproduces in bronze patches from the original iconography. bronze from which this bronze must have been copied. Modern repair patches also appear, In many cases, the actual medium of fab- but many seem to be ancient. As Mattusch rication was also different, frequently be- (1996:205) writes: “What at first glance, look ing transferred from bronze to marble. The like holes where patches have fallen out are Roman versions are often described as emula- not necessarily what they seem. Quite a few tions (Gazda 2002; Marvin 2008; Perry 2005). are actually casts of the holes for patches that According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this were already missing from the statue that was is a sixteenth-century C.E. word whose usu- copied.” The bronze torso is in the style of the al definition is “an imitation of something.” early fifth century B.C.E., but its date of pro- Nowadays, the word is often used of computer duction is much later, perhaps the early centu- programs or devices that seek to imitate oth- ries C.E. This is an example of the archaizing er programs or devices. So is an emulation of tendency of later Roman bronze sculpture. something just a fancy way of describing it as Hallett (2014), invoking a series of interest- an imitation or a copy? In terms of modern art, ing cases, refers to the overcasting of a bronze these free copies of other artists’ works can be “original” to produce a later Roman “original” viewed as appropriation, as has already been as forgery. discussed, in the sense that Elaine Sturtevant’s One of the principal condemnatory ar- copies of Warhol (1928–1987) silk-screens are guments connected to the use of copies in not direct reproductions but her own versions Roman culture is that they were simply imita- of Warhol’s originals. tions of Greek originals and therefore hardly Emulative work may still mean that some to be counted as original works of art. In the of the admired Roman sculptures are, in fact, case of the Hellenistic casts mentioned above, direct copies of the originals in terms of ma- this may well be the case, but the unabated terials and fabrication, despite the fact that demand for Roman copies of Greek originals many artists imitated the style of the Greek entailed adaptation and rendering in a man- originals and adapted them for Roman taste, ner befitting Roman cultural norms rather and in so doing created apparently authentic than Greek ones. Ridgway (1984) writes: Roman sculptures. False pigments and fake precious stones In the course of my investigations I be- are mentioned by Pliny, who describes a sim- came increasingly aware that the very ple test for distinguishing genuine verdigris core of our beliefs needed reconsider- pigment from its cheaper substitutes: heating ation. Mechanical copying, as we un- a sample on the end of a shovel to examine the derstand it in modern terms, probably color alteration (Scott 2002). Precious stones did not exist, nor was it conceivable in were widely faked by imitations made of col- antiquity. . . . More than ever before I ored glass or by artificially dyed mineral sub- came to realize that the so-called repli- stitutes designed to fool the purchaser. Today, cas were instead adaptations, imitations, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires are often ir- variations on certain themes and styles, radiated to enhance color centers, continuing

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the theme of deception that began thousands of years ago (Craddock 2009). The usual view regarding concerns about authenticity is expressed by Bucklow (2009:252), who holds that the concept, as it is understood today, appeared in the tradi- tion of European art about 350 years ago. But those of us interested in ancient or medieval art would disagree: The evidence does not support Bucklow’s view. A statement from Pliny (Book XXXIV.61-62) that could be taken as ad- ditional evidence for the desire for the au- thentic concerns the reprehensible actions of Emperor Tiberius (42 B.C.E.– 37 C.E.):

Lysippus as we have said was a most pro- lific artist and made more statues than any other sculptor, among them the Man Using a Body-scraper which Marcus Agrippa gave to be set up in front of his Warm Baths and of which the emperor Tiberius was remarkably fond. Tiberius, although at the beginning of his princi- pate he kept some control of himself, in this case could not resist the temptation, and had the statue removed to his bed- chamber, putting another one in its place at the baths; but the public were so ob- stinately opposed to this that they raised an outcry at the , shouting “Give us back the Apoxyomenos”—and the Emperor, although he had fallen quite in love with the statue, had to restore it.

Clearly, the people themselves were not Figure 5.10. Marble version of the lost orig- prepared to accept the inauthentic statute inal bronze Apoxyomenos by Lysippos. Height erected by Tiberius in place of the original 2.05 m. The commonly illustrated version is a marble replica in the Museo Pio-Clementino in Apoxyomenos, which had been cast in bronze by Rome, discovered in 1849. Plaster replicas of this the Greek sculptor Lysippos of Sikyon around version are found in many national collections. 330 B.C.E. The artwork was already more than (Photograph by Marie-Lan Nguyen 2009. Image 350 years old when it was taken by Tiberius. courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

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The dissenting voice of the Roman people Greek masterpieces; that the lost masterpiec- is a faint echo from the distant past revealing es can be identified from documentary sourc- that assumptions made by Renaissance schol- es; that the handling of material of a partic- ars regarding when the desire for authenticity ular artist cannot be reproduced by another in art became part of human consciousness artist many centuries later; that it is possible cannot be correct. to determine whether a work is a good copy It was, of course, quite possible for schol- or a poor copy, even when the original is ars to deceive themselves in relating trea- lacking; and finally that stylistic commonal- sured antiquities to admired stylistic arche- ities between two sculptures are indicative types. Winter (1892) considered the Apollo not only of region but also of the time period Belvedere to be significantly similar to the and the original artist’s hand. So is the Apollo statuette Ganymede and the Eagle in the Belvedere an authentic copy of anything? It Vatican. Perry (2005:1) notes that the statuette may be a replica or a Roman emulation of a was probably a table leg that had been heavi- classical form, but can this analysis be taken ly restored by Vincenzo Pacetti (1746–1820). any further? The entire dog except the paws, the wings and In the restoration of these Roman mas- head of the eagle, the right leg of Ganymede terpieces, Italian Renaissance humanists below the knee, the left leg between the knee distinguished between translation, imitation, and the ankle, the right arm below the elbow, and emulation. Translation meant to copy most of the left arm, the neck, the chin, part an original without deviation. Imitation in- of the mouth, and the nose were all resto- volved the eclectic exploitation of the orig- rations. The dangers of stylistic comparison inal. Emulation disclosed the innovative between the and Ganymede mode of Renaissance adaption. Two trans- and the Eagle are clearly revealed by this ex- lational marble caryatids from Hadrian’s ample. In fact, the Apollo Belvedere was itself Villa at Tivoli are direct replicas of two of restored in the sixteenth century by Giovanni the six maidens from the porch of the Greek Montorsoli (1506–1563), and the restored Erechtheion in Athens. They are exact cop- piece is in the Vatican Museums (Mattusch ies. Roman emulation did not necessarily 2002:figure 3.1). mean Roman reinvention, although it often The German concept of Kopienkritik, or did. How are exact copies to be valued in copy criticism, is partly to blame here. Perry terms of their authenticity? Artist Edward (2005:2) remarks that it was the dominant Allington produced his Roman from Greek in methodological approach to Roman sculp- America 1987 in 50 plaster copies made from ture for more than 75 years. It was thought a synthetic resin replica of the Medici Venus to be axiomatic that Roman sculptures were that he had purchased from the Metropolitan a series of replicas, or more or less exact cop- Museum of Art. As Allington writes: ies, of Greek originals, a view that is now “Reproductive technology may be regarded regarded as hopelessly simplistic. Winter’s as a device which not only produces objects argument, writes Perry (2005:6), requires but also invests them with value as objects. acceptance of several propositions regarded Conceptual art has employed reproductive as axiomatic: that both the Apollo and the techniques and other strategies that denied Ganymede were replicas; that they replicate the value of the artist’s touch to favor not

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the material object but the intangible entity is no different; whoever has seen one of these constituted by the idea or concept.” Some of statues and learned who its sculptor was, does these plaster casts now require restoration 25 not need great skill in looking at the other years after they were copied, which connects to see that it is a work by Kanachos. They our world of originals, replicas, emulations, differ in this way: the Apollo in Branchidae fakes, and restorations. Common restoration is bronze, but the Apollo Ismenios is [made processes seek to complete fragmentary arti- of] cedar.” facts in the name of the aesthetic unity of the It is interesting that works identical to work. In some cases, this may be regarded as each other were made at this time in bronze permissible. In other cases, the true purpose, and wood, the whole context calling into function, or material authenticity of the work question the oversimplified idea that Greek is denigrated. In others, it could be argued originals were unitary masterpieces in bronze that the work is essentially a fake. while the Romans made numerous marble Apart from modern debates concerning copies based solely on the concept of the ex- whether the existence of these Roman sculp- istence of a unique bronze original. Mattusch tures can be assumed to be essentially Greek (2002) draws attention to the fact that the manifestations in another guise, there are im- Riace bronzes, which were cast around 460– portant arguments relating to the conceptual 420 B.C.E. and found in 1972 in the Ionian authenticity of the space, building, or setting Sea near Riace, Italy, are slightly different in in which the Roman works were displayed size and details. The cast of the younger of and that imbued them with the intangible au- the two warriors is 203 cm high, while the thenticity of their space-time location. Many more mature-looking warrior is 196.5 cm in of these arguments propose that the works height. But these two bronzes were proba- are indeed replicas of Greek bronze originals bly made from the same “original” model, (Mattusch 1996, 2002), which may or may which the artist had prepared in clay, gesso, not be the case. The search for the Greek or wood. Molds were taken from the carved bronze original sculptures has tended to con- original and coated or layered with wax. The sign the Roman marble versions to the status wax was removed, and the hollow spaces of copies, which does a disservice to Roman were filled with core material. The individ- cultural attainments. ual wax arms, legs, torso, and heads could Productions of replicas and copies, it then be manipulated or altered before the should be remembered, are essential facets of casting of a complete figure, with parts being a sculptural work of art in which the origi- joined in the wax, or soldered or cast on in nal model in clay, plaster, or wood is trans- the bronze. This, in brief, is the indirect lost- formed by skilled artisans into masterpieces wax casting procedure, so called because the in bronze or marble. It is quite possible that direct method produced a singular model, Pausanias is describing the practice of mak- perhaps originally modeled in the wax itself ing copies when he writes about the Greek over a clay or plaster core. This wax model artist Kanachos, who worked during the ar- was then covered with an investment and was chaic period (Alcock et al. 2001): “The statue melted out as the bronze was poured in, re- [of Apollo Ismenios in Thebes] is the same sulting in the loss of the wax original. It was size as the one in Branchidae, and the form transformed into bronze, and the plaster core

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was baked inside. The direct method results change, suggested an analogy to a river, whose in the loss of the original model, while the water replenishes the flow. Arius Didymus, a indirect method preserves it for future use, Stoic philosopher of the first century B.C.E., possibly for the creation of multiples of the quoted him as saying, “Upon those who original or altered forms of the original with step into the same rivers, different and again different heads, expressions, limb positions, different flow.” Plutarch disputed or other attributes. This is one of the central Heraclitus’s claim about stepping twice into points of Mattusch’s argument: that the be- the same river, citing that it could not be done lief of archaeologists and art historians that because “it scatters and again comes together, there is a single, uniquely authentic Greek and approaches and recedes.” original is founded on the mistaken notion The philosophical argument was ex- that each Greek bronze was an original with- tended by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1649), out the means for replication, which is in fact who introduced a further mind experiment: inherent to it, and corresponding possible What would happen if the original planks of alterations from the artist’s original model. the Ship of Theseus were gathered up after This may still mean that the Romans saw an they were replaced and used to build a sec- admired version of a Greek bronze casting ond ship? Which ship, if either, is the original that, for the purposes of emulation, was in Ship of Theseus? fact the original on which the later Roman John Locke (1632–1704) proposed an work was based, even if it was an adaptation analogous problem regarding a favorite sock of the work viewed as an original. that develops a hole (Locke 1690). He won- Plutarch (45 C.E.–120 C.E.) proposes an dered whether the sock would still be the early argument based on the disparate notions same if a patch was applied to the hole and of the importance of the material and concep- whether it would still be the same sock after tual authenticity of an object. He writes: a second patch was applied, followed by third The ship wherein Theseus and the and so on, until all the material of the original youth of Athens returned from Crete sock has been replaced with patches. had thirty oars, and was preserved by A possible answer to these questions in- the Athenians down even to the time of vokes the intangible or conceptual authentic, Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away which has been discussed earlier. The ma- the old planks as they decayed, putting in teriality of Theseus’s ship is only of interest new and stronger timber in their place, to those of a historical and materially scien- in so much that this ship became a stand- tific turn of mind, in which the condition, ing example among the philosophers, for degradation, and description of the original the logical question of things that grow; timbers is of greater interest than that which one side holding that the ship remained Theseus would probably consider to be his the same, and the other contending that ship, namely the one sailed himself, not the it was not the same. collection of old planks used to create the other ship. There are cases in which a discus- Plutarch asks whether the ship was still sion regarding the material authenticity of an that of Theseus. Heraclitus (535 B.C.E.–475 art object could be aligned with its conceptual B.C.E.), who was much concerned with authenticity, but this is not such a case: There

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cannot be two authentic ships for Theseus to same ends, namely transporting Theseus and sail in. There is only one, which he is current- convincing the Athenians that Theseus was ly using and which possesses the conceptual once a living person, even though its material authenticity of the vessel, as all its materiality cause would have changed with time, the final has been substituted. cause would not have altered. The Aristotelian Another way to examine the authentic- view that the formal cause is the essence of an ity of the ship is to consider the problem in artwork and the final cause the intended pur- light of the four causes proposed by Aristotle pose of the work, with the efficient cause being (Aristotle 1933:book 5, section 1013a; Falcon its mode of fabrication or conservation and 2015). The material cause is determined by the the material cause its intrinsic materiality, rep- materiality of the object or subject in question. resents an interesting analysis of the problems For example, a statue of Hermes might be inherent in restoration of works of art. The made of wood, bronze, or marble. The sub- approach is sympathetic to the conceptual au- stance of the artwork constitutes the material thenticity of a work but does not consider the cause. The formal cause is a change or move- intentions of the artist as of paramount impor- ment created by the arrangement, shape, or tance. However, the final cause, the intended appearance of the sculpture undergoing alter- purpose of the work, could be argued to in- ation or moving. If the marble sculpture was clude the component of the artist’s intention, given an extra arm, this would be a formal because that was part of the nature of its pur- cause. The efficient or moving cause considers pose. One could also argue that the designer of the agency of change or manufacture, such the ship was adamant that only timbers made as a conservator repairing a marble statue to from cedar of Lebanon were adequate for such remove an extraneous arm. The final cause is a vessel and that these could not be replaced the aim or purpose the statue serves—in this or substituted. So while the Ship of Theseus case veneration to the god Hermes in a Greek was still Theseus’s ship, it was not the design- sanctuary. As regards the problem of the ship, er’s ship, as the designer was preoccupied with the efficient cause is the design of the ship and its material cause. This comes back to the ques- how and by whom it is made. For example, in tion of which is valued more: the conceptual the case of the Ship of Theseus, the workers authenticity or the material authenticity. who built the ship in the first place could have used the same tools and techniques to replace Contexts of Roman Restoration the planks in the ship. The material cause is the One of the most important aspects of the alter- materiality of the form: the matter the ship is ation of works of art over time is the damage made from. The essence of a thing, according that may occur to them and the subsequent to Aristotle, is its formal cause, and therefore restoration, alteration, repair, or reworking the Ship of Theseus is the same ship, because of them. The only philosopher to directly ad- the formal cause, or design, does not change, dress the problems inherent in these kinds of even though the matter used to construct it change, and the processes necessary for resto- may vary with time. Aristotle also considered ration to create an aesthetic whole, was Sagoff the end or final cause, which is the intended (1978a), whose work is discussed in chapter purpose of a thing. If the intended purpose of 2. Sagoff suggested that authenticity is a nec- the reconstructed Ship of Theseus retains the essary condition of an aesthetic value, that a

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work of art cannot be appreciated simply for The thoughts of important theorists such as the sake of its appearance or for the feelings it Brandi (1977) and Philippot (1966) have been induces but must also be appreciated for con- discussed in chapters 1 and 2, and the sub- ceptual factors. What would a present-day ject of replicas and copies has been briefly philosopher have to say about Sagoff’s work? explored above, but what of restoration? A Hsu (personal communication 2014) writes wealth of different viewpoints on restoration that in certain cases, his thought leads him has been provided by the seminal publication into logical impasses: on historical and philosophical issues in con- servation (Price et al. 1996), much of which In: “Restoring Art,” Sagoff says that pertains to the problems of how restored, the Pietà post-integral restoration is derestored, or rerestored works of art are the same statue it always was, but is no to be regarded. Is a restored work of art the longer a Michelangelo. Sagoff seems same as the original in terms of its meaning to flirt with the idea of “relative iden- and significance? Are fragments of sculptures tity”: The unrestored Pietà is identical in their broken condition more authentic to the restored Pietà qua statue, but than entirely restored works? Should sculp- not qua Michelangelo. I don’t believe tures that have been restored with foreign this is coherent. Philosophers are used elements be de-restored in order to discern to thinking about authenticity only in what was original? Can one know what the connection with traditional problems of original state of the sculpture was? Do eigh- metaphysics, epistemology, value theory, teenth-century restorations to Roman marble etc. (“Can an empiricist account for dif- sculptures invoke or create an authentic exis- ferences in the value assigned to origi- tence for the sculptures, which now preserve nal artworks and copies of them?”) But what eighteenth-century artisans thought of those discussions don’t help with conun- them? How does derestoration of earlier res- drums raised by the actual cases—e.g., torations affect how the work of art is regard- problems of restoration. Those prob- ed today? If an apparently restored sculpture lems quickly push the usual frameworks is actually shown to be a forgery, should it be of discussion to their limits—and, as I removed from exhibition? Are modern cop- believe Sagoff’s article shows, beyond. ies of eighteenth-century restored sculptures inauthentic versions of an inauthentic sculp- Whatever the merits or demerits of this ture? There are no easy answers to some of work, it is a useful addition to the literature these questions, which often have to be con- since, as Hsu says, the conundrums raised by sidered on a case-by-case basis. But how they actual cases are all too often not addressed affect the perception of what authenticity because they raise arguments that can be ex- means for these often fragmentary or heavi- plicated only by reference to the works of art ly restored works of art is an interesting area themselves and how restorers have interpret- of debate, with different opinions voiced by ed them. It is these conceptual factors that members of the public, curators, artists, con- conservators and restorers have had to strug- servators, art historians, and philosophers. gle with for some time in relation to resto- A good example is provided by a mar- ration and its effects or affects on the original. ble statue of Marcus Aurelius that was re-

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rerestored at the J. Paul Getty Museum in head is ancient but foreign to the original the early twenty-first century, following in- . The American Institute for terventions in the Renaissance and the nine- Conservation (2012) “Codes of Practice” re- teenth century. Marcus Aurelius ruled the fers to restoration principally as a process of Roman Empire from 161 to 180 C.E. The compensation for loss, implying that only parts statue is housed in the Pergamon Museum in that are physically missing should be replaced Berlin and was restored as an assemblage of by new components, not that new compo- 40 fragments of four different kinds of mar- nents be added to an existing form to provide ble over various time periods spanning the compensation over and above those that are eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The re- missing. The codes state: “Any intervention stored sculpture was deteriorating due to ne- to compensate for loss should be documented glect and rusting of the iron pins that held the in treatment records and reports and should disparate parts together. It was brought to the be detectable by common examination meth- Getty Museum in Malibu for rerestoration. ods. Such compensation should be reversible This work involved the complete disassembly and should not falsely modify the known aes- of the sculpture and its reconstruction from thetic, conceptual, and physical characteris- scores of cleaned components, previously tics of the cultural property, especially by re- joined with shellac and iron rods fixed in lead moving or obscuring original material.” pours in the marble. The remaining patina of By Brandi’s strictures, it is not possible to the marble surface was kept as far as practi- go back in time and remove old compensa- cable, new fills were textured so that on close tions that not only made good losses but also inspection they would be visually discernible, added to the physical existence of the object. and joins were made mechanically reversible An example is the old but unrelated head add- to allow for easy disassembly of the different ed to the Marcus Aurelius shown in Figure components (Sanchez and Risser 2006, 2012). 5.11. To retain the head would deny part of The remaining original marble pieces of the the history of the object in which a different Marcus Aurelius are just a collection of head- period had appropriated the Roman work for less body parts. A very substantial part of the its own and altered its physical presence. The sculpture is not Roman at all but eighteenth- historical authenticity of the sculpture cannot and nineteenth-century marble restorations. be transformed in the twenty-first century Without the illustrative diagram shown on the just because an observer today does not like Getty website for this restoration, it would be what happened in the eighteenth. very difficult for a casual observer to see any At least that is one view. It was not the difference between original and restored parts conservation philosophy of the 1970s, when of the sculpture. By the strict interpretation old marble restorations were removed and of Brandi’s axioms of restoration, discussed in replaced with modern synthetic polymer chapters 1 and 2, the Marcus Aurelius resto- fills. The concept behind this philosophy ration could be viewed as compromising the was that marble additions made to a marble authenticity of the original fragments on two object were visually confusing to the view- counts: First, the restorations cannot be vi- er, who might not be able to distinguish be- sually discerned from the original. Second, tween the original components and the res- the completed sculpture is conjectural, as the torations. Therefore, if stainless-steel rods

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were aesthetically undesirable, a modern twentieth-century synthetic resin compo- nent would be created. It would be slightly recessed from the original marble, so that there would be no visual confusion between original and compensation provided for loss, while on the principles of Gestalt psychology, the latter would recede in the viewer’s per- ception, allowing better contemplation of the original fragments. This idea formed part of a scientific approach to conservation in which the form and function of the ethic of removal were self-evident. There are plenty of examples where eigh- teenth-century restorations have been totally removed, leaving sculptural fragments lying helplessly in a drawer or held in place with steel rods. One example is pedimental sculp- tures from that were rerestored by a Greek sculptor, Stelios Triantis, who re- moved all the old restorations and created a series of visible connecting rods, drilled into the remaining fragments.

Marcus Aurelius from the Pergamon Museum The rerestoration of the antique marble sculp-

Figure 5.11. A fully rerestored sculpture of Marcus ture of Marcus Aurelius was the subject of a Aurelius that came to the Getty Museum in 1999 collaborative project between the Pergamon for treatment. The original Roman components Museum and the J. Paul Getty Museum. are shown in yellow. Restorations made in the eigh- The statue, a partially preserved first-century teenth and nineteenth centuries are in blue and are body with a second-century head represent- very extensive. The sculpture is completed with an ancient head, but not the head of Marcus Aurelius. ing the Roman emperor, originally came from The body of the statue was created around 69–98 the seventeenth-century collection of the C.E., while Aurelius’s head was created around Villa Montalto Negroni in Rome. It was then 144–145 C.E. The statue was originally cut from acquired by the Royal Cabinet Collection of one piece of marble and was restored at least three Berlin in 1791 and displayed in the Pergamon times in the eighteenth and nineteenth centu- ries. The statue, now in the Pergamon Museum, Museum at the beginning of the twentieth consists of 40 fragments of four different types of century. The pastiche sculpture had been re- marble (due to previous restoration projects) and stored, with a different ancient head and oth- weighs about 1,400 pounds. The problem is how er body parts, in the seventeenth and eigh- the authenticity of the artwork is to be assessed. (Image in the public domain) teenth centuries. It was de-restored during

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the purist philosophical phase of conserva- rods. In the purist deconstruction, the original tion in Germany in the 1970s. The aim of the fragments would be placed on display on a treatment in 1998 was to rerestore the de-re- board or plinth, or returned to storage. In stored seventeenth- and eighteenth-century an aesthetic reconstruction, eighteenth-centu- restorations. ry marble restorations would be placed back Many of these remained intact, due to a with the original fragments in a complete res- lack of resources for further reintegration at toration of what existed or had been created the Pergamon Museum. The rerestoration in the eighteenth century. An integral replica- project at the Getty used a zone system: as- tion would substitute a complete artwork in sembled components were first joined and place of the original fragments or the original, merged together, followed by mechanical which would be housed elsewhere. This rep- integration of the zoned parts to allow for lication could be virtual rather than physical. disassembly in the future should the reresto- The choice of action depends on which as- ration have to be reversed once more. What pects of the different authenticities discussed is valued here is the historical authenticity of in chapter 2 are declared the most significant what happened to the sculpture during its re- or most value-laden for the different groups configuration as a completed aesthetic object of stakeholders. in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, not the original conception or appearance Marcus Aurelius and His Restorations of the sculpture, which is preserved only in The delineation of the restorative choices the disparate fragments of the original work. briefly outlined above shows that the dis- This decision represents a contested field of tinction made by Sagoff (1978a) between an debate between viewers who valorize only the integral restoration and a purist restoration is fragmentary original and those who desire an oversimplified approach to the questions an aesthetically completed work, even if the raised in this chapter. But his analysis of what head of Marcus Aurelius is not the head of the restoration may mean in terms of his four sculpture at all but from a completely differ- principles of individualizing, historical, rela- ent body. It is not just an aesthetically unified tional, and cognitive, discussed in chapter 4, work. Its historical biography is not perceived is much more substantial. Individualizing is a as a contingent event but as an essential com- similar thought to Brandi’s: that the recogni- ponent of appreciative reintegration. tion of the work of art in its present instance There are, in fact, five possible approach- is the moment at which it becomes an object es to dealing with composite or fragmentary of consideration for conservation. Historical Greek and Roman sculptures, which are the means that we are aware of the multiple pro- majority of those that have come down to cesses that have brought the sculpture to us. us in the twenty-first century. In apurist re- In terms of social biography, the sculpture construction, they would be rejoined together may have been through a lot: It is carved by with synthetic modern materials so that the a skillful Roman artist in imitation or emu- original fragments could be visually discerned lation of a Greek original, normally a Greek from the restorations. In the minimalist con- indirect bronze casting. It is painted in poly- servation approach, the broken parts would be chromy and placed on view in a Roman tem- held in place and separated with ple, where it begins to acquire a patina. It is

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smashed into pieces when Rome is invaded by some observers as a more authentic state has various people. The fragments become bur- seriously impacted many restored sculptures ied as part of an archaeological assemblage because of an adherence to an early twenti- and are lost to the world. The marble may eth-century scientific empiricism, with defin- suffer from loss of polychromy and a greatly itive statements regarding exactly what course extended patination. The fragments are ex- of action to follow during derestoration, un- cavated or found in the Renaissance and are fettered by aesthetic fantasies or longings for cleaned, cut as appropriate, and reconstruct- completeness. The same approach could very ed as a Roman sculpture with a new ancient well have been used for the rerestoration of head and Renaissance marble restorations for the Marcus Aurelius if it had been done in the the limbs and base. Loss of most of the pati- 1970s and not in 2004. nation may occur at this time. The sculpture in this case study, the The Pedimental Sculptures Marcus Aurelius, was subsequently pur- from Aphaea chased by a member of the German royalty. The marble sculptures from the Temple of It may have been recleaned and then restored Aphaea on the Greek island of Aegina are again before eventually being donated to the among the last sculptures of the Archaic pe- Pergamon Museum in Berlin. By this stage, riod, dating to the early fifth century B.C.E. all traces of polychromy were gone, and the The sculptures were taken and removed to belief that ancient marble sculptures should the Glyptothek in Munich, where in the late be a pure white was firmly held in art histor- eighteenth century the famous Danish sculp- ical circles. The sculpture was partially rere- tor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844) exten- stored in the nineteenth century, with more sively restored them, desiring that his resto- shellac and iron pins. Additional recutting of rations be visually indistinguishable from the the original may have been undertaken by the original fragments. restorers. It was shipped to Malibu for deres- However, in 1972 the director of the toration: The rusting old iron pins were cut Glyptothek, Dieter Ohly, ordered them to be away, the lead and decayed shellac removed. de-restored to reveal the original fragments, New stainless-steel joins were made so that destroying in the process Thorvaldsen’s pieces would be mechanically locked in place. re-created components. In physically remov- The sculpture was returned to the Pergamon ing Thorvaldsen’s restorations and replacing Museum in a newly restored and cleaned some of the restored limbs with stainless-steel condition. It different components can now rods emanating from truncated limbs, Ohly be mechanically disassembled, adhering to was influenced by the purism of fragment- the principles of reversibility of a conservation ed sculptural components, obliterating the treatment. neoclassical restorations of one of the eigh- The different states of the sculpture are teenth century’s most famous sculptors. evident from this brief historical biography, What Ohly overlooked was the fact that the and each stage could be considered as more Greek sculptures had been extensively recut authentic or less authentic than the other, by Thorvaldsen, so returning the sculptures depending on how the sculpture is regard- to a de-restored state did not mean regaining ed. The desire for a return to what is seen by the authenticity of the fragments in their as

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excavated state but only in the state they were of fragments and ruins. . . . To be authen- in when Thorvaldsen had finished reworking tic, an object, a structure, or a landscape them into new, wholly complete works. must be truncated or fragmented. In Philippot (1997 [1966]) wrote, “The big contrast, nineteenth-century conser- failure of archaeological conservation was vators “restored” venerable structures that it could not re-establish the continuity and traditions to what they ought ide- of lived history.” The recognition of the his- ally to have been. Authenticity meant torical progress of time as an essential com- replacing defective original remnants ponent of the authentic story of these sculp- with modern realizations of the spirit tures from Aphaea would be acknowledged of antiquity. Anti-scrape advocates al- by most conservation decisions taken today. tered the principles of restorers more In 2016 Thorvaldsen’s inauthentic versions than the practices; most who claimed to of the completed sculptures assume a new set respect original works were, conscious- of meanings: a reflection on the neoclassical ly or not, beautifying, antiquating, understanding of restorations made by the or modernizing them, Not until the famous sculpture, which illuminates part of mid-twentieth century, in most of the that neoclassical world; a course of histori- arts, did improving the past give way cal understand that has been well described to archeological exactitude, a scholarly by Appadurai (1986:3–63) in his essay on the purism that deplored tampering with social life of things. what was original. Honest authenticity What if the restored sculptures were in- now came to mean intervening as little tended to be returned to their Greek Island as possible and making manifest every homeland? What would then happen to the unavoidable alteration, even to the sac- eighteenth-century restorations? The neo- rifice of visual integrity. classical connotations would have no place on the island of Aegina, or would they? Is it A cultural milieu in which the Aphaea frag- an ethnocentric assumption to say that the ments retain their original authenticity would inhabitants of Aegina would not want to see undoubtedly mean that they be returned to the original fragments of their Doric temple the island of Aegina. Western nations are re- fully restored, even if the restorations lacked luctant to return classical Greek antiquities to archaeological veracity? What might seem allow them to undergo this kind of repatriated to be an authentic work of art in one context existence. The different meanings the Aphaea could easily become an inauthentic work of sculptures have acquired since their recon- art in another. But Lowenthal is wrong to im- struction and completion by Thorvaldsen ply that considerations of these questions do cannot be assumed to be without historical not form part of the conservation dialogue. significance for us today, which is why faith- Lowenthal (1995) writes: fulness to context is so important and why the nature of this context may change over time. In art as in architecture, ruinations of time European museum consciousness tends to see and misfortune were routinely repaired. . the authentic existence of these sculptures in . . Only in the late eighteenth century did their conserved state within the confines of a wholeness succumb to the contrary cult major European collection, as is indeed the

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case with the marbles from the Parthenon at a majority of the surface of the sculpture, the British Museum, even if the surfaces of including the club, the proper left shoulder, them have been scraped and scoured during the legs, and the front chest—was recut and old conservation campaigns (Oddy 1999), de- severely acid cleaned. The 1970s deresto- stroying the authentic surface finish or patina ration saw itself as a completely justified and they once had. logical process. Zdravko Barov, the Getty The analysis of authenticity in terms of conservator at the time, wrote in Howard’s material authenticity, aesthetic authenticity, monograph of 1978: “The new restoration and conceptual authenticity is of help here. of the statue was made not only for techni- There is a continuum of possible restoration cal reasons but also to show the original as choices within this triangle, which helps re- much as possible free of alien additions. The veal what is being valued. Eighteenth-century emphasis is now on what is left of the origi- Renaissance reworkings of these sculptures nal, with additions limited to those necessary sought to modify or complete a version of to cover the technical joins.” In this treat- aesthetic authenticity, while the events con- ment, which was in accord with the conser- cerning the Aphaea sculptures show that vation ethics of the time, the following parts the material authenticity of the artwork was of the Herakles were removed: “the tip of more highly valued during the 1970s than the nose, several vine leaves of the crown, retaining the very skilled eighteenth-century the left hand and wrist, all the external part completions. of the lion skin, most of the club except parts near the fist, all of the fingers of the right The Getty Herakles hand except the third. The right forearm There are three important figures in the life of and the large chip in the left flank have been the marble sculpture of Herakles now in the replaced with plaster. Most of the iron rods Getty Museum in Malibu: Emperor Hadrian, were replaced with brass.” the first Lord Lansdowne (1737–1805), and Figures 5.12 and 5.13 make clear some of J. Paul Getty (1892–1976). The restored the alterations to what was considered to be the sculpture, which once belonged to Emperor authentic condition or state of the sculpture in Hadrian, was one of Lord Lansdowne’s prized some of its incarnations. Podany (2003) ques- possessions, even if Lady Lansdowne was re- tioned what had happened to the sculpture in puted to have chiseled away his penis as an in- 1974 and remarked that the sculpture on dis- decent appendage before the sculpture was sold play revealed more about the recent history of to J. Paul Getty for £5,000, an astonishingly low restoration than about the Herakles that had sum in the 1970s considering that the sculpture been so much a part of art history for two cen- is now worth around $25 or $35 million. turies. This question led to a reevaluation of the The Herakles derestoration was described sculpture and the decision to strip away all the in Howard (1978), and the rerestoration somewhat deteriorated 1970s restorations and by Podany (1994a, 2003). The eighteenth- to replace them with the eighteenth-century century artisans recut the Herakles to some carved marble components, most of which had extent by altering features of the head—for been saved in the 1970s. This is how the sculp- example, by reducing the size of both ears ture now appears in 2016. Such conservation and flattening the curves of the head. In fact, decisions are dependent on how much value is

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Figure 5.12. The Getty Herakles, circa 125 C.E., shown in its rerestored condition in 2016. The broken nose and end of the club, which are both modern restorations, improve on the 1970s purism of derestoration, part of which is shown in Figure 5.13. (Image courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu)

Figure 5.13. The Getty Herakles, circa 125 C.E. Upper left: the derestored face with broken nose; lower left: the recessed polyester fill of the 1970s restoration can be seen; center: the unsightly support rod; right: as restored in the 1990s. (Image courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu)

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placed on material authenticity as compared with historical or aesthetic authenticity. As far as the ethics of conservation as expressed in the 1970s are concerned, compensation for loss must be visually discernible and carried out in materials that do not mimic those of the original, thus emphasizing at all times the notion of material authenticity. However, as Figures 5.12 and 5.13 make clear, this ap- proach denies the aesthetic authenticity of the fully restored sculpture. As Podany (per- sonal communication 2014) writes:

To fully express why the decision to re- turn what was left of the eighteenth century restorations one must also take into account historical authenticity or value. It is often missed when the work is discussed, but I make the case that the sculpture was returned to a state that re- flected its condition after its last major irreversible alteration, reflecting more appropriately its aesthetic and historical authenticity while still revealing, through documentation, the material authenticity, of which little was actually left. Figure 5.14. Leda and the Swan, first century Leda and the Swan C.E.; 132.1 x 83.5 x 52.1 cm. Leda was the queen of Sparta, whom Zeus desired. Disguising himself More than two dozen copies of Leda and the as a swan, he enjoyed intercourse with her. Found Swan survive, attesting to the theme’s popu- in 1775, this is one of two dozen extant copies of larity among the Romans. The Getty website an earlier Greek statue from about 300 B.C.E. does not mention just how much of this sculp- and attributed to Timotheos. (Image courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, ture is an eighteenth-century restoration, but Malibu) a recent display at the Getty Museum, shown in Figure 5.14, helps correct that. Another version of the sculpture, recently discovered, historical and aesthetic authenticity. As far as sold at Sotheby’s in London in 2011 for £19.6 Leda and the Swan is concerned, we could re- million, which puts the combined world move Leda’s head, part of the right arm, and worth of restored Ledas at more than $500 part of the drapery, all foreign to her. Both million in 2016 monetary terms. are copies of Greek sculptures of about 300 The two Lansdowne sculptures present B.C.E., so in that sense neither is an original, different restoration issues as regards their but these ancient copies are not regarded as

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Leda and the Swan

Figure 5.15. Leda and the Swan. Left: derestored restoration, about 1976. Right: rerestoration of the derestored fragment. (Left image courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Trustees. Right image courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu. Photograph by the author) forgeries but as adaptive emulations. A side In terms of these de-restored original view of how Leda and the Swan looked af- fragments, one should heed Lowenthal’s cas- ter derestoration at the Getty Museum in tigation: “The authentic worth of unrestored the 1970s is shown on the left in Figure 5.15, objects divested of recognizable form is sole- compared with the rerestored sculpture on ly academic; aesthetic defence of time’s ero- the right. sions is a quixotic passion for pentimenti and could not have written his poem to limbless torsos.” The desire for the original Leda and the Swan from contemplation of features of limbless torsos was motivated by purist de-restored remnants: the logical positivism of scientific conserva- tion as a rational and justified system and the How can those terrified vague fingers revolutions in archaeology that sought exca- push vated authentic fragments. The removal of The feathered glory from her loosening spurious restorations was intended to free the thighs? original, authentic fragment from its foreign And how can body, laid in that white rush, additions, to allow archaeological contempla- But feel the strange heart beating where tion of a collection of purified and disassem- it lies? bled components. The dictum of Brandi that

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“for restoration to be a legitimate operation, It was broken into hundreds of fragments, it cannot presume that time is reversible or which were carted away by Soviet troops to that history can be abolished” was not part of Leningrad, where they remained in a wooden the philosophical dialogue with this object. crate for 70 years. The captors returned the Conservation had not yet developed a sense decayed fragments to Dresden in 2006. of its own historical phenomenology by the Before the Second World War, the Bacchus 1970s, but that position is completely dif- had been restored in various ways, just two of ferent today. Derestoration might reveal the which are illustrated in Figure 5.16. extent to which restorers had cut away bro- From Dresden the fragments made their ken surfaces to affix new limbs or heads. The way to the Getty Museum for restoration and exposure of these alterations, it could now be reconstruction. There are multiple heads argued, would leave fragments as no more for the variety of identities the sculpture than anachronistic and amputated uncertain- has represented. A separate right arm was ties, neither ancient nor historical, neither removed in the nineteenth century, when beautiful nor informative, even if an archaeo- the sculpture was thought to be a version logical fiction. of Bacchus, but Bacchus would have held a Many artworks depicting Leda and the drinking vessel, so the disembodied arm was Swan, including lost works by Michelangelo resting in a vitrine alongside the sculpture in and Leonardo, have been destroyed as being an exemplary display once held at the Getty too erotic. One of the values of copies and Villa. If it was not Bacchus, the sculpture fakes is to preserve what was once authen- could be given a Roman head, the first being tic, such as a copy of Leda and the Swan by attached to the fragmentary sculpture in the Cornelius Bos after Michelangelo, which has 1600s. With the addition of a Baroque mar- survived. Indeed, by the Renaissance, Leda ble helmet and arm removed, the sculpture and the Swan had become a popular sub- was transformed into Alexander the Great ject, especially since swans apparently have a (356–323 B.C.E.). But this head was proba- kind of penis, a fact unknown to many mod- bly from the warrior goddess, Athena. It was ern viewers but common knowledge in the sculpted with a truncated and flattened top Renaissance. to carry a separately carved helmet, typical It is still startling that so many of these for the goddess and not Alexander the Great sculptures have foreign heads, even if they are at all. ancient, while eighteenth-century restored Archaeological discoveries of the 1800s marble carvings and a small amount of twen- showed that the restoration as Alexander the tieth-century restoration complete this erotic Great could not possibly represent the au- image in the Getty collections. thentic state of the sculpture. So who did the sculpture depict? With another new head, it Bacchus changed identity to become Antinous, in the The fate of some sculptures is not to exist in guise of the wine god, the favorite of Emperor a comfortable museum but to be bombed to Hadrian. In 1830 the helmeted head was re- pieces. A marble sculpture of Bacchus was placed with a portrait of Antinous as Bacchus, shattered in Dresden when the British de- and a new right arm holding an offering ves- stroyed the city in the Second World War. sel was added. Both of these restorations were

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Bacchus

Figure 5.16. Two restored versions of the same figure of Bacchus, Roman, 100–200 C.E. Marble; 203.20 cm high. Left: Bacchus restored with new right arm as Antinous in 1830 and rerestored in the late 1880s as Bacchus. Right: Bacchus with the right arm derestored. (Image courtesy of the Getty Museum and the Skulpturensammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden) removed between 1888 and 1894, when the an alternative persona as Bacchus or perhaps head was substituted with a cast from an an- Antinous, but only in the guise of Bacchus. cient Roman bust of Antinous as Bacchus. The superb exhibition at the Getty Villa The multiple identities of the work add displayed the sculpture with the hundreds intrigue to the restoration. Following its dis- of shattered fragments skillfully restored covery, the statue was restored with both an- but without a head. Contiguous vitrines dis- cient and modern parts. A Roman head of the played the recut head of Athena translated warrior goddess Athena was combined with into Alexander the Great and a cast from the a seventeenth-century helmet that was add- ancient Roman bust of Antinous assuming ed to the sculpture, creating the new identity the persona of Bacchus. The contested and as Alexander the Great. A modern right arm confused biography of the sculpture is in this and staff were also added at this time. The way aligned with the least inauthentic form of alternative to a headless state was to create its materiality. In the absence of the original

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authentic head that the sculpture possessed Getty Museum collections remains as an in its Roman past, the exhibition not only identifiable Heracles, but if a neoclassical explained the archaeological context of the restoration changes a marble male athlete sculpture; it also told the story of its 70 for- that also once belonged to Lord Lansdowne gotten years as a collection of fragments in a into a standing male boxer with added arms, crate in Leningrad, its historical existence as a codpiece, a worked-over base, a repaired a former museum exhibit, and its resurrec- sliced head, lips, and a mended damaged tion as an enigmatic and powerful presence. nose, how can its authentic state be as- The authenticity of condition here was not sessed if we know that it should represent a passed over in silence. The hermeneutic in- male athlete? Is the thrall of the social life quiry into the state of conservation present- of things sufficient to give credence to the ed to the viewer allows insight into not only works in their intangible authenticity or are the conflicting identities of the sculpture but we unhappy with the false identity of the the contemplation of how it could be viewed former sculpture? as an authentic fragment whose story is not The curator at the Los Angeles County artificially finalized. This would have pleased Museum of Art (LACMA) removed the Phillips (1997:191), who castigates museum arms, codpiece, upper part of the head, exhibitions in general for their neglect of lips, and restored nose, stating that these authenticity, which can be manipulated by restorations falsified the work, and this is conservation to present a biography or im- how the sculpture appears on LACMA’s age that gives the viewer no insight into the website (LACMA 2015). But in the gallery, process by which the artwork came to be the sliced head has been rerestored, a new the way it is presented. What kinds of au- compensation for loss has been provided to thenticity may be impacted by this neglect? complete the broken nose, and the lips have Both conceptual and material, because how been replaced. The authenticity of condition Bacchus or Alexander the Great are regard- (Phillips 1997) is not explained to the viewer. ed alters our own perception of the context What is not shown in the exhibited biogra- of the sculpture, how the work is situated ei- phy of the object is the crucial importance ther as the portrayal of a god or of a human of restoration in its interactions with what being, and materially how the fragmented might be regarded as different concepts of state of the work is to be appreciated. The what constitutes the authentic state or states biography of the object has been fully ex- of the sculpture. The broken arms are now plained and the different authenticities of kept in storage, their amputation denying its past and present displayed to the public, the 200-year history of the Lansdowne box- which allows contemplation of the identities er. If the disembodied arm were to be dis- of the sculpture. played adjacent to the existing sculpture, the layers of meaning that the male athlete as- The Lansdowne Boxer sumed could be revealed to the viewer. This More problematic is the authenticity of is one of the problems of restoration: the sculptures whose identity has been manipu- functional disjunction between art historical lated or altered in the course of restoration. theories and the altered nature of material A fragmentary Lansdowne Herakles in the reality as it is impacted by restoration.

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Preferential States

Typical examples of this disjunction are is essentially a forgery. As it has been on the numerous art historical writings that ac- display for 250 years as an original Roman count for the spiky hairstyle of the work, should this now too be consigned to in the in Rome (Fraser storage or should it be seen as an emulation 1932; Parma 1983). However, all the original of the Renaissance rather than an admired long locks of the Dying Gaul have broken off Roman emulation of the ancient Greeks? over time; its present condition is a result of the splintered stumps having been reworked Preferential States to give the sculpture a convincing, if frag- There is no one answer as to which is the mented, head of hair, which has nothing to do more desirable state of some of these sculp- with its authentic original state (Martellotti tures. In teaching students about these issues 2001). Incidentally, all the sculptures in the at UCLA, I have found that a sizeable mi- collections of the Capitoline Museums were nority of students is completely unconvinced scoured with acid and repolished completely by the aesthetic or historical argument for the to give them the look they should have had preservation of eighteenth-century additions rather than the appearance they actually had. as authentic components of work that is now A new level of literal within figu- imbued with eighteenth-century cultural mo- rative sculpture typifies the work of American res. These students regard the artworks as es- artist John de Andrea, who made his own sentially forgeries, or at the very least false and Dying Gaul, 1984 in polyvinyl with oil pig- deceptively restored pastiches. Others take a ments and acrylic hair, with molds taken more historicizing stance and are prepared to from a live model (Portland Art Museum accept that the rerestoration of the Herakles 2015). Molds were taken in Roman and later and the Leda and the Swan at the Getty are times of the second-century C.E. copy of the in the best interests of aesthetic contemplation Hellenistic original (Marvin 1989, 2008), re- of the sculptures as works of art rather than as sulting in more than 25 replicas of the Dying assemblages of authentic archaeological frag- Gaul by the eighteenth century, now emulat- ments. One could argue that these eighteenth- ed in the twentieth century not from stone or and twentieth-century restorations are now bronze originals but replicas taken from liv- part of the biography of the objects and that ing flesh. derestoration signals not necessarily an alter- Not only did Renaissance workshops ation to a more authentic condition but alter- create replicas or pastiche works from vari- nation to a different state of being in the name ous marble parts; some were outright forg- of a spurious originality (Podany 2003; True eries, such as a statue of Dionysus in the 2003). Kuspit (2011:237) wonders if carving Museo Nazionale Romano Palazzo in Rome the name Ramses II on statues of previous pha- (Marvin 2003:235). It is a created antiqui- raohs was an act of appropriation or despoil- ty—neither a collaboration nor an assem- ment? He does not have a definitive answer, bled work. Broken at the neck, knees, and but an interesting strand of thought is derived biceps, it assumes the evidentiary damage of from Gombrich (1978): A distinction is made time as attesting to its authentic state, its ap- between context-independent appropriation parent restoration merely a blind, an added and context-dependent appropriation. In the deception of apparent authenticity to what former, what is appropriated is a concept. In

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the latter, the form or style is derived from the with their particular, synthetic historicity” symbols of the context, as in ’s appro- (Brilliant 2011:169). In the totalizing instan- priation of brand names and commercial brand tiations created by restoration, there is often images. Kuspit (2011:247) writes: “Ironical ap- no meaningful saliency in terms of disag- propriation and applied appropriation is yet gregated composites of the statues discussed another distinction. . . . In ironical appropri- here. The original head of Leda and the Swan ation, the motif is double-coded so that it be- in the Getty is subsumed as a complementa- comes meaningful in contradictory contexts. ry appendage to the entire sculpture. The In applied appropriation, the motif is used as viewer does not want to imagine the origi- an ornament or emblem, which assumes that nal Roman sculpture from which the head its meaning remains constant whatever the of Leda was taken. Does that mean that the context.” These thoughts are revisited with the work after restoration lacks any meaningful discussion of the modern and postmodern later saliency, as Brilliant maintains? That depends in this book, but returning for the moment to on which aspect of the authenticity of the the example of Ramses II, a more cogent argu- sculpture is most valorized: the conceptual, ment is the association of the formerly great the historical, the material, or the aesthetic. and admired in terms of an impressive statue The audience can respond to an evaluation whose power has been usurped by Ramses of the work using the concepts of conceptual, II and legitimated by the authentic sculpture historical, material, or aesthetic authenticity, of the past. It now has a different biography, each of which may valorize different states or a venerated biography infused not only with appearances of the sculpture. those admired rulers of the past but with a of the present who is the equal of them Authenticities of the Archaeological and, since time cannot be reversed, has now Past succeeded them, has supplanted them in the From the viewpoint of scientific empiricism, eyes of the people and given the sculpture a forgeries that create a new class of works, in renewed vigor and legitimacy. Goodman’s sense (Goodman 1968), are the Brilliant (2011:168) even takes the con- most damaging to the archaeological record. cept of spolia as a form of identity theft, be- Imitations of existing works, while poten- cause the identity of the borrowed original, tially confusing, do not necessarily create in whatever form, retains some associative interpretative problems for the archaeolo- value, even if only in the visual authority of gist or art historian. But those that alter the its imagery. If we view spoliation as also an in- chronological perspective regarding when fluence on the removal of artworks from their certain artifacts were thought to exist or that places of origin, it can be viewed as both a create entirely new or fictitious archaeolog- retrospective orientation and a proleptic col- ical styles of production, and archaeological oration. According to this view, “The original sites that are in fact fake, are forgeries that source cannot be fully obscured if the newly have the potential to modify the archaeolog- combined elements are to have any mean- ical record and create an entirely spurious ingful saliency in the present. The Janus- historical phenomenology in which they be- like character of such ambivalent references come incorporated as authentic works of art, endows spoliated artworks and monuments authentic styles of production, or authentic

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The Getty Kouros

sites. Or they create such doubts that gen- uine antiquities are thought to fake when they are in fact vestiges of the authentic past (Field 2009). The contested nature of authenticity is often the result of disputes concerning ev- idential inquiry as to what is real and what is false. These disputations often involve art historians and archaeologists on the one hand and archaeological or conservation scientists on the other. Stylistic or archaeological eval- uation may be in conflict with the view of the scientist investigating the same artifact, who may arrive at conclusions that contradict the stylistic evidence.

The Getty Kouros The Getty Kouros is an over-life-size statue in the form of a Late Archaic Greek standing male figure. The dolomitic marble sculpture was bought by the Getty Museum in Malibu in 1983 for $9.3 million and was first exhibited in October 1986. As the Getty website states, a kouros is a statue of a standing youth that does not represent any one individual but the idea of youth. Used in Archaic Greece as both a dedication to the gods in sanctuaries and as a grave monument, the standard kou- ros stood with his left foot forward, arms at his sides, looking straight ahead. Thomas Hoving (1997) wrote about his first encounter with the Getty Kouros in 1986, during a meeting with the Getty’s for- mer curator of Greek and Roman art, Arthur Houghton Jr., son of the former president of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Houghton showed Hoving the secret pur- Figure 5.17. The Getty Kouros, unknown artist, chase, then hanging on well-padded chains Greek, about 530 B.C.E., or a modern forgery. in the conservation laboratory, as it was re- Marble; 81 ⅛ x 21 ½ inches. This dolomitic mar- ble kouros in the Getty collections in Malibu has moved from its crate. Hoving (1931–2009) been a source of contested identity and doubtful had a well-trained eye and thought that the authenticity. (Image courtesy of the J. Paul Getty work was a forgery as soon as he saw it, an Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu)

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opinion with which many others disagree. regarding stylistic features, and none of the The authenticity of the sculpture split the art documentary evidence is convincing, espe- historical community into two camps: those cially since fake documentation has often who believe it dates from about 530 B.C.E. been used to pass off as real something that and those who think it dates from about is not authentic. On the other hand, it could 1980. The detail of Hoving’s account is not be argued that in this case, which is perhaps quite correct, as True (1992:11) notes that the a masterpiece looted from Greece, fake doc- sculpture arrived from Switzerland, broken umentation had to be concocted to obscure into seven pieces, in 1983 and was originally the trail of its movements. purchased by Getty curator Jiri Frel (1923– The problems with the scientific con- 2006), who had to flee the United States due noisseurship of the marble, which is actual- to fraudulent antiquities practices. True di- ly a form of dolomite rather than pure mar- vides the problems of art historical connois- ble, have been considerable. Norman Herz, seurship of the Getty Kouros into three com- a professor of at the University of ponents: the statue’s apparently anomalous Georgia, measured the carbon and oxygen combination of stylistic features; the unusual isotope ratios and traced the stone to the type of marble, which contained several im- island of Thasos. The marble was found to perfections; and its problematic documentary have a composition of 88 percent dolomite evidence. Flawed stone was rarely used for and 12 percent calcite. Isotope analysis re- Archaic sculpture, while individual stylistic vealed that δ18O = -2.37 and δ13C = +2.88, elements cover almost a century of variation which from database comparisons admits one in Greek decorative practice, according to of five possible sources: Denizli, Doliana, some scholars. There is no trace of any pig- Marmara, Mylasa, or Thasos-Acropolis. ment present on the surface, unlike most if Further trace element analysis of the kouros not all other kouroi, while the modern histo- eliminated Denizli. With the high dolomite ry of the piece revolves around the lack of any content, Thasos was determined to be the secure provenance. likeliest source, with a 90 percent degree of All the original documents had appar- probability. The provenance of the marble is ently been lost and were presented only as relatively uncontested, but the real problems photocopies. Some were actually forgeries began when the Getty Conservation Institute themselves, such as a letter from Professor hired geologist Stanley Margolis (1943–1992) Ernst Langlotz (1895–1978) postmarked to study the composition of the patina of the 1952 but employing a postal code that did sculpture. Margolis (1989) employed powder not exist until 1972, so that document is a X-ray diffraction (XRD) to determine that a forgery. Additionally, there has been no de- layer of pure calcite existed on the surface. mand from Greece for repatriation of the This conclusion was confirmed at the Getty statue, which might be taken as indicative Conservation Institute when examination of of the Greek view of the authenticity of the a sample in the electron probe microanalyz- work. In general terms, what we have learned er found only calcite as the principal patina so far from the art connoisseurship side of constituent. As a result, Margolis concluded the investigation should give cause for con- that the surface patina of calcite had formed cern: There is a great deal of disagreement by a process known as dedolomitization, in

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which magnesium carbonate is lost to the en- geologist. The EPMA machine had been run vironment preferentially, leaving a pure cal- at too high a current, which decomposed the cite crust behind, and that this process could delicate calcium oxalate under the power of occur only over extended periods of time and the beam, producing peaks only for calcite. could not be forged. The Getty Conservation Hence an incorrect diagnosis was confirmed Institute undertook a complex series of ex- by an incorrect confirmation of the initial di- periments to try to achieve dedolomitization agnosis. The only positive thing about this artificially. The experiments never succeeded, outcome is that, unlike art connoisseurship, despite years of toil. Margolis published in scientific connoisseurship can correct itself 1989, in Scientific American, concluding that by the application of further investigations, the dedolomitization provided significant which is what happened when the calcium ox- evidence for the authenticity of the Getty alate crust was eventually discovered. For sev- Kouros. eral years, a further series of experiments was There was just one problem, however: conducted on marble coupons at the Getty The supposed dedolomitization of the sur- Villa to try to match the oxalate crust that face that assured the material authenticity had formed on the Getty Kouros, without of the statue never existed. Many art histo- any definitive results. Apparently oxalic acid rians and archaeologists relied on the scien- is often used by stone forgers to alter a pris- tific evidence to assuage their doubts. How tine carved marble surface, which would be- could such experienced scientists have made tray no trace of age if not artificially patinat- such a fundamental mistake? The truth was ed. Another problem surfaced when Miriam discovered when a relatively inexperienced Kastner (1984) discovered that it is indeed junior scientist at the Getty Conservation possible to create dedolomitization under Institute’s laboratory at the Getty Villa dis- laboratory conditions, although this is unlike- covered, using XRD, that the patina on the ly to have been known to any potential forg- Getty Kouros was not calcium carbonate er. Eric Doehne (personal communication but calcium oxalate. The entire premise of 2012) comments: “This fact was mentioned the numerous experiments conducted by the by Kimmelman in a New York Times article Getty Conservation Institute was false. in 1991. Geochemists produced dedolomiti- The reason for this erroneous conclusion zation at high temperatures and pressures in was a failure of scientific connoisseurship. 1987. The issue is whether the reaction can Margolis had started running his XRD exper- take place fast enough at ambient tempera- iment on the dangerous assumption that cer- tures and pressures.” tain crystal reflections would not be present. Experiments over an eight-year period He therefore detected only crystal reflections (Podany 1992; Preusser 1992) did not resolve for calcite because he did not run a sweep the problems of material authenticity. (For across all angles for unknowns, as is common a useful summary see Craddock 2009:261– practice in museum laboratories. Since it can 263.) Podany exposed several hundred cou- never be known for certain exactly what will pons to different oxalic acid concoctions for be discovered, everything is treated initially hours and even months. Preusser carried out as a virtual unknown. Margolis was not an ex- trace element studies and microstratigraph- perienced museum scientist but a university ic studies and attempted to date the oxalate

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5-mm-thick weathering layer consisting pre- dominantly of calcite with smaller amounts of , iron oxides, and clay minerals (Doehne et al. 1992). Analogous Thasian dolomitic artifacts were also used for comparison. A partially exposed Roman sarcophagus had a 70-micron-thick weathering crust with a mixed calcite and calcium oxalate patina. As examination of the oxalate crust of the kouros using UV light revealed a complex morphology of surface fluorescence. What is needed is a much more detailed examination of various regions of the surface to account for the different flu- orescent features, since micromorphological variations in a recently forged oxalate patina would be unexpected. Differential response to UV illumination could be indicative of aged features rather than artificially patinat- ed components, but to advance this argument further, a new research strategy is required. Figure 5.18. Monumental head of Zeus. Height The whole topic deserved a much more 52.5 cm. The head is described as possibly made comprehensive account than the meager of Pentelic marble on the Getty website but is characterized as dolomitic marble from Thasos publication devoted to the Getty Kouros that by Doehne et al. (1992). Analysis shows that the came out in 1992. Guralnick (1992) main- marble has a 5-mm-thick weathering crust that tained that the proportions and design of consists predominantly of calcite. (Image courtesy the kouros were within the mainstream for of the Trustees of the Getty Museum) kouroi, with no anomalies to distinguish it from the bodies of 25 fellow kouroi. Kleeman crust using accelerator mass spectrometry for (1992) thought that one of the strongest in- 14C content. But both the laboratory and kou- dications of authenticity came from mea- ros samples gave dates of thousands of years surement of the plinth and feet. The vari- old, because the carbon within the oxalate ation of the Getty Kouros, turning to the is derived from the ancient carbonate of the right, with a broken axis of the left foot and rock itself, not from atmospherically incorpo- an oval or rhomboid plinth, is found in the rated carbon. Therefore it cannot be used as a Melos Kouros and the Tenea Kouros, sug- dating technique. gesting an authentic understanding of how A large head of Zeus, made of dolomitic these feet should be rendered. Delivorrias marble and shown in Figure 5.18, also from (1992) could not accept the use of Thasian Thasos, was examined to compare the alter- marble in an exported Archaic context or ation crust with that of the kouros. Scientific the statue’s execution in an unknown artistic examination showed the presence of a center. He believes it to be a patchwork of

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stylistic allusions and feels an intuitive re- Keratea Kouros. The detailed comparisons pulsion to the work, convinced that it can- she makes with a variety of kouroi and parts not be authentic. However, the Getty head of carved limbs in numerous collections make of Zeus is made of Thasian marble, so that one doubt the veracity of judgments based tends to contradict this viewpoint. Triantis on stylistic criteria by other commentators. (1992) regards the sculpture as a fake, an Heller and Herz (1995) found no evidence eclectic combination of features found in for dedolomitization of calcite on exposed several other kouroi. Kyrieleis (1992) states and weathered marble from Thasos, only li- that he would not like to express an opinion chen-induced calcium oxalate formation. on the authenticity of the kouros, as he has Doehne et al. (1992) hold that oxalate had very little exposure to spurious works. patinas can form on exposed marble stone Dontas (1992) thinks that elements from from samples studied from Thasos, but not various earlier styles have been employed, on buried artifacts, which rather compli- very adroitly, but that the work suffers from cates things. Does that mean that if genuine, a lack of a deeper sense of organic cohesion. the broken fragments of the Getty Kouros Marcade (1992) sees the kouros as an eclec- were never buried? Or were they buried but tic work with bits comparable to the Tenea subsequently cleaned? On a prima facie ba- Kouros, the Anavyssos Kouros, and the sis, it is unlikely that such a large sculpture Ptoon 12 Kouros, which does nothing for its would have remained outdoors without hav- authenticity. Lambrinoudakis (1992) thinks ing been recognized if it were never buried. that similarities to a number of other kouroi of If not buried and complete, it would prob- different dates means that the authenticity of ably have been taken away and been known the Getty Kouros cannot be answered satisfac- a long time ago, since such kouroi are very torily. Looking at several authentic kouroi in a rare. Craddock (2009:262) says it would be volume by Richter, Boardman (1992) says that interesting to examine the broken fragments if they were to appear without any context, before restoration to determine if any calcite he would doubt the authenticity of several. had formed on them and if dedolomitization He writes that many kouroi seem stylistical- had occurred. One suspects, however, that ly disorganized or internally inconsistent. As these are simply new or recent breaks to al- regards the authenticity of the Getty example, low shipment in sizable pieces or to create the Boardman does not say exactly what his con- authentic appearance of something that had clusions are. Holtzman (1992) notes the frail- been broken historically. The calcite is of in- ty of stylistic judgments and states that until terest here, not only because of its mistaken proved otherwise, the kouros should receive presence in the work performed by Margolis the benefit of the doubt. Harrison (1992) finds but because calcite can indeed form as a re- the kouros, with its girlish face and apologetic sult of the loss of magnesium from dolomite shoulders, to be an ingratiating work of a mod- from a Thasian locale in authentic artifacts, ern faker. Sismondo-Ridgway (1992) discerns as shown by the work of Doehne et al. (1991, many technical details that bear comparison 1992). Whether oxalate crusts are never with authentic examples and notes that the found on buried marble, or mixed with cal- Getty Kouros has a “dead” surface and that cite, is an open question and one that requires a comparable dull appearance is seen on the further research.

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At an exemplary exhibition held at the point in some of the finer detailing. For ex- Getty Villa in the 1990s, a special gallery was ample, there are point marks in the outline of set up for the Getty Kouros, which was dis- the curls, between the fingers, and in the cleft played alongside plaster casts of two authentic of the buttocks. Traces of the point are also in kouroi, the Tenea and the Anavyssos (Walsh the arches of the feet and seen randomly over 1992). Explanatory panels discussed the na- the plinth. Though the tools evident here ture of the problem and the kinds of scientific (fine point, slope chisel, claw chisel) are not and art historical investigations that had been inappropriate for a late sixth-century B.C.E. undertaken. On random visits to the Villa sculpture, their application might be consid- galleries, I observed how long visitors spent ered problematic. reading and examining the objects on display Triantis (1992:52) remarks, “No sculptor and how long they stayed to read the various of kouroi would hollow out with a fine point, panels. The conclusion: a remarkably long nor incise outlines with this tool.” This view is time. Visitors were prepared to engage with contradicted by Rockwell (1992), who writes the exhibition in a surprisingly meaningful that the kouros exhibits four techniques char- way. Truly, the authenticity lamented as being acteristic of Archaic stone carving: First, the fundamentally absent all too often by Phillips figure was carved prone. Second, under the (1997) was well exhibited in this case. The ef- right arm is a place where the form of the torso fect of time’s interactions with the fashionable seen from the front does not match that seen status of such exhibitions is to gradually con- from the back, a typical problem in opening sign them to oblivion. Such was the case with spaces without the use of a . Third, the this kouros exhibition. The Getty Kouros is details of the figure, ears, hair, and eyes were now displayed in a gallery with relatively lit- isolated as separate geometric entities before tle comparative material. The next stage in any carving of the details, which Rockwell its unhappy existence is probably to be con- finds analogous to detail in other authentic signed to storage. works. Fourth, the direction of the blow of Despite being of Thasian marble, the kou- the tool is either vertical or at a high angle. ros cannot be securely ascribed to an individ- Again, Rockwell finds comparison here with ual workshop of northern Greece or indeed the Taranto Kore. One more strange piece of to any ancient regional school of sculpture. evidence should be mentioned. Apparently, Archaic kouroi conform to a canon of mea- the Getty Kouros has a rounded tang on its surement and proportion (albeit with strong base, while extant published examples all have local accents) to which the Getty example rectangular tangs. However, when a kouros in also adheres. A comparison of like elements the National Museum in Athens was removed in other kouroi may be a possible means of from its plinth, it was discovered that it too further art historical connoisseurship and had a rounded tang, which some observers re- may provide additional clues to the origin of gard as strong evidence for the authenticity of the sculpture. Some indication of tool marks the Getty Kouros. remains on the work. Though the surface is In 1990 Spier published the discovery of weathered (or artificially abraded) and it is another kouros torso, a certain forgery that not clear if emery was used, heavy claw marks exhibited notable technical similarities to can be seen on the plinth and the use of a the Getty Kouros. After samples determined

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The Japanese Paleolithic

that the fake torso was of the same dolomitic questioning of authenticity afflicts a work of marble as the Getty piece, the torso was pur- art and how it is perceived. That is the current chased by the museum for study purposes. enigma of the Getty Kouros. Its materiality The fake’s sloping shoulders and upper arms, has an evanescent quality because it cannot at volume of chest, and rendering of the hands present be defined unequivocally. That does and genitals all suggested, to some, the same not mean, á la Goodman, that it will not be hand as the Getty’s example, although the ag- possible to distinguish between the different ing had been crudely done with an acid bath states of the Getty Kouros at some stage in and the application of an iron oxide stain. the future. It is my firm opinion that the Getty Further investigation showed that the fake Kouros should remain on display and should torso and the kouros were not from the same not be relegated to storage while its biography block and that the sculpting techniques used remains unfinished. Once the sculpture is in were dramatically different. The problem- storage, it will be forgotten until it is resurrect- atic nature of the oxalate crust on the Getty ed in a different and entirely new context, as a Kouros remains unproven. Comparative an- result of either renewed art historical inquiry cient material from Thasos from a burial or scientific connoisseurship. context does show dedolomitization, which the Kouros lacks. The other source of doubt The Japanese Paleolithic concerning an easy resolution of the Kouros Examples of the manipulation of time are debate is evidence for its carving in a supine the activities of Japanese archaeologist position, which authentic kouroi also manifest. Shinichi Fujimura. He was a believer in in- It’s not impossible for a forger to carve this herent Japanese superiority, and promoted way, but the factor certainly gives one pause. the theory that the earliest known ceramics The conclusions from this story are that in the world were Japanese, and the occupa- neither the historical authenticity nor the tion of Japan by Japanese peoples was as ear- material authenticity of the Getty Kouros ly as 600,000 years ago. Fujimura was found can be said to be uncontested. Investigations planting artifacts at the Paleolithic site of into the kouros now languish, as the initial Kamitakamori by two journalists, suspicious momentum for determination of its authen- of his archaeological acumen. Fujimura’s 20- ticity in either sense has been lost. Both sides year archaeological career began in 1981, seem to have reached an impasse, which can when he discovered the oldest known arti- probably be broken only with a new set of sci- fact in Japan. He subsequently worked at 180 entific studies, such as new isotopic studies for different archaeological sites, received many nitrogen, strontium, or other exotic elements honors, and was appointed deputy director and further work on patina characterizations. of the Tohoku Paleolithic Institute, earning The longer doubt exists concerning the au- the sobriquet “Divine Hands” for his skills at thenticity of the kouros, the more the sculp- unearthing older and older artifacts. It was ture becomes tainted by association with this not the academic archaeological community uncertainty, so that it appears neither genuine that exposed Fujimura but the two report- nor fake but a hybrid species, both ancient and ers from the Mainichi Shinbun newspaper twentieth century. There is an inevitability to (Lovata 2007:46). A subsequent investigation evaluative historicism here in how prolonged by the Japanese Archaeological Association

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Figure 5.19. Discussion on the Piltdown Skull by John Cooke. Oil on canvas. The painting was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1915. C. T. Trechmann presented the picture to the Geological Society in 1932. It now hangs at the society’s premises in Burlington House, Piccadilly. Back row, left to right: Mr. F. O. Barlow, Professor G. Elliot Smith, Mr. C. Dawson, and Dr. Arthur Smith Woodward; front row, left to right: Dr. A. S. Underwood, Professor Arthur Keith, Mr. W. P. Pycraft, and Sir Ray Lankester. (Image courtesy of the Geological Society of London and http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/ feb/05/piltdown-man-hoax) discovered that Fujimura had manipulated Piltdown Man the artifactual record at more than 150 sites. A similar psychologically comforting fiction, The distortion of the distant past of Japan on a lesser scale, was created by the Piltdown was extraordinarily successful. The vast ma- forgery, usually called a hoax, as if it were jority of Japanese archaeologists failed to de- merely the result of some innocent joke foist- tect the forgery in front of them. The fake ed upon the British anthropological commu- evidence for an increasingly older Japanese nity. In fact, Piltdown Man was responsible Paleolithic supported a desired ethic identifi- for disinformation concerning the origins of cation of a uniquely Japanese past, untainted man and the missing link between apes and by empirical evidence that migrants from the humans on the European subcontinent for Korean Peninsula were the first settlers of the decades, although some researchers had their Japanese islands. doubts and omitted mention of Piltdown

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Totonac and Zapotec Ceramics

Man from their anthropological studies of in the future; his or her afterlife is proving to early man. be far longer and more authentic than any- In 1913 Charles Dawson found in Sussex one anticipated. The intellectual damage of the remains of a skull, jawbone, and canine the past is largely forgotten, but Rieth (1970) teeth, stained with age, along with contiguous reminds us of the fallout and states that scores primitive bone tools and bones of animals no of Ph.D. theses from 1916 to 1950 invoked longer found in Britain, such as elephants and evidence of Piltdown Man in their anthropo- hippopotamuses. Piltdown Man was stated to logical research. have lived in Sussex 500,000 years ago, mas- tered fire, used complex tools, worn clothes, Totonac and Zapotec Ceramics and possessed thought and undoubtedly Numerous forgeries in ceramics from Mexico speech. After Piltdown Man entered the text- were known for some time and led to the sem- books as authentic, in 1953 scientific examina- inal 1910 publication of Leopoldo Bartres’s tion of the finds by Oakley and others found Antiguedades Mejicanas Falsificadas: Falsificacion that fluorine levels in the teeth were totally y Falsificadores, which included 63 illustrations incompatible with the alleged age of Piltdown of artifacts identified as forgeries by that date. Man. Dawson’s forgery was ingenious: The The invention of an entire Mexican bones had been treated and stained to age them archaeological style of ceramics is not a convincingly. The canine tooth was from a fos- straightforward accomplishment, but Brigído silized chimpanzee; the skull fragments from a Lara is credited with that achievement.­ The medieval Briton dating to about 1300; and the Mesoamerican Totonac culture, existing from jawbone from an orangutan. The jawbone was about 600 C.E. onward, was an important about 500 years old and was broken at the ar- culture of the Veracruz area of Mexico, a ticular surfaces to align with the medieval skull. culture that helped bring about its own de- Cleverly, Dawson had even buried his finds in mise by sending 13,000 warriors to help the the correct geological stratum. Spanish defeat Tenochtitlán. When the forgery was exposed in the The Totonac culture developed in the cen- 1950s, it created a worldwide sensation. tral part of Veracruz in the late Mesoamerican Questions remain as to whether Dawson, Classical period and made an impressive array who earned a telling sobriquet as the of ceramic figures, some of them monumen- of Sussex, acted alone or had help from oth- tal. Lara and others were arrested in 1974 for ers, a cast of characters that included emi- looting archaeological sites and selling au- nent anthropologists such as Pierre Teilhard thentic Totonac ceramics. During the trial, de Chardin, Arthur Smith Woodward, and archaeologists from the Instituto Nacional de Arthur Keith. Antropología e Historia (INAH) testified that Scores of books and articles (e.g. the ceramics had been taken from ancient sites Chippindale 1991; Clermont 1992; Gould in the Cempoala region, in the central part of 1983; Moore and Campbell 1999; Tobais Veracruz. Lara asked for a large ball of clay to 1992; Walsh 1996; Weiner 1955; Woodward be brought to his cell and proceeded to make 1948) have revisited the Piltdown hoax over authentic-looking Totonac ceramics; rather the past 50 years, and more might be writ- than being a looter of archaeological ceram- ten concerning the nonexistent Sussex Man ics, he was a creator of Totonac-style ceramics

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for more than 20 years. He faked Aztec and several other forgers have been producing Mayan ceramics too, but his specialty was the pre-Columbian art, particularly ceramics, for ceramics of the ancient Totonac. The repli- decades. According to Lerner (2001), some cas were taken from the jail and shown to the speculate that during the conquest, artisans same experts from INAH whose testimony sought to preserve older religious objects by had led to Lara’s conviction. The archae- providing the Spaniards with an unending ologists pronounced them to be authentic supply of forgeries to destroy, thereby help- Totonac ceramics from the site of Cempoala ing to preserve the authentic. (Lerner 2001). Lara was released from jail in The possibility that Lara is the most fa- January 1975. mous of a succession of Mexican forgers is Lara was subsequently employed by the revealed by the case of the Metropolitan state Anthropology Museum in Xalapa, Museum’s 3-foot-tall hollow ceramic figure of second in the country to only the National the Totonac god Ehecatl, the Mesoamerican Museum in Mexico City, to restore ancient wind god, illustrated in Figure 5.20. pieces and to review the collection for forg- There is a problem with the thermolumi- eries. He has since been licensed as a maker nescent dating of some of the ceramics from of replicas by the INAH, the very institution ancient West Mexico; some ancient pieces that once condemned him as a looter, and contain volcanic mineral assemblages that he now signs all his ceramics. Lara claims to produce a luminescence that overwhelms the be responsible for making more than 40,000 standard thermoluminescent signal from the forgeries over a period of two decades. Lerner fired clay. (2001:13) writes, “Agustín Acosta Lagunes, However, in general, if a ceramic does give then governor of Veracruz, spent consider- an old thermoluminescent date, then either able sums overseas in order to purchase and that date is a genuine reflection of the age of repatriate numerous ancient objects for a pet the ceramic or the piece has been artificially project, the Xalapa Anthropology Museum. irradiated to give it the thermoluminescent After the governor returned with a number age it should have had. The application of of purchases made at Sotheby’s in New York, thermoluminescent dating has revolutionized Lara came forward with a dramatic announce- studies of the material authenticity of a wide ment. He had made these ceramic pieces.” In range of ceramics, including Zapotec and fact, his creations have been purchased as au- Totonac examples, but some of them cannot thentic works of art by the Dallas Museum be dated by the technique. of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Part of the problem in this case is that the , the Morton May Collection demand for Zapotec ceramics began around at the St. Louis Art Museum, the Metropolitan 1900. As usual when supply is limited, the Museum, the British Museum, and important demand created a flood of fakes. This had collections in France, , Spain, and begun even earlier: Holmes (1886) traces the Belgium. The modern-day Totonac ceramics existence of high-class forgeries back to the Lara created, which he liked to call his “own 1820s. The ceramics are attractive figurines originals” have themselves created part of a of deities and were much sought after by mu- Totonac past that never existed. Lara may be seum curators (Ekholm 1964). Many years an outstanding case, but the probability is that after these purchases, the Zapotec capital of

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in museum collections for decades. When knowledge of the ceramic assemblages of the site filtered through to museums, there was still no way to determine if the material au- thenticity of the ceramics they had collected was acceptable for age or not; this was before the advent of thermoluminescent dating in the 1970s. Studies of the ceramics began in the 1970s at the Museums für Völkerkunde in Berlin and Vienna, the St. Louis Art Museum, the British Museum, the Peabody Museum of Harvard University (Craddock 2009:118), and numerous French collections (Mongne 1992, 2000). Shaplin (1978) carried out several in- vestigations on artifacts in the collection of the St. Louis Art Museum and the Peabody Museum. He found a range of unusual ma- terials, surface treatments, and iconographic detail. A number of pieces were similar to Figure 5.20. Totonac wind god Ehecatl, a other ceramics that were already suspected 3-foot-tall ceramic in the Michael C. Rockefeller to be forgeries. Curatorial staff suspected Memorial Collection of Art of Africa, Oceania, some ceramics to be fake because they simply and the Americas at the Metropolitan Museum. It was previously exhibited in New York’s now looked too attractive compared to a modern defunct Museum of Primitive Art. Before that it aesthetic view of what ancient Zapotec figu- was in Nelson Rockefeller’s private collection. It rines might look like. However, the art his- would have been made when Brigído Lara was torical and archaeological evaluation was un- eight. He seems to know a lot about its construc- tion, suggesting that he may have been an ap- dermined when out of 101 ceramics in the St. prentice during its making, although Lara denies Louis Art Museum, only 5 were found to be this (Lerner 2001). This Ehecatl is no longer on forgeries by thermoluminescent dating and display at the Metropolitan, since scientific and 14 of the 16 most suspect ceramics proved to art connoisseurship evaluations have failed to be authentic. As Craddock (2009:119) writes, reach any conclusions regarding its authenticity. (Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) This engendered concern that some of the ceramics could have been artificial- ly irradiated to create a spurious TL. Monte Albán, outside of the city of Oaxaca, Zimmerman carried out zircon inclusion was discovered. It was excavated extensive- dating on three of the suspect pieces to ly between 1930 and 1960 (Blanton, 1978; check this. In each case the zircon in- Blanton et al 1999). clusions had received beta doses about Ceramics from the site were nothing 10 times higher than for the ceram- like those that had been studied as authentic ic as a whole, thereby showing beyond

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doubt that the irradiation has come from The problem for archaeologists here, as within the zircons, not from an outside Bruhns and Kelker (2010) have stated, is that source, and was thus natural. the very high-quality fakes may be incorpo- rated into studies on ceramics assumed to be Up until the 1960s, few archaeologi- authentic. As a result, inexperienced archae- cal sites were looted, so most of the muse- ologists may authenticate the fake artifacts um material collected before that date was as real. This has already happened with the forged. From the 1960s onward, the urban Zapotec forgeries discussed above; even expe- development of Mexico revealed many sites rienced museum curators and archaeologists where looted ceramics could be obtained, were unable to distinguish authentic ceramics so ceramics acquired later from this region from those eventually shown to be inauthen- were looted but authentic. For example, six tic, even after Monte Albán had been excavat- ceramics acquired by the Peabody Museum ed and published. between 1900 and 1930 all proved to be forg- Stanish (2009) records that one Peruvian eries; the collections of the British Museum faker makes grass-tempered reproductions over the same time period also contained a of a 2,000-year-old pottery style, having high percentage of forgeries (Craddock and learned to get his grass from archaeological Bowman 1991). That this chronological di- middens close to his house. If fired correct- vide is not straightforward is shown by prob- ly, the burned straw provides an authen- lems compounded by forgeries produced by tic radiocarbon date. Forgers on the north Lara; some of them are so authentic stylisti- coast of Peru (Stanish 2009) utilize original cally that art historical connoisseurship has molds to produce clay vessels in exactly the been unable to pronounce whether they are right style and, having read the appropriate authentic or not. As some of his creations archaeological reports, employ original clay have probably defined the Totonac style of sources and minerals to make and paint the pottery, they constitute a phenomenological ceramics. Thermoluminescent dating would problem of self-referencing artifacts absorbed normally be able to tell that these ceramics into the class of authentic Totonac works as were recently made, but only in professional far as the outsider is concerned. Lara still circles are these scientific tests routinely em- produces his aesthetically admired ceramics ployed since they cost about $400 each for in Totonac style today, but as high-end tour- terra-cotta wares, $500 each for high-fired ist art, signed as replicas by Lara rather than wares, and even more for zircon grain dating, as museum-bound forgeries. The artifacts the technique needed to defeat the false aging he creates have not changed from those that of ceramics by exposing them to radiation. As entered many museum collections; only the the original ceramic may have cost only a few perception of them has changed. But unlike hundred dollars, the cost of ensuring material the cases envisaged by Goodman, it is still authenticity becomes prohibitive. impossible to separate authentic Totonac ce- ramics from Lara ceramics. Lara disputes the The Manitou Springs Site fact that his works were ever intended to be The archaeological site of the Anasazi at forgeries and insists on calling them “original Manitou Springs is an archetypal case. Its interpretations” of Totonac cultural norms. geographical existence dates from 1906;

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construction began in 1896. The site, an and the University of Southern California impressive array of cliff dwellings, is a prin- (Hewett 1930; Thompson 2000). Part of the cipal tourist attraction in Phantom Canyon site’s background is a typically American dis- in Colorado. The site includes numerous junction between the rights of individual states Anasazi artifacts, didactic displays, a visitor’s and the desire of the government to declare center, and a gift shop. The stones used in certain sites as federal property. Mesa Verde the construction are authentic Anasazi stone National Park and many other Anasazi sites from a collapsed and ruined site in the south- were taken under federal control; McClurg western corner of Colorado. The site also had argued that they should be under state seems to be eroding, adding to the authenticity control. Perhaps to siphon off some of the of the created past. Two Southwest archaeo- tourist trade to Mesa Verde, McClurg and logical figures—Edgar Lee Hewett (1865– Hewett supported construction of the new- 946) and Virginia McClurg (1850–1931)—are ly old site at Manitou Springs; perhaps they an important part of the story of Manitou also saw it as more educational, profitable, and Springs. Hewett was much involved in shap- geared toward the interested but uninformed ing the nature of archaeology in the American visitor. As Lovata (2007) notes, profession- Southwest and founded the anthropology de- al archaeology played important direct and partments at the University of New Mexico indirect roles in the construction of the fake

Figure 5.21. Manitou Springs in Colorado. This is a translocated site; its original location was McElmo Canyon, Colorado. The fake Anasazi site, dating not from 1400 C.E. but from 1906, allows for a more interactive visitor experience than an authentic archaeological site, which cannot be walked upon or touched. (Image in the public domain)

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Manitou Springs cliff dwellings and their vali- Stonehenge II dation in Southwest archaeology. Appreciation or veneration of the past may be Signs at the site explain how many fami- a sufficient intent for the replication of arti- lies lived in certain structures. The stones can facts of the past. The desire for the ambience be touched and examined, and a sense of ac- of the past may have nothing to do with mon- cessibility characterizes the site. Visitors ap- etary gain. Daniels (1959) notes that there preciate this accessibility, even if some of the are many fake megaliths scattered across information presented does not reflect recent England, made as imitations, appropriations, research; even though instead of dating from or emulations. A dolmen in the Cotswolds around 1400, the site dates from 1906; and was erected in the eighteenth century; a nine- even though there was no archaeological site teenth-century replica of Stonehenge stands at Phantom Springs before Europeans cre- near Masham in Yorkshire. Another, more ated it in 1906 (Lovata 2007). As the site of bizarre replica is Stonehenge II, a re-cre- this Anasazi dwelling is 300 miles from the ation of Stonehenge, together with replicas site where the stones originated, in McElmo of two statues from , located in Canyon in southwestern Colorado, the trans- the Texas Hill Country outside Hunt, Texas, location to Manitou Springs can be viewed as contiguous with State Highway 39 (Lovata an inauthentic archaeological event and seri- 2007:139). Automobile drivers stop to observe ously misleading to the public. In principle, the site and are able to enter through a fence. the visitor is able to learn that the site dates Most of the stones are crafted from chicken from 1906 and that the Anasazi never lived wire, stucco, and concrete. The entire henge there, but this is not the impression most vis- was made by a retired Texas rancher, Alfred itors leave with; they believe it is an authentic Shepperd, who died in 1994. Shepperd, who Anasazi site. had visited both Easter Island and Wiltshire, The more austere and restricted expe- wanted to interact with visitors and allow rience of a real archaeological site, such as them to enjoy the experience of freely wan- Mesa Verde National Park, does not encour- dering around the area, a recontextualization age visitor interaction with the site beyond the of the site as a curiosity. visual stimulation of looking at it; no touching Stonehenge II is neither a park, museum, is allowed (Lovata 2007). From the visitor’s nor moneymaking venture. There are no viewpoint, touching real Anasazi stones, han- tour guides, brochures, or billboards (Lovata dling real (or replica) Anasazi artifacts, and ex- 2007:140). The site is a reenactment of the periencing reenactments of Native American past that encourages visitors to play among provides a more authentic personal ex- the stones and touch them. The visitor can perience than one gets at a real site. imagine what being at Stonehenge might Museums and sites have often privileged be like if one were able to play with the site the inability to touch anything over the human itself, even if most of the stones are hollow desire to feel connected with the past through constructions. The celebratory nature of touch, taste, or smell. Some museums have ad- Stonehenge II is part of the phenomenology dressed touch in particular, allowing visitors to of the site: the knowledge that it is inauthen- touch selected artifacts, either real or virtual tic. But like Disneyland, the site has a physical (Geary 2007; Pye 2007). presence and provides a real experience for

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Conclusions from These Case Studies

the visitor, who may become curious to see archaeologists. In fact, when Altamira was the real Easter Island statues or Stonehenge discovered in 1879, in northern Spain, there itself. If Shepperd is viewed as an artist, then was general scholarly agreement that the his appropriation of Stonehenge can be seen drawings were forgeries: they had to be forg- as a work of art in itself, especially in terms eries because it was impossible that primitive of his desired interaction with visitors, which man could be responsible for their creation. forms an important part of the artist’s intent. Drawings of the Altamira cave paintings New Mexico once had a Fridgehenge made were scrutinized at the 1880 International out of refrigerators, but it was demolished on Congress for Anthropology and Prehistoric the pretext of public safety (Hernández 2013; Archaeology in Lisbon, where they were RecyclArt 2013). dismissed as fakes, or as a “pleasing joke” (ICAPA 1969 [1880]; Rieth 1970:54). The Paleolithic Rock Art prevailing philosophical attitude of the time André Brouillet’s 1845 discovery of an engrav- resulted in the Altamira cave paintings being ing of two female deer on bone in the cave of ignored as forgeries until 1901, 22 years after Le Chaffaud in Vienne, France, and the 1874 their discovery, when new finds were made discovery of engravings of browsing reindeer in caves in the Dordogne at Font de Gaume on bone from the Magdalenian period in a and Les Combarelles. These included wall cave near Thayngen, Switzerland, met with paintings as well as scratched drawings (Bahn enthusiastic interest, especially since some ar- 2007; Daubisse et al. 1994). These discoveries chaeologists regarded these as fakes. The ex- forced a revision of earlier prevailing opinions istence of art as old as the Stone Age did not regarding these works of art. The pleasing accord with evolutionary ideas of human de- forgeries now became admired masterpieces. velopment and abilities held by nineteenth- This story shows the contiguous influence century scholars (Rieth 1970:50). For this of both preconceived ideas concerning the de- reason, the curator of the Musée de Cluny velopment of artistic expression and the effect ignored the find from 1845 for 10 years. The that fake engravings had on the appreciation finds remained unpublished until 1861, by of the authentic, to the extent that archaeol- which time a number of fake Stone Age ar- ogists were prepared to dismiss as fakes some tifacts had appeared. Some had Sanskrit in- of the greatest surviving art from our distant scriptions, which did not help the situation past because the whole corpus of Stone Age (Rieth 1970:51). As a consequence of a con- art had become infected with forgeries. tinued series of forgeries, in 1876 German archaeologist Ludwig Lindenschmit (1809– Conclusions from These Case Studies 1893) published his conclusion that all Stone These classic cases illustrate (1) an inability Age incised drawings were forgeries and not to reach a definitive conclusion regarding to be taken seriously (Rieth 1970:51). The authenticity in which the artifact remains as inhabitants of the Stone Age were regarded a contested object; (2) chronological distor- at the time as crude troglodytes, incapable of tion of the archaeological record in the case such artistic perfection. The cave drawings of Fujimura; (3) subversion of the authentic of Altamira and later Lascaux came as a rev- Mesoamerican archaeological record by Lara elation to nineteenth- and twentieth-century and other unknown forgers; (4) the creation

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of a fictitious Anasazi archaeological site that such forgeries to contend with, but from the seems more real to many visitors than an methodological point of view, these six cas- authentic Anasazi site; (5) the modern repli- es can be taken as archetypes, sufficient to cation of archaeological sites in an appreci- prove the point. Some of these inauthentic ation of past human achievements, not nec- archaeologies are damaging to the extent that essarily for monetary gain; and (6) the belief they enter the historical record and subvert that newly discovered antiquities are actually or alter what was known about genuine ex- forgeries because of an inability to distinguish cavated material. This is certainly the case between real and fake artifacts, obscuring the with ancient South American gold work from achievements of the past. Colombia (Scott 2013), where the sheer vol- These conflations partially helped to bol- ume of looted and faked material completely ster nineteenth-century beliefs in a linear overwhelms golden artifacts of known prove- evolutionary scheme. There are many more nance and archaeological context.

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Chapter 6 The Ethnographic and the Authentic

Ethnographic Issues in Authenticity Aboriginal Art Intangible Heritage Chinese Forgeries African Fakes Tuduc Rugs

The Western positivist meta-narrative is linear, scientific, isolates the parts to gain an understanding of the whole, and contends that the World benefits from universal access to knowledge. —Miriam Clavir, Preserving What Is Valued

Introduction of such societies (Brewer 2000). The implicit Ethnographic is a contested term because of its assumption that such societies are “primitive” associations with those who defined what the forms part of a Western philosophical prob- ethnographic is: cultures of the other, as seen lem in the description of these societies. In by Western sophisticates. the twenty-first century, the ethnocentric na- Ethnographic artifacts are traditional- ture of some of these discussions has become ly regarded as originating from primitive, all too apparent (Lyons 2002; Steiner 1994). non-Western societies, and ethnology is de- This chapter examines notions of au- fined as the study of the cultures and people thenticity as related to ethnographic arts

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and to the artists who produced the work. Ethnographic artifacts were categorized, A sign that the entire discourse is chang- displayed, and usually stored in natural his- ing is the incorporation of modern and tory museums, not art museums, because contemporary African artists into museum they were regarded not as works of art but as displays and galleries as the diaspora of con- artifacts representative of primitive societies. temporary art seeks new audiences and as To the casual observer, this demotion of of- new dialogues recognize that African and ten astounding sculptural forms, heaped up Polynesian arts are not preserved in aspic in neglected museum warehouses, appeared but are living expressions of cultures and as an artificial divide between the world of peoples subject to change. fine art and the world of the ethnographic, The French Revolution and the changed the latter appellation itself imbued with a perception of culture that resulted from the Western ethnocentrism by which some cul- period around 1790 inspired the formation tures were relegated to a less prestigious sta- of the Louvre and eventually the collections tus or their art was seen as products of “the of “primitive man” across Europe (Barringer other,” foreign to the Western canon of ar- and Flynn 1998). One of the major reposito- tistic creation. ries of African art and material culture is the There are many problems with the con- Royal Museum for Central Africa (2012) in cept of authenticity as applied to ethno- Tervuren, Belgium, founded in 1897. It holds graphic arts, and some of these are debated material from the Kongo, Kuba, Chokwe, in this chapter. Chinese art is included here, and other cultural groups in what is now the as prominent forgers have been part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The artistic canon themselves, in the same way National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden some modern African artisans do not see was established in 1837 from King Willem themselves as producing fakes of their own I’s cabinet of curiosities (Carbonell 2004) past but authentic productions of the twen- and the von Siebold Collection. The Musée ty-first century. The chapter ends with three du Quai Branly, which opened in Paris in thought-provoking cases: the Maori forg- 2006, combines the extensive ethnograph- eries produced by the English dealer James ic collections of the Musée de l’Homme Little; the work of the nonexistent Aboriginal (successor to the Musée d’Ethnographie du artist Eddie Burrup; and “real” Persian car- Trocadéro), founded by Paul Rivet in 1937, pets by Tuduc, which have been collected by and the Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et major museums across the world. d’Océanie, founded in 1931. While being able to see ethnograph- No satisfactory name could be found for ic artifacts as art objects in their own right the French museum, due to the sensitivity of remained unknown in the nineteenth cen- the ethnographic and political issues, and so tury, the beginnings of a perceptual shift the problem was sidestepped by naming the were apparent in the early years of the museum for its location, not its collection. twentieth century. Some Western artists in The British Museum (founded in 1753), the particular were very sensitive to the artistic (1846), and the Pitt merits of ethnographic collections: Picasso Rivers Museum (1846) are three other collec- was already admiring some sculptures in tions with important ethnographic holdings. the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro as

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Introduction

early as 1909 (Richardson 1991). The collec- made problematic. The search for a tions were regarded at the time as artifactual sense of authenticity is the most salient for what could be learned of the “primitive” and pervasive consequence of the threats societies that had made the works, not for modernity makes to our ordinary reality any intrinsic aesthetic value. and sense of significance. The impos- The search for genuine native cultures sibility of absolutely validating the ori- in the twentieth century encouraged a rei- gin of artworks or saintly relics has not fication of the “primitive” and an essential- meant they have lost their fascination or izing of others, which Lindholm (2002) sees power, rather, modern artists appropri- as aiding the justification of ethnic purges ate icons from the past and forge them and ethnic cleansing, subverting the quest into new works by imitation, parody, bri- to appreciate different cultures for what they colage and pastiche. As Daniel Miller has were and resulting in foreign elements being brilliantly argued, contemporary culture expelled or displaced. The angst of the an- too is forged in this double sense—“Au- thropologist is seen as a romantic quest for thenticity is created out of fakery.” creative authenticity in terms of the anthro- pologist’s own spiritual trajectory. Lindholm It is interesting, from a conservation per- (2002:336–337) writes: spective, to reflect on the view of a prominent anthropologist that even our role as conser- In response to the unforeseen misuse vators of the relics of lost wholeness has been of romantic ethnography by racists and made problematic and his statement that the nationalists, and in light of the all too furta sacra of the medieval period is as rele- obvious displacement of peoples in the vant as more modern problems to the phe- contemporary world, many anthropol- nomenology of anthropology. It is not clear ogists have repudiated their disciplinary exactly what Lindholm (2002) means. Does history of divine theft and have valorized he refer only to fellow anthropologists whose instead the plural realities . . . of late attempts to record the cultures they study are . All of these, they say, inval- fundamentally problematic? Or is he actually idate any assertion of authenticity. . . . referring to conservators’ problems in trying Any claim to authenticity is assumed to to preserve the material culture of the soci- be, at best, a “misrecognition” of what ety concerned? Is the conservator bound up is in reality an unwarranted assertion of in the phenomenology of the authentic in the hegemony. . . . An alternative is to reori- way Lindholm suggests? ent the quest for the authentic inward, The unwarranted assertion of hegemon- toward the subjectivity of the seeker, an ic power over native cultures to determine approach now expressed in anthropolo- what might be considered authentic or not gy as phenomenology or the anthropol- is clearly seen by Lindholm as a mode of ogy of the senses. Painful experience has thought that has had its day (Maurer 1981). also taught us how claims to authenticity The reorientation of the search for the au- can be used to oppress and destroy. As thentic within oneself parallels the conserva- a result, even our role as conservators tion professions’ reevaluation of scientific ra- of the relics of lost wholeness has been tionalism as the sine qua non of conservation

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choices about object preservation of ethno- to enter the American Museum of Natural graphic materials, particularly as treatment History, on the west side of Central Park, then decisions might be influenced by tribal needs to Midtown on 54th Street to the Museum of or prerogatives rather than by the purely sci- Primitive Art, and ultimately to the East Side entifically determined conservation needs of location of the Metropolitan Museum of Art the objects themselves (Clavir 2002). This (Errington 1994), ascending Clifford’s diagram realignment with traditional cultural norms (shown in Figure 2.1) to become valorized as may be desirable but may still leave us with masterpieces of art, no longer mere tribal arti- the problem of what to do with “fakes” of facts but independent objects of art. African art and the ways scientific authenti- With the increasing prominence and need cation of these artifacts interacts with the de- for conservation in terms of its application sire or need for a personal view or experience to modern materials and artists, and with the of object authenticity. continued use of the word ethnographic to re- Some early private collectors of ethno- fer to more recent investigations of cultures graphic art of the twentieth century, such as and societies (Brewer 2000; Fine 1993), there Helena Rubenstein (1870–1965), were able may be a dichotomy in how ethnography is to see past old anthropological distinctions used in different fields of inquiry (Lassiter between art and artifact. They formed im- 2005). It is a that graphic cannot be ap- portant collections of African art (O’Higgins pended to indigenous to produce a term to re- 1971) at a time when museums were still stor- place ethnographic. ing masses of these artifacts away in neglect- ed storerooms and outbuildings, without the Ethnography of the Authentic same degree of conservation care as given to Within the conservation field, there has been their more illustrious Renaissance or modern a great deal of debate about describing arti- art neighbors, the latter now often valued in facts as ethnographic. In 2008 Bloomfield tens of millions of dollars. An example from questioned the use of the term within the am- Los Angeles is the discrepancy in the con- bit of “ethnographic conservation,” which in servation budget between the Los Angeles its connotations might be regarded as “at best County Museum of Art and the Los Angeles old fashioned and inadequate, and at worst County Museum of Natural History. Indeed, offensive and racist.” Bloomfield (2008) fur- in the latter museum it can be practically im- ther called for “conservators who work with possible to obtain permission to examine an cultural material to find another, more appro- artifact in storage for study purposes. priate name for the material they work with,” Nelson Rockefeller (1908–1974) had a hard a matter then under review by the ICOM-CC time convincing the Metropolitan Museum in Working Group on Ethnographic Collections New York to curate and create a display of “prim- (Dignard 2011), which decided not to keep itive art.” In 1954 the Museum of Primitive Art the name “ethnographic materials.” Members was founded, funded by Rockefeller (Errington voted to change the name after substantial 1994). In an archetypical example of “a ma- debate about what to change it to. However, chine for making authenticity” (Clifford the directory board of ICOM-CC would not 1988:224), some African artifacts moved from accept a change in name, so the debate was a tribal setting in Central Africa to New York rendered impotent (Bloomfield 2008).

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The semiotic problems of ethnography are with at least four versions of the anthropo- connected with the activities of ethnographers logical situation: the view of the culture as as participatory observers and whether their expressed by the tribe; the view written by participation already negates their ability to ob- Malinowski in his academic work; the view serve different societies without cultural bias, of the audience of his work; and the view ex- creating an inauthentic version of the culture pressed by Malinowski in his personal diaries, they are supposed to observe (Steiner 1999). which seem to lack respect, empathy, or any Ethnographers seek to discover the emic (in- scientific detachment regarding the natives siders’) perspective rather than their own etic and their lives. (outsiders’) perspective, but the mere fact of Various anthropologists have had to come observance introduces the lack of distanced or to terms with their own critiques regarding neutral observations that has become widely this situation. For example, Edmund Leach, acknowledged with the entire enterprise. This quoted by Stuart and Thomson (2011), is apparent especially as a self-referential prob- writes: “Since (the Diary) does now exist as a lem when supposedly disinterested observers printed text, the carrion crows of anthropolo- are found to have engaged in sexual relation- gy are entitled to peck it about as they choose. ships; in dubious hierarchical assumptions of But those who engage in this unsavoury activ- power in which an anthropologist acquires ity need to appreciate that the corpse which is tribal assistants or servants, as in the case of thus dissected is not that of Malinowski but (1901–1978); or when an- their own.” thropologists write highly derogatory views Many of Malinowski’s former stu- of natives in their personal diaries, as was the dents, such as Raymond Firth, Hortense case with Bronislaw Malinowski (Stuart and Powdermaker, Phyllis Kaberry, Audrey Thomson 2011). Because of the importance Richards, and Edmund Leach, disapproved of the writings of Malinowski (1884–1942) for of the diary’s publication, seeing it as, as Firth the history of anthropology itself, it is of inter- says, “an act of betrayal” to Malinowski and est that his diaries reveal, in particularly pejo- the discipline of anthropology (Stuart and rative terms, his personal thoughts regarding Thomson 2011), as is obvious from the quo- the natives he so incisively studied. One of the tation by Leach given above. However, surely most infamous lines is: “At moments I was furi- the corpse that is dissected here is the dis- ous with them, particularly because after I gave crepancy between the public and the private, them their portions of tobacco they all went between what is being portrayed as one ver- away. On the whole my feelings toward the na- sion of an authentic truth and the existential, tives are decidedly tending to ‘Exterminate the personal truth of the individual observer. As a brutes,’” which is a quote from Conrad’s Heart website devoted to the controversy concern- of Darkness (Malinowski 1967:69). Another en- ing the diaries notes: try states: “I see the life of the natives as utterly devoid of interest or importance, something as As a literary product genre addressed to remote from me as the life of a dog” (Stuart an audience of one, a message from the and Thomson 2011). self-writing to the self-reading, it poses From the viewpoint of authenticity, one a problem which is nevertheless gener- could argue that Malinowski was involved al, and one that haunts the ethnographic

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writings of Malinowski like a spirit- The words ethnography and ethnology may double unreturnable to the bush: how be subject to legitimate questions of validity to draw from this cacophony of moon- in terms of their interpretations of the past, lit nights and exasperating natives, mo- but with the continual advances that Western mentary excitements and murderous de- theoretical anthropology continues to make, spairs, an authentic account of an alien authentic of a different persua- way of life [Geertz 1988:78]. sion may help correct the Victorian precon- ceptions of the past. As Cull (2009) writes: The disjunction between the personal statements of Malinowski and his academic Today there exists academic fields such as writings could be taken as an example of bad critical ethnography, feminist ethnogra- faith rather than a problem of an authentic phy, and anti-racist ethnography, which voice per se. Perhaps he was exasperated with often have an auto-ethnographic focus in the Trobrianders, although it is hard to rec- which the observer becomes participant, oncile this opinion with his statement that and the participant observer, blurring or the lives of the natives were utterly devoid of removing the distinction between emic interest to him. and etic perspectives. These auto-ethno- In a wider context, native viewpoints were graphic approaches have been considered disempowered through adherence or embed- “the postmodern successor” of ethnog- ment in colonial, Darwinian, or Christian raphy by Bloor and Wood (2006). These agendas (Barringer and Flynn 1998). In oth- developments have become important er cases, ethnographers functioned as agents tools for subaltern groups to subvert commissioning tribal art from the very societ- the established power structures and to ies they were engaged in recording and docu- gain a voice; to, as it were, tell their own menting, the societal expression of authentic stories. These methodologies are being art subverted by the incipient commodifica- utilized within the conservation field in tion of its existence. the form of community consultations, The authenticity of ethnography has come collaborative and participatory conser- to be seen as prejudicial in its reference to in- vation (Wharton 2008), which, counter digenous societies, their art and culture, dis- to Bloomfield’s argument, would suggest torting them through the lenses of Western that ethnography has much to teach the anthropological theories and sometimes conservation field about counter-hege- through the prejudicial observations of anthro- monic discourse and the potentials of pologists themselves. Debaene (2004) writes first person narrative and collaborative that in the historical evolution of ethnography: working. “Ethnology can be thought of as archaeology by anticipation,” presumably meaning that There has been considerable discussion the (apparently) objective facts established by among online ICOM-CC working group archaeology are not the facts established by participants concerning the merits or demer- ethnology, which can only create an under- its of these arguments. Dignard (2011), for standing of a culture without fully grasping it, example, notes instances when the word eth- a self-referential nexus of relationships. nography has been eliminated by institutions

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Critics of the Ethnographic

and museological departments to achieve a atone for a past in which indigenous peoples broader, more culturally inclusive mandate were pawns in a Western philosophical game and to simultaneously jettison the aura of of manipulation of the primitive. The desire colonial values that clings to the word. The for authenticity in Lowenthal’s view fossilizes word indigenous may represent a less inau- native claims in a fictitious version of the past, thentic aura within the conservation profes- sanctified by modern protocols in which any sion, where indigenous voices are currently criticism of the aspirations of native tribes to gaining ground and are supported by the embody the authentic past is seen as racist or United Nations Declaration on the Rights of prejudiced. Lowenthal (2005) writes: Indigenous Peoples (United Nations 2007), to which some nations are signatories. Authentic cultures too are obsolete. This declaration sets out a number of They belonged to tribal, savage and principles. Among them, “It describes the in- peasant peoples of the past, not to their dividual and collective rights of Indigenous uprooted, èvoluès and acculturated peoples. It sets out a number of principles modern descendants. Anthropology’s that should guide harmonious and cooper- true authentics are the untouched folk of ative relationships between Indigenous peo- the pre-contact “ethnographic present.” ples and States, such as equality, partnership, Since these folk are by definition gone, good faith, and mutual respect” (UNESCO scholars aim to reconstruct authentic 2007). pictures of them in the faith that if you chip away at the colonial shell . . . you Critics of the Ethnographic will get back to the traditional core. Some, such as Cuno (2008), take issue with the concept that indigenous peoples have the It is not entirely true that the untouched same rights as nation-states. He asks, Who folk of the ethnographic present are not sur- assigns the same level of legitimacy to indig- viving in very remote locales: several tribes in enous tribes as nation-states? His question is the Amazonian region are still living without not answered but left as a rhetorical aside, but the benefit of the rest of us. In 2013 more the implication is that native societies should than 100 members of the Mashco-Piro tribe not have the same rights as nation-states, appeared across the Piedras River from the which would interfere with the collecting remote community of Monte Salvado in the mores of encyclopedic museums, of which Tambopata region of Madre de Dios, Peru Cuno is a firm advocate. For a recent critique (Associated Press 2013). Authorities are un- of these arguments, see Scott (2013). sure what provoked the three-day encounter, Lowenthal (1992, 2005) offers his own but the Mashco-Piro may have been upset scornful assessment regarding the present by illegal logging in their territory, as well as anxiety to address the needs of ethnic peo- drug smugglers and the ever-expanding oil ples, casting modern agencies as sanctimo- and gas exploration activities of international nious entities that have enabled the victims of petroleum companies, which are slowly de- history to become the victors of the authentic. stroying their authentically indigenous way of Lowenthal (2005) makes no allowance here life and habitat in the name of our insatiable for Western collective guilt or the need to demand for energy.

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Lowenthal (2005) is of course correct to discover an area of heathen lands have challenge the retroactive authenticity of many the absolute title. This doctrine should attempts, intrinsically flawed, to get back to be withdrawn and renounced to estab- what was once a traditional core belief. It may lish a new basis for relationships be- also be true that acculturated modern descen- tween indigenous peoples and other dants have originated from an authentic cul- peoples of the world. ture that is now obsolete. However, in our contemporary multicul- The most expedient solution in the mod- tural world, it is hard to envisage how we ern Western world is to accept uncritically could maintain that even degraded modern the legal decisions enshrined in the Supreme descendants of tribal societies, whose au- Court verdict of 1823 and to compensate thentic existence is in the past, should not for collective guilt by enabling indigenous be able to try to re-create what they lost in societies to regain lost artifacts or those the present. Sanctimonious modern agencies considered by tribes to be authentically sa- may indeed seem to view tribal societies as cred, thereby emptying museum storerooms holier than thou, with an attitude of self- where bones, baskets, spears, and skulls justification, but given what happened to have been piled up for generations of mu- some of these tribal societies in the past, this seum workers to study. As regards Native is a counter-reaction to past depredations; American land, there is no chance of the victims of history have indeed become to- Supreme Court reversing any of in imperi- day’s cultural victors, even if in name only. alistic, Christianized American decisions any The empowerment of Native Americans time soon. and other indigenous groups rarely extends There are, of course, many complications to giving back land illegally taken from them with the return of native artifacts, which in by European settlers, who assigned land to North America is facilitated by the Native only Christian groups (Saunt 2014), thus American Graves Protection and Repatriation legitimizing the theft in legal terms, almost Act (NAGPRA), which came into effect in analogous to a furta sacra. In California, for 1991 (National Park Service 2012). There example, the most desirable tracts of land is an extensive literature on its implementa- are all occupied by immigrants, while the tion. Works by Thomas (2002), Fine-Dare remaining Native Americans, the autoch- (2002), Chari and Trice (2009), and Chari and thonous inhabitants, are contained in reser- Lavallee (2013) are all relevant to the discus- vations in arid, dusty, remote, or excessive- sion here. ly hot regions of the state. As Lakota chief In some cases, artifacts have been treated Floyd Westerman (2009) writes: with toxic fumigants by museums, resulting in objects that cannot be safely worn or han- I would like to quote a very prejudicial dled (Hawks 2001). Some tribes are crest- doctrine that was handed down by the fallen when they learn what has happened to Supreme Court in 1823. It said that the artifacts kept in Western museum collections: Indian Nations do not have title to their preservation by poisoning, rendering the lands because they weren’t Christians. conceptual authenticity of the artifacts invali- That the first Christian Nations to dated, disturbed, or violated.

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Artifacts that have undergone this kind of (and many other indigenous scholars) conservation treatment may no longer be re- have. There is no single perspective for garded as authentic by the tribes concerned indigenous people and much of the issue (Moses 1999). In some native societies, where about defining authenticity in terms of the passage of time is part of a cyclical pro- the indigenous comes down to—who are cess of birth, life, and death, artifacts have to you asking? be returned to the earth to continue to fulfill their authentic functions, which as discussed For example, museum retention of in chapter 3, Heidegger would very much Melanesian churinga is disapproved of by the have approved of. Indeed, the Igbo of Nigeria Melanesians themselves, as these artifacts, choose to destroy their artifacts, to eliminate essential in tribal exchange rituals, must be the product but to keep the process that made destroyed after use so that new churinga can it (Achebe 1988 [1958]), so that every occa- be fabricated (Kasfir and Lablyl Babalola sion and every generation will receive its own 2004). Melanesian malanggan, which are impulses and kinesis of creation. This kind of structures built to house rites of passage for action and intention on the part of the pro- the newly deceased, are subsequently oblit- ducer has much in common with the post- erated to free the dead from earthly angst modern period, where artists may refuse to (Appadurai 1986). allow permanent documentation or the pres- A colored sand mandala pattern, de- ervation of an artwork itself. signed for tantric initiation in northern Among the Zuni, a Native American cul- India and then dismantled, is now designat- tural group mentioned in chapter 1, every- ed as a UNESCO Living Human Treasure thing ceremonial is meant to disintegrate and (UNESCO 2007). conservation is viewed as a disservice to trib- Some Native American artifacts, if judged al prerogatives (Blom 2002). But Bloomfield authentically sacred, may not be handled or (personal communication 2014), disagreeing seen by women, which is especially problem- with Blom’s statement, writes: atic given that the conservation profession is over 90 percent female. Some artifacts housed I can’t speak for the Zuni, but I find in museum storerooms are outfitted with al- these sorts of broad statements about tars or other sacred fixtures so that Native tribes problematic (and inauthentic). My Americans can travel to museums to vener- own experience of working with indig- ate the sacred objects still kept there; most enous communities is that opinions on of these arrangements are mediated through preservation/conservation range hugely. conservation (Teeter, personal communica- Some people think it should all be bur- tion 2012). Objects may need to be ritually ied, some that it should be in museums fed, which conflicts with conservation pre- or available to tribal members and many rogatives regarding the absence of any food- more have an opinion that is somewhere stuffs in museum storerooms. The problem is in between or are completely apathetic. felt especially with Native American artifacts, These broad statements about how a which are frequently made of organic mate- certain tribe or indigenous people as a rials and therefore prone to be consumed by whole think are the exact issue myself insects, fungi, molds, and bacteria.

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In his review of the subject, Lowenthal (2005) cites the malanggan, the mandala, and the Igbo and Zuni approach to authenticity discussed above, but he does not mention the other side of the equation, in which ar- tifacts important for currently perceived tribal purposes, which without NAGPRA or the encouragement of UNESCO might still languish in museum storerooms, have been returned to the original owners. What suf- fers in this approach to cultural heritage is the authenticity of the scientific information regarding the nature of the original materi- als, their deterioration, and their diachronic alterations. This indigenous conservation action is oblivious to our Western concept of time as far as the interaction of materials and the in- herent interest in the way they degrade are concerned. For the scientist, this may repre- sent a significant loss of information, loss of the material sense of cultural heritage, and loss of information regarding deterioration mechanisms. For most other people, this loss Figure 6.1. Malagan wood carvings with poly- is of no concern. chromy, Papua New Guinea. Traditionally, these Pearlstein writes (personal communication wooden effigies, made for long and complex 2014) that an increasingly important Native Malagan ceremonies, must be either burned or placed in a cave to rot away. This authentic loss American and discussion con- is beginning to break down in the twenty-first cerns political self-governance and the exer- century, and some are retained. In isolation in a cising of post-colonial rights in terms of tribal French museum, they become mere art objects. museums, ownership, and self-representation. They are validated, even if decontextualized. An example is Enote’s work (2014) recatalog- (Image courtesy of Fanny Schertzer) ing all things Zuni in museums and deciding what information to share with the muse- Contextual Authenticity ums. Many North American scholars em- Some contextual issues with Native American brace the kinds of information that conser- artifacts are analogous to those of the East, vation brings to light as long as this knowl- where buildings may be destroyed and rebuilt edge is communicated to or undertaken with because the essence of the place is the locali- the participation of the tribe. This transfer ty. The pristine condition of the replacement, across borders helps to “repatriate knowl- constructed as a replica of the original, is seen edge,” a subject on which Sven Haakanson as authentic (Hvass 1998). (2000) has written eloquently.

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Contextual Authenticity

Research in the service of the tribe cor- two belief systems: there is a diametric op- rects a political imbalance, perhaps at the position. An object cannot be conserved for heart of a performative debate on the nature future use if the authentic function of that of authenticity as far as ethnic groups are con- object is to be used in participatory rituals cerned. Pearlstein (personal communication in which it is worn or danced. In such cases, 2014) writes: preservation of the conceptual authenticity of the original may take the form of a mu- I worked on a huge repatriation of Zuni seum surrogate of the original object, which wargods; consensus among museums was must be returned to its traditional function. to document everything—wood, pig- (3) Controlling access to collections mit- ments, dimensions, etc. while returning igates further loss; access to collections mit- the items for outside exposure. Not pub- igates loss. This is a view Heidegger would lished, information held in sealed muse- have endorsed, since the “loss” of denying ac- um files. Tribes and individuals vary a lot cess to collections or strictly controlling their in their attitudes about what is authentic, accessibility interferes with the “work-being” which depends on how traditional the of an object and objectifies it as a falsely static individual is and their own upbringing. entity. To provide some measure of control Similarly varied are viewpoints about ap- over the natural degradation of works of art propriate conservation interventions. Ask or artifacts, access to collections is overseen five people and you will likely receive five by the conservator, who monitors tempera- different responses, which are not to be ture, relative humidity, light levels, and pol- faulted—much is learned. This may sup- lutants to preserve and extend the life of the port individual concepts of authenticity. object (the object-being) as long as possible. This is the traditional functionality of conser- The ethnographic contrast with the scien- vation, which new ethnographic prerogatives tific rationalist view is well illustrated by the may subvert. following dichotomies discussed by Clavir (4) Relationships with collections are (2002). In each paragraph, the scientific view is usually associated with professional satis- stated first, followed by the ethnographic view: faction and aesthetic. The relationship with (1) Objects themselves are important to collections is personal. The relationship with preserve. The cultural life of objects—not the the personal perspective of a collection may objects themselves—is important. If the cul- be mutually beneficial. There is an implicit tural significance of an object demands that it assumption that there is a collection and a be reburied and it totally rots away, that pro- personal history of involvement with the col- cess embodies the ethnographic authenticity lection. In terms of the “thick description” of of the object in its cycle of existence in virtue Geertz (1973), discussed below, the conjoint of the impermanence of its existence. labeling of the collection in terms of its ma- (2) Preservation requires that objects not teriality and cultural or personal instantiation be used and that conservation guidelines be would be an evolution beyond the eighteenth- followed. Culture is preserved through the and nineteenth-century museum descriptions use of objects, through participating in tradi- that, according to Sjogren et al. (2004), still tions. There is no liminal step between these characterize many museum exhibits.

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(5) Objects are sources of information. and attention and the next to hardly any are People, then objects, are sources of infor- opposed to the scientific rationalism of con- mation. The “respiritualization” of exhib- servation. On the other hand, some objects ited material as aesthetic objects (Stocking cannot be treated in certain ways if the meth- 1985:6), together with the materiality of the od of conservation employed is offensive to objects, their mode of construction, and their the indigenous group. In some cases, this chemical composition, takes precedence over will mean the certain loss of specific types of people, but indigenous people may regard an artifacts, while others may be preserved in a object as subservient to their own cultural museum context. Similar problems are found needs. Therefore its integration into a muse- in contemporary art where the artist’s inten- um-based aesthetic may be irrelevant. tion may be in conflict with the desired aims (6) Objects are validated even if decontex- of museum preservation. The museum may tualized. Objects are most validated in con- wish to preserve the artwork, while the artist nection to their original context. Part of the intended it to decay and be disposed of. validation of the decontextualized objects is Yu (2008) provides a useful review of their transfiguration into works of art. This the relationship between cultural relics, in- situation is not unique to the problems of the tellectual property, and intangible heritage, ethnographic. It afflicts many different art- particularly from a legalistic standpoint. Yu works in museum collections. (2008:445) points out that there may be no (7) Reclaiming heritage is synonymous straightforward separation between what with reclaiming objects. Reclaiming heritage is considered intangible and tangible. He is synonymous with reclaiming traditions. quotes a passage from Richard Kurin, then This statement is open to interpretation. One acting undersecretary for history, art, and reading is that some reclaimed objects are in- culture at the Smithsonian Institution: hered with traditions that need to be resusci- tated by the tribe or culture concerned, and For many peoples, separating the tan- their return allows native heritage to be com- gible and intangible seems quite artifi- pleted and the tradition to be actualized. The cial and makes little sense. For example, statement could also be read as implying among many local and indigenous com- that the object itself is not important in the munities, particular land, mountains, continuation of a native heritage but that the volcanoes, caves and other tangible revitalization of traditions is of paramount physical features are endowed with in- importance. tangible meanings that are thought to (8) General principles apply to all objects be inherently tied to their physicality. in deciding preservation questions. Specifics Similarly, it is hard to think of the in- of nation, clan, family, and type of object are tangible cultural heritage of Muslims important. This dichotomy is in contradic- on the hajj, Jews praying at the western tion to most conservation principles, which wall of Jerusalem’s temple, or Hindus state that the highest standard of care should assembling for the kumbh mela as be provided for all objects being treated by a somehow divorced and distinct from conservator and that arbitrary decisions that the physical instantiation of spirituality result in treating one object to lavish care [Yu 2008:445].

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Yu (2008:444) thinks that extending pro- relatives, cultural exchange with enemy tection to intangible cultural heritage, which tribes, valorization of deeds of courageous the 2003 UNESCO Convention enshrines, warfare, or artistic admiration of the body raises serious boundary issues concerning part itself. Maori heads from New Zealand the scope of protection and raises problems are an example (Botur 2014). The heads, with tangible cultural heritage that can also called mokomokai, were elaborately tattooed be protected as intangible cultural heritage. in life. People developed methods for pre- It is also possible for intangible cultural her- serving the heads to allow them to be dis- itage to be manifested in tangible forms. An played and collected. example given by Yu (2008:445) is that of The desire for authentic tattooed heads musical instrument makers whose knowl- from New Zealand flourished between 1814 edge and skills are manifested in their prod- and 1830. The idea was much later taken up ucts: the instruments they make. commercially in the case of voodoo shrunk- en heads from Haiti, which inspired plastic Disputed Authenticity versions of shrunken heads, popular items Clearly there are many examples in which to hang from automobile mirrors or wind- views of what constitutes the authentic na- shields in the 1970s. ture of ethnographic materials, or the ways Of course, the demand for authentic in which they are to be conserved, are at preserved Maori heads had the inevitable odds with each other. An original eigh- effect of the creation of fake heads for the teenth-century ceremonial headdress may steady supply of tourists who wanted to buy be badly damaged if used or worn by a par- one. Major General Horatio Robley (1840– ticipant in native dances or rituals. This may 1930) formed one of the largest collections be of no concern to the tribe, as a replace- of preserved heads. His collection of mo- ment may be made to take the place of the komokai was turned down by the British original. But for the scientist interested in Museum and was eventually bought by the the plant dyes used to color certain design New York Historical Society in 1908. Botur elements on the headdress, the loss of the (2014) writes: original may be problematic; a replacement may be viewed as inauthentic. The primary Some of these heads were not authen- stakeholders in this case will be the tribal tic but prepared by the Maori for the members, and if the use of the headdress in- tourist trade, some from slaves whose vokes the reclaiming of their cultural heri- heads were tattooed for the purpose, tage, then that is its authentic function and before they were killed to enable their has to take precedence over the desire to head to be sold. Europeans were keen to investigate the original coloring matter, the buy something incredibly exotic and the material authenticity of the artifact, or the Maori were keen to sell something which way it degraded over time. was disturbingly easy to obtain. This is Some ethnographic artifacts have be- hardly a joke: the heads being sold to the come highly contentious because, like me- oblivious Pakeha were not always the dieval artifacts, they utilize parts of the hu- genuine article and the shrewder Maori man body for the veneration of deceased know how to bamboozle the tourists.

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Figure 6.2. Preserved Maori mokomokai in the collection of Baron von Hugel, Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. (Image from Robley 1896:figure 172)

Maori slaves were typically not tattooed of Maori art? What was seen as an authentic by the tribes who held them captive, but and interesting art object to collect in the nine- some unscrupulous chiefs had the heads of teenth century, and to display in the twentieth their slaves specially tattooed and then cut century, has become a human artifact of em- off, dried, and sold as genuine works of art. barrassment in the twenty-first. Many heads One chief, Te Hiko, paraded his living heads have been returned to New Zealand—in the before an assembly of dealers, who picked case of the British Museum in 2013 and in the the heads that were most desirable. Captain case of the Louvre, which foolishly tried to re- Cook’s naturalist, Joseph Banks (1743–1820), classify heads as “art objects,” in 2010 (Davies examined four heads brought on board the 2010). These were relatively late dates for this Endeavour in 1770 and recognized that three kind of repatriation from major national in- of them were not authentic. He purchased stitutions, indicative of their reluctance to let the genuine head in exchange for his own “artworks” out of their possession. underwear. Lowenthal (2005) has yet more criticisms Many societies have created cults of hu- of the demands of indigenous societies for re- man heads, and heads from New Zealand and patriated artifacts. One of his concerns is the Haiti have been prominently displayed in the renewed interest in the essentialism of ethnic collections of many Western museums of both purity, echoing concerns of Lindholm (2002) natural history and ethnography. According to that foreign elements are rejected from ethnic Newell and King (2012), the last time a mo- groups in the name of an imaginary but dan- komokai was offered for sale was May 1988, at gerous cultural purity. As seen from the early an auction at Bonham’s in London. The head twenty-first century, these ethnic and socie- was withdrawn due to public outrage. This is tal divisions represent one of the tragedies of part of the problem with artifacts of this kind: our time, exacerbated by the chauvinism of Are they classed as human heads or as works native societies as they undergo a resurgence

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Figure 6.3. A mokomokai in the collections of the British Museum. Robley recognized that the original moko done during life had been nearly covered up with postmortem work of a different design, com- promising the authenticity of the head. The head was repatriated to New Zealand in 2013. (Image from Robley 1896:figure 164)

of interest and desire to reinvent their past. essentialist belief. Sioux Indians may claim to Lowenthal (2008) states that essentialism is a be the same tribe in the past, present, and fu- stubbornly persistent delusion; that tribal val- ture in the same way that Slobodan Milosevic ues, unchanged from times past, represent a united Serbs with the claim that present-day historically fake creation. Lowenthal (2008:8) Serbs would never again have to bear the writes of the present attraction of tribal mem- defeat they suffered in 1389 at the Battle of bership to Western peoples: Kosovo, even though modern Serbs bear lit- tle resemblance to their fourteenth-century With ever fewer folk left on ancestral turf, ancestors (Cox 2002). hundreds of millions of emigrants and If indigenous groups want the conceptu- their offspring crave legacies. . . . So do al and intangible authenticity of their culture mounting numbers of wannabe Maoris, to be recognized and accepted, they cannot Aborigines, and Native Americans, at- simultaneously have recourse to scientifically tracted by the spirituality, ecological determined blood types, a chemically tangi- nous, exotic chic, or lucrative spin-offs ble criteria for tribal membership. One phil- of minority status. Such is the urge to osophical position states that if the aspiring become Indian that tribes have reinstat- tribal applicant can document evidence for ed blood-quantum criteria, telling appli- his or her beliefs regarding incarnation in cants that having been Native American a former life, then the tribe needs to evalu- in a former incarnation does not entitle ate the intangible evidence in the same way them to tribal membership. values are ascribed to intangible associations with artifacts. Lowenthal (2008) reminds No tribe is without foreign influences us that to gain permission to use Apache over time, and no group is the same as it was blood samples, geneticists studying disease hundreds of years ago. This is the crux of the resistance had to agree to refrain from any

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research that might contradict traditional supposed 10 principles: prescreening in quads views of the tribe’s history. Here the intan- or triads; the rule of two; direct immersion; gible authenticity of what is assumed to be only observing during times of natural behav- historically true is of greater value than what ior; limiting typical in-depth interviewing; a might be scientifically determined to be true. committed client team; team reinforcement Native Americans cannot have it both ways, in the field; continual ideation; digital pho- however much their present plight may tography and videography; and attention to generate sympathy. Part of the problem of synchronicity and serendipity. Lowenthal’s complaints against UNESCO, conservators, tribes, and anthropologists is Philosophical Ethnography that these issues are not debated and taken Feinberg (2006:7) proposes the fusion of eth- at face value without a rational dialogue. nography into a philosophical dialectic that he The spiritual and cultural connotations of terms philosophical ethnography, described as: Native American artifacts may forbid them from being handled by women. The artifacts a philosophy of the everyday and eth- may be in need of immediate reburial in the nography in the context of intercul- earth or are not to be observed by the un- tural discourse about coordinating initiated at all. Therefore they are removed meaning, evaluation, norms and action. from museum displays; kept in special shrines Philosophical ethnography takes its cue in museum storerooms, where they can be from practice in the post-modern world viewed only by novitiates; or allowed to un- where intermingling of traditions, fra- dergo natural degradation, with no conser- gility of identities, a surplus of critiques vation allowed (Teeter, personal communica- and a loss of confidence characterize that tion 2014). world in foundational rationality and The word indigenous may seem to some as traditional liberal institutions. It offers potentially problematic as the word ethnog- to these traditions and identities a sense raphy when referring to cultural collections of exploration and a possibility for ex- and their preservation. However, in many pa- pansion and development. pers published in recent academic literature, the term ethnography is still considered an In the present, it is certainly true that appropriate description of what is being un- there is an intermingling of traditions and an dertaken, despite obvious problems with its increasing fragility of identities, although one past associations. Clifford (1988:222) writes: could argue that this has always been the case “If ethnography is situated between systems and that the view of a timeless ethnographic of meaning and we are a part of constructing past in which African art in particular came to meaning through sharing the stories we hear be seen as embedded is clearly a fiction of the and are told, then the authentic moment is Western art market, concerned to promote a simply when what we are told resonates in us, static concept of what constitutes authentic moves us.” African art. One website (Lindberg 2013) even sets Clearly, several authors do not have a out to instruct the reader how to undertake pejorative view of the concepts embod- authentic ethnography by enumerating its ied in ethnography in the sense in which

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the word has become culturally disturbing Historical Contexts for many in the conservation profession. Indigenous art, folk art, ethnic art, tribal art, Conservators and curators work with his- and tourist art are all interconnected in the torical ethnographic collections of artifacts, collective rights of native societies, however gathered in huge numbers, which have been these rights are defined. A handwoven fiber greedily accumulated, frequently with little mat for sale in a folk art gift shop in Jordan, regard to the cultural values and background for example, acquires an added authenticity by the artifacts possessed for the original own- being made and formerly used by Palestinian ers or tribal groups concerned (Clavir 1998; refugees living in Jordan, lifting the mat in 2002). In many cases, interest in these col- the Western consciousness from an exam- lections has waned over the years as the ple of tourist art to an ethnic artifact. For a enthusiasm for investigating and amassing broad spectrum of artifacts, “ethnographic the material culture of foreign peoples has art” and authenticity have become especially drifted in and out of fashion with the de- complex and contentious issues to unravel be- mise of colonialism, the superseded pre- cause of different cultural values that pertain cepts of scientific rationalism or cultural to the products of indigenous makers, users, determinism, and the increasing attention or owners; ritual and societal connotations paid to modern and contemporary art. This of objects; and how ethnographic arts have is especially true of many European coun- come to be regarded by fakers, copyists, tour- tries where large ethnographic collections ists, collectors, curators, conservators, and art were formed in the eighteenth and nine- historians. teenth centuries and whose conservation To avoid the negative ethnocentrism of resources are now increasingly devoted to relegating these arts to the status of craft, Renaissance paintings and the burgeoning writes Mellor (2007), many scholars embrace problems of conserving or restoring the ev- the positive ethnocentrism of offering these er-expanding field of modern and contem- arts the supposed compliment of integration porary art. into the globalized idea of “fine art.” Lindholm (2002) reminds us that the What is conceptually interesting here is Romantic historian and philosopher Johann that carvings not intended to be art in our Gotfried Herder (1744–1803) was one of sense of the word but made primarily as func- the first to argue that primitive societies tional objects are considered authentic, while constituted organic entities, each possess- carvings intended to be art in our Western ing its own authentic aura or genius. Herder sense are called fakes and are reduced in sta- thought the material artifacts of such “folk” tus to commercial craft. It is not clear that cultures could be appreciated as a reflec- Western conceptions of forgery and fakery tion of their organic unity and authentic es- apply to these artworks. Anthropologists have sence. The view of primitive man in a state stated that the carvers simply see themselves of grace, unsullied by Western civilization, as in the business of carving traditional forms which J. J. Rousseau (1712–1778) had al- on demand: there is no Sartrean “bad faith.” ready promoted by the time Herder was A matter-of-fact approach to the issue writing (Rousseau 1978), was widely inspira- of originality pervades these productions. tional in the Romantic period that followed. Indeed, some anthropologists have asked for

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masks to be made to take away with them, removed by conservators in an earlier period, creating art that was never a part of ritual use. often under direct orders of a curator who was Shelly Errington (1994), somewhat dubiously, unable to see beyond Western preferences makes a distinction between art by appropria- for a museum display of pristine surfaces and tion and art by intention—the latter created in cleaned artifacts made of highly polished and contexts where the Western paradigm would oiled wood. Greene (2006) draws attention to be an analogy to Italian Renaissance art, and cultural preferences concerning the remov- the former a diverse collection of objects that al or retention of museum dirt in the North became viewed as art with the founding of American context: The Hopi and Zuni do not public fine art museums toward the end of the make a distinction between museum-created eighteenth century. Whether the art by inten- tion category can itself be viewed as a self- referential paradigm, rather than something intrinsic to societies where ritual use and re- ligious practices may not accord artifacts the status of art, is open to debate. Many African artifacts are composite piec- es consisting of wood, bark cloth, palm leaf, flowers, plant stems, and so on. Wooden sculp- tures were often “cleaned” by art dealers in the 1920s to remove these elaborate but ephem- eral components to create an artificially clean and often polished aesthetic, more in keeping with Western norms of what art should look like than with the authentic appearance of the African originals (Rubin 1984). The inherent vice of the perishable, organ- ic components of artifacts is an essential ele- ment that conservators struggle to stabilize or restore. The same applies to what used to be termed ethnographic dirt. This term was used to distinguish between authentic applied dirt, which had societal significance, and museum or collector’s dirt, which had none. Surfaces may have been covered with earth, blood, ex- crement, oils, and unguents. Their preserva- Figure 6.4. Mask from the Punu tribal region tion is an essential part of the authenticity of of the Gabon. Wood covered with pigments and the artifact. Conservators now recognize the kaolin. Such masks were originally covered with need to treat objects in a manner that does not offerings and were not pristinely clean. They were cleaned in the Western conservation sense, disturb the “dirty” components of the surface. disturbing their conceptual and material au- But in some cases, these components fell off thenticity (Collections of Musée du quai Branly. in storage as they naturally degraded or were Photograph by Ji-Elle)

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dirt and ethnographic dirt. To these tribes, no is based first on a false view of the nature of boundary separates the authentic state of a authenticity as a tradition; second on a myth work as either post-curation or pre-curation of an unspoiled precontact “primitive” or within a museum context. The dirt is part of “traditional” culture; and third on the art/ the totality of events the artwork has under- craft distinction and its notions of the spiritu- gone, and such dirt should not be removed. ality of the artistic vocation and the integrity Native Americans of the Northwest Coast are of stylistic traditions. more concerned with the pristine appearance African carvers today who incorporate of a work and the removal of all accretions. stylistic features from various African groups or even from European art traditions are car- Since the 1970s, there has been a tremen- rying on with the process of cultural change dous shift in the availability of “authentic eth- that they always had in the past. Photographic nic art.” As Errington (1994:210) states: records of the native past may themselves be inauthentic; the famous photographs of Finely crafted objects and textiles that American Indians by Edward Curtis were of- have been made available to the mar- ten falsifications of the present in the name ket in the last couple of decades due to of a more authentic past. Curtis traveled with changes in “third world” nation-state costumes and wigs in his trunk and scratched policy toward foreign investments and out any telegraph poles or cars that strayed internal minorities. . . . At galleries and onto his negatives (Egan 2012). boutiques and from private dealers, one Even enlightened museum displays rarely can now see old silks and purses and caps show natives beside objects on display wearing and elaborately worked boxes from parts shoes, talking on smartphones, or using of . . . ayurvedic medicine appara- tablets or other modern computer devices. This tuses and chests from Sri Lanka; or huge omission of the present is starting to change; quantities of old silver from some museum exhibits now contrast modern , Ethiopia, and other northerly African indigenes, with their digital equipment areas of Africa. Often these objects are and Nikes, with earlier forms of African cul- not labelled as primitive in any context. . tural exhibits. Even so, dehistoricized primi- . . The word ethnic, rather, signifies that tive art may be shown adjacent to prehistoric, they are non-Western. Egyptian, or pre-Columbian arts, even though nearly everything from Africa and Oceania Maria Montoya’s pots, made in the US in American collections originates from the Southwest, began to be sought by Western nineteenth and twentieth century. One aspect collectors (Peterson 1977). But production of this double standard is that Western artists was a group activity, which created problems have a primarily spiritual motivation and do for the supposed authenticity of Montoya’s not work for the market. Or if they do, that work. Some of her coworkers began to sign is just an aberration. But what constitutes an their pots, but art dealers stopped this prac- enlightened museum display? This question tice altogether and insisted they all be signed forms part of a semiotic discussion of the au- “Maria Montoya.” Some writers take the view thenticity of ethnographic museum displays, that the Western assumption of authenticity a sign of the difficulties of interpretation. As

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Sturge (2014 [2007]) writes, the fact that eth- simple one-word gloss (“altar, or pe”) is nographic objects on display are not attribut- all the Horniman panel provides (espe- ed to any specific maker does nothing to in- cially coming before the original item), form the public concerning the real origin of it seems that little is gained in terms of the artifact concerned. referential meaning. Adapting the demand by Geertz (1973) for “thick description” in terms of muse- Sturge (2014 [2007]) notes that the Berlin um displays, Appiah (1993) has advocated Museum’s African Gallery uses unabashedly “thick translation”: a translation that is heav- Christian language to describe what are for ily glossed and annotated to enable engage- a line or two “gods” but then become just ment with the complexity of the original “God” with “commandments” and a “will” artifact. This brings to mind the “ethnocrit- being done. This translation strategy gen- ical” approach to archaeology advocated by erates a unified source text—all African cul- Zimmerman (2008) in which native voices are tures—that is simultaneously posited as fully an integral partner to archaeological inquiry commensurate with the target culture’s own into their society, culture, and past. Sturge rituals and ritual language. (2014 [2007]:21) writes: This kind of museum display is very fa- miliar. The aesthetic appreciation of “prim- The traditional museum label has been itive” art is as an admired “other” whose full anything but polyphonic, anything but cultural purposes are shrouded in mystery “thick”: in a display like the “A Wider (Masheck 1982). The “thick translation” or World” section of the Royal Museum of “thick description” desired by ethnograph- Scotland or the Berlin museum’s South ic scholars has not generated much interest Seas gallery, we read place, “tribe,” ma- among curators in Western art museums. An terial, an approximate date, the donor’s example is a label from the De Young Museum name. Often, too, a short text is added in San Francisco: “Headdress, early twentieth explaining the object’s function in gen- century, Guinea, Baga People, wood, Gift of eral terms: the words are those of the the Erle Loran Family Collection.” The la- ethnographer/curator, alone and anon- bel does not make any attempt to introduce ymous. The Horniman Museum in the indigenous voices of the makers, which a London, in its “African Worlds” gallery, seminal display in the Horniman Museum in has tried to subvert this type of label by London has attempted to do, with comments including commentary—commentary by African diaspora inhabitants of London as a kind of translation of museum text. and inhabitants of the cultural area where the The strategy has its own tradition with- artifacts were made, together with a Western in colonialist ethnography. As Dennis approach to artifact information. This lay- Tedlock has pointed out, the use of “na- ered approach to meaning and context is a tive words” scattered in the text has been much richer way to engage with the artifact used as a token of the writer’s authority, on display than conventional museum labels, to mystify and impress: to demonstrate which often accentuate the generosity of do- the ethnographer’s unique access to the nors rather than emphasizing the culture, Real Meaning of such items. And when a function, and authenticity of the artifact on

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display. The De Young Museum has radio- Surreal Authenticity carbon-dated some of its wooden Polynesian It was the surrealists who first appreciated eth- sculptures and displays the dating informa- nographic artifacts on display as powerful aes- tion on accompanying labels. This is uncom- thetic entities in their own right rather than mon in museum displays of European art and simply ethnographic specimens. In a shocking is indicative of the sensitivities surrounding dereliction of curatorial duty, the Smithsonian the question of what constitutes authentic Institution sold some of its superb African sculp- Polynesian sculpture. Many sculptures of the ture to French surrealists in 1942, although the same kind produced in the twentieth century surrealists made good use of their purchase. may be regarded by museums as fakes, even if In his admiration for this kind of art, Picasso native artisans do not think of their sculptures was quickly followed by (1880–1934) in terms of how they are defined by museums. and (1869–1954). However, it was the The reassurance of radiocarbon-dated surrealists, such as André Breton (1896–1966), Polynesian sculpture may privilege the De (1879–1953), and Max Ernst Young collection as an example of a niche (1891–1976), who really began to enlighten approach to the authenticity question, but it others to the art of , Australia, Africa, also inherently relegates recently produced and Oceania (Rosemont 1978). A Picasso based indigenous art, which may also be consid- on an African sculpture was regarded as an au- ered authentic, to an inferior status, and the thentic work of art in its own right and was sold labeling does not presently include any in- for millions of dollars. But if an African carver digenous voices. today produces his own interpretation of an Doubts about the authentic nature of old African sculpture or of a Picasso, it sells for African wooden sculptures have spurred the a couple of hundred dollars, relegated by the development of supposedly impartial or vali- Western art establishment to an uncollectable dated scientific techniques to determine if the status, an example of kitsch art, or, at best, an wood is very old, without the expense of radio- example of ethnic art. While some modern carbon determination. Advertisements on the native sculptors regard their own work as au- Internet promote the services of a company thentic, the Western art world may not and using infrared spectroscopy (Matthaes 1998) may catalog recent products as “tourist art,” a to determine if wood is naturally aged—but degraded form of production. not to everybody’s satisfaction. The website This artificial divide, or the ignoring of the claims that art experts can decide if a piece is intangible or conceptual authenticity of indige- authentic or not , aided by empirical scientific nous art, has begun to break down in the twen- evidence. Then the price of the artwork might ty-first century, as shown by a recent exhibition be altered from a few thousand dollars to five of modern African sculpture at the Tate Gallery million. The problem here is the contentious in London and by artists such as the British pair nature of the supposed determination of ma- Jake and Dinos Chapman, whose work includes terial authenticity: Does that always imply a re-creation of the art of Adolf Hitler, a set of that the object carries with it a conceptual ’s etchings with funny faces added, and a authenticity? A murky realm is being entered collection of their own African sculpture (Brown here in terms of African art. Hopefully this 2008). These works are fabricated by the chapter reveals something of this complexity. Chapmans, and they sell for considerable sums.

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The Tate now houses the Museum of Figure 6.5 is taken from the work of Contemporary African Art, the brainchild Dutfield (2000), which views intangible cul- of artist Meschac Gaba (Tate Gallery ture as part of an information ecosystem. 2013), who writes that the museum, regarded The work of heritage professionals has been as a conceptual space, “is seen as a provoca- focused on the intellectual property domain. tion to the Western Art establishment, not There is the possible extension of the rights only to attend to contemporary African art of the IP domain to traditional communities, but to question why the boundaries existed in which ideally would be complemented by the first place.” more restricted access for private industry. In a semiotic sense, the self-referencing of This idea is justified but by no means unprob- this conceptual museum is itself a sign of the lematic. It is easy to declare that intangible cul- dissolution of former boundaries. But since tural property enjoys protections analogous our historical past is still intimately bound to copyright or patent. It is another matter up with the exoticness of the ethnographic to determine what qualifies as intangible cul- other, there is a great deal to discuss in terms ture in the first place and then to devise cost- of our perception of what authentic ethno- effective mechanisms to protect it. As Brown graphic art means. (2005:244) states:

Secret-sacred traditional knowledge

Expired Public domain: protection folkloric, artistic, and scientific commons; IP domain: free speech temporarily Heritage group privatized, identity and values utilitarian, and disembedded data Traditional knowledge New sources of IP (genes, etc.) State secrets

Figure 6.5. Intangible cultural heritage and the information ecosystem. (Diagram after Dutfield 2000)

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Figure 6.6. Bulul guardian figure of the Ifugao people, northern Luzon Island, the Philippines, fifteenth century. Height 48 cm. Louvre Museum, Pavillon des Sessions. Pre–Second World War tourist versions were reappropri- ated, were rendered authentic in ceremonials, and assumed a new biography as authentic originals, not tourist copies. (Image cour- tesy of Jastrow 2006. Wikimedia Commons license)

By its nature, the Information Society South Asia and Africa, in contrast, claims undermines social norms and institu- of prior occupation may be extremely di- tions, thus magnifying the importance visive in political arenas already plagued of culture, defined narrowly as a set of by violence and instability. The rise of values and moral commitments. Cultural indigenism and the special rights that identity itself may become, as the anthro- it typically advances seems destined to pologist Simon Harrison has observed, a create further strife. . . . Debates about scarce resource to be defended as anoth- indigenous identities seem destined to er form of property, either personal or intensify in the coming years. collective. Heritage, the retrospective expression of culture, is likewise trans- The Igorot of northern Luzon, men- formed into a highly politicized com- tioned earlier, repurchased tourist versions of modity. Anthropologists may be making their bulul figures and rendered them sacred peace with culture but they are also be- by performing the appropriate ceremonies, ginning to question the validity and po- thus re-creating the bulul with the intangible litical implications of “the indigenous” authenticity of a sacred relic. as a category of people. In North and Mellor (2007), among others, draws at- South America, indigenousness is easy tention to the problem of undervaluing to define, at least in principle: it refers “tourist art” in favor of the supposedly elevat- to the descendants of the New World’s ed and authentic art of the “tribal period”: “to original inhabitants. In regions such as cut African . . . masks from their costumes,

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wrench them out of their living content, exhibited without context and in a major art and enshrine them in Plexiglas cases for our museum. From pre-installation photographs Sunday contemplation does not strike me as and the associated portfolio of 477 individual an ‘elevation,’ even if we tardily paste up pho- images created by the photographer Walker tographs of someone ‘dancing’ them and a Evans (1903–1975), a corpus of objects con- big notice explaining their ‘tribal’ meanings.” sidered both genuine and significant for the The significance for authenticity here period was identified (Evans 1995). The ped- is that artifacts that have purportedly been igree of many objects in this exhibition was “danced” are seen as more genuine than those further substantiated by the fact that several that have not. Displaying these photographs were on loan from the influential European contiguous with the objects themselves may dealers Charles Ratton and Paul Guillaume privilege a historical past to which the pres- Rubin. Some objects from the collections ent artifacts represent an entirely artificial of these dealers and from other collections setting, especially as they are often shorn in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s still retain of their costumes, cleaned of ethnographic mounts thought to have been produced by dirt, reconfigured under Western influence a Japanese named Inagaki. from the original artistic forms (for exam- Mellor (2007) notes that Inagaki’s work is ple, painted skulls covered with deposits of undocumented, though his chop mark on blood instead being made of painted wood), the bottom of mounts has been identified by or altered in their present-day meaning for collectors and has been specifically remarked the tribal group concerned. These alterations on in auction catalogs. This kind of mount in meaning are reminiscent of Appadurai’s contributes an acknowledged but curiously (1986) social life of things and the changing unsubstantiated authentic pedigree. biographies of objects discussed in chapter 1. The Dogon are undoubtedly the most studied and written about people in Africa The Ethnographic Response (Ezra 1988). Their traditional wood funerary An important paper concerning this subject sculptures have historical and anthropolog- was written by Kasfir in 1992. Kasfir begins ical precedent and are familiar to Western by referring to the in Twentieth audiences; a wood sculpture would be con- Century at the Museum of sidered to be perfectly authentic. Though Modern Art (Rubin 1984) and the Magiciens de similar in form, an ivory sculpture, examined la Terre at the Centre Pompidou in 1989. The using X-ray radiography, is a cultural anoma- former exhibition acted as means of referral ly and should be considered a fake, since the to the Western art of cubism, , radiograph shows that it was made in a num- and . In the latter, aspects of African ber of different pieces. Virtually all African art that relate to a Western avant-garde objects made of wood, are monoxylous—that concept of art were examined. Often cited is is, made from a single piece of wood. the landmark 1935 exhibition African Negro A Yaka figure appears authentic in form Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New and surface, but X-ray radiography reveals York (Sweeney 1935). This was not the first its joined construction. This culturally ab- time African material was exhibited in the errant technique also implies a fake (Mellor United States, but it was the first time it was 2007). Materials analysis can be useful, but it

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is not always conclusive. Associatively, a clear were given carved sculptures to take away with definition of authenticity is elusive due to the them. Thus the kings ensured that wonder- functional nature of African art and material fully carved figures were produced by local culture, the use of diverse and newly acquir- artists and were available to be given as gifts able materials, and the pervasive influences when required. The carvings are themselves of market demand. And of course, a thriving authentic, which is why Cornet struggled to industry based on deliberate deception of the introduce terms for defining authenticity that unwary consumer exacerbates the challenge excluded these kinds of sculptures that had not to authenticity. been used in authentic rituals, although one In 1975 Joseph Cornet, growing alarmed could argue that giving a very valuable gift to a at the proliferation of fakes in Zaire, reflected visitor might itself qualify as a ritualized event. on the problems of coming to grips with what Cornet (1975) writes of the largely for- authenticity meant. He proposed three crite- gotten period of Afro-Portuguese art of the ria to aid in decisions regarding authenticity: sixteenth century, when works incorporating First, general aesthetic value and the recogni- Christian motifs, such as crosses and crucifixes, tion that the object conforms to characteris- often of ivory, were made by artists in Guinea tic style elements known from the tribal area and the Congo, in a style foreign to their usual concerned; second, evidence of use, particu- artistic canon, for the use of foreign travelers larly patination and signs of natural degrada- and residents. These works are often viewed tion; third, production by a traditional artist as degraded examples of African art and are for a traditional purpose and conforming to not often displayed. Cornet take the view that traditional norms. the crucifixes did not become truly authentic Cornet (1975:52) illustrates four Luluwa until they had turned into fetishes, expressed wooden figures that are perfect stylistical- in traditional form. He wonders, however, if ly and exhibit a “beautiful” patina but that the now-historical production of these Afro- are known to be of modern manufacture. Portuguese artifacts may result in them be- He also mentions metal Kongo bracelets coming viewed as synchronically authentic. made in Germany and a statue of King Bope In 1975 Marilyn Houlberg began to point Mabintshi of the Kubas. The statue was re- out a number of issues with the definitions jected a priori by art historians, as they listed proposed by Cornet. She began with the very few authentic royal portraits. However, questions: How are decisions made regard- the rejected sculpture was actually carved ing what authentic African art actually is? Is by Bope Mabintshi himself, which hardly it what we—the art historians, anthropolo- accords with the art historical view that the gists, collectors, or museum curators—say is sculpture is essentially inauthentic. As Cornet authentic? Or does this decision rightfully (1975) writes: “The ndop of Bope Mabintshi belong to the art-producing culture itself? introduces us to a series of more complex cas- Does the culture automatically validate the es in which one passes from authentic objects authenticity of the object merely through us- to fakes by a series of steps which are scarcely ing it? Or are there objective standards of au- discernible in the objects themselves.” thenticity? Houlberg (1975) does not attempt The kings found that the carvings were to answer these questions, which the present very popular with important visitors, who chapter grapples with.

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What Houlberg fails to mention is the Among the Yoruba, when a twin died, application of scientific connoisseurship to the other twin or the mother carried around the question of what might be considered a carved wooden ibeji figure, infused with the authentic African art. Scientific connois- spirit of the dead sibling. It was ritually fed seurship in its potential and actual uses in and oiled, as a representative of the dead twin African art is discussed further below, in the (Chemeche 2006). hypothetical case advanced by Danto and in Yoruba parents who are Muslim or the examination of Nok ceramics. Houlberg Christian and who lose one or both twins (1975) asks, in relation to Cornet’s criteria: want to distinguish themselves from believers When does innovation become tradition? in traditional Yoruba religious practices, but A Yoruba carver, Yesufu Ejigboye, from the they also want ibeji images. These are then Ljebu-Remo area, carves traditional Yoruba made from a range of materials, including artwork, but he also carves airplanes to be photographs and plastic dolls, and are carried used as rooftop decorations. His house sits by living siblings as ibejis (Houlberg 1973). directly beneath the flight path from London The use of photographs instead of wood- to Lagos, and he has been carving airplanes en ibejis seems to have started, according to since 1950. He has received several commis- Houlberg (1973), in the Ibgomina region be- sions for them. Houlberg (1973) asks if this fore 1950. A photograph showing the twins carving is now a traditional art form, a ques- would be faked from images of the living tion that might be even more pertinent in twin, sometimes dressed differently in each 2016, as Yesufu Ejigboye is almost certainly picture. Both images would be put together dead by now. in one, as an ibeji photographic pair.

Figure 6.7. A Yoruba woman with a traditional wooden ibeji figure, which represents a dead sibling or child. In the twenty-first century,ibeji figures have largely been supplanted with plastic dolls, also carrying the intangible authenticity of dead children. Would the plastic dolls be welcome additions to Western art museums? (Image courte- sy of the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica/Jamaica Memory Bank)

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These are considered authentic ibejis, but material is without clear provenance, plastic dolls seem unlikely to be considered cultural association, or collection his- authentic African art in a Western sense and tory. In addition, the material can be placed on museum display, although in the foreign except to fieldworkers and even twenty-first century of post-postmodernism, then, external influences and the chang- this is not impossible. The photographs, on es in cultural systems that may influence the other hand, would be of interest to art art production may be undocumented. historians and curators, because their authen- Has a Kongo nkisi been sufficiently an- tic purpose is culturally intriguing. gered by the nails driven into his torso or provided with sufficient amulets to A Philosophical Inquiry enforce a community based oath? Does To reprise the philosophical discussions of the wear and multiple repaintings on an earlier chapters, especially chapters 1, 2, and Olojo-Foforo mask indicate acceptance 3, the different values proposed by Riegl that and continuous use among the Yoruba works of art could be regarded as possessing people? The allure of a “colonial pa- could be of use in our discussions of ethno- tination” may alter the appearance of graphic art, because there are so many con- many artifacts. It is not uncommon to flicting judgments made regarding authen- see objects from Belgian collections that ticity. Indeed, Dutton’s question Authentic have been refinished like fine furniture, compared with what? is highly relevant. or objects from French collections that Mellor (2007:15–16) writes: have been waxed and buffed to a high sheen. Some of these objects may have From this definition [of Cornet’s, dis- been originally painted, encrusted with cussed above] one can proceed in a indigenous materials, or simply worn seemingly straightforward manner to in ways that likely offended Western look for the physical properties of au- taste, and thus were consequently “im- thenticity: Is a Dogon figure modeled proved.” Similarly, metal objects are fre- with the required reverent pose and quently subject to “colonial patination.” iconography, and appropriately patinat- Benin bronzes present classic examples ed indicating use on a shrine or not? A of objects that have been repatinated, stone figure in the National Museum painted, coated with pigmented wax, of African Art collection is reported to or treated with motor oil to saturate or be from the site of Great . It even out the surface, or act as a preser- has been determined that the stone is a vative. These surfaces do not necessarily, metamorphic garnet serpentinite which though they might, expose an outright could have formed along the Great Rift fraud. However, they do exhibit a shift Valley in East Africa, but the material is from complete authenticity and allow not the same soapstone used to fabricate these objects to find a location on the the famous Great Zimbabwe birds which continuum from authentic to fake. For are of known provenance. Determining Asante carvers imitating a well-known the authenticity of African art is a par- model is considered neither deceptive ticular challenge because much of the nor demeaning, rather it is viewed as

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both economically pragmatic and a way locales involved in it. The blood sausage of legitimating the skill of a predecessor. from Mortagne in Franche-Comté, for In the past, Africans changed their forms instance, is authentic, as it refers to the to make what was appealing to the co- place or region of origin, is constructed lonial masters, but if done today that is around a whole complex of institutions regarded as a fake. and is part of the complex of cultural heritage. This view of the authentic dominates most standard museum displays and the When dissected from the point of view of views of prominent dealers. What is com- commodities, Warnier (2001) defines three monly called African art—namely, that which modes of authenticity: domestication, singu- is collected and displayed as African art—is larization, and certification. Domestication is only produced under conditions that should the process by which the consumer appropri- prevent its collection. In a comparative study ates a commodity into his or her personal life, of the collecting methodologies of two trav- home, or environment after purchasing it. elers in the Congo, Richard Starr (traveled Singularization is the process in the exchange 1905–1906) and Herbert Lang (traveled be- situation in which traders, marketing agen- tween 1908-1915), Schildkrout (1998) ar- cies, other specialists, and institutions create rived at the conclusion that, in different ways, the authentic quality of the commodity. these fieldworkers influenced the production Filitz and Saris (2013b:11) write, of artifacts and works of art by their partial “According to Bendix (1997), the quest for selectivity. Lang would acknowledge certain authenticity can be positioned between mod- pieces as art, while Starr considered objects ern and anti-modern dimensions. It is orient- to be authentic only if they conformed to his ed toward the recovery of an essence whose preconceived notion of what authentic art loss has been realized only through moderni- should look like (Filitz and Saris 2013b:11). ty and whose recovery is feasible only through Lang’s interest in cultural events, such as so- methods and sentiments created in moderni- cial change and innovation, promoted a pro- ty.” However, Filitz and Saris think that the to-tourist art in the contact zone of the early longing for authenticity is more than just an colonial period, while Starr’s agenda of the orientation into local history and a premod- primitive favored the production of “fakes,” ern process. They suggest: objects made to simulate artifacts that were utilized in “uncontaminated” contexts, free The idea of authenticity is embedded in of colonial or outside influence (Filitz and the ongoing project of modernity and Saris 2013b:11). The proto-tourist scenario is that this idea is best investigated eth- implicit in the paradox of the authentic com- nographically in the sense of descrip- modity. Filitz and Saris (2013b:11) write: tively integrating human subjects and the stakes to which they are oriented in In these respects, the authenticity of a local moral worlds. . . . Most critically, commodity is defined by its region of authenticity is a fundamental expression origin, the material used for its produc- of reflexivity. The production of cultural tion, the process of production, and the stories for characterizing the authentic

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object, which, like its provenance are of- connotations of artifacts in the view that such ten manipulated by traders, consumers, associations are untrustworthy and increasing- craftsmen and heritage officials, are what ly staged for the benefit of tourists. Provenance Appadurai calls mythologies. is excluded because of the inclusion of the Tongan diaspora in the production of Tongan Van der Grijp (2011:128) reviews his own art which is considered to be authentic. thoughts concerning authenticity in relation Ndebele paintings are an example to art produced by the Tongans and states of intangible authenticity in an ethnic context that for tribal or exotic art objects, four cri- (Wilson 1988). These are painted by teria distinguish their authenticity: first, that the wife of the house after having her first the object was actually made by the people child, to ensure the coherence of the family to whom it is attributed; second, that it was and success of her childbearing. The murals made in the time period concerned; third, are geometric patterns painted in bright col- that the material from which it is supposed to ors. Without knowing the tradition behind be made is indeed that material; and fourth, the mural painting, one cannot comprehend that the object is of artistic quality. Van der the artist’s intended message merely through Grijp (2011) gives as an example an eigh- an artwork’s aesthetic representation, another teenth-century Tongan ivory tiki. It should argument in favor of understanding the in- be made by the Tongans, not by the Chinese. tention of the artist. It should be made in the eighteenth century, Yu (2008:459) mentions that Aboriginal not last year. The material should be sperm Australian artists complained that non-Ab- whale ivory and not elephant ivory or plas- originals were using Aboriginal motifs and tic. The artistic quality is a matter of cultural themes in their art, often resulting in mis- refinement of judgment and taste, according interpretations and negative stereotypes. to Van der Grijp, who excludes two criteria Protests were made concerning the incor- much vaunted by connoisseurs—namely, that poration of authentic designs in the produc- the object had an active ritual function and tion of tea towels, wall hangings, carpets, and that the provenance is secure and known. other tourist products. Similar problems were Van der Grijp’s criteria are potentially reported from Peru, where workers produce contentious, not least because of the aesthetic replicas of golden artifacts symbolizing Inca dimension he includes, a trope that could be culture with no connection to the heritage considered ethnocentric or even Eurocentric. that produced the original artifacts. In trans- When incorporated into the authentic Tongan locating a center of production, a Philippine artifacts made by members of the expatriate town was named Zuni, so that artifacts could Tongan diaspora, how close must the blood be stamped or labeled “Made in Zuni,” sub- ties be for a piece to be considered an au- verting African cultural production. thentic Tongan work? If a Tongan marries a Efforts to return the mode of production woman from Holland and their son begins to to the indigenous community concerned are carve Tongan artifacts from his house in Delft, not straightforward. Yu (2008:460) quotes are they authentically Tongan as van der Grijp Finger, who writes: “After Australian tee-shirt seems to imply—especially if aesthetically companies were sued for infringing the copy- valorized? Van der Grijp excludes the ritual right of Aboriginal artists, they began to print

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shirts with fake designs. ‘Most tourist shops . based on the joined parts revealed on an X-ray . . are replete with examples of T-shirt designs radiograph. Parts joined together are seen as which appear to be works of Aboriginal art inauthentic and culturally aberrant. In terms but are in fact caricatures of Aboriginal art,’ of the four criteria above, the artwork could [Colin] Golvan writes.” be regarded as faithful to context, faithful to The loss of native control over images original form and substance, faithful to aims natives consider to be authentic to their own or intention, and faithfully made or produced cultural groups may represent a grievous by the original artist. If the original African blow to the self-identity of a group or culture. artist were to argue that his composite sculp- The reconfiguration of an authentic orig- ture was suffused with a conceptual authen- inal poses many problems. For example, be- ticity, it would not be possible to deny that he fore the British took over Nigeria, warrior actually made the work, that it is faithful to dancers in the Cross River area wore skulls on original form and intention, and that its con- their heads, decorated with hair and false eyes text is what he determined it to be. or rearticulated lower jaws. After the British It is only in a Western sense, then, that arrived, the skulls were replaced with carved collectors could regard the work as a fake, wooden imitations. But there are no skulls on but that would deny the artist the conceptual display, as they are not considered art. Yoruba rights to produce what he or she regards as an resist-dyed textiles were collected as ethnic art authentic work of art. Perhaps pieces of wood in the 1960s and seen as authentic, but when of the right size were too expensive or were cloth was imported from Manchester in the no longer available, so the carver resorted to 1970s and many highly colored textiles were using a jointed construction employing small- made with synthetic dyes, the Yoruba work er pieces of wood. Perhaps the carver regards was considered to be inauthentic. As Mellor the composite object as just as authentic as (2007:27) writes: “The nameless artist has older versions made in one piece. Can we still been explained as a necessary precondition maintain that the recently fabricated artwork to authenticity, a footnote to the concept of a is culturally aberrant? We do not know. We tribal society. Among some dealers authentic cannot answer Dutton’s question: Authentic may mean anonymous; one collector said that compared to what? it gave him great pleasure not to know the That question becomes an enigma when artist’s name, as once it was known, the object we discuss the well-known philosophical ceased to be primitive art.” problem posed by Danto (1981). Danto posits Several philosophical problems could the existence of two tribes whose work is un- benefit from a more considered analysis. known to each other. The first tribe is known Lowenthal’s criteria invoking faithfulness to as the Pot People, and they produce a range context, faithfulness to original form and sub- of goods, but the pots are held to represent stance, and faithfulness to aims or intention the original spirit of the world and are there- could be applied, in addition to faithfully made fore regarded not just as pots but as especial- or produced by the original artist (Lowenthal ly important artistic creations imbued with 1998). Let us return to the Yaka figure from great significance. The Pot People also make the Congo. A distinction can be made be- baskets, which are thought of as craft objects tween authentic and inauthentic Yaka artwork without special significance. Their neighbors,

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the Basket Folk, hold that the greatest signifi- it could equally be posited that they get their cance and spiritual importance attaches to the clays from different sides of the same large baskets they produce. They also make pottery riverbank and that there is no difference in that is physically identical to the pots made chemical composition between them. Second, by the Pot People, but they are simply craft both kinds are handmade, coiled pots, made products. The pots made by the Pot People waterproof by immersion in a sizzling solu- are regarded as high art and are displayed in tion of boiled-down plant juice obtained from a fine art museum, while the identical pots sea pods growing along the same river. Trace made by the Basket Folk are on display in a element analysis, clay type, and technolo- natural history museum. gy of manufacture are essentially the same. A young girl, our putative philosopher, Scientific connoisseurship in this case cannot can see no difference between the pots of the make any progress in distinguishing between Pot People and the pots of the Basket Folk the two products. and questions why they are regarded so dif- Danto wrote his imaginary philosophic ferently when they appear to be physically scenario in 1988. What has happened since identical. She is told that experts can tell the that time is the resurgence of the intangible as difference even if she cannot and that the pots a culturally significant concept and the recog- of the Pot People are authentic works of art, nition that for traditional societies, conceptu- while those of the Basket Folk are not. This al authenticity may be paramount. From the interesting problem is also discussed at some perspective of 2016, the philosophical prob- length by Dutton (1993), who points out lem Danto sets out may be viewed as ethno- that, outside of a theoretical philosophical centric. It is now the tribes themselves that discussion, a tribe that regarded its pottery as decide on the cultural significance of artifacts of special significance might well introduce in museum collections. Other stakeholders technical refinements and take great care have been marginalized or, in a politically with the selection of clay and firing condi- correct view, should have been. tions, while the tribe that regarded baskets as The problem of material indistinguish- paramount would not tend to spend as much ability, which has exercised much debate time making pots, so that the chances of them within philosophical circles, still remains, but being physically indistinguishable is actually in terms of twenty-first-century conservation slim. This is a common theme in much of practice, there is an easy solution to the phil- Dutton’s writings. He maintains that value osophical nature of this problem: The tribes and significance adhere to those artifacts that or tribal representatives themselves are asked are specially produced for a purpose, especial- their opinion. The problem of indistinguish- ly a nonutilitarian purpose, and that these will ability is then confined to the production of be distinct from generally made products that fake pots supposedly originating from the Pot are not so highly valued for their conceptual People. Here there are still a number of phil- significance. osophical issues with how the three different There might be recourse to two argu- kinds of pots—those faked as copies of Pot ments concerning this problem. First, scien- People pots, those made by the Pot People tific connoisseurship may be applied to study themselves, and those made by the Basket the types of clays the two tribes use, although Folk—might be perceived.

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In the case of fake Pot People pots com- accompany the relic, to provide reassurance pared with genuine Pot People pots, there is of the veracity of the claims made for it. no way to ascertain if intangible authenticity The same logic can be applied to intangi- accompanies each pot, so scientific connois- ble authenticity. It is not enough for a tribal seurship is left as a possible solution. There is a member to simply state that an artifact pos- strong possibility that fakers could not use the sesses an intangibly significant authenticity; same clay as the original Pot People craftsmen the tribe itself should produce an accompany- or the same evaporated sea pods used to water- ing document, describing, in as much detail proof the jars. Therefore it will be possible to as the stakeholders require, evidence of the distinguish between the originals and the fakes society’s claims to this authenticity. In terms using techniques of scientific analysis. of historical processes, there are still diffi- The original Pot People pots are validated culties in this regard, as what was considered by the intangible authenticity of their creation, significant for some tribes in 1899 no longer which cannot be physically seen or demon- applies in 2016, so the entire concept may be strated. The fake Pot People pots will not seen, in the worst case scenario, as a moving demonstrate intangible authenticity but can be target. The idea that significance is a static differentiated by means of scientific connois- entity per se is a concept that invokes an eth- seurship. The Basket Folk pots do not possess nic essentialism, ignoring shifts in peoples or intangible authenticity of great significance the needs of a society over time, which may but could easily be reassigned by unscrupulous result in a series of reconfigurations of what is art dealers as original Pot People creations. considered significant—another aspect of the The precepts of the Nara Document on sui generis problem with this kind of dialec- Authenticity, discussed in chapter 1, are im- tical argument. portant here regarding justification for the Some tribes have an almost Platonic sense intangible aspects of authenticity. But ideally of an ideal artifact that once existed and whose what is required to affirm the significance of form can be reproduced with as valid a sense the Pot People pots is outlined in Article 26 of authenticity as the idealized original, which of the Burra Charter, which states: “Written may have been replaced by a recently made statements of cultural significance and policy example. One society with this kind of be- for the place should be prepared, justified and lief system lives in Papua New Guinea in the accompanied by supporting evidence. The Sepik River region (Hellmich 2012). For the statements of significance and policy should Kulma, all art objects are copies of mythical be incorporated into a management plan for earlier originals. A copy, as long as it is well the place.” made, possesses all the cultural and aesthetic This article, and the Burra Charter in significance of an original, provided that two general, is mostly concerned with the cultural cultural criteria of authenticity are adhered to. significance of places and monuments rather First, the artifact has to have been fabricated than the significance of artifacts themselves. in the correct manner and style. Second, the There are parallels here with the medieval artifact has to be made by a person or group period: Not only might relics function in with the right to undertake the work. a miraculous sense, documentary evidence The consequence of these criteria is that substantiating the miracle might need to a series of copies are regarded as authentic in

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James Little Maori Productions

their own right. But the tribe imposes obvious James Little Maori Productions practical restrictions on the production of end- While modern fakers of ethnographic art have less copies of the mythic original, since only tended to remain obscure, probably because of certain tribal members are allowed to fabricate the influence of the art market, there are some them. The use of replacement artifacts for the whose historical creations have become ad- original is therefore perfectly allowable. mired in their own right. One such forger was As a contrast, a website advertising art English antiques dealer James Edward Little from Papua New Guinea advises readers that (1876–1955), from Torquay, Devon, who had there are five categories of art to be aware of: great skill as a wood carver. His initial nefarious airport art; old/used utilitarian pieces; old and scheme was to steal a Polynesian sculpture from used ceremonial art; and fakes, frauds, and a local museum, carve a replica, and place the misrepresented works. The selling price of replica in the museum, enabling him to sell the artwork deemed to be both old and used in original. Such thefts, which compulsively con- ceremonial activities is, of course, very high tinued, were disastrous failures, and Little spent and beyond what most tourists would be pre- three six-month periods in jail for three separate pared to pay, leaving them open to the pur- attempts to undertake this scheme. Little then chase of fake or misrepresented works within turned his attention to creating copies of Maori a tourist budget. art, and in this he was extremely successful. He The prevalence of fake artifacts in the absorbed the spirit of the work of Maori carvers Western ethnographic art market is so exten- to such an extent that his forgeries were even sive that many scholars will not discuss the purchased by the National Museum of New matter in any detail. Ivory (2012) describes Zealand in Wellington as examples of authentic carved wooden stilt steps from the Marquesas Maori art. There is a fine example of his work that entered museums before 1850. Many are in the British Museum, which was illustrated in found on the art market today, and they are a 1991 book accompanying the exhibition of nearly always forgeries. fakes held at the museum (Jones et al. 1992).

Figure 6.8. A carved wooden treasure box, a typical James Little Maori artwork. The hollow rectangular form has an undecorated top. The bottom has four two-headed tiki figures. (Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.)

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James Little was so successful that he con- the accumulation of use, storage, soot, wear, tinued to make fakes quite happily for more damage, sweat, dirt, and sacrificial libations. than 20 years. Collectors at the time cau- He distinguishes between several categories. tioned that artwork made by Little appeared Under the category innocent problems, for to have all the qualities required for an au- example, many real Kota masks are unused thentic Maori work and that they only knew copies apparently made before the Second the works were fake because they had been World War. Many artifacts in Western col- obtained from Little himself. This is an un- lections have been “improved” by removal usual case: Artwork from the Marquesas and of all layers of accretions and presented in Maori art from New Zealand has rarely been a polished or waxed condition, as seen in produced by a nonlocal carver, as the skills and many French and Belgian collections. His understanding of the stylistic requirements second category is artistic frauds, where the are very hard for an outsider to master (Watt artist may age or artificially distress the work 1982). Now that these works are sought after or fabricate copies of artistic styles from far by collectors and authenticated by dealers as afield. An example is Zaire-style artworks genuine James Little productions, they sell made in Mali. Middleman frauds are made in for tens of thousands of dollars. Africa or Europe, with false patinas creat- ed by burying objects near termite mounds African Arts and Forgeries or immersing them in mud, battery acid, or It has been several decades since the journal milk. In owner frauds, an African artist might African Arts devoted extensive coverage to falsely represent a new artwork as a family a discussion of fakes and forgeries (Shelton heirloom. 1976). The uneven quality of the papers George Ellis (1976) writes that a Gelede presented in this compilation reflect the mask made by the “Master of the Uneven less nuanced perspectives of the 1970s and Eyes” in the collections of the Fowler African art collecting in the 1960s or earlier, Museum at UCLA, collected prior to 1919, which is now almost a historical period in has never been used and is smaller than most its own right. masks of this type. Fagg et al. (1982) say that For example, Herbert M. Cole (1976) the asymmetry of its face contradicts the es- asks, Are there true experts? He purchased tablished canons of Yoruba art. Also in the two large gold weights in Kumasi in 1967. Fowler Museum are four ivory combs from One authority judged them to be authentic, Zaire collected prior to 1914 and 1918. They and another judged them to probably be fake. resemble wooden kete figures and are other- The lack of clarity in forming judgments re- wise unparalleled, so they may well be forg- garding authenticity is the principal point of eries (Ellis 1976). this contribution. Knowing what is appropriate, inappropri- Roy Sieber (1976) attempts to divide ate, or absent can aid in determining authen- the creation of inauthenticity into a num- ticity. The egregious dismantling of wooden ber of different categories, depending on objects often occurs, for example, with chairs who is responsible for alteration or repre- and staffs, so that small carved figures can sentation of the art concerned. Sieber re- be distributed individually, such as examples minds us that African patination represents from the Cote d’Ivoire.

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Authenticity and Falsifications in Chinese Art

on what purpose the art was made for (Alfert 1972; Mark 1999). Chi wara masks are usually made by the Bambara people of Mali for cer- emonial use (Wardwell 1989); different ex- amples exist in the British Museum. One has pegs to attach to a cap; another lacks pegs, so it must have been made to sell to tourists. This distinction may imply that the mask with pegs is authentic and the one without is not (Barley 1990). Another mask in the British Museum is from Indonesia and is clearly based on the Mali figures, but such copies now form part of the Toraja art of Indonesia, whose ap- propriation and reframing are discussed by (2008). Authenticity is guaranteed to the tourist buyer by a label on a mask’s base, stating that the design is registered and that any unauthorized copying is a breach of copyright (Barley 1990). In another sense, all are authentic traditional masks, but in the Western sense, only the item with the attach- ment pegs would be under the spotlights in a museum gallery. The others would be regard- Figure 6.9. Songye mask from Democratic ed as fakes or reproductions. The inauthentic Republic of the Congo, also made in Zaire, from the second half of the twentieth century; 10.5 x 5 may be reappropriated as the authentic, the inches. It superficially appears to be much older. evolution of cultural events with time show- According to Hersak (1986:168), such masks, ing that no culture has a static past. known as , are used as agents of figures of authority to exercise social and political control through practices of evil magic and witchcraft. Authenticity and Falsifications in (Image courtesy of www.africanarts.com) Chinese Art In the suburb of Dafen in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, artists are currently The Songye mask shown in Figure 6.9 is creating an estimated 60 percent of the world’s a type said to have been developed at the sug- inexpensive oil paintings, generating a revenue gestion of a European trader. It has been in stream of some $36 million per year (Paetsch the Wellcome Collection since the 1930s. The 2013). Paintings that achieve a higher level unpainted surfaces and the lack of wear sug- of replication of the original are sought after gest an article manufactured for Europeans. and sell for higher prices due to their mimet- But in recent times, the Songye have reap- ic properties. Chinese forgers and artists have propriated the exaggerated style to make new engaged with replication and deception for and powerful male masks. Authenticity may thousands of years as a legitimated process of depend not on the identity of the maker but artistic dissemination and valorization.

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At a Chinese archaeological site where a originals to be distinguished from copies be- UCLA/Getty Chinese graduate student was ing purchased as authentic when there are so working in 2012, an entire wall painting was many of them? removed to the conservation laboratory and There are similar problems regarding a perfect replica was created. The mask is material authenticity with Chinese jades, now displayed in place of the original at the terra-cottas, glazed pottery, ivories, semipre- site. Problems with ancient Chinese bronze cious stones, wooden furniture, and Buddhist mirrors are so severe that several accepted as sculptures, to such an extent that a huge per- authentic for decades, even in the most pres- centage of the substantial number of Chinese tigious collections in the world, are actually antiquities offered for sale today are forgeries. forgeries. Paintings on silk and paper have The difficulties of connoisseurial evaluation been held up to scrutiny as forgeries, while of these artifacts or artworks are that many of many have been sold as authentic for impres- them may be stylistically extremely convinc- sive sums. In 2014 Sotheby’s maintained that ing but materially suspect (Young 2006). If a disputed scroll it had auctioned for $8.2 was scientific connoisseurship is unable to evalu- authentic. It was obliged to issue a 14-page ate whether an object is acceptable regarding document defending the authenticity of the its material authenticity, it may remain as a work, by politician and poet disputed work. Su Shi (1037–1101), which consisted of only Yue and Wang (2012) highlight problems nine characters (Rose and Hui 2014). with modes of authentication of Chinese art. In 2011 a painting by the nineteenth- and Chinese auction houses have been discovered twentieth-century master Qi Baishi (1864– selling large numbers of forgeries, whether 1957) sold for $65 million, but it has since be- to be known to the auction house or not. A come entangled in debates regarding its au- Han Dynasty jade furniture set sold for ¥220 thenticity. Zhong Yinlan and Ling Lizhong, million ($34.9 million) in 2011. Later, an researchers at the Shanghai Museum, argued Internet post claimed that the jade furniture that the scroll had been traced from an origi- was made by a craftsman called Zhao in east- nal, while Shan Guolin judged the brushwork ern Jiangsu in 2010. When interviewed, Zhao to be wrong (Rose and Hui 2014). When dis- admitted that he had made the furniture, but putes arise concerning works that have sold the expert who had authenticated the artwork recently for many millions of dollars, the res- denied that it was a forgery. This is a typical olution of the issue may be difficult and high- example of the difficulties: When Western ly contentious. artworks are sold at auction in the United Qi Baishi has become so famous that Kingdom for this kind of sum—millions of forgeries of his work are common. He is dollars—disputes are uncommon, because estimated to have produced between 8,000 the pedigree, ownership history, and art con- and 15,000 works, of which some 3,000 are noisseurship brought to bear on such valuable held in museum collections. However, auc- work are essential. Meyers (personal commu- tion houses have attempted to sell more than nication 2014) cites the case of Sino-Tibetan 18,000 works attributed to Qi Bashi (Barboza bronzes currently being made in monasteries et al. 2013), which represents a typical prob- in Nepal and China that carry every associ- lem in Chinese art connoisseurship: How are ation authentic Ming originals would have

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possessed, so it is extremely difficult, even for problematic in Chinese art, in attempting to a skilled connoisseur, to tell the difference be- distinguish between authentic and inauthen- tween the Ming originals and contemporary tic works, because of the multiples produced instances of these artworks. In terms of aes- over extended periods for a variety of func- thetic appeal and degree of craftsmanship, the tions and purposes. recent productions and the originals cannot In the long history of China’s past, the tra- be differentiated, another example that ne- dition of replicated and mimetic works means gates Goodman’s (1968) principle. The mod- that many attributions to dynastic periods ern versions can be differentiated from their are contested. Connoisseurship was based Ming predecessors only by virtue of their on what a person had read or seen firsthand, elemental composition, since trace elements and while it trained the eye, as part of the in the copper can be linked to a source in education of the scholar, it was not a profes- Mumbai responsible for the majority of cop- sion. Prominent twentieth-century connois- per used, for electrical plugs (Meyers, person- seurs include Huang Binhong (1865–1955), al communication 2015). Wu Hufan (1894–1968), and C. C. Wang These problems afflict Chinese art to a (1907–2003). greater extent than the art of any other ancient The problem with Chinese connoisseur- cultural region this book has examined. The is- ship is the long historical path of knowledge, sue is connected with the materiality of the art which meanders over territories of contested itself, the often modular fabrication technol- judgments. For example, Huang Binhong ogies, and the preservation and mode of pre- examined hundreds of artworks in the im- sentation or representation of the work. The perial collection of the Palace Museum in modularity of Chinese artistic creation was (Shambaugh and Shambaugh 2007), highlighted by the work of Ledderose (2000), one of the most prestigious collections in the who does not accept the traditional connois- world, and called into question the authen- seurial distinction between high art and works ticity of 594 paintings and calligraphies, 218 of craft. Ledderose (2000) refers to this con- bronze vessels, 101 gilded bronze Buddhas, tentious aspect of the Westernized approach to and a lone jade. In 1937 the courts accepted the replication of forms as a modular scheme a judgment against the director of the Palace of fabrication. The problems of definition Museum, Yi Peiji (1880–1937), which alleged and perception of the designations “art” and that genuine artworks in the museum had “craft” are addressed in chapter 2. The First been substituted by fakes. The terminology Emperor’s Terra-Cotta Army, Han Dynasty used by Huang Binhong in his examination of lacquerware, and medieval Buddhist imagery these works is noteworthy. He characterized are three examples discussed by Ledderose the works as: (1) authentic; (2) forgery; (3) old (2000). They were all mass-produced using forgery; (4) appears to be a forgery; (5) traced standardized components and were prefabri- copy; and (6) copy, together with comments cated in large quantities. Such modular pro- such as “not a Song Dynasty painting, rather duction methods can be traced back to the the work of an artist of the Ming period.” It Chinese Neolithic. This kind of technologi- is not clear if a comprehensive reassessment cal innovation is of course a feature of other of the issues of material authenticity resulted cultures as well, but it has become especially from this investigation.

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While the tendency of Chinese art is to described by Ming Dynasty connoisseur Sun replicate forms from a previous or admired K’uang (1543–1613). He delineates five steps: original model, the numerous instantiations (1) the outlining of the original; (2) the fill- that result can create problems for deter- ing in with red pigment; (3) transfer of the mining exactly when such replication took red pigment onto wood or stone; (4) making place. For example, at one famous Chinese the carving; (5) making the rubbing. As Fu re- Bronze Age tomb, the large bronze cauldrons marks (1977:4): on display date not from the late Bronze Age but from the thirteenth century C.E. But Although k’o-t’ieh reproductions cannot visitors are oblivious to this fact and accord be mistaken for originals, the problem the thirteenth-century replications the same of authenticity remains. First, the orig- value as the originals in terms of their au- inal work chosen for reproduction may ras. Deliberate forgeries made with the in- have been an attribution or a forgery. tention of deceiving potential buyers are as Secondly, if with time, a version of a problematic in the moral and connoisseurial k’o-t’ieh series became rare and a valu- discourses in China as they are in the West, able collector’s item, reproductions or but if forgeries cannot be perceptually distin- “re-carvings” from it could only result guished from original works, they remain un- in confusion between the reproductive problematic and accepted as authentic until “generations.” they are exposed, and it is likely that there are now huge numbers of these. Fu (1977:5–6) discusses the Hsing-jang t’ieh, The authenticity of scroll paintings is an the work of the famous calligrapher Wang intricate question that is dependent on tra- Hsi-chih, thought to have lived from about ditional scholarship. Because of the difficul- 303 to 361. Scholars generally believe that no ties in determining if something is a replica authentic works by Wang Hsi-chih survive, of an original or not, Fu (1977:1–37) outlines and the large corpus of his work includes an several categorizations. Lin means to copy unknown number of reproductions and forg- in a freehand manner. Mo means to copy eries. Any copy that can be dated to the Tang by tracing. This category is subdivided into Dynasty is regarded as of value. There are ear- ying-huang, meaning “hard and yellow,” em- ly traced copies in Japan. The Hsing-jang t’ieh ploying an early form of tracing paper called has been reproduced in a variety of forms: in ying-huang; hsiang-t’a, which is tracing by the Tang period by tracing; in the Ming and illumination from the back; and shuang-kou Qing by making reproductions of Tang cop- k’uo-t’ien, which involves tracing and filling in ies by carving and then taking rubbings. A an outline. The next category is fang, which lithographic reproduction was made of a Ming means “to imitate.” This may be done free- rubbing after a Tang copy, and during the late hand in the style of the master. Tsao means “to Ming, a forgery of a Tang tracing was made. invent.” K’o-t’ieh are carved reproductions, At least this is how Fu (1977:6) describes the rubbings, or ink squeezes taken from stone or Tang version, although whether that is justi- wood originals. fied in light of the nonexistence of a physical Some carved of these techniques involve original is doubtful. The various instantiations several replication processes, such as that of the Hsing-jang t’ieh could be taken as a series

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of mimetic events that attempt to re-create a of problems regarding the authenticity of lost work, meaning that these high-quality Chinese scroll paintings. He is also known reproductions are essentially inauthentic but as Chang Dai-chien, particularly in connec- attempt to carry forward the conceptual and tion with the painting Along the Riverbank, at- historic emulation of the past achievements of tributed by the Metropolitan Museum to the Wang Hsi-chih and in that aim, these numer- tenth-century Chinese painter Dong Yuan ous reproductions achieve, more or less suc- (circa 934–circa 962). The controversies sur- cessfully, the desire for valorizing past achieve- rounding this work, and the oeuvre of Zhang ments in Chinese art. in general, revolve around disputed modes of investigation, diverging conceptions of The Work of Zhang Daqian artistic inquiry, and different methodolo- The scroll paintings of the twentieth-century gies of evaluation. Zhang began painting at master Zhang Daqian (1899–1983) are inti- age nine and quickly established a reputation mately involved with the problems of emula- as one of the most skilled and versatile tra- tion and replication of past achievements in ditional Chinese painters (Lai 1975:4). The Chinese painting—problems with the original early training he received in Japan (Andrews expression of the artist himself, judging the and Shen 2012:247) allowed him to act as a artist’s intention, or evaluating the reverence skilled forger. Zhang replicated the works accorded to the materiality associated with the of old masters such as Shi Tao (1642–1707), use of old materials, original pigments, and Dong Yuan (934–circa 962), and Ni Zan re-created Chinese stamps and seals. Scrolls (1301–1374). Following in the footsteps of painted on paper or silk are much admired other great artists who indulged in deceptive in Chinese art and have been used for train- copying, such as Michelangelo, Zhang suc- ing the neophyte, for copying in emulation cessfully passed off his own work as that of of a style of brushwork, or for replication of a Shi Tao to his artist colleagues and connois- painting technique, either for the proper train- seurs, an accomplishment that gave him great ing of an artist, for scholarly purposes, or for satisfaction (Lai 1975:19). the production of forgeries. The valorization In 1968 the University of Michigan of copying was already recognized in the ear- Museum of Art organized a conference to- ly sixth century C.E. by the critic Xe He, one gether with an exhibition of paintings by of whose six laws of painting notes the use of Shi Tao, which Zhang attended. He pointed copying for the transmission of model forms. out that he had actually painted several of McCausland (2012:239) writes, “The theo- the works on display attributed to Shi Tao retical views of the scholar-artist Zhao Menfu (Fu 1991). This is not the only exhibition of (1254–1322), a connoisseur, calligrapher and Chinese art where Zhang claimed that several painter active under Khibilai Khan . . . in the of the displayed works by old masters were, early , hold that copying great in fact, by him. Zhang collected old scroll artworks of the past is what breathes life into materials and artificially aged modern silk tradition and what guarantees tradition’s long and paper by the use of smoke, incense, and life as an organic culture.” dust (Fu 1991:20). He employed seal carv- Zhang Daqian is the most famous exam- ers to produce perfect replicas from photo- ple of a modern master who created a host graphed images of ancient seals; he is thought

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to have created as many as 970 fake seals (Fu 1991:20). He also experimented with numer- ous traditional recipes for seal pastes. Little (personal communication 2016) notes that when Zhang was working in Brazil, he left behind hundreds of forged stamps and seals that were perfect matches to the originals. They were salvaged and are now in a reserve collection at the Freer/Sackler Gallery in Washington. Zhang had taken high-quality photographs of published seal impressions, for which there are several im- portant Chinese reference works (Shu 2006 [1958]; Van Gulik 1981), and then had these etch-printed on zinc blocks. Impressing a zinc block into the cinnabar-paste Chinese ink commonly used for seal impressions (Winter 2008) would reproduce an exact im- pression of the original. Zhang’s work spanned an immense range, from archaizing works based on the early masters of Chinese art to innovations more in keeping with twentieth-century art. Zhang even exchanged pictures with Picasso. Like all great forgers, he was highly skilled, pay- ing exacting attention to paper, ink, brushes, seals, seal paste, and scroll mountings. When he wrote an inscription on a painting that he attributed to himself, he often included a postscript detailing the type of paper, the age and origin of the ink, and the provenance of the pigments he had used. Zhang’s work re- sides in many of the principal museums of the world, including the British Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It is therefore difficult to attribute many of these scroll paintings to the correct artist. A typical example is the painting Dense Forests Figure 6.10. Forgery of Guan Tong’s Drinking and Layered Peaks, formerly attributed to the and Singing at the Foot of a Precipitous Mountain, created by Chang Dai-chien (Zhang Daqian, tenth-century artist Juran but now thought 1899–1983). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. to be by Zhang. Fu, in his 1991 catalog for (Image in the public domain) an exhibition of Zhang’s work, writes about

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the painting Temples among Streams and Hills, Because of extensive Chinese scholar- also attributed to Juran, which is replete with ship related to the historicity of production seals of Emperor Huizong; the Siyin half seal, and the art historical critique of brushwork, used from 1374 to 1384; seals of the early style, and mode of execution (Fu 1977; Fu Qing Dynasty (1644–1911); and seals of the and Shen Fu 1973; Gordon and Hinton noted collector Wang Shimin (1592–1680). 1993), the debate concerning the authentici- It is in fact by Zhang. Technical studies have ty of Along the Riverbank is inconclusive, with shown that the painting Three Worthies of most contributions voicing an opinion con- Wu, formerly attributed to Shi Tao, is also by trary to the conclusions of eminent Chinese Zhang, and there must be hundreds of other scholars Cahill (1999), Kohara (1999), and misattributed examples. In the Three Worthies Lee (1999), all of whom regard the work as of Wu, the droppings of spiders have been a forgery by Zhang. Qi (1999) disagrees and imitated in black ink and the silk has been regards suggestions that the work is a forgery torn into square fragments, but microscopic as ludicrous. Hearn (1999:212) states that all examination has revealed a lack of decay, and the physical evidence suggests a date of fabri- the calligraphy appears to be an example of cation prior to the thirteenth century, a state- Zhang’s work. ment that looks well-argued from a structur- The debate concerning some of the works alist perspective, compared with an analogous attributed to Zhang led to an entire confer- examination of two known forgeries by Zhang ence held at the Metropolitan Museum in whose physical characteristics are completely 1999, where contested notions of authen- different. Shih (1999) proposes that the work ticity were discussed at length (Smith and is indeed authentic and can probably be at- Fong 1999). Along the Riverbank was suppos- tributed to Dong Yuan. Fong (1999) holds edly painted by Dong Yuan, a painter of the that Cahill has misinterpreted some of the Southern Tang court, active around 930–960 visual evidence and that Riverbank is clearly C.E., but some scholars think the work not a modern forgery. Silbergeld (1999), in an should be attributed to Zhang. The great attempt to act as an arbiter between the dif- Chinese scholar James Cahill (1926–2014), ferent viewpoints, leans toward the view that in a very detailed analysis (Cahill 1999), pro- the painting is indeed from the tenth century vides evidence on a number of counts that the and not a modern forgery by Zhang. painting is a forgery. In stylistic terms, there Connoisseurship in relationship to is a dichotomy between semiotic constructs Chinese art and its various instantiations of discerning what constitutes tenth-century seems fixated in the volume devoted toAlong painting brushwork and technique, and de- the Riverbank entirely on material authentic- finitive empiricist statements regarding what ity, but not to historical, scientific, or con- is authentic or inauthentic. The problems of ceptual authenticity. Yet the conceptual and art connoisseurship are complicated by the intangible components of authenticity, which works of notable copyists, of which there are so important to the general appreciation are many, such as paintings by the late Ming of Chinese art, are not mentioned at all in master Zhao Zuo (circa 1570–after 1633) in this connection. If the material authenticity imitation of Dong Qichang (1555–1636), for of the work is to be the basis on which de- whom he functioned as a ghost painter. cisions regarding authenticity are made, then

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connoisseurship has to be considered from the Chinese-speaking world now agrees with both the scientific and art historical perspec- Cahill that Along Riverbank is a forgery by tives. But only the art historical and physical Zhang, which tends to support the arguments history of intervention is considered in the for conservation investigation of the materi- Along the Riverbank study. Chemical analysis ality of the work as an avenue of insight into is never or rarely mentioned in connection the painting that offers promise, rather than with the study. Inks, pigments, silks, paper, the elaborate arguments based solely on con- and adhesives are all susceptible to scientific noisseurship advanced by Cahill. connoisseurship, such as the virtually nonde- In the paradigm of the perfect fake, dis- structive or completely nondestructive tech- cussed in chapter 3, the four criteria necessary niques of X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, for creation are a spurious context of recep- Raman spectroscopy, or laser ablation in- tion, stylistic mimicry, the use of old materials ductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, only, and artificial aging. It is worth noting which would be able to compare traditional that scrolls were often restored or partially inks and pigments used by Zhang Daqian repainted, which can help disguise the true and those used by Dong Yuan. Since it can- age of a work. In the case of an outstanding not be assumed that only traditional materials artist such as Zhang, it is clear that materi- were used by Zhang Daqian, it is the trace al authenticity is unlikely to resolve all the elemental signature of materials such as inks problems with his work, but in some cases that could be diagnostic, and in at least one the application of scientific connoisseurship case the terminus post quem date of intro- will make a difference. Forgers such as Zhang duction of one of Zhang’s pigments lies in the cannot be themselves replicated by another per- nineteenth century, although it is possible to son, so despite the intentions of Zhang to pass argue in certain cases that these are restored off some of his works as those by the great old areas of the original. masters, his scroll paintings are valorized in and The silk can be dated by radiocarbon de- of themselves. His works currently on display termination, which could be useful to confirm have succeeded in appropriating the auras of attributions made to Dong Yuan. This is the the original artists and have corresponding- consequence of a fixation on purely material ly affected the degree to which the originals authenticity viewed from an art connoisseur- can be regarded as originals, or the extent to ship perspective. If that is what is required which copies are copies or heavily restored in cases of disputes concerning Chinese art, works are authentic. it has to be applied in a combinatorial mode of both art historical and scientific connois- Chinese Bronzes seurship, not just the former. While works Chinese bronzes are a contentious area of of art from Western contexts, such as the study as their various instantiations could be Getty Kouros, are of disputed authenticity, assessed from multiple perspectives. There are the depth of scholarship on both sides of the considerable problems in determining the ma- argument, manifested by the Along Riverbank terial authenticity of ancient Chinese bronz- story, is much more a problem of Chinese es, whether they were cast or decorated in cultural disputes than not. According to Lee the dynastic period they are supposed to have (personal communication 2015), no one in originated from, or whether they are naturally

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patinated or corroded to provide an honest of study by several scholars, and questions per- account of themselves during burial in tombs tinent to Chinese bronzes have been addressed or graves. Thirteenth-century emulations by Bagley (1990, 1993), Chase (1983, 1993, of bronzes from earlier epochs, for example, 2008), Gettens (1965, 1969), Meyers (1988, are already 700 years old, even if they are not 2000), Meyers and Holmes (1983), Rawson originals and cannot be dismissed by a simple (1990), Robbiola et al. (2004), Scott (2002, delineation between “forgeries” and bronzes 2011), and So (1995). considered to be “authentic.” In a sense, the Chinese connoisseurs of the past, as well problem was already recognized by Huang as collectors and conservation scientists today, Binhong in his distinction between forgery, remain fascinated by the appearance of exca- old forgery, and “appears to be a forgery.” The vated Chinese bronzes with their varied colors sheer number of ancient Chinese bronzes, and and surface finishes, the latter initiating several the subtle but colorful spectrum of materi- debates as to whether black-surfaced bronzes al authenticity they encompass, prompts the formed their black patination during burial or response to curators disappointed that their whether they represent the artist’s intention bronze is not from the Warring States: “If it to create a black patina. During the Southern gives you pleasure and only a handful of people Song Dynasty (1127–1279) and Ming Dynasty in the world can tell if it is fake, does it mat- (1368–1644) many attempts were made to imi- ter?” In terms of material historicity, it does tate both the style and patination of these trea- matter that the archaeological record is con- sured artifacts, which often displayed black, taminated, but it does not matter conceptually. tin-enriched patinas or smooth and subtle It depends on what kind of contamination one light greenish-blue surfaces, incorporating a wishes to engage with. The author once ex- substantial proportion of tin compounds along amined a large collection of Chinese bronzes with copper and lead corrosion products. in a private collection in New Zealand. The Exotic techniques were developed to replicate collector was interested in which of his pieces these finishes. They ranged from the simple were considered authentic in terms of scientif- adhesion of ground-up malachite with glue ic connoisseurship, but he was equally happy binder applied to a thinly patinated surface, to enjoy his collection, knowing that many of often with a cuprite crust only a few microm- the bronzes he had purchased were in fact fake. eters thick, if at all, to highly complex chem- His aesthetic delight in his collection was not ical treatments. In fact, Kerr (1990) suggests diminished by problems of material authen- that the deliberate forging of Chinese bronz- ticity; he regarded the authentic works as an es was already prevalent by the time of the additional bonus rather than the sole survivors Song Dynasty (960–1279), which necessarily of an engagement with an external evaluation. invoked these attempts at corrosive mimicry. The assignation of authenticity in terms Several recipes for producing the greens and of the connoisseurship of ancient Chinese reds of the patinas, which were much admired bronzes may be dependent on their scientific as visual signifiers of authenticity, have sur- characteristics, since stylistically, they may be vived (Scott 2002). Gao Lian, a collector living direct copies of standard forms whose appear- during the Ming period (1368–1644), records ance is superficially perfectly satisfactory. The a complex treatment to produce an artificial nature of this appearance has been the subject patina that begins with applying a mixture of

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sal ammoniac, alum, borax, and sulfuric acid Notice here that, even after all this effort, to the surface of a bronze and baking it. Next the acute observations of the connoisseur the object is placed in a pit lined with red-hot would be able in most cases to distinguish charcoal that has been splashed with vinegar. A between the simulacrum of corrosive events variety of substances, such as pigment, piles of and the natural corrosive processes that had salt, metal filings, or cinnabar, are added to the occurred during burial. surface of the object to encourage salt efflores- A history of veneration of the past result- cence. The treatment ends with burial of the ed in Shang Dynasty bronzes (1766–1122 bronze in acidic soil for an extended period. B.C.E.) being replicated as long ago as the Barnard (1961:214) provides examples of oth- Western Zhou (1122–771 B.C.E.) period er historical recipes for the alteration of sur- (Rawson 1990:21, 62), while some “later” face appearance, including the following from bronzes were produced in imitation of earlier the Tung-t’ien ch’ing-lu, a tenth-century scroll forms during the Song Dynasty in the elev- from the Song Dynasty: enth century C.E., at which time archaizing forms were fabricated to satisfy the demands The method of faking archaic bronzes is of collectors (Goedhuis 1989). achieved by an application of quicksilver An example of the problems with Chinese and tin powder—the chemical mixture bronzes is that of the much admired and col- now used to coat mirrors. This is firstly lected bronze mirrors, which span nearly 4,000 applied uniformly onto the surface of the years of production. During the Liao Dynasty new bronze vessel, afterwards a mixture (907–1125), Tang-period mirrors (618–907) of strong vinegar and fine sand powder is were faithfully being reproduced. But because applied evenly by brush; it is left until the the base metal used was yellowish in color, since surface color is like that of dried tea, then by that time brass or low-tin bronze was often it is immediately immersed into fresh wa- utilized rather than the classic high-tin bronze ter and fully soaked. It therefore becomes composition of the genuine artifacts, they can permanently the color of dried tea; if it often be identified as later reproductions. Some is left until it turns a lacquer-like color mirrors from the Northern Song Dynasty and immediately immersed into fresh (960–1127 C.E.) are modeled closely on Tang water and soaked, it thereby becomes originals, but in some cases they incorporate permanently the colour of lacquer. If the features distinctive of Song, so it is not clear that soaking is delayed the color will change. they are all reproductions designed to deceive. If it is not immersed in water it will then Many Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.) turn into a pure kingfisher-green color. TLV mirrors and those from the Tang with In each of these three cases the vessel is lion and grape designs were reproduced during rubbed with a new cloth to give it lustre. the Ming and Qing (1644–1911) periods for Its bronze malodour is covered by the scholarly purposes. The Qing Dynasty of the quicksilver and never appears; howev- eighteenth century was a period of strong er the sound of old bronze is dainty and antiquarian interests, when vessels similar to clear, whilst the sound of new bronze is ancient ritual bronze vessels were made for turbid and clamorous—this cannot es- discerning patrons (Goedhuis 1989). During cape the observation of the connoisseur. this time, forgeries of Warring States–period

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Figure 6.11. A perfectly authentic Chinese bronze mirror from the Eastern Han period, showing a plum-colored patina on the reverse side, cast in a bronze alloy of 61 percent copper, 23.9 percent tin, 3.3 percent lead, and 1.2 percent arsenic. The remainder is oxygen content of oxides on the surface of the mirror. From the Cotsen Collection of Bronze Mirrors. (Photograph by the author. Image courtesy of the Lloyd Cotsen Foundation mirrors (475–221 B.C.E.) were so well made 1. Mirrors that originate from the period that, according to Ecke (1994), many remain they are stated to come from on display, undetected or unknown. More to 2. Mirrors that are stated to be very old the point perhaps is that their origin is not but that clearly show signs of modern what most scholars assume, which could only manufacture be established by scientific connoisseurship. 3. Mirrors that are old but are copies of “au- Mirrors may also have been recently made thentic” mirrors originating from an ear- for the art market with the intention to de- lier dynastic period ceive the buyer. There are therefore a number 4. Mirrors from a dynastic period that are lo- of different categories of origin for mirrors cal copies or poorly made imitations obtained on the art market that do not have a 5. Mirrors that do not pretend to be what clearly defined archaeological context or date they are not and are made as modern to give them a solid provenance, a situation reproductions that applies to most collections of Chinese 6. Mirrors that may have been altered or bronze mirrors. These categories include: changed since they were made

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Every collection contains disputed removed without proper justification and mirrors. Examples from the Cotsen col- without discussion of the philosophical lection present a typical range of prob- bases of such decisions. lems of authenticity and inauthenticity. Of some 120 mirrors, which were care- Further Developments fully vetted on an art connoisseurial ba- The prevalence of Chinese forgeries of sis before they were purchased for the various kinds has resulted in edicts being collection, some 12 have been shown to issued by the present Chinese govern- be forgeries, including mirrors that had ment. Movius (2012) writes that the cen- been on public display because of their tral government will consider establishing attractive designs. Whether the display of an art database and will take action against these forged mirrors can be valorized as what it calls the “three fakes” in the cur- emulatory or totally denigrated as entirely rent art market: fake works, fake sales, and deceptive depends on which viewpoint is fake . Chinese auction houses are adopted regarding these artifacts: the aes- shielded from any liability under Article thetic or the archaeological. The data are 61 of the Auction Law of the People’s discussed further in Scott (2011). Republic of China as long as they state Deciding how to categorize a particular that they cannot guarantee the authen- bronze object is dependent on multiple cri- ticity of a work. Gao Fuping, president of teria of judgment, which in some cases are the School of Intellectual Property at East contested or disputed. The opinion of an China University of Political Science and authority in one area may not be substan- Law, says that artists in China need great- tiated outside of the connoisseurial field er protection against having their works in which the operation is situated. Chase illegally copied. The publication of an ex- (2008) makes an argument for degrees of tensive corpus of Chinese fakes is needed authenticity in ancient Chinese bronzes to make a wider audience aware of the ex- rather than absolute criteria based sole- tent of the problem and to provide a basis ly on an empiricist ontology of chemical for further discussion. composition, isotopic signatures, and dige- Goh proposes a quantitative approach netic history of degradation. The proposal to evaluation of the authenticity of of Chase to invoke degrees of authentic- Chinese works of art. Goh (2013:13) ar- ity can be seen as part of the response to gues that a significant number of Chinese debates between scholars of Chinese art, artifacts sold at auction are fake, which is which could be viewed as based on the corroborated by recent selling and auc- normative evaluation of aesthetic, materi- tion practices in China. Goh proposes a al, and conceptual authenticity advocated two-phased investigation, beginning with in this book. Several highly prized Chinese the scientific connoisseurship of thermo- bronzes have been extensively restored or luminescent dating for pottery and for the altered in appearance at some stage in their cores of ancient bronzes (if feasible) and lives. Deceptive restorations may become a determination if any pigments, glazes, valorized as historical events in the devel- or other components place the terminus opment of taste and cannot be summarily post quem date after the supposed period

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Aboriginal Artist Eddie Burrup

of fabrication. In the second phase, the Durack. Burrup was ostensibly an old object would be evaluated by the art con- Aboriginal man from the Pilbara region of noisseur in terms of material, form, de- Western Australia with the status of maban, sign, and shape. This approach utilizes an which endowed him with special knowledge analytic hierarchical process methodolo- and the right to roam over huge territories gy, employing a scale with values from 1 (Niall 2012). to 9 to rate the relative importance be- By 1996 Burrup had exhibited interna- tween two elements. The overall close- tionally for two years. Doreen Mellor, in- ness to authenticity is the sum product digenous curator at the Tandanya National of the weights of each criterion and the Aboriginal Cultural Institute, invited him expert’s evaluation of the objects. The to contribute to an exhibition called Native relative closeness to an ideal is therefore Tilted Now in 1997, at which point it was fi- calculated. In conclusion, Goh (2013:16) nally revealed that Eddie Burrup never ex- states, “One has to consider both the sub- isted and that all his work had been painted jective and objective criteria to the au- by eighty-two-year-old Elizabeth Durack thentication of Chinese artworks.” This (1915–2000). Durack was born into a rural two-phase model is somewhat similar to family in Australia and went on weeks-long the art historical and scientific connois- treks with the Aborigines in the 1940s. Her seurship approaches advocated in this own art was strongly influenced by both the book, but one of the advantages of the land and the indigenous people who sur- methodology proposed by Goh is to es- rounded her. According to Durack, Eddie tablish a uniform approach to the prob- Burrup was her alter ego and seemed “very lems of authenticity in terms of Chinese alive” to her. When asked if she had invented art. How realistic this two-phase model Burrup, Durack replied, “That’s a hard one to would be in practice is unknown, as it has answer. Maybe he’s a figure of my persona.” not been adopted as far as the author is Durack said that Burrup represented her last aware. The field of Chinese art is a very creative phase as an artist and that her work active one, due to much new scholarship was a synthesis of several Aboriginal men she and especially because new Chinese buy- had known, both those who were gissa-gissa ers are interested in purchasing works of (arm in arm) and those who “lived apart from all descriptions, from the contemporary change and felt change to be a challenge to to the prehistoric. It is a field in which their way of life.” many developments will occur in the Some art critics argued that Durack’s years to come, especially in relation to creation of her alter ego, Burrup, was an authenticity and connoisseurship. example of —that the invention of Burrup was a second form of Aboriginal Artist Eddie Burrup dispossession (Douglas 2015; Farnsworth Numerous admired artworks by the nonex- 1997). Some argued that if members of white istent Australian Aboriginal painter Eddie elite settlements, masquerading under false Burrup caused consternation in the Australian names, could produce art that seemed indis- art market when they were revealed to be the tinguishable from the real thing, the value work of an elderly white woman, Elizabeth of indigenous names as a sign of cultural

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authenticity was undermined. Durack said or Russia; lead white made from lead sheets of her journeys with Aborigines in the 1940s: ripped from the foundations of old churches “I was always treated with respect, but being a and corroded in animal dung and vinegar; a woman I had to accept all the restraints and re-creation of lead-tin yellow from Kremer taboos. When the women were excluded Pigmente (a commercial source); verdigris from sacred sites I would wander with them, from corroding copper scraps in vinegar; picking nuts and fruits.” natural umbers and siennas from Italy; and The alternative self of the artist Burrup so on—all of which could be used for paint- was seen as very real by Durack, such that the ing, for example, fake Russian icons on piec- artist’s intention does not invoke a false con- es of old wood. sciousness on Durack’s part but a real pres- On the other hand, it is very hard to buy ence, an artistic creation of part of her nature natural madder, original cochineal, henna, as someone deeply affected by Aboriginal art logwood, , kermes, dragon’s blood, and people. Durack’s work will be sought af- and other natural dyestuffs for the prepa- ter in years to come, of that history leaves us ration of dyed textile yarns for things like in no doubt, because what is created from a Islamic carpets. There is an added problem deep understanding of a form of art and its here: When making copies of Islamic rugs, cultural setting is itself worthy of admira- the weaver would have bought the thread tion, even if the works in question are actu- required from a supplier, and the supplier, ally painted by a white woman rather than an even in the 1920s, would have been using Australian Aborigine. aniline-based dyed woolen threads for car- That is the achievement of Durack: Her pet manufacture, so the use of modern dyes work does not undermine the value of indig- is very prevalent, even in high-class faked enous people as a sign of cultural authentic- sixteenth-century Islamic rugs; not so if ity or superiority. On the contrary, it pays the forgeries date from 1820. But in the its own tribute to them and in the process case of textile fakes, the majority of them creates a body of new work. It is the Western we know about tend to originate from later art market that was temporarily discomfort- than 1900. ed by the discovery that Eddie Burrup never The best forger in the world of Islamic existed. As time progresses, work by Durack rugs was the Romanian weaver Teodor will be as sought after, and as valuable, both Tuduc (1888–1983), whose work has been in art historical and monetary terms, as the tracked with difficulty by only a few experts, work of James Little. such as Romanian scholar Stephano Ionescu Forgers of ethnographic materials that (2012). An authority on Ottoman rugs from incorporate pigments or dyes are faced Transylvania, Ionescu wrote Handbook of Fakes with insurmountable problems because the by Tuduc. The churches of the Transylvanian traditional dyes are no longer available, or region are, astonishingly, rich with Islamic would create so much work in themselves rugs of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to make that the effort would not repay the some used as original designs by Tuduc for monetary reward. It is still possible to buy almost perfect copies, false restorations, or or make natural pigments such as azurite entirely new pastiche designs based on the from Hungary; lapis lazuli from Afghanistan original rugs.

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Aboriginal Artist Eddie Burrup

Figure 6.12. In the Beginning . . . (Genesis 1) 1997, attributed to Eddie Burrup. Mixed-media on linen diptych; each panel 190 x 92 cm. Paintings by Burrup, hailed as an outstanding Aboriginal artist, were actually created by white Australian artist Elizabeth Durack. (Image courtesy of the estate of the late Elizabeth Durack)

The fake Ottoman rugs were regard- authentic rugs and fragments sold or restored ed as authentic by famous collectors, such by Tuduc; fakes that emerged from his family as J. F. Ballard and Joseph V. McMullan, and entourage; fakes showing great similari- and by international carpet scholars, such ties to rugs extant in Transylvania; fakes in- as M. S. Dimand, Kurt Erdmann, Ulrich spired by rugs published in the literature of Schurmann, and Heinrich Jacoby. Tuduc’s the time; and facsimiles of rugs published in fakes are found in the National Museum of Tuduc’s own sales catalog. There are sever- Art in Bucharest, the Museum for Islamic Art al amusing anecdotes connected to Tuduc’s in Berlin, the Victoria and Albert Museum, work. In one case a prominent German schol- the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto, ar wrote a peer-reviewed journal article in and the Kunst und Gewerbe Museum in which he exposed some of Tuduc’s fakes, and Hamburg, to name a prominent few. in another article in the same issue, he praised Ionescu (2012) divides the oeuvre of an Ottoman rug that was in fact another un- Teodor Tuduc into the following categories: recognized fake by Tuduc.

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Some Contemporary Manifestations Africanness, despite its northern European The categorization of artists’ works as ei- origins. Shonibare used Dutch wax-print ther Western, Asian, African, or Polynesian fabric to make Victorian-era clothing for the has increasingly crumbled in the twenty-first piece Headless Mannequins of the Attendees of century. The contemporary artist Yinka the Berlin Conference of 1884–85. This was the Shonibare is a case in point. In an interview conference that divided Africa among its col- with Okwui Enwezor, Shonibare explained onizers. The tangled history of Dutch wax- that in in England, he realized he print fabric calls attention to the interrelated was expected to create authentic African art development of African and European iden- even though he had lived in England for most tities, and its ambiguity allows Shonibare of his life. The fragmentation of his influences to disrupt the idea of essential ethnic iden- led Shonibare to become interested in Dutch tity, which was part of the justification for wax-print fabric, a patterned and bright- the colonization. Shonibare’s work cannot ly colored cotton textile produced since the be pinned down as authentically African or colonial era in the Netherlands and intended European because as an expression of his for the Indonesian market. As a result, Dutch fragmented socially and historically con- wax-print fabric became very popular in west- structed identity, it is both and neither at the ern Africa and became a sign of authentic same time.

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Chapter 7 Considerations of Medieval Authenticity

Pious Frauds (Pia Fraus) Reliquaries and Relics Sacred Theft (Furta Sacra) Skilled Fakers Rebirth through Transfer (Translatio)

The formal tradition of furta sacra provided an appropriate memory of how and why a particular community came to be graced with the presence of a powerful new patron. —Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra

Introduction multiple relics as each possessing an authen- The culture of the medieval world of saints tic presence. The conceptual authenticity and their relics and miracles has a histo- that forms an important part of the medi- ry far longer than that of the modern mu- eval approach to the subject of the mean- seum world, yet our understanding of how ing and instantiation of relics and saints has authenticity was regarded during this peri- much in common with the ethnographic and od is obscure, being colored by the intan- postmodernist worlds, in which subversion gible associations, conceptual desires, and of the purely material conception of an arti- spiritual needs that legitimized duplicate or fact or art object, or even of its origins, has

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become part and parcel of the cultural set- Medieval Authenticity ting of the work. An interesting letter was written by Epiphanius Even in the third century C.E., Christians of Salamis (310–403) in the fourth century. He were prohibited from making idols, and cer- condemns artists who “lie by representing the tain images were proscribed from being appearance of saints in different forms ac- used, the range being very restricted (Nees cording to their whims.’’ For Epiphanius, im- 2002), so it is interesting that by the fifth ages were false when “set down through the century, shrines of worship had to be pro- stupidity of the painter . . . according to his vided with holy relics to be seen as imbued own inclination,” which is compared by Spear with an authentic aura. (1989:97), who provides the translations giv- Criticisms can always be leveled against en here, to views expressed a millennium lat- our current interpretation of the medieval er, in 1411, by the important Greek scholar period, and as far as museum displays are Manuel Chrysoloras (1355–1415): “In images concerned, Pugh and Weisl (2013) write: we are admiring the beauty not of bodies, but “Nostalgic visualization implicitly governs of the maker’s mind.” contemporary display of Mediaeval art, which The thoughts of Epiphanius here are tak- more than later works are treated as if they en by Spear (1989) to mean that copies of stand on the border—between art and an- images of saints were perfectly acceptable thropology. . . . Contemporary audiences’ as long as the artist refrained from personal notions of what constitutes authenticity may invention. The reference to the mind of the themselves be inventions created by a combi- maker—essentially the intentionality of the nation of modern concerns and the ravages of artist—by Chrysoloras is one of the first such time.” Their thought here is that a Victorian references to the importance of the thoughts conception of the medieval is overlaid on our and intentions of the artist himself, and it perception today through the way in which may present a salient change from thoughts the medieval is presented to us in the museum expressed by Epiphanius so long before. context. Medieval monks and clerics, desiring tax Through the lens of modern conscious- relief and a license to sell indulgences, were ac- ness, it is hard to see the world and its works complished forgers (Boese 2014; Hiatt 2004:29). of art in terms of a medieval mind and how Crowland Abbey in Lincolnshire was one of authenticity was understood over such a long many churches to make ecclesiastical forgeries to time period. There is a danger here of over- make a profit from them. An influential forgery simplification or distorted judgments that was produced by Thomas Elmham, who wrote are geographically and culturally distinct, Speculum Augustinianum, a history of Saint for if the medieval is held to last from 300 to Augustine, in 1413. It included forged charters 1300 C.E., then that constitutes a thousand from King Aethelberht of Kent (560–616) and years of historical development and cultur- a of Saint Augustine of Canterbury (?–604), al shifts from the early Christian period to all designed to obtain exemptions from any roy- the Byzantine and early Gothic, an era that al or papal rule and taxes. The authorities in needs an entire book for itself. We will ex- Canterbury disputed these documents but could amine only a few major themes that pertain make no headway in the matter, as Elmham to authenticity, both intangible and tangible. produced fifteenth-century handwritten papers

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Stealing the Authentic

to prove their authenticity. These documents Verdun, who stole the arm of Saint Pantaleon were also forged (Hiatt 2004). (circa 275–circa 303), which he secured In the medieval period, forgeries or fakes of through courageous furta sacra in the ruins authentic objects were often regarded as legiti- of Commercy, even as it was being sacked by mate and came to be known as pious frauds, pia Odo II of Champagne (983–1037). fraus. The extensive theft of relics was called In some cases, the loss of sacred relics furta sacra. The only thing that mattered was must have been very disheartening to the the veneration of the forgery or the stolen rel- congregation or churchgoers where they had ic itself: whether it fulfilled the purpose of its formerly been housed, sometimes for hun- divine presence in healing the sick or curing dreds of years, but medieval texts appear rath- ailments, regardless of what its constituents er silent on this issue. were or how it had arrived at the place of wor- In 401 the Fifth Council of Carthage en- ship. These sanctified thefts are also referred acted a decree, stating that all altars should to as translatio, by which a new home for the possess a holy relic, a requirement that grad- stolen or relocated relic meant a renewal of its ually lapsed. The decree was reenacted by the authentic existence. Phillips (1997:17) writes Carolingians, who passed an item placuit stat- in connection with the translatio or elevatio of ing that relics were necessary in churches, ba- relics that the modus operandi silicas, and cathedrals. This had the effect of spurring furta sacra, and probably pia fraus as changed with time, but covered the actu- well, to satisfy demand for a very necessary al transfer of relics from site to site and supply of relics to ensure devotion of a church’s often from one owner to another, as well parishioners. Monasteries were always vulner- as their disinterment if necessary, and able to theft and pillage by barons or nobles later their ritual display to the devoted in and their followers, and few had any means of a new site. . . . Where this process, as was defending themselves. One approach was to often the case, involved removal of the shame the thief by invoking different kinds of relics without the authority of previous curses. Those who sought to plunder monas- guardians, the process was dignified with teries could be cursed by incantation, but how another solemn term, furta sacra, “sacred effective these curses were is not easy to judge. theft.” Patrick Geary (1978:21) writes:

Stealing the Authentic The saint might strike down the noble, Some of these thefts were quite brazen. For but more likely he would retaliate by example, Bishop Hugh of Lincoln (Hugh of ceasing to work miracles. . . . These were Burgundy, circa 1140–1200) was allowed to graphically implied in the practice of hu- touch relics of the arm of miliating relics. A saint who had been dis- at Fécamp. He tried to sever a finger with his honoured would be physically . . . placed incisors but had to resort to his molars to bite on the ground, covered with thorns, and off the finger, hisfurta sacra, to take back to the candles in his church extinguished. Lincoln (Greenway 1977). Phillips (1997:18) There he would remain humiliated and relates another well-known example, that of abandoned until his wrong had been Abbott Richard of St. Vanne (970–1046) in righted.

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One can well imagine the societal effect In the ideal manifestation of these three of such actions and the strong possibility that values, they would all interact with the upper the wrong would be righted, with the noble apex of the triangular relationship shown in forced to return to the monastery the stolen Figure 7.1. However, because of the concep- goods or precious artifacts to placate the saint tual authenticity associated with the belief in and reestablish his or her authentic presence. the powers of these relics, their actual mate- The nonmaterial, conceptual authenticity rial existence may be transplanted with other of religious relics naturally resulted in the remains, which takes us to the other two poles spurious fabrication of fake relics (Boese of this diagram. 2014). There was a possible conflation Geary (1978), in his book Furta Sacra, of a pia fraus with a furta sacra, a double does not engage with the problem of forg- conjunction of the conceptual, willingly eries in terms of examination of the origins accepted as authentic on the proviso that of the sacred theft itself. Even the concept of miraculous occurrences had been occasioned theft itself in these cases is sometimes seen as by the relics themselves. A pious forgery more desirable than merely purchasing a rel- coupled with a pious theft did not undermine ic, as theft is an act of obtaining something veneration of the relic in its new context, authentic—something that is currently wor- since the forgery in many cases remained shipped and is therefore more spiritually ac- unknown or unknowable to the parishioners tive than something obtained in a more pro- to whom it brought spiritual strength or saic manner, such as an honest purchase from miraculous cures from ailments. Even if a dealer or middleman. Consequently, some the theft was proved to be a forgery, if monasteries that had purchased a relic actual- testimonial evidence suggested that miracles ly claimed that it had been obtained by theft, had been performed by the “relic,” it may a lie intended to add to the veneration of the still be accorded reverence. relic, which was previously also venerated, The modes of interaction between relics giving it an authentic pedigree. and a congregation are described by Geary Medieval relics were disseminated in- (1986:175): creasingly by means of translatio and eleva- tio as a result of the lucrative veneration of The value attached to the special them—lucrative for both the supplier and the corpses that would be venerated as relics church itself. For example, King Louis IX of required the communal acceptance of France (1214–1270) purchased the Crown three interrelated beliefs: first, that an of Thorns for 135,000 livres (Brazinski and individual had been, during his life and Fryxell 2013:4). Pilgrims traveling to view more important after his death, a special relics provided the church with considerable friend of God, that is, a saint; second, income, with some churches selling more that the remains of such a saint were to than 100,000 pilgrim badges each year. For be prized and treated in a certain way; the purposes of luring the believer to travel and third, and for our purposes most to a relic site, relics could even change their important, that the particular corpse or form or identity, thus Glastonbury Cathedral portion thereof was indeed the remains claimed at different times to house the Holy of that particular saint. Grail and relics of King Arthur, Saint Joseph

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Testimonial

Modes of intention

Pia fraus Furta sacra

Figure 7.1. Three important concepts in the authenticity of the medieval: the pia fraus, or pious fraud; the furta sacra, or sacred theft; and reliance on miracles performed by saints or their relics. Historical prece- dent or testimonial evidence was often invoked as a definitive statement accompanying miraculous events or thermaturgical knowledge of a relic or saint. The concepts could be conjoined. Hence a pia fraus could become a furta sacra, and part of a saint could be stolen to become a furta sacra. (Diagram by the author)

of Arimathea, Saint Dunstan, and a number whom few traces remain in Venice (Brazinski of Anglo-Saxon kings. These claims, promot- and Fryxell 2013:4). The particular smell as- ed as real, were in fact a fiction; the psycho- sociated with Saint Mark was hidden or dis- logical state of belief in an immanent reality guised as pork during the translatio. The efflu- was what mattered to parishioners. via from saints were viewed as pleasant odors The conceptual authenticity that resided that emanated when the body was touched, in every component of a relic resulted in an healing the sick or curing ills (Geary 1978:4). active trade in body parts, such those of as Medieval hagiography does not set out to Saint Andrew (?–60). Three fingers from his address the material conception of relics or right hand as well as the upper bone of an arm, saints, which is potentially important to us to- one kneecap, and one of his teeth were reput- day in terms of evaluation of their existence. edly transferred to St. Andrews, Scotland, in Instead it records a historical story of theft in the fourth century. The presence of the au- terms of the journey of stolen relics, the joy of thentic remains of a saint could even become parishioners or worshippers on seeing a relic associated with a city in a very significant for the first time, and the examination of the sense. Such is the case of Saint Mark (1–68), relic by an abbot or bishop, who then makes a translatio of 828, stolen at by Venetian a pronouncement on the authenticity of the merchants from Alexandria and hidden in a object. After being evaluated for authenticity, cargo box (Brown 1991:511). He replaced relics were housed in a grand new receptacle the original saint associated with Venice, the or shrine and were worshipped with devotion. Byzantine warrior Saint Theodore (?–319), of The reliquary that contained a relic was itself

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an object of veneration, being made of expen- (between 340 AD and 345-410 AD), sive materials such as rock crystal, gold, and elaborating on Eusebius’s account of her silver, often inset with precious stones. The travel to Jerusalem in 328 AD. additional function of reliquaries was to con- tain a perfumed fluid or scent, with the desir- The authenticity of such accounts became able smell attesting to the authenticity of the real in virtue of their spiritual power. relic by association. The salient issue for the bishop, monk, or The Translatio of Authenticity abbot was to establish authenticity of the rel- A tag of authenticity accompanied many ic by collection of testimonial evidence of the purchased relics. There is an example in miracles the relic had performed and to in- the British Museum: a relic tag with an terview those who had local knowledge of it. accompanying relic textile bundle (BM The physical existence of the relic had to be 1902,0625.1.ab). Such tags have proved use- accompanied by documentary evidence of the ful in research into the origins of certain rel- miracles it had enacted to convince the skep- ics within luxury trade relationships across tical that the relic was indeed authentic. This Europe (McCormick 2001), of which relic was the first time in history that certificates of trade, theft, or translation was an import- authenticity were required as evidence of the ant component. The reliquary was also a nature of an object examined. means of providing evidence of authentici- The importance of women in promot- ty, based on the belief that if a reliquary was ing, ensuring, or facilitating the movement of decorated with incorruptible precious stones relics across Europe and the Near East has and metals, they were worthy of holding the clearly been underestimated, as recent work incorruptible and often scented relic con- by Geary (2012) and others reveals. Even in tained within. The translatio and elevatio the legendary sense of achievements mythol- were so integral to the implication of re- ogized through a tradition that had no basis birth through transfer of the object, writes in fact, the intangible authenticity of the pro- Phillips (1997:18), that they were often in- curements or the relics was regarded as real vented for relics whose provenance did not or functioned as authentic, especially if their include them. A disparate part of the body efficacy was periodically renewed through of a saint, such as the finger of the supposed ceremonial tributes. Geary (2012:242) writes: body of Mary Magdalene, was imbued with the same intangible essence as the rest of the Because of her fame as the discoverer body, and was therefore just as authentic just of the true cross in Jerusalem, Helena, as venerated. the mother of Constantine the Great, is Lenain’s (2011) important work on art often seen as the first woman who not forgery has direct relevance to our discussion only venerated but actively acquired rel- of the nature of authenticity in the medieval ics, and women in search of relics are of- period. Lenain makes a distinction between ten seen as imitators Helenae. However, primary or real relics, which involved an as- Helena’s reputation as the discoverer of signation of authenticity derived from the the true cross was a legend, probably identity of the saint the relics were attributed invented by the Latin historian Rufinus to, and secondary or representative relics, such

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Reliquaries, Relics, and Their Treatment

as dust, pebbles, moss, or water gathered by Medieval authenticity sometimes de- pilgrims near a saint’s grave or body. This manded written proof of the miracles the rel- latter form of doubly intangible authenticity, ic had accomplished or a statement concern- in a conservation sense, represents a kind of ing the veracity of the relic itself. An early ex- miraculous impregnation, but it is no more ample of a written statement of authenticity is esoteric, one might argue, than present-day the case of Saint Basil (Basil of Caesarea, circa African sanctified originals that are materially 329–379), who sent Saint Ambrose (Aurelius identical to nonsanctified tourist copies. The Ambrosius, archbishop of , circa 340– latter remain inauthentic versions that can be 397) a piece of the corpse of Saint Dionysius sold to tourists, while the identical versions of Milan (died circa 360) in the 370s, together are ritually incorporated into cultural prac- with the necessary accompanying documen- tices that are or become authentic, although tation. Medieval documents, writes Lenain there is no material difference between the (2011), may bear apocryphal signatures, two artworks at all. forged seals, or artificial signs of age, but in Lenain (2011) reveals that evaluating the some cases these were meant to materialize ability of a relic to enact miraculous occur- the truth of tradition as a perfectly legitimate rences was a complex matter. This probing way to assert a right rather than as a way to into the medieval consciousness in relation to usurp power or property, although one can the authenticity of art and relics draws atten- imagine the latter scenario being a spur to the tion to an aspect of the concept of authentic- creation of an entirely inauthentic history. ity that has been largely overlooked. Verbal Medieval relics could therefore be sub- oaths, often uttered by autochthonous inhab- jected to a dual test of their powers, both itants within a local tradition of knowledge, through the miracle itself and through docu- might be regarded as authoritative statements mentation produced to substantiate the mir- of historical fact, forming indispensable tes- acle. The anthropological significance of the timony to the veracity of accomplished mir- artifact itself and the certificate that needed to acles. Recorded interviews with elders were be issued established the Middle Ages, as sug- believed to be sound testimonials that often gested above, as the first period in history that legitimized a traditional belief about the past, necessitated production of such certificates as seen as authentically real in the present, fur- part of the process of determining wheth- ther validating the three-coordinate model er an attribution was correct or not. Lenain proposed in Figure 7.1. (2011:95) makes clear that the most salient aspect of these procedures of authentication Reliquaries, Relics, and Their was their overall complexity: Treatment Not only could relics be imbued with an in- The establishment of the original link tangible authenticity, but the caskets and con- between the relic as an object and the tainers made for them, often out of extreme- saint to whom it is supposed to belong ly expensive materials, such as rock crystal, (or, to be more accurate between the gold, silver, amber, bronze, ivory, marble, and objective and subjective sides of the rel- semiprecious stones, could be corporeal re- ic) involves a great variety of arguments flections of what the reliquaries contained. of different levels and natures, ranging

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from the direct and inherent, to the viewing of the relic, but they might have per- indirect and external. According to the formed a preservative function in their own circumstances these arguments draw on right, helping prevent the putrefaction of fin- evidence brought in on the supernatural gers, limbs, foreskins, heads, and other body mode by the saints themselves or, on a parts. natural mode, by ordinary clerics in Condensation of water or libations of charge of strictly rational, humane oper- scented waters and oils may have been the rea- ations—or both. son spigots were added to Saint William’s (?– 1154) cult site at York Minster for decanting The vagaries of these interrelationships sacred fluid into ampullae orunguentaria for are involved. Reliquaries as containers for pilgrims to take home with them. Reliquary objects of the saint, or parts of the body, sarcophagi at a cult site could be filled with were used not only for display and to signify scented water or oils for healing and venera- the nature of the objects inside; reliquaries tion. Fluids were regularly collected and taken also signified themselves as authentic re- back in small ampoules by devotees, until the ceptacles, existentially self-justifying, which practice ceased due to the revision of beliefs meant that it was especially important for a introduced by the Reformation (Brazinski relic to remain within its contained space, and Fryxell 2013:9). Presumably, at this time whether a casket, coffin, box, or contain- it was declared that these practices were not er, the latter often provided with transpar- authentically Christian but were something ent windows of rock crystal. Lenain (2011) else. Perhaps they were regarded as un-Chris- arrives at the justifiable conclusion that tian in an era when rational thought began to the medieval cult of the relic laid the basis assume greater prominence over the dictates for modern Western anxiety regarding the of faith. problems of authenticity in deciding on the The duplication of relics or their multiple truth of claims made about a relic, even if physical existences, each imbued with an the nature of that truth would not be regard- intangible authenticity, is not discussed by ed as having any validity for most of us out- either Geary (1978) or Wood (2008), yet side the Catholic tradition. Of course, there that is one of the more intriguing aspects are external logical contradictions within of the cult of relics as seen from a modern the ecumenical determination of authentic- perspective. A typical exemplar is that several ity, which Lenain (2011) skillfully explores. different churches claimed to possess the Olfactory authenticity is an important authentic head of John the Baptist: Part component here, as the association of par- of the head is kept in the ticular smells with certain saints or their rel- of Amiens, mounted within a gold plate. ics would be a powerful stimulant to belief, Another part is kept in the Church of San which is hard to forge. Further research is Sivestro, Rome, stolen from Constantinople clearly needed on this interesting aspect of in 1206, after the city was sacked during relics, since not only would incense such as the Fourth Crusade. The Grand Mosque of frankincense, myrrh, oils, resins, and other Damascus, Syria, keeps another complete plant and animal products provide a pleas- head of John in a small chapel inside the antly scented experience to accompany the mosque. A fourth claim to the head is made

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by a museum in Munich in the Residenze, a the conclusion that they are so insignificant in castle belonging to the old Catholic kings of size that they could easily have come from a Bavaria. Each of these heads, not to mention much smaller volume of material. various arms (Ivarfjeld 2014), is regarded There is a Kreuzpartikel (piece of the as authentic because of the accompanying Cross) in the Schatzkammer in Vienna and testimonial evidence. Some of these multiple other fragments are in Brussels; Venice; existences were legitimated in medieval Ghent; Santa Croce, Rome; Notre Dame, legend, which recounted how sacred images Paris; the Pisa Cathedral; the Florence had miraculously duplicated themselves Cathedral; the Monastery of Koutloumousiou (Lenain 2013), providing an explanation for on Mount Athos; Santo Toribio de Liébana, the authentic existence of duplicate images. Spain; the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo One of the more elaborate fakes involves Church; and the Monasterio de Tarlac in the fragments of the True Cross, which has a long Philippines (Madden 2005). Four fragments and involved hagiography (Madden 2005). with preserved documentary provenance The revered pieces were often placed in rel- from the Byzantine emperors were examined iquaries, stolen, retrieved, and then stolen microscopically and shown to be made of ol- again—multiple instances of pia fraus. At the ive wood (Madden 2005). Of course, the True end of the Middle Ages, Calvin is said to have Cross could not have survived for centuries. remarked that there were enough pieces of The fragments are material forgeries, prob- the True Cross to fill a ship. This was disput- ably created by traveling merchants in the ed by Fleury (1870), who compiled a catalog Middle Ages to satisfy the insatiable demand of all the pieces revered as relics and came to for relics of the True Cross.

Figure 7.2. Procession of Fragments of the True Cross, Gentile Bellini (1429–1507), circa 1496. Tempera and oil on canvas; 347 x 770 cm. Collection of the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice. The painting shows the procession of fragments of the True Cross in St. Mark’s Square, Venice. Veneration of the wooden cross on which Christ was crucified resulted in many widely dispersed fragments, some of which are of olive wood and are pia fraus for the faithful. (Image courtesy of Web Gallery of Art; in the public domain)

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In the early fifteenth century, Bernardine Authenticity and the materiality of relics of Siena OFM (Order of Friars Minor) (1380– and reliquaries is an interesting and presently 1444) complained that 100 cows could not have understudied field that lacks an overall syn- produced all the milk the Virgin Mary had be- thesis. Barbara Boehn (1997:11) notes that in queathed as relics. Upon his death, numerous 1963, the late Thomas Hoving (who became miracles began to be attributed to Bernardine, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art entering him into the fold of the miraculous in New York) examined the bust reliquary of himself, which Bernardine would surely have Saint Juliana at using X-ray radi- deprecated (Butler 1864). There was therefore, ography. Later in the 1960s, the disassembly even at this time, tension between the beliefs of the reliquary of Saint Yrieix at the same lo- of ordinary parishioners regarding a venerated cation showed that the interior was wrapped icon or relic, and the empirical or more ratio- in silver sheathing, which was removed. No nal view of the highly educated elite, such as trace of a relic was found within the reliquary. Bernardine, who said that some or all of the As Boehn (1997:11) writes, Virgin’s milk might not be authentic, regard- less of the miracles attributed to each relic In fact, careful comparative examination containing the milk. of the examples in Paris and New York The incorruptibility of the sacred is anoth- based on the existence of photographs er important theme, exemplified by the mum- from the Monuments Historiques would mified body of Saint Zita, the patron saint have shown conclusively that the New of office workers, dating from 1272 (Farmer York example was the original, even 1997). The clothed body of the reclining saint though the relic itself had been trans- is displayed in Lucca and is still venerated to- ferred to the copy in France in 1907. day, in the Basilica of San Frediano, where her Since the 1960s the wooden core and incorruptible body lies dressed in repose. silver revetment of the reliquary head

Figure 7.3. The mummified body of Saint Zita from 1272, contained in a reliquary in the Basilica of San Frediano in Lucca, Italy. The incorruptibility of some saints’ bodies is seen as part of the authentic- ity of their continued existence. (Photograph by Myrabella; image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

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of Saint Yrieix have been exhibited side separate and apart from any other materials by side, the prevailing opinion being we treat.” The sensitivity that has resulted that the core, a masterly piece of Gothic from these concerns has prompted the display wood carving is too beautiful to cover. of reliquaries with and often without the rel- ics they are supposed to contain. For example, This interesting account does not address on a recent visit to the Pitti Palace in Florence some of the intangible aspects of the investi- in 2015, the author observed several reliquar- gation. Is it permissible to disassemble such ies that still contained the relics they were an important work knowing that in fact it is supposed to valorize. At the same time, reli- the original? Is it still an “original” work if the quaries at the Victoria and Albert Museum in relic it formerly held has been removed and London were displayed completely cleaned, placed inside a copy? Is it permissible to dis- with no trace of any relic whatever. play the interior, formerly concealed wood- That the relics themselves were indeed en core contiguous with the exterior form of important is shown by inquiries into their au- the reliquary itself? The authenticity of the thenticity by the conducting of holy autop- reliquary could now be disputed on the con- sies. These are known from the early four- ceptual plane, since the relic it once held is teenth century (Park 2010), and the aim of the no longer physically present. Clearly, the ac- studies was: “inspecting the internal organs of tion taken in 1907 was to divest the New York a holy person shortly after death for corpore- example of its intangible authenticity and to al signs of sanctity” (Park 2010:64). The use confer that status on the copy. Whether it is of modern autopsies (Charlier et al. 2014) to permissible to place aesthetic criteria over investigate the medical condition of relics has religious criteria in displaying the reliquary recently gained renewed interest, having first and its wooden interior side by side, in vir- achieved prominence in the Egyptological tue of the prevailing opinion, is a question study of mummies more than 100 years ago. that might have to be explained to the mu- Charlier et al. (2014) undertook a bio- seum visitor in some detail, rather than just medical study of the miraculously preserved presenting the visitor with the two parts of heart of Anne-Madeleine Remuzat (1696– the work. 1730), showing that the heart had not been Ethical dilemmas facing the conservation preserved by miraculous intervention but by and investigation of relics of this kind have embalming using myrtle, honey, and lime. been addressed by McGowan and LaRoche The reliquary was opened on December 15, (1996), who discuss issues in the care of hu- 2011, the heart extracted, and then presum- man skeletal remains and mortuary objects, ably returned to its reliquary container. and the serious considerations that must Some important reliquaries contain bodi- be addressed by the ethical codes conserva- ly fluids, such as blood. The impressive reli- tors are supposed to adhere to in their work. quary shown in Figure 7.4 in procession in McGowan and LaRoche (1996:119), write: Brugge contains the blood of Christ, collected “Ideally, the code of ethics should be respon- by Joseph of Arimathea and brought to Brugge sive to the multivariant concerns by recog- from the Holy Land by Thiery of Alsace, nizing human remains as a discrete materi- Count of Flanders (circa 1099–1148). No fur- al requiring unique considerations that are ther investigations are known in this case, but

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the restoration of relics and reliquaries is cur- rently receiving more attention. For example, Palla et al. (2015) report on their examination of two polychrome wooden reliquaries, one of Saint Devorino (?–287) and the other of Saint Cosmo (?–287), the former containing a piece of bone and the latter a tooth. The organic relics were suffering from biodeterioration, and the wooden busts required restoration, for which selezione cromatica was used, an in- teresting example of the application of this technique of restoration. The treatment of the relics themselves could be viewed as either interference in the biological lives of authen- tic relics, rendering their materiality compro- mised, or as a valedictory action that seeks to both preserve and restore the relics and wood- en busts of the saints. Christopher Wood (2008:109) offers a nuanced interpretation of the medieval ap- proach to the concept of forgery in grappling with the problem of retrospective tombs and Figure 7.4. Reliquary containing the relic blood the documents purported to confirm their of Christ in procession in Brugge; made from authenticity: “Within the substitution model, pure gold and precious stones. (Image courtesy of Carolus; Creative Commons Attribution 3.0) all times were always present. The structures of prophecy and forgery were intertwined. The invention of the past was also a form of hand it held remains unknown. It could have prophecy and the modern production of ar- been a victim of furta sacra, and many such tifacts and images was a form of historiogra- objects would have been of doubtful origin in phy.” Wood (2008:113) notes that documents an empiricist sense. Wood (2008:114) writes: created by medieval clerics and clerks were viewed as authentic statements of fact. It is The study of mediaeval document forg- estimated that 50 percent of all Merovingian ery has revolved around the question of documents, 15 percent of the documents of the historical relativity of rationalist cri- the first four Carolingian rulers, and 10 per- teria of authenticity. Some scholars have cent of the documents of early Saxon rulers argued that concepts of the authenticity are all forgeries of the later Middle Ages. or spuriousness of a document, of right Figure 7.5 illustrates a hand reliquary that or wrong practice, are historically rela- no longer contains the venerated hand. The tive. . . . The other, nonrelativist camp authentic purpose and function of the reli- argues that medieval scholars and jurists quary are lost, and it becomes no more than were quite capable of applying rational- a decorative art object. The personage whose ist criteria in assessing evidence, and that

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to maintain a distinction within modern the Holy Lance from the second quarter of scholarship between licit and illicit com- the fifteenth century from Nuremberg (Wood merce with documents is not an anach- 2008:figure 42). An impressive array of depic- ronistic imposition on the period. tions of relics of Saint Ulrich (890–973) and Saint Afra (?–304) of 1494, including brief There is probably no one answer to these descriptions, was issued by a monastery in types of disputes in the historical discourse. Munich (Wood 2008:figure 66). Retrospective Documents could illustrate reliquaries and tombs were commonly employed to backdate relics themselves, as if the depiction of the or forge monuments or tombs to link them image of the relic was itself a venerated arti- with founders, a practice that continued into fact or souvenir of a visit to a shrine or chap- the sixteenth century. For example, the tomb el. Woodcuts allowed replication of these of Bishop Konrad of Hildesheim (?–1249) at printed images. One of the first such images Kloster Schönau is made of sandstone, with showed an assemblage of imperial relics and a fifteenth-century inscription dated 1248; while at the Benedictine Abbey of Murrhardt, of the ninth-century founders was fabricated in the late fifteenth century (Wood 2008:118). These retrospective tombs served a variety of functions and ranged from spurious forgeries to replacement qua resto- ration and everything in between. The authen- ticity of the retrospective tomb could either be intangible or validated in virtue of the miracles the tomb had accomplished. The cultural as- similation of falsified tombs or images is even referred to in the Roman context by Pliny the Elder (Book XXXV, 2.9):

We must not pass over a novelty that has also been invented, in that likenesses made, if not of gold or silver, yet at all events of bronze, are set up in the librar- ies in honour of those whose immortal spirits speak to us in the same places, nay more, even imaginary likenesses are modelled, and our affection gives birth to countenances that have not been handed down to us, as occurs in the case Figure 7.5. Hand reliquary without the hand, of [Rackham 1995]. from Belgium, circa 1250–1300. Silver gilt inset with mica and a stone; height 22.6 cm, width 11.1 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The conceptual authenticity of represen- (Photograph by Lesley Ann Moorcroft) tations of this kind is therefore not a medieval

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phenomenon, but it reached an extensive lev- so Dossena was contacted again. Fasoli and el of creation in the medieval period. Romano Palesi set up a studio for Dossena in Rome and paid him $200 a month (Sox 1987). Admired Fakers Having come from a working-class fami- Apart from the world of primary and sec- ly, Dossena was accustomed to working long ondary relics and those saints or fragments hours for meager wages, and he never realized of them that have been reified as authentic in what prices his masterful fakes sold for as forg- the three senses discussed here, there is also a eries of the medieval and Renaissance periods. considerable problem with artistic frauds that Experienced art experts were to authenticate have been accepted as dating to the medieval many of Dossena’s creations over many years. period but that are of modern manufacture, Like scores of the best fakers, Dossena nev- typically fabricated in the eighteenth to twen- er directly copied but created artworks in the tieth centuries, in addition to the large num- styles of the originals. He worked in marble, bers of forged relics created in the medieval bronze, terra-cotta, and wood. The range of period itself. his subjects was enormous, extending from The fakers of the medieval period are essen- ancient Greek and Egyptian to seventeenth- tially unknown, but later artists present inter- century European sculpture (Arnau 1959). esting cases in the forging of medieval art. One His impressive marble sculpture Angel of of the most intriguing is the Italian faker Alceo the Annunciation, although dismissed by the Dossena, who was born in 1878 into a family very astute judgment of Otto Kurtz (1908– of artists and craftsmen (Waldron 1983:105), 1975) as lacking in refinement (Kurtz 1967) although Sox (1987) is a more reliable source and attributed to Simone Martini (1284– here, and the statement by Waldron is some- 1344), was purchased after careful art histor- what misleading; his father was actually a rail- ical advice by Helen Clay Frick (1888–1984) way porter. For many years he worked as a of New York and Pittsburgh. The sculpture restorer of old and damaged sculptures. His now resides in the University Art Gallery first fake was made in 1916, during the ravag- at the University of Pittsburgh. Dossena’s es of World War I, when he created a relief sculpture is based on the angel depicted in Madonna and Child, which he aged by leav- Simone Martini’s (1284–1344) painting The ing it in an army urinal. Dossena seemed to Annunciation, and his marble and wooden acquire, quite effortlessly, miraculous skills in sculpture in medieval style has been much aging and patination of his later fake creations admired. The Metropolitan Museum bought in marble, wood, and terra-cotta. a Greek maiden; the Cleveland Museum of He hoped to sell his Madonna and Child to Art, a marble statue of Athena and a wood- raise enough money to buy Christmas pres- en sculpture of the Madonna and Child; ents for his family and offered it to a café the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, an en- owner, who was not interested, but alerted tire tomb, originally attributed to Mino da a fashionable jeweler, Alberto Fasoli. He de- Fiesole (1429–1484). cided that Dossena had probably stolen the Dossena’s work was so skilled that a mar- piece from a church and bought it for the tiny ble relief of the Virgin and Child he had fab- sum of 100 lire. Fasoli later realized that it ricated was attributed to Donatello (1386– was not old but was extremely well carved, 1466). By 1927 Dossena had become aware

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Figure 7.6. Impressive marble tomb purchased by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1924 for $100,135. It was made by Alceo Dossena but attributed to Mino da Fiesole when purchased. (Image courtesy of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts) of the deceitful practices of Fasoli and Palesi. discussed in chapters 2 and 3. The art- While he was still poor, he realized that they ist’s intent and the aesthetic authenticity of had made a fortune from his work (Sox 1987). Dossena’s sculptures are matters of dispute. A scandal erupted when he brought a If Dossena was carefully soaking off small lawsuit against them in 1929, informing the pieces of fourteenth-century gilding from world of the misrepresentations and reveal- an old, badly damaged wooden sculpture to ing that he had received only $35,000 over reuse the detached pieces in one of his own a 10-year period; most of this money had carvings, was the intent to deceive the buyer been spent on living expenses and materials. or just to create something that had the right Dossena himself was cleared of any charges appearance for the fourteenth century, not when he insisted that he was innocent of necessarily for monetary gain by passing off the dealer’s practices and had not benefit- the work as created in the fourteenth centu- ed monetarily from the sale of his work. ry but to pay homage to that century? The Misrepresented fakers like Dossena create answer is hard to establish. Certainly from an enigma for the problems of authenticity, the external point of view, some of Dossena’s

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manipulations of the artworks he created could be seen as being deliberately deceptive rather as innocent striving for the aesthetic reality of the ancient that he so wished to emulate in every aspect. For example, in the case of an Archaic marble statue of Athena, which was pur- chased by the Cleveland Museum of Art, Dossena used a hammer to break the finished sculpture into a number of pieces. He lowered the fragments into an acid bath and soaked them as many as 40 times, with periodic heat- ing with a torch to create a surface craquelure consistent with age. He applied other chem- icals intermittently to create chalky depos- its ( 2011; Sox 1987). Lenain (2011), a scholar of the medieval period, writes that some of Dossena’s work is the most authen- tic-looking fake art he has ever seen in terms of style and execution. Can these sculptures still be considered fakes although they ended up being sold by the dealers as fourteenth-century originals? Unlike Nicholas Lochoff (1872–1948), who made expert duplications (or replicas) of works that were sold as such, Dossena created sculp- tures using the medieval artist’s conventions Figure 7.7. Angel of the Annunciation. but without copying any particular artist. Thought to be an authentic work of the fourteenth century, the marble sculpture Medieval Restorations was in fact carved by Alceo Dossena in the The reuse of Greek and Roman marbles, spo- early twentieth century. It was purchased by Helen Clay Frick around 1920 for lia, and building material continued through $225,000, equivalent to about $3 million the medieval period. Adaptive reuse was the 2014. Dossena received only a tiny fraction prevalent modus operandi. Conti (2007:3) of the money. In 1928 Dossena revealed that mentions a head of Livia reused in the ninth he had made a large number of sculptures in a variety of media, including this impres- century for the Herimankreuz in Cologne. In sive work, based on an angel in the tempera its new context, the head assumes the mean- painting The Annunciation (1333) by Simone ing of the head of the Redeemer. Martini, now in the Uffizi. (Image cour- The startling alteration of a female bust of tesy of Isabelle Lucie Catherine Chartier, Empress Livia Drusilla (58 B.C.E.–29 C.E.) University Art Gallery, and the Trustees of the University of Pittsburgh) into a head of Christ must have surely held symbolic meaning as the possible triumph of

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Figure 7.8. The Annunciation by Simone Martini, 1333, Uffizi, Florence. Tempera on panel. The kneel- ing angel was used as the model by Alceo Dossena for his fake marble version, now in the collections of the art museum at the University of Pittsburgh and illustrated in Figure 7.7. Notice how Mary recoils somewhat from the news delivered by the angel, as one indeed might on this extraordinary presentation. (Image courtesy of http://allart.biz/photos/read/SimoneMartini_4_Annunication.html)

Christianity over the pagan beliefs of ancient whose power could even extend to the legit- Rome. To twenty-first century tastes it seems imating use of admired Roman figures in a entirely inappropriate to reuse an authen- Christian context. tic Roman sculpture as a head for a revered The reworking of altarpieces in the figure of the opposite sex. Conti (2007:3) Middle Ages has been extensively revealed mentions the head of Tiberius (42 B.C.E.–37 by X-ray radiography, which has shown that C. E.) appropriated in 1581 to sit on an or- many thirteenth-century panels were heavily nate gilded mount fabricated by Antonio da repainted at a date quite close to their origi- Faenza (circa 1480–1534) and housed in the nation, resulting in numerous art historical er- Museo degli Argenti in Florence. The re- rors of interpretation. Conti (2007:3) gives as use of heads known to be ancient conferred an example a work by Coppo di Marcovaldo enhanced spiritual authority on the church, (circa 1225–1276), a Madonna with repainted

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Figure 7.9. Marble Madonna and Child by Figure 7.10. The great forger of Renaissance Dossena, 1930, in the collections of the San art Alceo Dossena. (Photographer unknown. Diego Museum of Art. (Image courtesy of Image courtesy of http://muzaart.ru/ Wikimedia Commons) obman-vekov-ili-vozrozhdenie-vo-vremeni/)

heads from the end of the thirteenth century, in very much akin to Coppo di Marcovaldo, the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Orvieto. credited to be a stylistic fusion of Byzantine Conti (2007:3) also recounts that during a res- painting and Italian Florentine. Some of his toration of the painting at the Istituto Centrale works were painted in tecnica a velatura— del Restauro, it was found that the heads had that is, pure colors were covered with tint- been completely repainted, possibly because ed varnishes or glazes to produce the desired of earlier fire damage. Conti suggests that this chromaticity. restoration was carried out at the end of the The painting in tempera on panel shown thirteenth century by a painter who had seen in Figure 7.13 was authenticated by art his- the work of Cimabue (1240–1302), although torians in the 1930s but was later shown to opinions vary on this interpretation. be a fake by scientific connoisseurship. An Coppo di Marcovaldo is significant for our X-ray radiograph revealed that an old worm- story because many re-creations by the early tunneled wooden panel had been reused for twentieth-century master forgers Jef van der the painting. But the wormholes were filled Veken in Belgium and Icilio Frederico Joni in with gesso, showing that an original panel Siena were based on artists whose style was had probably been scoured down; the worms

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Figure 7.11. Cross made for Archbishop Herimann of Cologne, circa 1050. Cast bronze; engraved and gilded; 41 x 28 cm. The crucifix shows an effigy of Christ with the head of Empress Livia (Livia Drusilla, wife of Augustus, 58 B.C.E.–29 C.E.) in blue stone. The head was presumably incorporated into the cru- cifix at the request of Herimann, who is portrayed on the reverse side. It is an interesting example of adap- tive reuse of a female Roman head in a male Christian effigy. Erzbischöfliches Diözesanmuseum, Cologne. (Image courtesy of Web Gallery of Art and Emil Kren and Daniel Marx)

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Figure 7.12. Madonna and Child by Coppo di Marcovaldo, circa 1265, in Santa Martino dei Servi, Orvieto. Tempera on panel. The heads had already been completely repainted by the end of the thir- teenth century. (Image courtesy of Creative Commons Share Alike)

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Figure 7.13. Madonna and Child in the style of Coppo di Marcovaldo, authenticated in the 1930s but later determined to be completely painted by the Belgium restorer and art forger Jef van der Veken in the 1920s. (Image courtesy of Valerie Ann Scott)

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should come after the ground layer has been Guido da Siena (1230–1290). The hands had laid down, not before. The painting was also been painted over at least once and the tu- found to have retained some of the origi- nic too, while the punched halo decoration in nal gesso preparation in patches, and sever- the gilding dates from the fourteenth century. al modern wooden inserts had been painted Conti (2007:5) writes: in the same pigment as the original layers, which during an aesthetic restoration would It should also be borne in mind that cop- have been deliberately deceptive. All lines of ies and falsifications of thirteenth century evidence suggest that the panel was the work paintings of a satisfactory standard are a of Jef van der Veken (1872–1964), a very late very recent twentieth century phenome- follower of Coppo di Marcovaldo. non (for instance the Volpi Madonna ex- Many panels have been rerestored sever- hibited in 1937 in the Giotto Exhibition). al times. These include Saint Dominic in the The Madonna dell’Impruneta painted in Fogg Museum, a fragment of a Sienese paint- 1758 by Ignazio Hugford [1703–1778] in ing produced not long after his canonization imitation of the no longer visible image, in 1233. Conti (2007:3) states that the earliest is a good example of eighteenth centu- restoration occurred shortly after 1260, while ry artists struggling with the style of the the third restoration took place about 20 years Early Masters, despite having a passion- after that and is attributed to the workshop of ate devotion to their art.

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Chapter 8 The European Renaissance and Beyond

The Mona Lisa Sistine Chapel Frescoes Copies and the Emulation of the Past The Restoration of The Last Supper The Ludovisi Ares Restoration and Identity The Laocoön Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne The Farnese Herakles The Forgeries of Joni and Giunti

Here, as earlier, we must be careful not to confuse genuineness with aesthetic merit. That the distinction between original and forgery is aesthetically important does not . . . imply that the original is superior to the forgery. —Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art

Introduction place during the eleventh and twelfth cen- Basic changes in assumptions and ideals took turies, some 500 years before the European place during the Renaissance, although it may Renaissance, which is the basis of this chapter be more accurate historically to think not of (Cronin 1992; Ruggiero 2015). The rediscov- one Renaissance but of an entire family of re- ery of the ancient world and the increasing naissances, stretching from the Saite period of autonomy of action of the individual are two ancient Egypt to the Carolingian Renaissance key aspects of the Italian Renaissance. There and the Chinese Renaissance. The latter took was little interest in the artistic achievements

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of ancient Greece or Rome in the medie- Plenty of material from the Renaissance val period, when the philosophical mode of concerns emulation, copying, restoration, thought was directed to the worship of God, forgery, and the resulting controversies that although, as was revealed in the previous restoration brings forth. This chapter discuss- chapter, fragments or entire works of ancient es prominent examples: the Laocoön, The Last art could be (re)appropriated, reused, or in- Supper, and the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. corporated into works of art in the medieval In the case of the Laocoön, some think the period to serve new cultural or religious pur- entire work is a forgery by Michelangelo, not poses. Secular works of art existed during the the restoration of an ancient work. The resto- medieval period, but these have not survived rations of marble sculpture during this peri- well. Before the Renaissance, there was less od, as well as eighteenth-century adaptations, interest in the preservation of cultural materi- are discussed here in detail, based on several als, which tended to be reused or discarded as examples from the Getty Museum collections of no relevance to cultural or societal needs. as well as other important works. The principal period of the European Forgery of ancient works in the Renaissance lasted from the fourteenth centu- Renaissance did indeed involve artists as el- ry, when it began in Florence (Cronin 1992), evated as Michelangelo. Even though the to the seventeenth century (Paoletti and Radke consensus view is that he did not create the 2011; Ruggiero 2015). The rediscovery, or at Laocoön, he was not afraid to create works of least the revaluing, of antiquity was one of the art purporting to be ancient. They came to be major achievements of the Renaissance, re- admired in their own right rather than viewed sponsible for passing down to us such vestiges as forgeries to be discarded or unappreciat- of the ancient world that still existed. ed. Some restorations carried out during the Earlier empirical Greek science came as Renaissance repurposed works to suit norms a revelation to the Renaissance mind. For of the period rather than to preserve what was example, the determination of the diame- truly ancient. Once again, Michelangelo is an ter of the earth and its degree of tilt on its interesting case. He so admired the Belvedere axis by Eratosthenes (circa 276 B.C.E.–circa Torso that the fragment qua fragment was 195/194 B.C.E.) was certainly an original and truly inspirational for him. He had no thought impressively innovative work of empirical re- of a completion with modern additions. What search (Fischer 1975); it was not repeated in was authentically ancient remained unaltered. Europe until 1,250 years later. The confines of Christian faith excluded empirical experi- Authenticity in the Renaissance mentation and promulgated belief rather than Authenticity in the Renaissance represents inquiry. Despite the fact that some people part of the quest to find meaning, values, and came to believe from their own observations motives attached to the actions, creations, that the earth was a sphere rather than a flat and investigations of the individual, whether plane, they chose not to inquire into the mat- a scientist, artist, or scholar. However, the at- ter any further, because faith alone was suf- tainment of individual recognition for artistic ficient for the purposes of life. Scientific in- achievement was presaged in ancient Greece quiry of the kind exemplified by Eratosthenes and Rome by named and admired artists such had no place. as . Pliny the Elder mentions by name

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several artists who were famous in his own time marble Venus in Cnidus was so beautiful that or in the Roman past. Aspects of these histori- a man hid in the temple by night to make love cal antecedents have been discussed previously. to the statue and that a stain on the Venus be- It is not just a matter of presaging; it is a trayed his lustful act. matter of recognition. Several scholars write There are a number of salient points to as if the Renaissance hailed the inception of note here: first, the recognition of named art- individual artistic achievement and as if art ists whose works were judged to be superior as such and associated ideas such as attribu- to others; second, appreciation of the special tion were of no concern in earlier times. A beauty of some of the works described; third, few quotations from Pliny the Elder from the finishing of a sculpture by the master his volume on stone (Book XXXVI.iv.17–20) himself when it was principally carved by a are relevant to this dispute. He writes, “It pupil; and fourth, sculptures created by the is reported that Pheidias himself carved in master himself that were purported to be by marble the exceptionally beautiful Venus in his pupil Agoracritus and were sold as work Octavius’s buildings at Rome.” In assessing of the latter. None of these instantiations are the quality of Pheidias’s work, he discusses any different from concerns expressed in the just one example of his genius, the shield of Renaissance, or later, regarding the mode of the statue of Minerva at Athens: artistic production. The connoisseurship of artistic detail, of- On the convex border of which he en- ten stated to be a Renaissance phenomenon, graved a Battle of the Amazons, and on is clearly not: Pliny and other aesthetes would the hollow side, Combats of Gods and have been able to differentiate between the Giants, and her sandals, on which he de- quality, skill, and artistic execution of work picted Combats of Lapiths and Centaurs. by Praxiteles, in his carving of the detail of . . . Although the figure of Victory is the snake and sphinx, and that of work by an especially remarkable, connoisseurs ad- imitator. Artifacts could be seen as so beau- mire also the snake, as well as the bronze tiful that men fantasized about copulating Sphinx that crouches just beneath her with them. The work of the master was so spear. . . . They make us realize that the admired that favored pupils were able to sell grandeur of his notions was maintained the master’s work as their own, because of its even in small details. superior quality. The recognition of aesthetic and material authenticity evidenced by these Pliny (Book XXXVL.iv.20–22) also men- quotations is quite contrary to assertions of tions that the Athenian Alcamenes, Pheidias’s scholars of the Renaissance that only in the pupil, made several famous works, including fifteenth and sixteenth centuries did the cult the celebrated statue of Venus known in Greek of the individual artist become recognized as as of the Gardens, which Pheidias is a singular achievement. The restoration of said to have finished for his pupil to pass off works of art is also described by Pliny, and as his own. Another pupil, Agoracritus of chapter 1 in this volume discusses the actions Paros, one of his favorites, sold several works of King Nabonidus in 530 B.C.E., when he as made by himself when they were actually carefully restored buildings and artworks, made by Pheidias. It was said that Praxiteles’s some of which dated to 2500 B.C.E.

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To characterize the Renaissance broadly Rome . . . pass [it off as] an ancient work and then, the concerns that start to become im- . . . sell it much better.” portant, compared with the medieval, are the This passage betrays sentiments that value of creativity in terms of individual ex- had already taken hold in the early six- pression, the production of admired copies teenth century—that a and replicas—not only of art of the past but of by Michelangelo would fetch greater mon- works of artists then living—and the desire to etary reward if it could be made to appear attribute works of art to particular schools, stu- that it dated from the time of ancient Rome. dios, epochs, or individuals. The intangible or Another common theme emerges: Both conceptual authenticity that was so important Lorenzo and Michelangelo were unwittingly during the medieval period assumes a lesser cheated out of the real value of the sculpture status, as the aesthetic, historical, and material by a middleman. Cardinal Raffaele Riario authenticity of works of art become valorized. (1461–1521), to whom Lorenzo had sold it, In terms of copies of works of Renaissance discovered that it was a fraud, but he was so masters by other contemporaries, there are impressed by the quality of the sculpture that several famous anecdotes. For example, ac- he invited the artist to Rome. There are slight cording to Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574), variants of this story. Michelangelo (1475–1564) was able to copy There were many imitations and copies of drawings so well that he kept the originals artists’ work by others. Carlo Cesare Malvasia and returned his copies, which he smoked (1616–1693) mentions imitations of drawings to make them appear old. Depositing fine by Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Raphael, 1483– carbonaceous particles from smoke or soot 1520) made by Denis Calvaert (1540–1619), mimics the surface degradation of age, a tech- who smoked them (Jones and Penny 1987) nique that has been much used by art forg- and sold them as originals to Cardinal d’Es- ers over the centuries. Vasari (1912–1915) te (1509–1572). Luca Giordano (1634–1705) defended the aesthetic power of copies be- produced copies of works by (1518– cause of the desire of “modern artists” such 1594) and was well-known as a painter with as Michelangelo to equal the attainments of many styles of imitation (De Los Cobos 2010). the . Vasari writes: “Modern works, if Carlo Maratta (1625–1713) painted copies of they be excellent, are as good as the ancient. works by Andrea Sacchi (1625–1713) (Harris What greater vanity is there than that those 1978), and Pierre Mignard (Le Romain, 1612– who concern themselves more with the name 1695) (Boyer 2008) produced imitations of than the fact?” Guido Reni (1575–1642) (Salvy 2001). During the half year he spent in Florence, Spear (1989) mentions Shearman’s (1965) Michelangelo worked on two small statues, study of Andrea del Sarto’s (1486–1530) a child Saint John the Baptist and a sleeping workshop organization and his conclusion Cupid. According to Ascanio Condivi (1524– that no single, primary autographic version 1574), Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici of each painting existed but only a series of (1449–1492), for whom Michelangelo had multiple “originals.” The same problems are sculpted Saint John the Baptist, asked that found with Paolo Veronese’s (1528–1588) Michelangelo “fix it so that it looked as if it bottega, where wanting “a Veronese” and an had been buried” so that he could “send it to “original” might not have been the same

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thing because of the nature of the workshop past. The view that aesthetic appreciation is practices of Veronese. the only means of judging the value of iden- A well-known case of copying that de- tical copies has been called “radical aestheti- scended into forgery concerned Albrecht cism” by Lenain (2013:22), since it relies on Dürer (1471–1528), who became furious at the assimilation of artistic value into aesthetic inauthentic copies of woodcut prints bear- quality, independent of any other qualities of ing his famous monogram, which had also the work of art. been forged. Twice he went to court over The various arguments pertaining to cop- this copying, once in Nuremberg and once ies and replicas continue to haunt us today. in Venice. The Venetian case was brought Was Raimondi attempting to sell his copies against Marcantonio Raimondi (1480– of Dürer woodcut prints as the work of Dürer circa 1534), who had copied Dürer’s wood- himself? Or did he declare that he had copied cut series The Life of the Virgin, including his them so well and here they were for purchase, famous “AD” monogram (Pon 2004). The judge for yourself? Were they examples of Venice court ruled that Raimondi could con- appropriation art in the manner of Sherry tinue to copy the woodcuts but was forbid- Levine? Were they produced with the inten- den to add the monogram. Legal protection tion to pay homage to Dürer? The circum- was therefore accorded to the monogram, the stances of the copying cannot be divorced signature of the artist, but not to the act of from the authenticity of the final product, and copying the art produced by Dürer per se. the intention of the copyist in these determi- The woodcuts would have enabled multiple nations of authenticity cannot be divorced copies to be printed from each block, and from the way in which they have come to be the signature of the artist was usually added regarded. in the block itself, so that it was integral to the printed edition. It is this that Raimondi The Mona Lisa and Her Instantiations would have been instructed not to add. In The subject of copies forms a good introduc- this connection, Lisa Pon’s discussion of the tion to the exemplar of the Mona Lisa, one differentiation between conferred privileges of the most contested, performative, inter- and the modern notion of copyright is of in- preted, and copied works of art in the world terest (see Pon 2004:39–41, 43). Any signa- (Sassoon 2001). According to Vasari (1912– tures added after the event, unless signed in 1915), started painting the block on the printed version, were usually the work in 1503 and finished it in 1507. The regarded as unreliable or inauthentic and in original is in the Louvre. Stolen in 1911, it modern terms might render the print of no was smuggled into Italy and hidden in a value whatsoever. broom cupboard. It was placed on display in a Although the Renaissance brought to the small gallery at the Uffizi in Florence in 1913, fore the concept of the artistic genius whose before its return to the Louvre that year. The work was original to himself or herself and, foreign sojourn was an opportunity for crit- ideally, was executed solely by the artist, this ics to claim that the authenticity of the 1913 period was also one in which a copy was not returned version was suspect and that the necessarily regarded as a denigration of art authorities had been duped by a fake Mona per se, continuing the theme of the ancient Lisa (Volle et al. 2006). Not many people now

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regard these claims as viable, although they quoted as saying, “It was really the first time continued into the 1930s. Technical studies that we have this kind of position of the arm of the Louvre original version have shown and after Leonardo, thousands of painters that Leonardo employed his sfumato tech- have made a copy of this position but with- nique in very thin layers, built up gradually to out understanding why we have this position. complete the image. The 30 layers he applied The real justification of the position of the were cumulatively only 40 microns thick, or wrist is to hold the blanket on her stomach.” about half the thickness of a human hair (de Joanna Woods-Marsden (personal communi- Viguerie 2009). cation 2014) points out that the word blanket Applied varnishes had apparently caused in this context is not correct and that it should the painting to darken by the sixteenth cen- be drapery. Cotte, the founder of Lumiere tury (Mohen et al. 2006). An aggressive res- Technology, has been able to re-create the toration was carried out in 1809. It involved appearance of prior versions of the painting cleaning and revarnishing the painting and by means of multispectral imaging. Lumiere might have removed the eyelashes and most Technology states (2006) that “touchless mul- of the eyebrows. Removed from its original tispectral imaging makes possible the virtual frame and cut down in size, the poplar wood removal of the varnish.” on which the oil paint was applied warped, After this study, the physical condition of and a crack appeared in the painting. It was the painting was the same as it was before. The infilled and retouched. In 1906 more re- important detail of what her left hand is hold- touchings, using watercolor, were made. ing cannot be seen visually but was revealed After the theft of 1911, during which further by multispectral imaging. This feature of the damage to the masterpiece occurred, more painting could probably be seen by the unaid- watercolor restorations were made to the re- ed eye if the Mona Lisa underwent the usual covered work. In 1951 two walnut butterfly chemical cleaning processes used in modern braces were inserted in the painting’s back. conservation, which could drastically alter the In 1952 the varnish in the background was visual appearance of the work by removing evened out in yet another restoration cam- layers of discolored varnish, which probably paign, and in 1956, after an insane Bolivian obscure the drapery held in her hand. man threw a stone at the painting, damage to Apart from the innumerable sixteenth- to the left elbow was retouched with watercol- eighteenth-century copies of the Mona Lisa or (McMullen 1975; Sassoon 2001). In 1970, (Wikipedia 2012), have any required further cross braces were added to keep the poplar study to determine whether they are direct- from warping further. Today, the painting can ly connected to Leonardo da Vinci? There be observed through bulletproof glass. are two: the prosaically named Isleworth In 2006 a series of scientific investigations Mona Lisa and the Prado Mona Lisa (Asmus were carried out on the Louvre version. An 1989; Bailey 2012; Brooks 2013; Syson 2011; infrared reflectography image showed that Woods-Marsden 2014). the fingers of the left hand were originally The Isleworth Mona Lisa is named for the painted in a slightly different position than in location of the collection formed by Hugh the final work, the result of drapery held in Blaker, who discovered the painting in 1913 the hand. Pascal Cotte (CNN News 2007) is (a significant year forMona Lisas given what

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Figure 8.1. The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, 1503–1506. Oil on poplar; 77 x 53 cm (possibly cut down slightly and remarkably similar to the dimensions of the Mona Lisa in Figure 8.2). Louvre Museum. (Image in the public domain)

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happened to the Louvre original). This ver- (personal communication 2014) as quite er- sion ended up in a Swiss bank vault, kept un- roneous, as the Prado version reveals nothing der wraps for 40 years. The brushwork was of the kind. Recent restoration work on the studied by American scientist John Asmus Prado copy, which formerly had a very dark (1989) and found to be the same as that on background, has shown that this is all over- the Louvre version. Alfonso Rubino, an paint. It had been assumed that the Prado Italian expert on Leonardo’s geometric style, copy was a sixteenth-century version on oak, states that the work conforms to the basic line but a reevaluation shows the panel to be wal- structure used by the artist (Brooks 2013). nut, a wood lauded by Leonardo for its supe- These conclusions have not been general- rior properties. ly accepted, and Martin Kemp, a prominent A study by infrared reflectography inter- Leonardo scholar, has denounced the work estingly revealed an underdrawing very simi- as having “so much wrong with it” (Brooks lar to that of the version in the Louvre, show- 2013). Woods-Marsden (personal commu- ing that the two works must have originated nication 2014) states that it hardly merits from Leonardo’s studio and that the Prado consideration in the same terms as the Prado version is not a sixteenth-century copy as version, as it is so obviously not the work of was formerly believed. Ana Gonzalez Mozo, Leonardo. Undeterred, the Swiss-based Art from the Prado Conservation Department, Foundation has recently undertaken a radio- described it as a “high-quality work” (Bailey carbon dating of the canvas, which shows that 2012) and presented additional evidence that it dates from 1410 to 1455, apparently refuting it was undertaken in Leonardo’s studio be- the claim that it is a sixteenth-century copy tween 1503 and 1506. Mohen et al. (2006) (Brooks 2013). However, if art connoisseurs propose that the painting was produced cannot accept the quality of the work as be- by one of two pupils of Leonardo—either ing by Leonardo, it remains an inauthentic Andrea Salai (1480–1524) or Franseco Melzi copy, perhaps a later version on a reused fif- (1491–1570). teenth-century canvas, which would help ex- The Prado version, like the multispectral plain the radiocarbon date. So scientific con- re-creations by Pascal Cotte, shows that the noisseurship of the pigments, binding media, sky and background were not green, as cur- underdrawing, and technique would be re- rently seen in the Louvre version, but were quired to advance the argument any further originally blue. What is it that our authen- to match the art historical connoisseurship. tic Mona Lisa should deliver? To be seen as On the other hand, the version in the she appears now, under layers of discolored Prado, shown in Figure 8.2, was always varnish? With her original blue background, known as a copy made at a time quite close to now altered by degradation to a green-blue that of the original work. Comparisons of the restored? With her eyelashes? Apparently not hairstyles in the two versions have been made holding anything? There are four principal to clear up the assertion that Mona Lisa was issues here: the processes of degradation wearing a kind of bonnet or had her hair par- that the original materials used by Leonardo tially secured in a bun, with only a few strands have undergone; the corresponding inabili- falling around her face (Mohen et al. 2006), ty of cleaning to return the painting to its an argument described by Woods-Marsden “original state”; alterations that have taken

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Figure 8.2. The Prado Mona Lisa after cleaning and digital remastering. Oil on panel; 76.3 x 57 cm. Prior to the restoration, the background was almost black. The cleaning revealed a version much clos- er to Leonardo da Vinci’s, with very similar underdrawing. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Escarlati)

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place as a result of ill-advised cleaning in creations that survived into the Renaissance 1809; and the problem of differentiation be- from ancient Greek, Roman, or medieval an- tween the grimy yellowed varnish and origi- tecedents. Artistic practice in the Renaissance nal degraded materials underneath. often sought to combine medieval motifs The weather-beaten authentic appear- with revived antiquities, with the medieval ance is what is left to us today. This is not sometimes already a pastiche of ancient and what the painting looked like when it was medieval components, variously interpreted made by Leonardo, and since it cannot be by collectors and their restorers to produce cleaned without occasioning an internation- a new artwork. Princes and rulers erected al controversy, the work has to be left in the halls of fame to the 12 Caesars, described in discolored and obscured condition it pres- the writings of Suetonius (Gaius Suetonius ently manifests. Tranquillus, circa 69–circa 122 C.E.), which Because public furor would result if the vi- were copies and replicas from casts. Seymour sual condition of the Mona Lisa was interfered Howard (1991:201) writes: with in any way to render the work more “au- thentic” to the aims of the original artist, it Among the early Renaissance docu- is simply left as is, with dirty and obscuring ments, the inventory of Guglielmo Della varnish layers. The painting is additionally Porta’s studio-galleries is especially in- obscured by its veil of bulletproof glass. formative for its contents of ancient and However, for the purposes of display, a modern works, including casts, to be very high-quality digital copy could be ex- used for study and emulations by art- hibited adjacent to the present painting. The ists, as well as for purchase by collectors. original would remain in its present condition, Inexpensive casts helped to disseminate but with the aid of new multispectral imaging the taste for antiquities, including por- technologies, a virtually cleaned Mona Lisa trait busts. As we know, the great model could be exhibited, showing a blue sky, not a collections of dynastic rulers of church green one, and with the dirty varnish coating and state were succeeded by national and removed, so that viewers can see what her left ecclesiastical museums for the public. hand is holding. Since very little of the pres- ent-day Mona Lisa can actually be discerned The desire for the antique was so pervasive through her glass encasement, this approach that casts and copies had to be made to sup- would offer a version of the remnant material ply the greatly increased demand, which out- authenticity of the work—of what it looked stripped the availability of original works. This like closer to the time of creation, even if total gave rise to two archetypal attitudes, common recall of such an existence cannot be made. to our own time as well as the Renaissance, the latter reviewed by Muller (1989), especially The Renaissance: Copies and the as regards the concept of authenticity as for- Emulation of the Past mulated in the early literature of Renaissance Part of the essential artistic inquiry of the connoisseurship. One attitude sought to iso- Renaissance was the nature of the antique and late the qualities that separated originals from how the invigoration of modern art of its time copies and dismissed the latter as inferior or could be inspired by the ideals and artistic inauthentic works, valorizing the originals.

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The other recognized the value of copies and warning that if a copy were struck with a die attempted to differentiate the instantiations of and covered with a false patina, only the eye them in terms of type, quality, and production, of the connoisseur would be capable of deter- defending the usefulness of their function in mining the quality of the coin and arriving at spreading the appreciation of art and the an- the truth. In fact, Vico discerns that notable tique among a wider public. Echoes of con- differences between artists are most visible in cerns for endless copies pervade the postmod- details “in the master’s style and in the exe- ern as well (Krauss 1985). cution of hair, ears, hands, and folds of drap- Muller (1989) contends that the demand ery and similar things” (Muller 1989). These for authenticity is obvious from at least the themes were taken up by connoisseurs, from sixteenth century, when Vasari was writing his Morelli to Berenson, in centuries to come. famous accounts of the lives and paintings of Felipe de Guevara (circa 1560) discussed the artists of his time (Lenain 2011). One of originals and imitations of Hieronymus the theses of this book is that concerns for au- Bosch (1450–1516) in his Comentarios de la thenticity stretch back very much further than pintura and advised the reader to beware of the Renaissance, that Muller’s view is a very the countless forgeries, a matter that is still parochial one that ignores thousands of years causing trouble: Marijnissen (1985) mentions of human history. It is true, however, that the three different types of underdrawings in increased desire for understanding of materi- works attributed to Bosch, which is unusual al authenticity led to a rise in concerns over since an artist normally has a distinctive style attribution and hence to art connoisseurship, as evidenced by the underdrawing. Giulio although one could argue that attribution is- Mancini (1558–1630), a noted physician and sues and comparative assessments of artistic writer on art, was among the first to discuss the quality go back at least to the work of Pliny. problem of literal copies in his Considerazional In terms of the Renaissance era, on January of about 1620, in which he cautions buyers to 5, 1532, Marcantonio Michiel visited the house determine if a painting is an original or mere- of Antonio Pasqualino in Venice. Here he ob- ly a copy (Radnóti 1999). Mancini sought ma- served a picture by Giorgio da Castelfranco terial signs of the authenticity of the paintings (Giorgione, 1470–1510) that had been ob- in his own collection and mentions as worthy tained from Messer Giovanni Ram, who pos- of examination hairs, beards, ringlets of hair, sessed a copy of the same work, thinking it was and the spirited and scattered highlights that the original (Klein and Zerner 1990). One of a master renders with one stroke of the brush. these two versions may now be housed in the Mancini’s work was available in manuscript collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum copies for centuries but not in published form in Vienna; which one is unclear. until 1956. Muller (1989) mentions Enea Vico’s By the end of the seventeenth century, the Discorsi of 1555 on coins, which contains correspondence between freedom of touch an entire chapter devoted to forgeries and and authenticity was becoming widely rec- copies. Vico writes that a skillful modern ognized. Lenain (2013) writes that Abraham copy presents difficult problems in terms of Bosse (1604–1676), an engraver and theo- authenticity and illustrates a supposedly an- retician, was the first to challenge the view cient Roman sesterces with a head of Nero, that a copy could equal the original and be

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mistaken for it. Filippo Baldicinni, in his let- Boethus Herm of Dionysus, a bronze herm ter on painting of 1681, describes “the univer- found in the Mahdia shipwreck (circa 80 sal rule of more or less boldness in handling” B.C.E.), Wallace-Hadrill (2008:364) writes: by which one can differentiate originals from copies. This is what great forgers such as Eric Far from seeking individuality and orig- Hebborn (1991) tried to emulate: bold and inality in taking distance from the tools spontaneous lines in the style of the master of copying, the Greek artist stamps his rather than fussy attempts to create exactly mark in the variation on a theme. The the same lines as the original, concepts that fact that the Boethus Herm had already had already been enunciated by Dionysius of been used before shipping overseas sug- Halicarnassus in the early decades B.C.E. gests that it was not simply the Roman Mancini’s work honors him as the intel- market that stimulated the practice of lectual ancestor of Giovanni Morelli (1816– multiple copying, but that this was a fea- 1891), who is much better known. He ex- ture of the Hellenistic artistic landscape amined the ways artists represented hands, they could exploit. fingers, hair, beards, and eyes and stated that a painting boldly and spontaneously painted Of course, this had always been true of in- could not be effectively copied. Nevertheless, directly cast bronze sculptures, as opposed to Mancini allows for a copy of a work to be those directly cast, since an original model in made so well that it cannot readily be distin- wood or clay would not have been damaged guished from the original (Radnóti 1999). in the process of reproduction. Hence these Roman versions of original Greek sculp- can be seen as legitimate copies from a master ture might not be viewed pejoratively in the model. Wallace-Hadrill (2008:364) contin- ancient world, whereas an ersatz version of ues: “We thus move away from a picture of such an original produced today might very Romans ignorantly plundering and then de- well be viewed as something inauthentic. The basing an innocent world of Greek pure aes- validation of ancient artworks and their cop- thetics to a more complex picture of Romans ies essentially continues right through the participating in a Hellenistic context in which Renaissance and beyond, without condem- art in multiples already serves a world of lux- nation of the imitations or reproductions as ury.” This may be true, but it tends to gloss being examples of forgery, a viewpoint very over the numerous forgeries produced in an- different from the late modern, so that even cient Rome that would have been sold to less the very notion of forgery in earlier centu- wealthy or less discriminating buyers, while at ries might be a misleading concept. Andrew the same time outstanding reproductions in Wallace-Hadrill (2008) highlights the cul- marble were produced from admired Greek tural milieu in which such copies existed in bronze original versions for the cognoscenti. his work Rome’s Cultural Revolution. Despite That trend continued. Radnóti (1999) draws the title, the volume does not really engage attention to the outstanding achievement of in a discussion of numerous copies of Greek Bernard de Montfançon, whose collection of works by the Romans and how these might 40,000 antique reproductions was published elaborate the story of the revolution of in 10 volumes between 1719 and 1724. Roman achievement. In connection with the Francesco Primaticcio (1504–1570) and

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the young Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (1507– art or as appreciatory emissaries of the orig- 1573) were both commissioned to make plas- inals. Marco Boschini (1613–1678) wrote in ter copies for Francis I of France (1494–1547). 1674 that if copies are truly deceptive, then David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690) was they are laudable deceptions and worthy of in the service of Archduke Leopold William envy. As an example he points to Giovanni of Austria (1614–1662) as a copier of the work Battista Zampezzi (circa 1620–1700), who of other artists (Radnóti 1999). Some works, “when it comes to transforming himself into such as the Spinario, were copied extensively Bassano, surpasses all others, so that his copies for centuries. Radnóti (1999:79) writes: appear to be twins of the originals, and this is the most difficult style to imitate because it is The famous Spinario, the earliest plas- executed with so bold a touch” (Sohm 1991). tic and miniature variations of which are Freedom of handling, which had been per- dated back to the eleventh–twelfth cen- ceived as the most reliable mark of authentic- tury, initially the terracotta copies from ity, was now a sign of the copyist’s virtuosity. the provinces formed the model, rather Muller (1989) does not agree with Benjamin’s than the prototype for the Capitoleum. assumption that degrees of authenticity were In the Medieval period it was the symbol primarily graded in response to the intro- of (March the month when peo- duction of reproductive printing processes, ple started to walk ) then it be- which Benjamin thought struck at the root came a favorite subject for small plastics of the quality of authenticity by placing in in the Renaissance, and survived all the doubt the uniqueness of the original. Muller way into the 18th–19th century, when it (1989) thinks that the workshop production had some variants such as erotic female of replicas and the flood of good copies in thorn-pullers. the Renaissance raised the problem already, independently of prints. Following that line Artist Jonathan Richardson the Elder of argument, it could then be claimed that the (1667–1745), in his discourses on the whole problems had already become evident by the art of criticism (Harloe 2013) as it relates time the Romans began to produce numerous to painting, showed how to judge “of the copies of original Greek works of art. Goodness of a picture; II Of the Hand of the Master; and III Whether ’tis an Original or Renaissance Restoration a Copy.” Richardson says that copies are dif- The impact of restoration on ancient mar- ferent from originals for three reasons. First, ble sculptures and how their identities or they are one step removed from nature—the changing contexts affect their authentici- echo of an echo. Second, copyists will be un- ty has already been discussed. During the familiar with, and at pains to imitate convinc- Renaissance, starting in the sixteenth centu- ingly, the customary styles of original artists. ry, some of the earliest restorations of major Third, copies are made under the constraint works of art from ancient Rome took place. of their models, whereas originals are execut- One could almost say that in differentiating ed with license. the Renaissance from earlier European par- One of the effects of the discussion of cop- adigm shifts, the act of restoration of an- ies was to affirm the value of them as works of cient artifacts in their own right was one of

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the period’s defining characteristics. Reuse, represents either Hercules or Polyphemus. reappropriation, and spolia of architectural Legend has it that Pope Julius II (1443–1513) fragments occurred in previous epochs and requested that Michelangelo complete the works of art were given new identities, but fragmentary statue with new arms, legs, and restoration of a work of art qua admired art head. He respectfully declined, stating that it was uncommon. was too beautiful to be altered, and instead In the Renaissance, restoration of sculp- he used it as inspiration for several of his fig- ture was a means to complete the work of art ures in the Sistine Chapel, including the sib- to improve its aesthetic appeal—a process yls and prophets bordering the ceiling. The that involved an interpretation of the posi- Belvedere Torso remained one of the few an- tioning of added fragments or the reassembly cient sculptural fragments admired through- and possible recarving or recasting of missing out the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries elements rather than a faithful reproduction and through the Mannerist and Baroque pe- of whatever was actually broken (Conti and riods (Howard 1991:210). The fragment was Longhi 1973:33). The original material au- regarded as expressing a sense of grace and thenticity of the artwork was therefore often power “not despite, but because of its frag- compromised. Invariably, the missing parts mented state” (Barkan 1990:189), although were completely invented by the restorer, this idea was usually reversed and employed who was usually a sculptor or artist, more against the fragment as an argument for com- or less famous, to increase the value of the pletion of an image of the whole. original sculpture and improve its already ex- More commonly, sixteenth-century resto- isting beauty or “grace” (Conti and Longhi ration sought to create an aesthetic unity from 1973:33). an assembly of old fragmentary remnants and The same approach pertained to paintings, newly carved components, with subsequent many of which were retouched, overpainted, patination of the surfaces to disguise the work or altered to suite the taste of the times. But of the restorer. The original marble was often few paintings survived from the ancient past chiseled and polished for better adherence into the Renaissance, which is why the resto- with the new additions, which were usually ration practices discussed here are principally fabricated from marble of different geological concerned with marble sculpture. origins. The finished work was patinated with The attitude of the restorer was “a mix of a variety of methods to impart “the ancient self-confidence, hubris and leadership, along color” (Conti and Longhi 1973:37). with feelings of admiration camaraderie, fra- The creative restorations of great masters ternity and equality, in his ambitious creative such as Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti improvisation” Howard (1990:19). The most (1475–1564) and Giovanni Lorenzo famous exception involved Michelangelo (1598–1680) represented the concept of au- himself and the story of the Belvedere Torso, thenticity of their time, one could almost say a broken fragment of a nude male, signed examples of adaptive reuse for the cultural on the front of the base “Apollonios, son of norms then prevalent. The additions they Nestor, Athenian.” Now in the Museo Pio- made, even if proportionally correct, were Clementino of the Vatican Museums, it prob- invariably completely foreign to the origi- ably dates from the first century B.C.E. and nal meaning and iconography of the ancient

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sculptures. The apparent necessity to give a title to a work of art, directly related to the ne- cessity of its completeness, led to the creation of something completely new, a pastiche of modern art and ancient fragment, a creation of the contemporary master that, as creator and Homo ludens, “imposes its own condi- tion,” revealing “his notion of beauty, what he finds worthwhile and life-giving.” With res- toration he “subjectively reviewed the work of art” (Howard 1990:17). This can be seen as a different intention than the supposed an- onymity that the famous eighteenth-century sculptor Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1716–1799), responsible for the extensive restoration of many sculptures (Podany 1994a; 2003), stat- ed as his aim. Supposedly, this typified the more modern approach to restoration prac- tices (Howard 1990:24), where the intention of the restorer is not to assume the same cre- ative power of the original artist.

The Ludovisi Ares Figure 8.3. The Ludovisi Ares, a Roman copy An example of the issues surrounding the after a lost Greek original from circa 320 B.C.E., authentic appearance of sculpture is the restored with Cupid and sword in Carrara marble Ludovisi Ares, a marble copy from the by Gianlorenzo Bernini in 1622. Pentelic marble; height 1.56 m. The completed composition is Antonine period of an original Greek work, a fiction by Bernini, sometimes shown in later associated with well-known artists such as reproductions without the Cupid and sword and Skopas and Lysippos (Haskell and Penny sometimes with. (Image courtesy of Marie-Lan 1981; Marvin 2003) and now displayed at the Nguyen. Licensed by Wikimedia Commons) Altemps Palace, part of the in Rome. It was acquired by the Ludovisi family in 1622. appropriate in every case as it symbolized In the same year, the sculpture was re- the submission to love (Haskell and Penny stored by Bernini, who added, among other 1981). There is no documentation or other things, a hilt and a Cupid, which accorded evidence that could justify its presence in the with the Baroque taste of that period (Haskell group. Public reactions regarding the resto- and Penny 1981:260). The sculpture was rations were varied. In the bronze copy made originally recognized as an Adonis in the by Giovanni Francesco Susini (1587–1653) in restoration document in 1622. Subsequently the seventeenth century (Haskell and Penny its identity changed to a seated and 1981:260), as well as in the print collection of later a seated Mars; the added Cupid seemed engravings Raccolta di statue antiche e modern,

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published in 1704 by Paolo Alessandro Maffei about the wooden horse sent by the Greeks (1653–1716), the restorations do not appear, (Beard 2013). This sculpture, one of the most which could be viewed as a new hermeneutic famous and controversial works of art with approach to past restorations and the nature regard to its authenticity, provenance, and of their authenticity. restoration, owes some of its fame to the cir- On the other hand, the restorations led to cumstances of its discovery. It was found in a many theories regarding the identity of the fragmentary state in 1506 near Santa Maria statue, which helped spread its fame (Giometti Maggiore during excavations in the vineyard 2012:228; Haskell and Penny 1981:159). In of Felice de Fredis (Haskell and Penny 1981; three portraits of rich English Lords paint- Volpe and Parisi 2013). The sculpture imme- ed by Pompeo Batoni (1708–1787) in the diately drew the attention of the most famous late eighteenth century—Portrait of John sculptors of the time. Pope Julius II sent Talbot, Portrait of John Staples, and Portrait of Giuliano da Sangallo (circa 1445–1516) to Anthony Ashley-Cooper—the statue is repre- look at the sculpture (Barkan 1990; Brilliant sented as complete, with the hilt and Cupid, 2000; Haskell and Penny 1981:243; Settis meaning that appreciation for the sculpture 1999). He recognized it as il Laocoonte di cui fa was not diminished by the inauthentic sev- menzione Plinio. In a passage often quoted by enteenth-century restorations. The additions Renaissance scholars, Pliny specifically men- are still maintained today and will probably tions that an ancient and much-admired mar- not be removed, even though they cannot be ble sculpture, the Laocoön, had been created distinguished from the original. They repre- by three related artists (Book XXXVI. iv. 37): sent a part of the history of the sculpture and the beliefs of European culture of past cen- Such is the case with the Laocoön, for turies. The ethics of revealing the original in example, in the palace of the Emperor terms of conservation theory or practice and Titus, a work that may be looked upon as the desire for the authenticity of the fragment preferable to any other production of the have been overruled by the historical regard art of painting or of [bronze] statuary. It for the past and the altered biography of the is sculptured from a single block, both the sculpture. Here conceptual and aesthetic au- main figure as well as the children, and the thenticity are considered more important serpents with their marvellous folds. This than the material authenticity of the original. group was made in concert by three most eminent artists, Agesander, Polydorus, The Laocoön and Athenodorus, natives of Rhodes. The Laocoön is a good example of authen- ticity problems in terms of its contested, As is common with debates concern- fragmented, and performative states, as the ing the nature of an “original” work of art, account below reveals. The Laocoön is dis- it may be that the “original” illustrated in played in the Belvedere Courtyard at the Figure 8.4 is in fact a marble copy of a lost Vatican Museums and represents the Trojan earlier bronze original or of a marble version priest Laocoön and his children, who were that was already altered in antiquity, but that strangled to death by snakes as a divine pun- will never be known for certain. When the ishment for having tried to warn the Trojans sculpture was discovered, as shown by early

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representations, it was missing the right arm researched by Catterson. The carving Apostle of the father, the right arm and lower leg of Matthew, which Michelangelo began shortly the eldest child, and the fingers of the young- after the discovery of the Laocoön, is held by est child (Bober et al. 2010:153). The greatest Catterson (2005) to have been started before problem for the restorers was in the render- the Laocoön and is therefore a conceptual link ing of the arm of the father, understood since to the creation of the forged Laocoön rather its discovery as a bent arm, as demonstrated than a work inspired by the Laocoön itself. by a wax version fabricated by Bartolommeo Catterson (2005) also produces evidence to Bandinelli (1493–1560) between 1520 and show that Michelangelo had ordered more 1525 (Conti and Longhi 1973:33; Haskell and marble blocks than the known sculptures that Penny 1981:246). The wax arm of Bandinelli could have been carved from them, that there was substituted with a terra-cotta version by was no shortage of Greek marble available Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli (1493–1560), in Rome, that receipts for monies due were and representations since 1540 depict the in excess of amounts that could reasonably Laocoön with the new arm diagonally be accounted for, and that this Laocoön was stretched upward, which became the canon- not the first to be found: In 1488 Lorenzo de’ ical image until the nineteenth century. Medici (1449–1492) received a letter from The restoration was so regarded that agents in Rome telling him about their ef- when Agostino Cornacchini (1686–1754) re- forts to acquire “three beautiful little fauns placed the terra-cotta arm with one in mar- on a marble base, all three encircled by a ble in 1725–1727, he fabricated an identical great snake,” without the male figure, which copy to that used in the old restoration. In Michelangelo could have used for a model for 1906 Ludwig Pollack (1868–1943) found the the forgery. missing original marble arm, unearthed in the Although Michelangelo was certainly ca- same place as the Laocoön, in the shop of a pable of forging drawings (which he passed Roman stonecutter. This arm was regarded as off as originals) as well as marbles, there is a forgery and thought by art historians to be a considerable doubt about the veracity of copy made by Pollack himself. It was not un- Catterson’s thesis, which is not accepted by til 1950 that it was recognized as the authentic many other Renaissance scholars, despite the original by museum authorities, at which point suspicions she raises concerning the sequence the sculpture was de-restored and then rere- of events in Michelangelo’s life at the time. stored with the original arm by the restorer The authenticity of the Laocoön cannot be Filippo Magi, who also modified the position solved by an art-historical debate. Once of the elder son, now moved farther from the something has been condemned as a forgery, father (Haskell and Penny 1981:246). it is often difficult to resuscitate its unsullied There were even suggestions, as late as reputation. In the case of the Laocoön, it may 2005, that the entire sculpture, far from be- be possible, through scientific connoisseur- ing an ancient Roman original, was in fact ship, to show beyond reasonable doubt that a forgery created by Michelangelo to accu- the sculpture is not a forgery by Michelangelo mulate yet more wealth (Catterson 2005). but an ancient masterpiece, although there This startling claim is based on a number seems to be no current impetus to undertake of circumstantial evidential factors, carefully this study.

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Figure 8.4. The derestored version of the Laocoön with the right forearm and earlier restorations of the arms of the boys removed, and with adjustments to the positions of the figures. The original work was described as a masterpiece by Pliny. The marble version may be a copy after a Hellenistic original, or from an earlier bronze original. Thought to date from about 200 BC, in the collection of the Pio- Clementino Museum at the Vatican in Rome (Inv 1059-1064-1067). Height 2.4 m. (Photograph courtesy of Marie-Lan Nguyen, 2009, licensed by Wikimedia Commons)

The statement of Giuliano da Sangallo, masterpiece” (Brilliant 2000:30). Thanks to the correspondence of the place of the ex- the expressive power of the carved bodies and cavation with that mentioned by Pliny, and the variety and intensity of emotion expressed the existence of such an important historical by the composition of the figures, the sculp- reference “allowed the conversion of mar- ture soon became an emblem of pain and ble pieces into an artwork . . . and bestowed suffering, an exemplum doloris, that was able on the reconstituted Laocoön the status of a to inspire an empathetic, corporal-emotional

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Figure 8.5. A restored version of the Laocoön as it appeared prior to 1950. The discovery in 1906 by Ludwig Pollak of the ‘missing’ arm of the father (which had been separated from the sculpture) was dismissed as a copy made by Pollak himself, until the authorities realized it was ancient. Which sculpture is more authentic to the aims of the original artist? The version without restorations, or the restored one? (Image courtesy of euratlas.com)

response (Brilliant 2000:33). Wide apprecia- masterpiece. Michelangelo, who was pres- tion of the work led to the creation of numer- ent at the moment of its identification, was ous copies, drawings, and poems. probably involved in the initial restoration, The production of so many copies man- as many references to the marble group exist ifests the desire for appropriation of the in his work. In effect, he established “a kind conceptual authenticity of the work as well of ownership of the image” and “his own as engenders competition with the ancient personal vision will in a short time make it

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impossible for his contemporaries (and us) to Antonio (1757–1822), who lobbied for look at the Laocoön except as always having its restitution (Haskell and Penny 1981:114). been a work by Michelangelo. . . . The great Bandinelli’s replica, which was often itself sculptural forms that he created out of this copied and distributed in the form of small inspiration, are not imitation but responses to bronzes, is in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, the a set of qualities in the Laocoön that he has pope having decided that it was too good to himself defined,” thus “his status canonizes send to Francis I as originally intended. Instead the vision while rendering it almost inimi- Francis I was sent a bronze casting, made at table” (Barkan 1990:14). In view of the con- Fontainebleau, from a mold taken from the tention by Catterson that the entire work is a original under the supervision of Primaticcio, forgery by Michelangelo, Barkan’s statement which is now in the Musée du Louvre. Many that Michelangelo assumed a kind of owner- copies are still extant; a well-known one is in ship has ironic overtones. the Grand Palace of the Knights of Saint John The appropriation of the sculpture’s im- in Rhodes. Some still show the earlier version age by Michelangelo as an expressive vehicle of the restoration (Brilliant 2000). and his authority as an inventor of expressive The facts concerning the arm and its be- body imagery transformed the Laocoön into lated discovery seem opposed to the view by “the mainstream of Renaissance and baroque Catterson (2005) that the entire sculpture art and led to the creation of the ‘Laocoönic’ should be regarded as a forgery. It makes little motif, or ‘Laocoönism,’ which means an sense that Michelangelo would have carved emphasis on the mature, male body under the entire sculpture and broken off parts, such stress whether incomplete (as in the case of as the arm found in 1906, leaving parts lying the Belvedere Torso) or restored” (Brilliant about the area as additional original work by 2000:38). Bandinelli, who also carried out res- himself. The more reasonable conclusion is toration on the sculpture, was commissioned that the late discovery of the missing arm is to make a life-size marble copy for the king of additional confirmation of the authenticity France, Francis I, who had demanded that the of the sculpture as an ancient work. In fact, pope give the original to him or at least “one so the rerestoration of the Laocoön took place like that there shall be no difference” (Barkan about the same time as the discovery of four 1990:10). Bandinelli boasted that he could fragmentary ancient marble sculptures un- make one that was not merely equal to but earthed from the seaside grotto of Sperlonga even surpassing the perfection of the original. (Brilliant 2000:10), a coastal town between The Laocoön was considered “exchange- Rome and Naples, which had formed part able for diplomatic goods and services and of a lavish villa belonging to the Emperor also interchangeable with other Laocoöns” Tiberius (42 B.C.E.–37 C.E.). These sculp- (Barkan 1990:34). The political symbolism of tures included Scylla’s Attack on His Ship and ownership was not lost on European sensibil- the Blinding of Polyphemus, which in their ity. In the eighteenth century, the statue was dramatic style bear a strong relationship to ripped away from its Belvedere Courtyard as the style of the Laocoön (Brilliant 2000:11). part of the Napoleonic looting of Italian mas- Remarkably, Pliny’s statement, given above, terpieces and was removed to France. It was that the Laocoön had been carved by three returned thanks to hard work on the part of eminent craftsmen of Rhodes was confirmed

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by the discovery at Sperlonga of text on part concerning the original context or the possi- of Odysseus’s ship in the Scylla group, which bility of the existence of a hypothetical original read: “Athenadorus, son of Hagesandros, prototype, which cast doubt on the meaning of Hagesandros, son of Paionios and Polydoros, the sculpture (Brilliant 2000:64–68). son of Polydoros, the Rhodians made it. There are two versions of the Laocoön on The new rerestoration of the Laocoön exhibition in the Belvedere Courtyard. One had a substantial impact on perception of the is a cast of the restoration made before 1950, sculpture and its context, as well as its dating. and the other is the version with rerestorations The result was a “heightened drama and . . made after 1950. Yet another plaster version, . implicit narrativity” (Brilliant 2000:10) and with the younger son moved farther away, is the loss of its previous relief-like composi- kept in storage in the Vatican. People’s per- tion, typical of High Renaissance restoration ception of the rerestoration is clear from the in which “the scene is not primarily a physical confusion most visitors experience in front struggle . . . but an exposition on the classic of the two Laocoöns. The cast represents the theme of tragedy: the hubris of the individual, canonical Laocoön of past centuries; many man, punished by uncompromising authority, tourists recognize this old, “still authoritative the gods . . . showing . . . from left to right and authentic” version as the original because . . . a scene of inevitable destruction” (Howard of its familiar image in older textbooks and re- 1959:368). productions, descriptions of “authorities” such The authentic relationship of the fig- as Winckelmann, and the rich literature con- ures is still in contention: Howard proposes cerning the topic. The new restoration is less a re-rerestoration to correct mistakes made appreciated and less recognizable than the tra- in the last restorations (Brilliant 1990:64; ditional Laocoön (Beard 2013; Brilliant 2000). Howard 1959:365). In this proposal, the el- The contested nature of the authenticity dest son is hidden from the scene, thanks to a of the sculpture has led Brilliant (2000:18) to rotation of 90 degrees, causing the axis from list the many instantiations of the work. The which the group should be observed to shift (modified) list includes: (1) A posited bronze by 45 degrees. This means a change in the version of the sculpture may have represent- traditional point of view of the observer, who ed the Greek original; (2) A marble copy may is now forced to turn the sculpture around have been produced by Rhodian sculptors; (3) to fully appreciate the work instead of look- The work was excavated in 1506 in a dam- ing at it from a single viewpoint. This fact, aged state and was restored, becoming ab- related to discovery of the sculpture of the sorbed into Michelangelo’s oeuvre; (4) The Sperlonga grotto, suggests that the Laocoön sculpture was praised and recontextualized by was made at the same atelier for Tiberius and Winckelmann and later art historians as part could “have been part of a complex decora- of a new inquiry into the hermeneutics of art; tive program, similar to the one at Sperlonga, (5) The sculpture was restored in the 1950s perhaps standing with other sculptures linked and is now considered to be more authentic to the story of Troy” (Volpe and Parisi 2013). in virtue of closer resemblance to instantia- These discoveries and renewed interpreta- tion 2, an intertextuality of interpretation that tions did not solve the problem of authentici- continues the discourse surrounding the work ty and dating but instead led to more debates into the twenty-first century.

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The different authenticities of the Laocoön damaged survivor of antiquity, an an- weave an interesting commentary on the three tiquity like the Vatican Laocoön, less principal authenticities enumerated in chapter and less familiar to the modern public. 2: the material, the historical/aesthetic, and This “second” Laocoön has to be seen the conceptual, as well as problems of the and seen again in order to avoid that ig- contested, performative, and fragmented norance, indifference . . . aesthetic dis- nature of our inquiries into authenticity. Even tance and lack of “adequate references” the authenticity of instantiation 2 has been diminish its aesthetical value, its pres- contested by several scholars, from Howard tige and [its] authority, so that it can re- (1959) to Catterson (2005). The performative trieve its status of masterpiece (Brilliant aspects of the Laocoön are seen in its iconic 2000:106). relationships both to Michelangelo and to Winckelmann’s powerful description of the In terms of the authenticity of display, emotive force of the sculpture. The concept of Phillips (1997) would surely have approved of Laocoönism has an independent existence qua the duality of the publicly exhibited versions the Laocoön itself. The material authenticity as an honest referent to how different states of the sculpture is contested not only because of authenticity pertain to a work of art that of arguments as to its original period of has been diachronically reinterpreted and its fabrication but also because of alterations intertextuality. To reveal how restoration has of the sculpture as a consequence of creative interacted with the remains of the original- restorations, derestorations, and rerestorations. ly fragmented work, a further series of illus- The decision of the Vatican to display the trated pictures, analogous to those provided Laocoön in its material states 3 and 5 is for Leda and the Swan in the Getty Museum laudatory, allowing the viewer to contemplate (discussed in chapter 4), should be provided. the different physical morphologies of the sculpture, which have in turn evoked a number The Farnese Herakles of responses in the canon of Western art. A final example of sculpture, the Farnese The many representations and appropria- Herakles, shares similar issues with the tions of the image in modern times gives the Laocoön, such as the existence of a hypothet- iconic work a whole range of meanings. For ical original and problems with substitutions Karl Marx (1818–1883) it was a symbol of cap- and restorations. The Farnese Herakles, a italism (Marx 2008 [1887]). For cartoonists it is huge sculpture representing a weary Herakles a symbol of political trouble. Charles resting after one of his many labors (Brilliant (1812–1870) compared it to Scrooge strug- 2005:19), was found in the Baths of Caracalla gling with his stockings. Brilliant writes that by Alessandro Farnese (1520–1589) in 1546. one of these different Laocoöns constitutes It became a valuable artwork in the collection of the wealthy Farnese family. It is now in a visible idea, not always labelled, but Naples, where it is displayed at the National whose much tested imagery is sufficient- Archaeological Museum (Haskell and Penny ly conventionalized to retain the requi- 1981:229). site effect, when applied, while the other The sculpture, according to Aldrovandi . . . presents itself only in the work, a (1522–1605), was missing both legs and

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both arms at the time of its discovery, and that the legs made by Dalla Porta be kept these were created as new restorations by “to show that works of modern sculpture Guglielmo Dalla Porta (circa 1500–1577) on can stand comparison with those of the an- the recommendation of Michelangelo. Dalla cient” (Haskell and Penny 1981:230). Thus Porta also added an apple of the Hesperides they could be “a testament to the restorer’s to enhance the meaning of the subject and ability” (Howard 1990:65). As had occurred the pose adopted, which is possibly why with the Laocoön, the opinions of authorities Winckelmann described Herakles as resting and masters such as Michelangelo had con- after fetching the apples (Howard 1990:63). siderable influence in how restoration was When the original legs were discovered undertaken. The fact that the work of Dalla in 1560, the restored legs fabricated by Dalla Porta was considered equal in skillfulness to Porta were surprisingly not removed, both that of the original artist underlines an im- because they were probably much appreci- portant aspect of the approach to authentic- ated by contemporaries and because of the ity typical of Renaissance restorations. The influence of Michelangelo, who suggested intention was not the faithful restitution of

Figure 8.6. The Farnese Herakles in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples. The sculpture shows the hero, having performed one of his last labors, getting the golden apples of the Hesperides. It is now displayed with its orig- inal legs, which turned up later, rather than with the legs carved by Guglielmo Dalla Porta around 1550, which have been lost. (Image courtesy of www. morrissmithtravels.com)

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the sculpture but the aesthetic improvement could have been a copy of a “lost original“ achievable with the newly completed work, made by the great Greek sculptor Lysippos, often finished with imaginative additions. active in the mid-fourth century B.C.E. The sixteenth-century restorer, with his abil- There are no surviving works of Lysippos. ity and his status as an artist, was able to mod- Thus the existence, the original condition, ify the work without diminishing the values and the fame over the past century of this and meanings associated with it. alleged prototype was determined only on Eighteenth-century attitudes did not ac- the phenomenological association of oth- cord with this view. In 1787 the legs carved er copies with a coherent iconography. As by Dalla Porta were removed (Haskell and Brilliant (2005:21) writes: “It would seem Penny 1981:230), and the original ones were that Lysippos’s Herakles has triumphed over restored in place by Carlo Albacini (circa Glykon’s Hercules in the agonistic confron- 1737–1807). During the eighteenth centu- tation between a hypothetical Greek original ry, interest had shifted toward a historical- and a Roman copy, as if the true ly and stylistically authentic integration of of aesthetic value were determined by the fragmentary works based on documenta- greater ‘authenticity’ of the alleged original ry information, an attitude inspired by the as marking the first entrance of the work philological work of Winckelmann in dat- and its imagery into the antique sculptur- ing Greco-Roman sculpture. Interestingly, al tradition.” The historical importance of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) replicas is also represented by the fact that commented on this restoration: “One cannot they not only instantiate unique remnants understand why, for years and years, people of a once rich culture of artistic production found the substitute one of Dalla Porta so but also record the predilections of Roman good” (Haskell and Penny 1981:230). These taste. Thus “the very process of replication, comments reflect the negative opinion that of reproduction, inevitably bore the signs of now prevails regarding the sixteenth-centu- contemporary fashion, of the requirements of ry additions. The Dalla Porta legs actually site-specific display and ” (Brilliant were lost soon after the restoration, as they 2005:21). The new sculpture, recognized as were considered “an addition in an outmoded Greek thanks to the fame of the familiar im- taste” (Howard 1991:210). age, became a completely different work of There are familiar difficulties with a hy- art, not only because it was removed from pothetical Greek original prototype, whose the original conditions, contexts, and author- presumed presence, especially evident in the ship of its first appearance but also because, past, decreases the value of a sculpture, even in the passage from bronze to marble, “new if the original has been lost or its existence is formal solutions were needed, including leg not proven by any document or other source side-props, often in the shape of tree trunks, (Brilliant 2005:21). In the case of the Farnese and supportive arm struts, not required in the Herakles, which bore the signature of Glykon, original transforming the copy to something a copyist active in Rome in the early third cen- aesthetically different as well, since it was no tury C.E., the name of the original author and longer governed by the same principles of thus its status as an authentic work of art was design that determined the reception of the overshadowed by the fact that the sculpture original” (Brilliant 2005:22).

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Restoration and the Renaissance: On the other hand, it might be argued that The Sistine Chapel Frescoes what Michelangelo actually painted himself is One of the most famous controversies con- the authentic condition of the painting, not cerning the authentic appearance of a work what is now discernible, and in that case all of art concerns Michelangelo’s frescoes on the repaint would be removed in the name of the Sistine Chapel, which generated heated revealing the authentic work of art. arguments concerning the secco additions Paul Eggert (2009) discusses in detail to the buon fresco of the ceiling, the layers of the conservation effort undertaken at the glue additions, and whether these had been Sistine Chapel as representative of the work added by Michelangelo as part of the artist’s of a generation of restorers who displayed an intention (Beck and Daley 1996; Colalucci “arrogance of its new knowledge of materi- 1987, 1997; Colalucci and Mancinelli 1983; als-science systematically destroying what it Mancinelli 1986). The removal of the animal professes to preserve.” He endorses Beck’s glue and other obscuring layers revealed a view (Beck and Daley 1996) that the newly completely different Michelangelo than that restored ceiling is a “chemical deceit” (Eggert judged as authentic by many art historians 2009:93–94). These are serious allegations prior to the cleaning. The restoration sought that deserve further debate here. to create a more authentic appearance for the The relativism of postmodernist philos- frescoes without adding the falsifications of ophies regarding conservation actions is in historical-period taste so common in the past, danger of creating a new divide between the such as naked bottoms and genitals painted scientific and humanistic approaches to con- over by more prudish generations or, as parts servation, à la C. P. Snow’s two cultures. It of Leonardo’s Last Supper had suffered in the is intellectually very fashionable to denigrate seventeenth century, being completely re- science and promote arguments based on a painted to accord with the style of the time. partisan reading of what conservators do, for As Brandi says, the restorer must refrain few conservators have the time to undertake from assuming that he can insert himself into debate in the murky waters of postmodern the creative process of the artist, an all-too- thought, just as few humanities scholars have common approach to restoration in the past. any clear conception of the range of activities Once again this involves a dichotomy be- that modern conservation encompasses. tween the modern conservation philosophy The Sistine Chapel conservation work is of Salvador Muñoz-Viñas (2009a) and tradi- just one example of many in which the cleaning tional truth-reliant conservation practices. If of a work of art alters the viewer’s perception the stakeholders decided that a Michelangelo of the nature of the original painted surface, needed to be partially covered over with new creating a cause célèbre and resulting in yet paint, the postmodern view is that they are more criticism of the actions of conservators. perfectly entitled to proceed with this action, The story of the cleaning of the ceiling since the art object is only viewed by those in is long and complex, (Colalucci 1987, 1997; the present as a semiotic process; it is authen- Colalucci and Mancinelli 1983; Mancinelli tic because that is what is required of it and 1987, 1996), but essentially the accretion of that is the condition in which the work of art candle soot, dust, and grime, combined with currently exists, as a repainted Michelangelo. old ill-considered attempts to improve the

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surface appearance with glue coatings, creat- Italian churches, as one of the paintings in the ed very darkened surfaces, seen on a smaller collections of the Brancacci Chapel, shown in scale in scores of old panel paintings in Italian Figure 8.7 and Figure 8.8, illustrates. churches that were recoated with varnish, That is perfectly fine: They can await their subsequently yellowed and darkened, and turn for conservation in the future. Keeping were recoated again to bring them back to them in this obscured state often does them life. These may await future conservation. In no harm, but it hardly accords with what the the meantime, they are often very hard to dis- artist painted as much of it cannot be seen cern in the dimly lit interiors of many small clearly, as Figure 8.8 reveals.

Figure 8.7. Painting in the collections of the Brancacci Chapel, adjacent to Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. Artist undetermined. Oil on canvas. (Photograph by the author)

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the cleaning techniques would have resulted in the wholesale removal of any secco work. One published painting cross-section reveals a thin layer of dirt above the buon fresco and below subsequent glue layers. The use of such cross-sections is an invaluable scientific aid in determining the stratigraphy of paint layers and the relationships between varnish and dirt, pigment and ground. Beck (Beck and Daley 1996) argued that the chiaroscuro technique of Michelangelo meant that that artist covered his entire ceil- ing with a layer of glue after the painting was completed to darken the surfaces in accor- dance with this art historical interpretation of the authentic appearance of the original. Not only is this quite improbable, but the task would have extraordinarily prolonged

Figure 8.8. Detail of the painting from the the time it took Michelangelo to complete Brancacci Chapel shown in Figure 8.7. Extensive the work on the ceiling. According to Beck, craquelure and layers of discolored varnish have so the question is: Did Michelangelo modify and reduced the visibility of the work that the figures embellish his frescoes after the application of are hard to discern. It is a work suitable for the re- the buon fresco layer with traditional secco me- storer’s attentions. (Photograph by the author) dia such as size or glue-based painting? Beck claims that supporters of the restoration have Plenty of actions will be available to overturned centuries of observation in assert- skilled conservators in the future, when ing that the darkening of the ceiling is the the profession has made further advances product of dust and soot. in terms of the careful cleaning of surfac- Beck claims that The Creation of , es. Eggert argues (2009) is that alterations painted from 1508 to 1512, was in satisfacto- or additions made in secco by Michelangelo ry condition without cleaning, yet Figure 8.9 would have been removed during cleaning and Figure 8.10 raise doubts in terms of its because conservators would have been un- overall appearance. aware of them, expecting only buon fresco. God’s delicately transparent garment is This is not the case, however, especially after now heavier, and the highlights have been skilled restorers spent more than a decade of displaced. Ronald Feldman, a prominent art close observation of the fresco from scaf- historian from New York, decided to submit folding specially erected for the task. Italian a petition to the Vatican to temporarily stop conservators have revealed original penti- the cleaning. Feldman persuaded 14 promi- menti by Michelangelo as well as, for exam- nent US artists to sign the petition, arguing ple, the fact that Christ’s sword was painted that restorers were destroying the frescoes in secco. There is no particular reason why by removing layers of chiaroscuro applied by

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Figure 8.9. Detail from the garden from the Sistine Chapel frescoes by Michelangelo, showing the difference between a cleaned (right) and uncleaned (left) area. The fresco has suffered 500 years of smoke, dust, grime, and restorations, which have created a kind of patina and a problem of preservation. The most recent cleaning campaign took place from 1985 to 1996. (Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; in the public domain)

Michelangelo (Glueck 1987). His premise Beck proposed that some of the glue var- was based on detailed photographs before nish found on the ceiling frescoes was applied and after the restoration. Concentrating on by Michelangelo himself to achieve a sculp- one particular figure, Feldman compared the tural effect. Art historians on the Vatican musculature and dimensionality of the figure team disagreed, however, and removed all in both photographs and pointed out that layers of glue found on the ceiling. Another there was dramatically less depth and muscu- art historian, Alexander Elliot, agreed with lature in the restored image than in the pre- Beck and further proposed that the glue ap- restored image (Glueck 1987). Feldman also plied by Michelangelo was intended as a ton- argued that the brightness that was revealed ing layer, although how one could distinguish was not what Michelangelo had intend- between later layers of glue and an original ed and that other works by Michelangelo not seen for hundreds of years is difficult to showed that he preferred dark, somber col- comprehend. Beck argued that the chiaroscu- ors. However, the figures inThe Creation of ro much admired over the centuries was not Adam before cleaning appear fuzzy. There is due to oil and glue restorations but was part an odd patch of darker color across the top of Michelangelo’s original art. of God and Adam, and the smaller figures Others argued that the glue layers ob- surrounding God are very difficult to see. scured the fresco, and so the argument went Has this particular image been ruined by around in its circular course. Art histori- conservation treatment? It is hard to accept an Nicholas Penny of the National Gallery, the premise that it has been ruined, especial- London, wrote in 1991 of the emergence of ly after reading the detailed account provid- the new Michelangelo as one of the great rev- ed by Colalucci (1997). elations of our time. The transformation, he

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Figure 8.10. The creation of the sun and moon scene on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted from 1508 to 1512 by Michelangelo, before conservation in 1990. The fuzzy detail on the left is due to the obscuring layers of dirt, grime, glue, and candle soot, not to any coating subsequently applied by Michelangelo. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; in the public domain)

claimed, was so absolutely amazing that it was glue was not applied at the time Michelangelo bound to give people a shock. painted the work (Caple 2000:102). Crucially, Absent from Beck’s argument is the prob- this scientific evidence shows that the authen- lem of the accretion of numerous prior resto- tic appearance of the ceiling is not that of a rations, dirt, grime, and soot over the centuries darkened glue-encrusted surface but a bright- since the art was painted. He seems to ignore ly colored one, very similar in tonality to the this aspect and is instead fixated on the origin panel painting by Michelangelo in the Uffizi. of the glue layers. In general glue is not used The evidence also suggests that the glue lay- in fresco work, especially on a ceiling, unless er was applied after the restorations carried brushed over an original to hide defects, which out in the sixteenth century. Indeed, one of would not have been necessary in this case. the essential jobs of scientific examination is Here some of our arguments can be in- to analyze the microstratigraphy of the lay- voked from the scientific examination of the ers of ground and paint, by which means the paint cross-sections referred to above, which technique, intentions, or modifications of the shows a thin layer of dirt under the glue layer. artist can be interrogated as an essential com- This dirt layer must have accumulated over ponent of the work’s biography. time before it became necessary to brighten Thin washes of color were applied in the appearance using a thin wash of glue over fresco by Michelangelo, utilizing the sfu- the surfaces. Another cross-section shows the mato technique advocated by Leonard da original fresco covered with restoration work Vinci, with the brush held fanwise, which has of the 1560s and 1570s, and this stratigraphy helped the survival of the ceiling, since thick does not reveal a glue layer between the orig- applications of pigment may well have result- inal fresco and the restoration, showing that ed in still greater delamination of the surface

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Figure 8.11. The creation scene on the Sistine Chapel ceiling after conservation in 1990. The brighter colors have not been well received by some art historians. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; in the public domain) because thick applications of paint tend to restoration policy at that time, noted, “Of block the pores in lime plaster, rendering the course, when a varnish goes blind it has to transfer of moisture between interior and ex- be removed.” This is a common theme run- terior surfaces much more difficult and there- ning through the conservation treatment fore encouraging delamination over time. of the great majority of works Instead of repeating the application of of art; they have been varnished, relined, further coatings of glue and vinegar, con- cleaned, badly restored, varnished, and re- servators chose to fully document the exist- varnished again and are now often illegible. ing ceiling, to make sure that all concerned Eggert (2009:122) castigates the restorers as stakeholders were included in discussions as “destroying what they profess to preserve.” to which procedures to follow, and to conduct Here lies the condemnation of the modern the cleaning of the dirt and grime with the approach to the conservation of paintings in least interference to any remaining pigment- general, because materials science has pre- ed surfaces. sumably blinded restorers with an arrogance In discussion of the National Gallery that allows them to ride roughshod over cleaning controversy of the 1960s, even Ernst every ethical argument concerned with the Gombrich, a critic of the National Gallery practice of their craft. Eggert’s statement that

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Michelangelo’s work is being destroyed by of training. Even the wash water from the restorers who profess to be helping preserve cleaning process was saved and analyzed to what Michelangelo created is completely see if any pigment had been removed along unsubstantiated. with the dirt, but none was found. The ef- In describing the restoration as a chemical fects of the chemical cleaning agent on the deceit, Beck suggests that the restorers have surfaces of the fresco were fully recorded by created an inauthentic state by means of their a Japanese television team and by numerous chemical interactions with Michelangelo’s photographs and field notes as part of the work. The term chemical deceit suggests a de- conservation documentation, which is now liberate intent to deceive us with chemical re- an essential act of conservation in its own agents to produce an inauthentic appearance. right. Parts of the fresco required reattach- How has deceit been part of the chemi- ment to the ceiling using adhesives that al- cal activity undertaken during the cleaning low for retreatment of the affected areas at of Michelangelo’s frescoes? The deceit could a later time should this become necessary. be examined from various perspectives. Were There is no deceit in following this practice. the conservators deceitful about the chemi- One of the philosophical strengths of cals used? The effect of the chemicals on the the scientific method, which is emphasized surface? How much local consolidation of the by Popper (1971), is that it acts to correct surface was required? Eggert puts forward no the mistakes or assumptions made by practi- evidence to explain what is meant by a chem- tioners in the past but using new hypotheses, ical deceit, but let us go through the possibil- new cleaning methods, and new ways to eval- ities one by one. The nature of the chemical uate the consequences. The materials science substances used by the conservators was fully approach, which is now part of the essential described, and the chemicals were made ac- training of painting conservators, reformulates cording to tested formulas used previously methods and techniques based on a reassess- in Italy for the cleaning of frescoes in vari- ment of what was used in the past and what ef- ous locations. The aim of this cleaning was fect it had on the work of art under treatment, to remove as much grime and dirt as possible moving forward with further refinements or with the least possible effect on the painted alterations of how chemical or mechanical surfaces. Cleaning per se is not an exact sci- cleaning may be performed in the future. ence. It is a matter of judgment and training. This is the fundamental strength of the The best that conservators can do is to make scientific method. Numerous scientific ad- choices about what to employ, evaluate the vances have been made in the aid of art his- results of different cleaning operations, and torical research into how artists made their decide which chemicals are safest to use on work and the attribution of those works. the artwork concerned. The scientific meth- The artwork is not just what an observer od as a guide to what cleaning agents to use can see but what can be determined from represents an advance over the entirely sub- a thorough investigation of the materials of jective approach to cleaning a century ago, the work of art; how they age, degrade, al- when conservation was just a craft activity. ter in color, interact with binders, and retain In this case, the knowledge and skill patches of original glazes; and why paint of the restorers had been honed by years delaminates.

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One could argue that this is a semiotic to a greenish black over hundreds of years process in itself, a mediated interaction be- will affect the art historical interpretation of tween patina, pigment, degradation, the cur- the purpose and character of the angels them- rent appearance of an artwork and the ways selves. The art historian may develop fun- in which these influence the conservator’s damentally and empirically wrong theories evaluation of its condition. The problem with resulting from the mediated interaction be- postmodern concepts of the mediated nature tween observer and painting because the dia- of knowledge is their deleterious impact on chronic material degradation of the artwork the empirical desire to know and understand has created an appearance entirely misleading the materials that constitute the materiality of to critical interpretation. art objects. Postmodern theory regards this The authenticity of the interaction with desire as a fundamentally mistaken concept, the artwork is now negated by the chemical because the Kantian separation of object and change from blue to black unless one has an subject cannot be sustained in postmodernist epistemological understanding of the chem- critical theories of art. However, the nature of ical alterations that have occurred. Here the the materials of art has been a central concern chemical interactions of the artwork itself of conservation and restoration for centuries. have deceived us regarding the original in- Objectivity concerning what can be known tention of the artist. In this case, the black about the physical and chemical structure of an wings will not be repainted as blue. Nor will artwork becomes enmeshed in modern doubts there be an attempt to reverse the black back about the separation of object and subject and to the azurite blue color. The conservation the effect that observation of the art object has documentation of what the appearance once on the way the subject may come to regard the was is enough to establish the authentic color. art, so that the interaction can never be disso- Repainting the wings of the angels cannot be ciated. Even if that is the case, the underlying justified, as this would again place the restor- substructure of the work of art and its technical er in the same location as a surrogate for the investigation cannot be ignored and dismissed original artist. philosophically as a simplistic event, which is Just a year before he began work on the the impression given by writers such as Eggert, Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo painted, who provide no technical analysis of semiotic in tempera and oil, his Tondo Doni of 1506– events of this kind. 1507, which is in the Uffizi in Florence. It is a The large umbrella under which conser- holy family scene in which strong and bright vation operates may be an area of doubt, de- whites, blues, greens, and yellows are seen. bate, and contextual problems in relation to They are now remarkably similar in hue to the how to approach the treatment of a complex colors seen on the cleaned ceiling. Although object. But if the consequences of conserva- the panel painting is in a different medium, tion investigation and what they mean in a namely tempera compared with fresco, there particular case are examined, crucial informa- is really no great difference between painting tion concerning an artwork can be provided in tempera and in the secco used on the ceil- or made manifest. The fact that blue wings ing and some other places. In tempera, paint of angels, painted in azurite in a trecento is also applied to a set surface. The fact that Renaissance painting on panel, have degraded the colors here are so similar in tonality and

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hue suggests that the conservators did not has undergone, the conservator’s determi- create a chemical deceit; they revealed more nation that no pigment was removed in the of Michelangelo’s visual intention than had cleaning process essentially refutes Crozier’s been seen for hundreds of years. point. The last thing to be taken away in any Further evidence of the original appear- cleaning process of this ceiling is the painted ance of the fresco is revealed in comments by surface, but that does not mean the painted Woods-Marsden (personal communication surface has not aged both chemically and 2014), who writes: “The reason why it was im- physically. It may have altered in ways that possible to take Beck et al seriously lies in the are visually imperceptible to us even if they subsequent , and the enormous are theoretically chemically determinable influence that Michelangelo’s colors there and (Colalucci 1986; Pietrangeli 1994). Because elsewhere had on the work of the next genera- the pigment particles are trapped in the fres- tion, Pontormo and Rosso, which would have co technique by carbonation of the fresco been impossible had Michelangelo covered his layer, there are bound to be diachronic in- bright hues with dark glazes, which is not the teractions that cannot be reversed by a very way you paint a fresco anyway.” careful cleaning strategy; the fresco painting If the conservator is defined as under- preserves some of the subtle interactions be- taking an action that is “authentic to aims tween paint, media, and the viewer in assess- and materials,” then the current state of the ing how the ceiling now appears. Bomford Sistine Chapel is more authentic to the orig- (2003:12) makes a salient point regarding the inal conception of the artist than the grimy intercession of conservators as arbiters of an and discolored surface that existed before evolving narrative structure: the current conservation campaign. Even the implied criticism of potential removal of the The narrative continues with cumulative paint layer itself is repeated by anthropolo- events in the subsequent history of the gists without any evaluation of the context. work—aging, deterioration, accident, For example, Holtorf (2013) quotes from an repair, intervention, adaptation, reinter- interview recorded by Fallon with the Irish pretation—positive and negative events. artist William Crozier (1930–2011), who . . . The conservator as practitioner then stated, “What they have taken away is the has to decide which elements of these age of the paint.” Holtorf (2013) utilizes this histories of creation and survival are accusation of the removal of age to vindi- most important: which aspects of the cate his view that the pastness of the work has historical object must be maintained and been damaged because the age of the paint kept visible, and which may be, for the has been compromised. In terms of the ma- time being, concealed. The conservator teriality of the work, the restorers were very as narrator inevitably both interprets aware of any potential criticisms arising from and intervenes in the narrative. The dif- inadvertent or deliberate removal of original ference between attitudes of today and fresco pigmentation or even secco additions. those of fifty years ago is that there is In fact, in terms of pastness or respect for now much greater acceptance of visible the essential nature of the original and the aging—a more benign view of the past historical processes the painted layer itself and a less active role for the present.

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Holtorf (2013) sees the anthropological for the complexity of dealing with artifacts question as a dichotomy between material- of the past. For example, the materiality of a ist and constructivist approaches to the past, specific object may be irrelevant in the case a dichotomy that has affected appreciation of objects or monuments ritually rebuilt every of issues of materiality regarding artifacts. 50 years. There is no link to the materiality Holtorf (2013) states that what is needed is of the original, but in terms of conceptual or a cultural concept of authenticity that can intangible authenticity, there is no problem be linked to the materiality of a specific ob- with the event and the actions taken. The ject while also avoiding assumptions about Nara Document, which discusses concerns qualities that are inherent in the object. regarding the conceptual aspects of authen- Authentic archaeological objects, writes ticity at length, appears to be overlooked by Holtorf, are those that can be defined as anthropologists, but it could usefully be inte- possessing pastness. So are the assumptions grated into the debate concerning construc- concerning the qualities of the frescoes on tivist views of authenticity. the Sistine Chapel justified? That would de- Some restorations have been made with the pend on which qualities are required to be application of animal glue and other modifica- specified. Here the most pertinent are how tions to the buon fresco surface. In connection well the fresco is adhered to the intonaco and with the black shadowing of several figures, the arriccio. How stable are the layers on Colalucci (1997:199) writes: the ceiling? One might want to know about aqueous qualities—how wet or dry the ceil- The debate over the cleaning took as its ing is. That could affect how the restoration point of departure the removal of the work is carried out and even if the work can black shadows around the figures which be carried out. How much paint has already had given them their sense of plastic re- been lost from the ceiling? What qualities lief, although in a monochromatic key. would be appropriate or desired from a vi- Some considered them authentic, because sual reintegration of parts of the image? they seemed to respond to the sculptor’s Respecting the historical and aesthetic au- sensibility. . . . These black shadows were thenticity of the work, quality will be re- added by past restorers in order to restore tained by completing the missing parts in the modeling of the figures and to accen- watercolor using tratteggio, not completely tuate a chiaroscuro effect where they had solid pigmented areas that cannot be visu- faded beneath an accumulation of foreign ally discerned from the decayed original. In material or had been flattened by timid that sense a visible reintegration could be re- and summary cleanings. garded as a constructivist approach to a ques- tion of materialist concern (Colalucci 1987; Questions regarding the restoration can Colalucci and Mancinelli 1983). Bomford’s still be debated, however. For example, scores 2009 assertion of the historical importance of of bottoms and genitals originally shown na- the cumulative narrative of the work incorpo- ked by Michelangelo have been covered up rates the three principal strands of authentici- at various times due to the prudish view of ty proposed in this book: the historical, mate- many observers that these were unacceptable rial, and conceptual. Pastness is not a panacea to the viewing public and had to be hidden

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Leonardo da Vinci and the Restoration of The Last Supper

by obscuring layers of paint. Should all these genitalia were removed. Colalucci (1997:197) overpaintings be removed to better judge what remarks that some of the later repaintings Michelangelo painted himself? If the artist’s were retained as documentation of later in- intention is invoked here, how could we not? terventions, although he does not specify Genitalia regarded as objectionable were over- which ones. A pertinent question is why only painted after the death of Michelangelo by the 11 genitals and bottoms were ordered to be Mannerist artist Daniele da Volterra (1509– painted over by the Council of Trent. Why 1566), who thereafter was referred to as the were these particularly censored while the “pants painter,” much to his chagrin. rest were allowed to remain before those too The Council of Trent (1545–1563) con- were covered over in later centuries? We do cluded that 11 such depictions of genitals not know the answer to this question, but it had to be covered over with paint to conceal would be interesting to see via infrared re- them. In succeeding centuries, another 43 flectography what the objectionable parts were painted over. The Italian restorers in that Michelangelo actually painted look like the 1990s had to decide whether to keep these and to understand the entire discourse related overpaintings in situ or whether they should to the partial restoration undertaken on the be removed. The decision was reached to artwork. The intention of the artist may be remove all restorations that postdated those seen as ahistorical, but the reality is that here ordered by the Council of Trent in 1563 and it has been overridden by the historical im- to keep those that the council had ordered perative of retention of restorations that have because they were the only documented nothing to do with Michelangelo’s intentions and historically verifiable interferences with as an artist. the original frescoes. Do documented resto- rations that disguise original painting trump Leonardo da Vinci and the the artistic intention of the artist in the name Restoration of The Last Supper of a historically definable veracity? One could Works of art completed by the innovative use have differing views regarding the justifica- of unsuitable materials bring with them prob- tion for leaving the documented overpaint- lems of inherent vice. This is especially true ings in situ or the historical authenticity of of those that are not allowed to die a natu- leaving all the overpaintings as successively ral death and must be restored continuous- representative of the changing taste in con- ly for both present and future use. A prime templating nude flesh. However, it is not just example of a contested relationship between overpaintings that have afflicted the origi- a work and the various instantiations it has nal materiality of the work but pronounce- represented over time is The Last Supper by ments of the Council of Trent concerning Leonardo da Vinci, measuring 460 x 880 the figures of Saint Catherine and Saint cm, “painted” on a wall at Santa Maria del- Blaise, which were described as “indecent le Grazie, a Dominican monastery in Milan, nudes” and “a thousand heresies” (Colalucci between 1482 and 1499. Its material authen- 1997:194). Consequently, these figures were ticity was compromised at birth. The intonaco destroyed and were replaced by new fresco was covered with a fine layer of plaster con- work by Daniele da Volterra. It is not quite taining an oil, which was then primed with a accurate that all later restorations covering lead white layer. Leonardo then experimented

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with a tempera grassa binder for his paints. original, leaving many earlier repaintings in- Tempera grassa is egg tempera to which a cer- tact. In 1924 Oreste Silvestri removed further tain amount of oil is added, no more than grime (Barcilon and Marani 2001). 1:1, possibly with water additions. The oil In 1943 a British bomb destroyed the re- prolongs the working time of the tempera, al- fectory in which the masterpiece had been though the paint can usually be applied only painted, but the north wall, together with the in thin layers and tends to undergo differen- mural, survived. From 1947 to 1949, Mauro tial drying phenomena. Hence the work was Pelliccioli gave the painting another cleaning neither created in buon fresco, as would have and eliminated the mildew covering part of been customary, or in oils, which is what re- the surface. He fixed the paint with shellac storers before Luigi Cavenaghi believed was rather than glue, which would make subse- the case (Barcilon and Marani 2001). quent restoration even harder. In 1979 Pinin With Leonardo painting in fits and starts, Brambilla Barcilon began restoration work, the project dragged on to the point where which was to last for 20 years, under the aus- the monks threatened to lock him in until pices of Milan’s Superintendent for Artistic the work was finished. Legend has it that and Historic Heritage (Barcilon and Marani Leonardo retaliated by painting the abbot as 2001). Barcilon’s primary task was to prevent the image of Judas. Visitors had already begun further deterioration. Chemical analysis sug- to notice that the admired masterpiece was in gested that the overpainting, which remained an actively decaying condition by 1517. In in situ, was potentially damaging the remain- 1642 Scanelli noted that only confused ves- ing fragments of the original by delamina- tiges of the figures remained (Scanelli 1657, tion, taking original paint with it. One con- quoted in Kemp 1990). The saga of endless sequence of this discovery was the decision to restorations began in the eighteenth century, remove everything that had been added after as the painting was still deteriorating mark- Leonardo finished the painting in 1498. edly. In 1726 Michelangelo Bellotti (?–1744) The restoration therefore demanded ac- cleaned the work with caustic solvents and curacy at the micron level and attention to covered it with layers of oil and varnish. In the smallest details. A detailed examination 1770 Giuseppe Mazza removed the layers showed that mold, glue, repaint, and atmo- added by Bellotti and repainted much of the spheric pollutants had badly affected the work in oils, which created a great deal of painting, while infrared reflectography en- critical comment at the time. In 1853 Stefano abled restorers to examine the artist’s original Barezzi, in one of the most alarming inter- work under the layers of overpaint. Small- ventions, tried to detach the painting entirely diameter coring surveys were also performed. from the wall. He failed and sought to consol- Samples taken from the corings were analyzed idate the painting by gluing paint fragments to provide information on the colors and ma- back on the base. In 1903 Cavenaghi began a terials utilized by Leonardo. Miniature TV large-scale campaign of photographic docu- cameras inserted in the boreholes provided mentation and established that the work was information on the cracks and cavities. in tempera, not oil as previously supposed. and radar surveys provided information about From 1906 to 1908, Cavenaghi cleaned the the elastic and structural characteristics of the surface and retouched missing areas of the masonry and the base the painting resides on.

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Leonardo da Vinci and the Restoration of The Last Supper

Figure 8.12. The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, late 1490s. Tempera on gesso with pitch and mastic; 460 x 800 cm. The mural, in Milan, was subject to a restoration controversy. (Image in the public domain)

Using such technologically advanced apply: Visitors must make reservations in ad- analysis and employing the careful use of sol- vance and groups are limited to 25 people for vents, which enabled the removal of multiple viewing times of only 15 minutes. layers, Barcilon faced an extremely slow and The most recent restoration, which took meticulous process. Often, only an area the more than five times as long as Leonardo’s size of a postage stamp was cleaned each day. execution of the painting, has been trumpet- Once referring to The Last Supper as a ed by many but also condemned by some in sick patient, Barcilon proclaimed that she the art world. According to some critics, what and her colleagues were able to give back is left is 30 percent Leonardo and 70 percent “the expressive and chromatic intensity that Barcilon. James Beck calls it 18 to 20 percent we thought was lost forever.” Besides letting Leonardo and 80 percent Barcilon. Martin the original colors come through, she added Kemp, a more mainstream critic than Beck, basic color to blank areas, which in theory was also unhappy with the result, or at least cannot be confused by the viewer with the the philosophical position taken by the re- original color. In certain areas, blank patches storer as regards the cleaning and removal of were left and were not retouched (Barcilon old repaintings. Kemp (1990) writes that the and Marani 2001). campaign of restoration involved a rigorous Leonardo’s Last Supper was reopened to the stripping of the mural to what were consid- public in May 1999. The painting is now pre- ered to be the remaining authentic fragments served by a sophisticated air filtration system, of Leonardo’s original paint and that this rep- a relative-humidity-monitored environment, resents the most radically archaeological ap- and dust-filtering chambers. If one wishes to proach of the many attempts at restoration of observe the work, the usual baleful restrictions the work. Kemp (1990) states:

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This campaign raises, in the sharpest states that he would not have been inclined manner, questions about the assump- to strip the heads of Christ and the disciples tions, aesthetic and scientific, which un- down to “bare vacuous silhouettes.” derpin present practices, and their status The first observation is that the material with respect to previous approaches. It authenticity of the original is so badly degrad- is argued that present techniques, for all ed that very little of it remains; the authentic their gloss of scientific objectivity, are experience of perception of the original can- based upon a questionable series of val- not be regained through conservation. The ues and presumptions about works of art choice to be made depends on the extent to and how one looks at works of art. In this which the various campaigns of overpaint are respect, it is suggested that the recent valued as desirable aesthetic states in them- campaign is no less rooted in the values selves. If, as Steinberg (2001:227) intimates, of the period than the past campaigns some of the campaigns of overpaint were in- which are now so brusquely dismissed. It fluenced by erroneous copies, that defeats the is argued that the aesthetic, perceptual, argument that copies could be used to create scientific, and institutional bases for the a more sympathetic pastiche of Leonardo’s procedures need more rigorous scrutiny. remnants with skillful overpaint. Besides, this approach could hardly be said to respect the As far as the authentic original is con- intentions of Leonardo when changes to suit cerned, Kemp worries about the difficulty of the taste of the time were made by artists who determining which pigments are truly original copied the original and other artists who re- and the irreversible physical change in some painted the original work itself. In this con- of the materials and asks if the notion of re- nection, Brandi’s stricture that the restorer covering and retaining only that which is by cannot insert himself or herself into the mode Leonardo’s own hand is identical to reinstate- of production of the artist and must refrain ment of the “real” Leonardo? How far can re- from any conjectural restorations is a sound covery of the fragmentary original be identi- philosophical principle, not considered in fied congruent with a respect for the artist’s in- Kemp’s argument. No responsible restorer tentions, if such intentions are reconstructable would be able to create a more authentic work at all? Are we aiming, Kemp asks, to recapture by this kind of surrogacy. From the published the authentic experience of the original? Is pictures following Barcilon’s restoration, it there such a thing as an “authentic experience” appears that the restorer completed certain to be reconstructed, in terms of either viewing outlines of the work—for example, extending The Last Supper in 1498 or the circumstances the outlines of fingers that the original rem- of the present-day spectator? nants suggested but that were too decayed to Kemp (1990:20) suggests using informa- visually complete; these have been inpaint- tion contained in extant copies of The Last ed in watercolor to allow for later removal Supper to “the extent of a judicious but de- should that become necessary or desirable. tectable infilling of general masses to tie the There is no doubt that the physical, chem- picture together.” Kemp basically objects to ical, and biological degradation of the origi- the fragmentary nature of the surviving end nal work was so extreme in this particular case product of the conservation treatment and that there were really only two viable options

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available regarding the restoration: Either or general viewer is concerned, would be to leave the painting as it was, in a physical state respect the historical authenticity of the work from 1978, with attempts to adhere the de- by displaying a perfect replica of The Last cayed work to its support, or try to remove Supper in its state in 1978, before the recent the various layers of overpaint and stabilize 20-year restoration, adjacent to the 1999 ver- what was left. sion of the work with overpaintings removed. The assertion of the restorer that the lat- As the example of the Laocoön illustrates, ex- er overpaints were delaminating, taking the hibition of the two instantiations would allow original with them, would seem to eliminate the authenticity of condition to be seen and the possibility of leaving the work as it was, allow aesthetic alterations over time to still be since its preservation into the future could available for public view. Because the contest- not be guaranteed. In many cases, the re- ed state of The Last Supper represents an ex- moval of all old repaintings might be seen as treme end of the spectrum of the work-being compromising the historical and aesthetic au- of the object and its various interpretations, thenticity of the work, but in the case of The the ability to contemplate both the original Last Supper, the material degradation it has remnants with watercolor restorations and undergone overrides the historical concerns the historical document of its preconserved in a return, as far as possible, to the material state with numerous oil, glue, and shellac res- authenticity of the original. It is not really a torations still in place would allow the materi- philosophical argument over the state of the al authenticity and the historical authenticity patient; it is a matter of survival. However, in to be seen together in their materiality. the process, the historical authenticity of the It is not quite true that the only surviv- work has been lost, and this represents the ing material would be documentation of restorative dilemma. What remains after the the various instantiations of The Last Supper derestorations and rerestoration is a decayed if the original were to completely decay. work that has lost its aesthetic nature, ac- Steinberg (2001:227–253), notes that by cording to critics such as Kemp. Only in the 1810, Giuseppe Bossi (1777–1815) recorded extensive documentation does a history of its the existence of 26 copies, including Bossi’s altered states reside. The question is, what is own full-scale “reconstruction,” which was more valued here: the fragmentary remains of owned by the viceroy of Italy and destroyed Leonardo’s faded masterpiece or the numer- by German bombing in World War II. The ous readaptations that artist-restorers such fate of some of the copies has been dire. One as Mazza created? In ignoring the Brandian by Antonio da Gessate of 1506, a detached stricture that time is not reversible and that fresco from the Ospedale Maggiore, Milan, history cannot be abolished, has the restorer described in 1810, was subsequently covered valorized the material authenticity at the ex- over with whitewash, revealed again in 1890, pense of the historical/aesthetic authenticity and displayed in the refectory of Santa Maria of the work? delle Grazie until 1915. It was completely Because of the different approaches and destroyed by British bombing in 1943. Some meanings attached to the various instantia- of the copies of the masterpiece were copied tions of the work over the past 500 years, a from other copies rather than from the orig- compromise solution, as far as the art historian inal work. These copies were then employed

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as inauthentic points of reference for errone- ethics, and the cultural milieu prevalent at the ous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century at- time. The fact that the copies have undergone tempts at restoration of the original. their own historical demise and degradation Steinberg (2001:228) writes that some of will paradoxically result in their reevaluation in these copies perished in World War II; oth- years to come as valued creations in their own ers donned new attributions or were identical right. The twenty-first century will be the cen- to other copies long since translocated. By the tury of reevaluation of copies and replicas. In 1970s, when Steinberg was trying to untie the many ways, it has already become so. Gordian knot of where and how many of these copies still existed, there was little interest in Restorations and the Identity them anymore. Few were displayed except in of Paintings unvisited sacristies, and those owned by muse- Changing taste, fashion, cultural norms, ums such as the Louvre or the Royal Academy and religious dogmas resulted in many pan- in London were in a state of neglect and de- el paintings of the Renaissance or medieval terioration. The copy in the Soprintendenza, period being overpainted, repainted, altered Milan, had blistering and delaminating paint; in meaning, cut down in size, forgotten, cen- the one in the Royal Academy was mysterious- sored, or destroyed. A prominent text con- ly cut down and put on semipermanent loan cerning Renaissance practice is that of Conti, to Magdalen College, Oxford. By the time which has been translated by Helen Glanville Steinberg was able to reassess the number of (Conti 2007). It distinguishes between three copies in the 1970s, the list had theoretically variations on restoration of paintings: res- grown to about 43, although many were in ap- toration as conservation—that is, abstention palling condition or had been destroyed. The from action that would result in any change fate of these copies or versions is a reflection or employing an archaeological approach of the aesthetic demotion of copies as unwor- that respects all traces of original material; thy of any appreciation in and of themselves—a aesthetic restoration, or employing invisible historical affliction particularly prevalent from retouching and completion of the image by 1890 to 1970. As seen from the perspective of analogy to other known works by the artist; 2016, renewed interest in copies and the his- and visible restoration, which is in harmony torical tradition they represent has resurrected with the original yet leaves the restorations them from obscurity to become part of a narra- clearly visible. Restoration as conservation is tive on changing taste and cultural norms. The defined as undertaking the structural stabi- Last Supper with reinvented settings (by Giovan lization of the work but not integrating the Pietro da Cemmo in 1507); free adaptations image with retouching or inpainting. This (by Tommaso Aleni in 1508); critical improve- approach, a sine qua non as regards material ments in architectural detail and the position authenticity, was championed by Giovanni of limbs, with substantive haloes added (byan Battista Cavalcaselle (1819–1897) in the unknown individual in the early sixteenth cen- nineteenth century (Glanville 2007) and tury); immense broadening of Christ’s shoul- continued into the twentieth century. These ders (by Fra Girolamo Bonsignori in 1513); three criteria interact with approaches re- and so on offer reflections on artistic practice, garding cleaning—namely, complete clean- aesthetic taste, documentary sources, Christian ing, selective cleaning, or partial cleaning. In

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complete cleaning, the aim is to remove all dis- instructive than a repainted image carried out colored coatings on the surface of the work in in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. In fact, an attempt to return it to an assumed original the total cleaning removed not only all nine- state or appearance. In selective cleaning, areas teenth-century overpaint but also some of the or sections of the work are treated differently original glazes, decayed pigment, binder, and depending on evidence for retention of orig- varnish, leaving the paintings in a practically inal varnishes, heavily degraded pigments, undisplayable condition in the name of a spuri- fragile binders, and so on, so that only some ous authenticity of condition. This is not to say areas are cleaned. In partial cleaning, some of that total cleaning would necessarily result in a the patina resulting from interactions of the less authentic condition than that the artwork original material with its environment is kept currently displays. For example, a Raphael on in place. Cleaning in general terms has al- display in a grand house in Northumberland, ready been discussed in chapter 1. thought to be a copy, was covered with very This simplification is a useful categorization dirty varnish, so that features of the artwork in cases where motives are invoked in isolation were barely visible. When the painting was from individual works of art, which are then cleaned at the National Gallery, with the old treated as a group phenomenon rather than as varnish removed, the picture could be re- objects needing specifically tailored attention. assessed properly, at which point everyone For example, Seymour (1970) undertook total agreed that it was not a copy of a Raphael but cleaning on fourteenth- and fifteenth-century the lost original. panel paintings in the Yale University collec- The complexity of dealing with the res- tions in the belief that the artwork would be left toration of fourteenth- and fifteenth-centu- as a “fragment in its authentic state” (Seymour ry panel paintings cannot be undertaken by 1970:7) and that this authentic state was more professors of art history but must be left to

Minimal or no restoration

Variations of restoration

Visible restoration Invisible restoration

Figure 8.13. Varieties of approaches to the restoration of Renaissance works of art. (Diagram by the author after Conti 2007)

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those properly trained in the art and science Italian restorer Pietro Edwards (1744–1821): of picture restoration. Apart from a misguid- “If the frame of reference for the restorer in ed philosophical conception, this is essen- his approach to the restoration of the work of tially what went wrong with the treatment art is the cultural context and taste of his own of the paintings at Yale. Fourteenth- and time rather than that of the artist himself, then fifteenth-century panel paintings have to be the restoration will be a reflection of this . . . restored with great care due to the extensive updating to new visual demands and because degradation they have undergone. They can- the frames of reference change with passing not be stripped back to represent the condition taste and generations” (Conti 2007:190–216). they would have presented in 1430 because Glanville (2007:xxii) invokes Heisenberg’s of the alterations time itself has inflicted on “uncertainty principle” here. As an analo- them, even disregarding the problems created gy of the “act of concentrating on the parti- by later overpainting and retouching. cle-like properties of a quantum entity (in this instance the painting), we gain a good sense of Aesthetic Restoration the isolated part at the expense of the whole; Conserving wall paintings or frescoes by if we focus on the wave-like qualities we have structurally stabilizing them and leaving a sense of the whole but lose our ability to missing areas blank, as seen in restoration focus on the part or the particular.” This is a work carried out by Italian restorers working strange way to interpret the uncertainty prin- for the Getty Conservation Institute’s project ciple, which states that the more precisely in the Tomb of Queen Nefertari in Egypt, the position of a particle is determined, the respects the archaeological veracity of the less precisely can its momentum be known fragmentary images. Even here there may be and vice versa. The analogy with a painting problems with the concept of nonintervention that is undergoing an act of restoration is on original images. For example, old resto- an eccentric way of examining the problem. rations on the celestial cows in the tomb were Knowing where restorations are to be under- not removed. The approach taken was that taken but being incapable of understanding documentation will preserve knowledge of the the image as a whole, or understanding the earlier intervention, even if this is not obvious, entire picture but being unable to successfully or even explained, to the visitor to the tomb. integrate retouchings to harmonize with the Material authenticity (McDonald 1996) of entire painting is how Glanville utilizes the vestigial remains is of paramount importance uncertainty principle. Ethical and unethical in the sense of adhering to a philosophy of approaches to the aesthetic integration of the scientific empiricism, but it may be overrid- image are more fundamental here. Chapter den by intangible concerns regarding mean- 1 gives an example of a painting by van der ing or context. Weyden of which only about 25 percent was In aesthetic restoration, the aim is to produce left, the remaining 75 percent being aesthet- an imagined authentic past that is re-created ically restored—in this case invented by the by the restorer in the present. The damages restorer and art forger Jef van der Veken. If and aging inflicted on the work by time are a viewer cannot distinguish visually between erased, or rather masked, by the restorer’s what has been restored and the vestigial orig- brush. As Conti says concerning the famous inal, is that tantamount to art forgery?

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Aesthetic Restoration

In general, the consensus is yes, and the visible restoration, which in some cases might division between ethical restoration and un- be comparable to the conservator’s compensa- ethical restoration is a moving target, de- tion for loss. pending on cultural norms, museum practice, Gestalt psychology maintained that com- curatorial preferences, how the past is eval- pletion of the expected image by the observer uated, and public opinion prevailing at the would ensure that neutral areas of fill or in- time. Even in the same institution, approach- painting would recede in the viewer’s percep- es to restoration can vary over chronologies tion so that the artwork could be completed as short as 20 years, resulting in very different by the mind and contemplated as a whole, decisions being made as to how an artwork rather than the fills being seen as obtrusive should look. In the commercial art market, if or becoming more visible in perceptual terms a Renaissance portrait is complete but has a than the art object itself. With some artworks, missing upraised arm, the position of the arm such as Giotto’s (circa 1266–1337) frescoes will be invented by the restorer to complete in Padua, the utilization of tratteggio is very an aesthetic image, with the monetary value successful in completing images without the of the work at auction being greatly enhanced. appearance of blank areas of fill, deceptive res- For these reasons, restorers now complete torations, or nonconformance with a Gestalt, artworks in a media that can be distinguished but not all artworks can benefit from this ap- from the original under ultraviolet light (most proach. One could argue that the image in of the time). This is why tratteggio, a concept Figure 8.14 would benefit aesthetically from a introduced in chapter 1, is a clearly delineat- visible restoration rather than restoration as con- ed choice in restoration practice to eliminate servation, since filling in the missing parts of these ethical difficulties. This is part of the the face with neutral tones creates a visually concept of the third approach to restoration, disturbing image.

Figure 8.14. Restored wall painting from the Tomb of Queen Nefertari, completed by the Getty Conservation Institute at a total cost of $11 million. The purist adherence to restoration as conservation by the Italian conservators is perfectly understandable but creates a disturbing image of the masterful painting, since the face of Osiris is hard to dif- ferentiate from the back- ground. (Image courtesy of the Getty Conservation Institute; rephotographed by the author)

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Glanville (2007) states that the use of in- conditions. The old 6-inch/6-foot rule for the visible retouching media, for example, im- retouching of broken pottery could be used. poses on a work of art the viewpoint of one This means that the repainting is not visible observer and that by eliminating individual from 6 feet away but is visible from 6 inches. evaluation, the use of ready-made solutions But this rule is less successful for paintings, carried out on behalf of the individual limits since observers are often only 12 to 15 inches his or her choices, analogous to restrictions away from the surface of the work. of political missives of a nanny-state society. Visible restoration has become less pop- This likens restoration and its evaluation to ular over the past 50 years, perhaps spurred a paternalistic government, an analogy which by the huge increase in museum visitors in the author does not agree with. that time. They might prefer to see aestheti- Does the use of invisible retouching media cally pleasing works skillfully restored rather impose on a work of art the viewpoint of one than incomplete images lauded by the con- observer? First of all, retouching performed servation elite for their ethical purity, but by a professionally trained paintings conser- the desire for aesthetic reintegration may go vator in the twenty-first century is removable too far for some tastes. Refraining from us- retouching. In the best case scenario, it does ing the same pigments and binding media as not invent but visually completes missing the original artist is a sine qua non of modern gaps in the image. If the various stakehold- restoration practice. But even if restorations ers do not like how the retouching has altered cannot be visually distinguished from origi- the perceptible properties of the painting, the nals, they can be detected by the use of infra- retouching can be removed and substituted red or ultraviolet illumination. with a different version. It is the theoretical- ly reversible nature of such retouchings that The Restoration of Titian’s accords with the ethical principles of modern Bacchus and Ariadne conservation norms; the viewpoint of one ob- Numerous cleaning controversies have af- server can always be changed in the future. flicted this painting in the National Gallery, Secondly, the aesthetic ability to react to a London—stretching back to the 1850s and completed image of a face in which the re- most recently in the 1960s when the paint- touching cannot be visually discerned is very ing was cleaned again. According to Glanville different from reacting to a visibly retouched (2009), the invisible retouching of every loss face, where one’s attention is all too often has created a kind of fictional state for this drawn to the area of retouching, marveling at picture and the scientifically rigorous clean- the skill of the restorer; mentally criticizing ing it has undergone has dramatically shift- the choice of color, hue, tone, or line; or be- ed its color balance. The painting is one of coming distracted by contemplation of the ex- a famous series by Bellini (circa 1430–1516), tent of damage and its historical causes rather Titian (?–1576), and the Ferrarese artist than giving due attention to the work of art Dosso Dossi commissioned for the Camerino itself. It is better if changes brought about d’Alabastro (1490–1542) (Alabaster Room) in by retouching are perceptible by using spe- the Ducal Palace, Ferrara, by Alfonso d’Es- cial lighting equipment rather than detecting te, duke of Ferrara, who around 1510 tried the retouching by eye under ambient viewing to include Michelangelo (1476–1534) and

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The Restoration of Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne

Raphael (1483–1520) among the contribu- have access to scientific connoisseurship and tors. Titian’s painting was in fact a substitute readily removable high-class retouching me- for one with a similar subject that the duke had dia. Nevertheless, the evidence adduced by commissioned from Raphael. Bellini’s Feast of Lucas and Plesters (1979) and the very strik- the Gods for this room is dated 1514, and the ing difference in appearance of the picture three works by Titian were painted between before the recent restoration and after the the 1518 and 1525. restoration of 1969 were bound to come as Lucas and Plesters (1979) produced a a shock, as the blue of the sky and the colors detailed article on the painting. There is no employed by Titian can be clearly seen. It doubt that earlier attempts to clean and re- is these differences that resulted in tremen- store works of art were less sympathetic to dous criticism regarding the change in ap- the retention of vestiges of age than the ap- pearance of the painting. Lucas and Plesters proach taken today, because today’s restorers (1979:36) write,

Figure 8.15. Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian, 1520–1523; 176.5 x 191 cm. Theseus has left Ariadne on Naxos. Bacchus arrives, jumps from his chariot drawn by two cheetahs, and falls in love with Ariadne. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

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Of the many differences revealed by of an artist to entirely spurious works that cleaning one of the most important has lack any authenticity. been the re-establishment of the effect The first category is illustrated by of recession. The nineteenth century self-portraits executed solely by the artist. An varnish, by blurring the transitions from example is shown in Figure 8.16. Often these blue to green in an all-over muddy tone, self-portraits are painted for the artist by the had the effect of diminishing the dis- artist, and they depict the painter as he or she tances within the picture. The intensity was in life. In that sense they are a personal of the blue of the sky can be seen to vary, reflection on the artist as an authentic cre- as it does in nature, being more intense- ator. Reflection is sometimes too literally a ly blue overhead. problem. For example, in the Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) self-portrait in Kenwood These dramatic changes in appearance House, Hampstead Heath, London, the art- have created the view that the authenticity of ist shows himself as holding brushes and an what Titian painted has been ruined through easel in his left hand, with the right hand restoration, when in fact the poor condition raised toward the canvas. But in the X-ray of the work and the activities of previous re- radiograph of the picture, the underdrawing storers are responsible for the muddy brown reveals that Rembrandt painted himself with varnish that so obscures the actual work. The his brushes and easel in the right hand, with Gestalt view that Glanville proposes results his left hand toward the canvas. The artist in the present condition of the painting be- had originally painted his reflection as it ap- ing seen in a pejorative light. However, if, as peared in the mirror, not as his image would Lucas and Plesters (1979) maintain, the al- have appeared to a viewer looking at him. teration of the balance of colors in the paint- When he realized his mistake, he had to cor- ing is not a desirable effect of aging but a de- rect the picture and swap the arms; any other ceptive appearance produced by a thick layer asymmetry would have to stay as the mirror of discolored varnish, then the argument re- reflection of itself (Bomford 1997). Because volves around whether the cleaning was too of numerous copyists producing their own “harsh” in not attempting to leave traces of versions of Rembrandt self-portraits, the au- the original surface of the work, if that can be thentic nature of the Kenwood self-portrait thought of as a kind of patina. is confirmed by the X-ray radiograph, show- ing the hidden narrative of the creation of the Categories of Authentic Paintings work of art. The originality of the painting is In attempting to formulate categories of ar- revealed by the X-ray radiograph, uniquely tistic practice that proceed from the more au- identifying the work as that of Rembrandt. thentic to the less, Marijnissen (1985, 2011) The second category concerns paintings describes a spectrum of works, ranging from left unfinished and completed by another artist those that can be confidently attributed to an contemporaneous with the first. Marijnissen individual artist all the way to commercial re- (1985:20) gives the example of one of the productions created by mechanical or digital Justice Panels unfinished by Dieric Bouts means. In terms of paintings, this progres- (1415–1475) at the time of his death in sion takes us from the individual expression 1475. Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678) was

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Categories of Authentic Paintings

commissioned to complete the panel. All too painting could pass as an original work by the often, the information necessary to establish master himself. completion by another artist is not known or The next category is paintings resulting has to be surmised from an art historical and from an agreement between two or more artists scientific study. to collaborate on their creation and execution. The third category is paintings executed An example is Pomone, painted by Abraham with the aid of the artist’s own assistants, whose Janssens (circa 1567–1632), with a landscape collaboration is integrated into the master’s by Jan Breughel the Elder (1568–1625) and style and craftsmanship. This was the norm fruit by Adriaen van Utrecht (1599–1652). from the fourteenth to the seventeenth cen- The collaboration between Rubens and tury in the Low Countries. Marijnissen gives Jan Breughel is well-known, and their col- as an example some works by Peter Paul laborative paintings were much admired at Rubens (1577–1640): Prometheus Bound, with the time. Rubens and Breughel had trou- an eagle painted by Frans Snyders (1579– ble keeping up with demand for their work, 1657), and , a copy begun by a despite the fact that their paintings were student but retouched by Rubens so that the very expensive. The insatiable demand led

Figure 8.16. Self-portrait by Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694– 1752), 1734. Pastel on paper; 98.1 x 80 cm. Self-portraits are often not commissioned and may be authentic autographic works painted by artists them- selves, although numerous copies of self-portraits were pro- duced later. (Image courtesy of Getty Open Content Program, Getty Museum, accession no. 97.PC.19)

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to an usual consequence. Numerous copies Marijnissen (1985:20) continues his catego- by lesser artists were produced, and even ries with a replica of a painting by the artist himself. though it was generally recognized that these Successful artists often had copies or replicas were indeed only copies, they were purchased produced by assistants, but in the case of the with enthusiasm.

Figure 8.17. Prometheus Bound by Peter Paul Rubens, completed 1618; oil on canvas. The work was painted by Rubens but with the eagle entirely painted by Frans Snyders. Philadelphia Museum of Art. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

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René Magritte (1898–1967) painting shown in using industrial methods, such as silk-screen Figure 2.9, identical copies were produced by paintings by Andy Warhol (1928–1987). Next the artist himself, a typically ironic Magritte comes more or less faithful copies of paintings— statement on uniqueness and repetition. there are endless examples of these. With study The next category is studio replicas, re- copies, artists were often interested in creating peat works executed under supervision of the artistic effects of admired predecessors. the master himself or works that the master The intent was not to produce forgeries for helped fabricate. Examples are the numer- sale but to emulate the master concerned. ous castings and marble sculptures by Auguste Imitations may or may not have closely re- Rodin (1840–1917) and the painting studio sembled the original. For example, Elaine practices of Rembrandt and van der Weyden. Sturtevant’s imitation of Claes Oldenburg’s Then there are works produced in series, possibly pies had the style of the originals but were not

Figure 8.18. Virgin and Child in Flower Garland with Angels by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, circa 1616. Oil on oak; 243.8 x 209.5 cm. This is a perfectly authentic work, despite being the product of two painters. (Image courtesy of Alte Pinakothek, BayerischeStaat; in the public domain. Photograph by DcoetzeeBot, Wikimedia Commons)

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identical. The next category is entirely authentic 1280–1348), painted in about 1330. It is shown works to which something has been added to mis- in Figure 8.19 with the Christ child still intact lead or deceive. The most common example is and in Figure 8.20 with the child removed. a false signature added to a lesser artist’s work This was a hard decision for Rothe (2003), to increase its monetary value or reputation. the former Getty paintings restorer, to make. Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978) apparent- Technical examination showed that the Christ ly signed contemporary forgeries of his own child was added later, probably in the sixteenth work in keeping with the surrealist’s abnega- century, to alter the meaning of the work, and tion of the reality of the bourgeoisie. Marcel that it was painted over the original, which was Duchamp (1887–1968) said that he signed in excellent condition for a work from 1330. copies of his work “because it devalues them Frequently, paintings restorers overpaint al- so.” Copies made by other artists and signed terations judged to be significant changes to by de Chirico as originals assume an ambiv- the concept of the original to restore the prior alent status but are not uncommon. Jean- appearance of the work, but here the condition Baptiste Camille Corot (1796–1875) signed of the original was so good that any attempt many imitative works by artists he knew so to paint over the Christ child would have re- they could be sold as Corot originals to help mained visible in painted relief, so the decision the artists financially. The standard joke is was made to remove the infant entirely. A mys- that there are 2,000 genuine Corots—8,000 terious total overpainting of the blue robe of of which are found in America alone. The the Virgin with a dull, dark-brown color was artist’s intention in signing the forgeries is a probably carried out at the same time the in- subversive act in different senses for Corot and fant was added, perhaps to make her raiment Duchamp. In the case of Corot, the aim was more modest rather than to improve on the to disseminate forgeries created by others to fine ultramarine pigment of the original, which imbue them with enhanced monetary value would have been very expensive; perhaps for and perhaps to spread his fame to ever wider symbolic reasons or religious associations. circles. In the case of Duchamp, the intent was Differentiation between material authen- to devalue them through repetition, to subvert ticity and historical authenticity should be on the uniqueness of artistic production. view to the observer, and one way to achieve Another category is paintings that have been that would be to include the image in Figure changed significantly. Many earlier paintings 8.19 in the gallery contiguous with the paint- have been altered to accord to the taste of the ing in its rerestored condition. This approach time (Giannattasio 2013). The problem is in- would at least provide a glimpse of the work-be- extricably linked with the cultural zeitgeist of ing, the ongoing development of authenticity the period: To what degree are the alterations as a historical event, which Heidegger propos- judged to be significant or insignificant, and es as integral to any preservation. who decides on whether they are so judged? Attitudes about the significance of the A good example of signification of alteration work-being have changed, even over the past of works of art is the removal of an infant 30 years. For example, Saint John the Baptist Christ child from the triptych The Virgin Mary with Saint John the Evangelist and Saint with Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Paul by James, an altarpiece in the National Gallery, Florentine painter Bernardo Daddi (circa London, by Nardo di Cione (?–circa 1366),

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Figure 8.19. The Virgin Mary with Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Paul by Bernardo Daddi, circa 1330, before rerestoration. Tempera with gold leaf on panel; 121.6 x 113 cm. The Christ child is a significant addition that will either be removed or overpainted. A very similar triptych by Daddi has been dismem- bered. Part of it is in Rome and other parts are in Bern; the sad fate of many triptychs is to be scattered across the globe. (Image courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)

circa 1365, tempera on poplar, would origi- period, an elaborate gilded frame in imita- nally have been framed with a predella, col- tion of the supposed original framing was umns, , pinnacles, and crockets, but fabricated. This was removed in pieces in a all that was lost when it was removed from 1983 restoration (Gordon et al. 1985). The Florence (Bomford 2003). In the Victorian frame replaced with a plain gilt molding

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Figure 8.20. The Virgin Mary with Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Paul by Bernardo Daddi after re- restoration, with the Christ child removed. Tempera and gold leaf on panel, framed with the original engaged frame; 121.6 x 113 cm. This version represents the original material authenticity of the work but does not honor the historical authenticity of the painting over time. (Image courtesy of the Getty Museum, Los Angeles) that attempted to present a purely neutral, As seen from the perspective of 2003, functional containment for the altarpiece, as when a review of this restoration was pub- if it were almost incidental to the intended lished by Bomford, a reassessment might well aesthetic of the material authenticity of the regard the disiecta membra of the Victorian original. creation as a disputed act. The Victorian

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conception of what the frame might have (Seracini 2012). So in this case, the Catherine looked like, the continuation of its work-be- wheel has been removed to reveal the uni- ing, was more authentic to the origination corn, but the unicorn has not been removed of the artwork than a truncated minimalist to reveal the dog. The intention of the art- approach that attempts to valorize only the ist has presumably been ignored because of object-being of the altarpiece. From the per- the popularity and exoticism associated with spective of 2016, this is still the case. If any- small unicorns. There is no indication in the thing, additions made in the Victorian peri- of these important histor- od, as a narrative on the mores of Victorian ical transfigurations. taste and interpretation, are even more val- Marijnissen (1985:22) next cites indus- ued than they were 30 years ago. If the work trially manufactured reproductions disguised were restored at the National Gallery today, to appear as paintings. These can indeed be allowing for amelioration of structural prob- very deceptive. Even Philip Mould, a well- lems the Victorian addition created for the known London art dealer with a respected altarpiece, the frame would not be removed. eye and finely developed skills in the detec- Once again, a didactic panel in the gallery tion of fakes and sleepers (a painting neglect- with a photograph showing how the paint- ed or misattributed that a skilled connois- ing looked in the Victorian period would seur might recognize as a bargain purchase), help repair and bring together the historical once purchased a gilt-framed and varnished authenticity of the altarpiece and its current Renaissance painting that was a reproduc- material authenticity, but as of my last visit to tion on paper stuck to thick card (Mould and the gallery, this had not been included. Bruce 2012). Next come integral forgeries pro- Paintings that have undergone significant duced with modern materials only. This is very physical alterations over time present diffi- common in the world of fakes and forgeries, culties in terms of their treatment. There is since procuring of the right materials, those no uniform philosophy that can be applied in which would have been used by the origi- such cases. An example is the portrait Young nal artist, is far too difficult, expensive, and Woman with Unicorn in the Galleria Borghese time-consuming to contemplate for the vast in Rome, circa 1506. In 1760 it was identified majority of forgers, as the examples below as a portrait of Saint Catherine of Alexandria illustrate. holding a Catherine wheel and was attribut- ed to (circa 1446/50–1523). The Forgeries of Icilio Frederico Joni A restoration in 1934–1936 showed that the and Umberto Giunti: Renaissance painting was in fact by Raphael and that it Pictures of the Twentieth Century was not a portrait of Saint Catherine (Meyer Two Italian forgers of the late nineteenth and zur Capellen 2001). But in 1959 a reexam- early twentieth century, Icilio Frederico Joni ination of the underdrawing showed there (1866–1946) and Umberto Giunti (1886– was no unicorn at all and that Raphael had 1970), together with Alceo Dossena (dis- actually painted a small dog. The painting cussed in chapter 7) and Giovanni Bastianini that Raphael created was Lady with Lap-Dog. (1830–1868), created some of the most ad- The unicorn still appears on this painting, mired forgeries of trecento and quattrocento even though this is not what Raphael painted artists. While these forgers reused the frames

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and gesso layers of old panels, they did not whether he promulgated them as such or let worry unduly about scientific connoisseur- others come to their own erroneous conclu- ship and made little attempt to avoid pig- sions, as Hebborn is alleged to have done, is ments with a post quem date of introduction not clear. Berenson originally thought Joni’s long past the quattrocento period. work was authentically old, until doubts What was important was the overall ap- began to surface and he asked a restorer in pearance of age, created by the use of old Milan for his views on the paintings. The wood panels, the stylistic mimicry of earli- Milan restorer told him that they were prob- er artists, and the creation of a convincing ably painted by Joni. craquelure or general damage to create the According to Joni’s autobiography (1936), illusion of centuries of wear and tear. Joni, Berenson was at first fooled by his forgeries whose work formed an important part of a when he started to buy them in Florence. 2004 exhibition (Mazzoni 2004), worked as Following the lead from the Milan restorer, an apprentice, learning the trade of gilding. Berenson traveled to Siena and found Joni Later, when settled into his life as a restor- working in an isolated farmhouse with four er and forger, he raised falcons in his studio comrades. One did the underdrawing, anoth- in Siena, played the mandolin, staged many er painted in the pigments, another did the pageants, and enjoyed a picaresque lifestyle. gold tooling, and the fourth did the artificial Apart from Sienese paintings of the four- aging and made the frame. Berenson was by teenth to sixteenth centuries, Joni was very this time inextricably involved with the dubi- skilled in the creation of illustrated book ous practices of the English art dealer Joseph covers. Despite his humble origins, meager Duveen (the first Baron Duveen, 1869–1939), education, riotous gang-like adolescence, who kept Berenson on a retainer and used and rollicking time in his early adulthood, him to authenticate works, some of which also Joni’s accomplishments in the fine art of fak- were probably not what they were claimed to ery have come to be much admired (Mazzoni be. Duveen’s sister once remarked that some 2001, 2004; Mazzoni and Olivetti 1993). In a of Duveen’s Old Masters reeked of fresh oil sense his background is like that of the later paint. Several works by Joni were subsequent- English forger of Renaissance drawings, the ly funneled through Duveen to collections in working-class Eric Hebborn (1934–1996), the United States and Europe. Berenson kept who once tried to set fire to his school and two of Joni’s fakes, probably to test the acu- whose works have come to be collectible in men of his rivals or to remind himself of the their own right. problems of his own attributions. Joni once For a street-smart kid without the benefit took a genuine fourteenth-century panel to of a solid education in the arts, Joni showed Berenson, who would not see him later in life. a deep appreciation of stamps, coats-of- Berenson sent back a message: “Tell Senor arms, insignia, and other fine details, wor- Joni that his work continues to improve.” thy of the best art historians of the period, Joni countered, “When I take him originals such as Bernard Berenson (1865–1959) and he calls them a fake and when I get a fake past Frederick Mason Perkins (1874–1955). him, it then becomes an original.” Hebborn Joni’s work began to be collected as real tre- did exactly the same thing with the Colnaghi cento and quattrocento paintings, although Gallery in London after his exposure as a

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forger of Old Master drawings and he met chemically aged his work using ammonia, with the same kind of response. says the Bruce Museum catalog, but that was When the trade learned that Joni was intent for only the copper and bronze components, on writing his autobiography, he was offered not for the pigments. After exposure of the a substantial sum of money to desist, but Joni, finished painting to the air and sun, a chamois true to the communal mode of production of or kid glove was used to rub the surface with his work and pride in his achievements, had sepia dust or very finely crushed pumice to no interest in such suppression. Like many give it the worn look of an antique painting. A skilled artisans, Joni considered the paintings blunt instrument was then employed to make he produced, modified, or restored to be au- the marks and damages expected on an old thentic artworks. Joni (1936:338) writes: “An work (Joni 1936; Mazzoni 2001). artist who creates a work of art of his own, The artistic abilities of a forger such as in imitation of the style of an old master, is Joni, whose art is part of his life, are hard- not a forger; he is at worst an imitator, and ly compatible with writing a scientifically he is creating something of his own. And if he objective account of his working practices. produces something that merely reflects the Consider, for example, what Joni says about style of the fourteenth or fifteenth century, his punches. An investigation of a Joni pastiche without limitation, it is something really and in imitation of a busy crucifixion scene consist- truly creative.” ing of 23 figures (Muir and Khandekar 2006) When the autobiography was published in by the fourteenth-century northern Italian English in 1936, it was censored, with some painter Altichiero da Verona (circa 1330–circa names removed (such as Lord Duveen’s). 1390), also known as Aldighieri da Zevio, in Copies of the work rapidly disappeared from the collections of the Fogg Museum, Harvard bookshops. It was rumored that Lord Duveen University, showed that the gold halos had bought up every copy he could find and had been punched with a six-sided flower-shaped them destroyed. motif. Frinta (1978, 1982) linked together sev- Joni makes few comments concerning the eral forgeries whose restored areas showed the technical aspects of his craft in his autobiog- recurring use of the same punch, from different raphy. In one passage he says that he ground periods, all attributed to Joni. Skaug (1994) has up his own colors until Windsor and subsequently shown how useful these punch- began to supply the powder pigments, which es can be in terms of attributions, although would not of course have been those actu- none in his catalog match those used by Joni. ally used in the Renaissance period. For the Many of the pigments examined in the study punch work decoration, he first used knitting by Muir and Khandekar (2006) proved to be needles of varying thicknesses, which he stuck modern, and an astute appraisal by Zeri (1968) in and drew out with pincers so that the holes suggested that new gilding had been applied remained intact. Later on, he discovered a to the panel and cracked with the aid of a pin, way of making holes with a small drill. He a fact confirmed by Muir and Khandekar in made the bronze bosses at the corners of the their technical examination. This is the same cover look old by bathing them in ammonia. Zeri who resigned as a Getty trustee when the For the iron plates he used tincture of iodine, purchase of the disputed Getty Kouros went which rusted them in just the right way. He ahead, against his advice, some years later.

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Many admired forgeries can be traced of his illustrated book covers are known, with back to Joni and his coworkers. These in- many more probably in circulation and re- clude Madonna and Child with Saints Michael, garded as authentic. Caterina d’Alessandria, and an Angel in Joni painted Madonna and Child with Angels, the style of Benvenuto di Giovanni (circa ostensibly by Sano di Pietro (1406–1481), an 1436–1509/18), in the Walters Art Gallery, early Renaissance painter from Siena. It was Baltimore; a fine triptych in the Courtauld exposed as a forgery in 1948 and is now in the Institute of Art in London; Madonna and Child Cleveland Museum of Art. Joni’s painting is with Saints Mary Magdalene and Sebastian in noteworthy for its use of color and its tender the manner of Neroccio di Bartolomeo de’ portrayal of its subjects, says the Cleveland Landi (1447–1500); and a copy of the Agnano Museum website, not mentioning the appar- Polyptych (circa 1386–1395) from the church ent attribution problems. There is another of Saint Jacopo Apostolo in Agnano near Pisa, Madonna and Child in the Umbrian-Sienese made around 1936 by Joni. It has an interest- tradition of the quattrocento in the collec- ing story: The fourteenth-century original, tion of the Berenson Foundation at Harvard by Cecco di Pietro (circa 1330–circa 1401), University. A particularly evolutionary phase and its copy are now the property of the in Joni’s production took place around 1910– Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Pisa. Joni’s 1915, when he painted Madonna and Child with polyptych, which, unknown to the authori- Saints Mary Magdalene and Sebastian in the ties, replaced the fourteenth-century altar- style of Neroccio di Bartolomeo de’ Landi. piece in the church in Agnano, was recovered This, together with three fragments from a from the rubble left by wartime bombing. It predella in the style of Sano di Pietro, is in the was later believed to be the original and mis- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. takenly published as such by several illustri- Portrait of a Young Lady, an excellent copy ous scholars. A fragment of a panel depicting of a work by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449– Saint Ansanus, in the possession of the heirs of 1494) of circa 1490 in the collections of the the antiquarian Carlo De Carlo of Florence, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in also created problems. It was thought to be Williamstown, Massachusetts, was produced by a painter akin to di Buoninsegna by Joni. Joni’s Portrait of a Young Lady is in (1255–1319), the “Master of Tabernacle the collection of Chigi Saracini in Italy. The Number 35,” whose oeuvre was defined by principal difference between the two paint- US scholar James H. Stubblebine in his es- ings is the hairstyle and crown worn by the sential monograph Duccio di Buoninsegna and Joni fake, but otherwise his work is practically His School (Stubblebine 1979). It is, in fact, identical to the Ghirlandaio original. by Joni. Even recognized as imitations, his Close comparison of the two works shows work had great cachet. Lady Harriet Sarah just how well Joni captured the style of the Wantage (1837–1920) commissioned several master. Many works by Joni probably remain decorated bookbindings from Joni, know- unknown in collections to this day, waiting to ing that they were fake, imaginative copies be unmasked in the future. of bindings from the ancient Biccherne of Joni (1936) ends his autobiography with the commune of Siena. According to Nixon a rhyme, sage advice to museum curators in- (1969) and Foot (1985), at least 14 examples vestigating his work. It is taken from a canto

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of Aristo, in which a sorcerer tries to per- In one sense, the extract from the canto of suade Rinaldo to drink from a cup that bears Aristo captures the nature of the problem of this inscription: deciding on the authenticity of the paintings that passed through his workshop. What is If you are the one who wears the Cuckold’s to be gained from putting them to the test? crest, There is a whole spectrum of fakes, from My wine shall spill and scatter on your lightly restored fourteenth-century panels to breast, pastiche works, from heavily restored panels Ere a drop pass your lips; but if it so be all the way to completely fabricated paint- Your wife is faithful, you shall drink from me. ings in the style of early Renaissance masters, But the wise Paladin the cup declined: such as Joni’s version of Ghirlandaio’s Portrait Tis mad to seek what it were pain to find; of a Young Lady. To what extent does the re- Thus far by faith alone my life is blest; working of an authentic fourteenth-century What should I gain by putting it to test? panel invalidate the authenticity of the orig- inal? From the point of view of the material authenticity of the work, it has been heavily compromised. The conceptual and aesthet- ic/historical dimensions of authenticity are a different matter. If Joni’s work is admired as a beautiful work of art, and if the decayed original cannot be retrieved from a repainted fourteenth-century panel, there is little point in removing the later overpaint. As Appadurai reminds us in The Social Life of Things, mean- ings ascribed to objects change diachron- ically and become commodified in turn as different epochs find different aspects to value. The historical period in which Joni worked is now appreciated or of interest to us on its own terms, the Heidegger work- being having become valorized in terms of the progression of events since the 1920s. The hermeneutic dialogue between the original Ghirlandaio and Joni’s version is now seen in more nuanced terms, because our attitude to these copies in the twenty-first century does not have the same foundational pejorative Figure 8.21. Portrait of a Young Lady by Icilio view of copies that prevailed during most of Frederico Joni, after Domenico Ghirlandaio, the twentieth century. tempera on wood panel. This forgery closely matches the style and detail of the original. It is a If the apparent aesthetic authenticity is skillful Joni production. (Image courtesy of Chigi now seen as desirable by a viewer, the philo- Saracini, Florence) sophical justification is not dissimilar to Joni’s

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own assertion regarding the nature of his cre- universal condemnation (Mackenzie 1986). ative work, quoted above. In terms of Hans- This is a natural progression in many cas- George Gadamer’s hermeneutics, the three es but not all. Historically, this can already paradigms of the methodological analysis be seen to be false. The necessity of some involve (Radnóti 1999:116): forgeries to create a history that should have existed, a sine qua non for authenticity, has The understanding of the author’s in- already been exampled in the case of Venice, tentions; to understand them better discussed above in the section dealing with than the author himself and finally to intentionality and the production of fakes. combine these elements into a circular In that case, historical research showed the understanding, which Gadamer calls direct relationship between Venice and Saint the “merger” of the respective horizons Mark to be fabricated, but this did not re- of the author and the interpreter— in sult in universal condemnation. In the case cases where the author is of the past and of forgeries by the likes of Joni or Dossena, forms part of the tradition, this means the aesthetic authenticity of the works led to the merger of historically different a hermeneutic inquiry into how the past can horizons. be understood through the present, how the horizon of the forger himself is now distant Gadamer is here essentially following from us, as Mazzoni (2001, 2004) points out, Heidegger in stating that every work of art and a new horizon has to encompass these has a history of effect (Wirkungsgeschichte). three horizons in 2016. These inform us, Radnóti (1999:117) adds a forth paradigm, not only in terms of what was desired or per- namely the appropriation of tradition, of di- formed by the forgeries or pastiches in 1920 rect relevance since Mazzoni (2001) thinks but in terms of our own historical recogni- of Joni as influenced by the Arts and Crafts tion of their phenomenology. movement, the fascination with the work of An inquiry into Joni’s intention in this the Pre-Raphaelites at the time he was paint- paradigm is relevant. He writes: “I had of- ing, and the studious interest of his contem- ten said to Berenson that I should like to poraries for the techniques of early Italian try to sell my things for what they were, on panel paintings. The hermeneutics of appro- their own merit; in this way, as he himself priation apply to Joni and his stated inten- said, I should cut out the possibility of oth- tion that an artist who creates a work of art ers making illicit profits out of them” (Joni of his own, in imitation of an Old Master, is 1936:120). The problem here is the tension not a forger. If a claim is made to understand between the stated intention of the artist that intention, and to honor the appropria- and the historical milieu in which selling his tion of tradition, then Joni’s work occupies works as his own, rather than as the work of an increasingly privileged position in the an Old Master, would be feasible. In 2016 world of authentic fakes. Joni’s fakes would be in great demand, but in Philosophers have tended to assume that 1932 public interest was severely limited and forgeries proceed forward in time from ini- the concept was economically unsustainable, tial acclamation, followed by a period of which effectively prevented Joni from pursu- doubt and calling into question, leading to ing this path for his admired authentic fakes.

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A substantial series of fake fresco frag- an ambiguous marchand-amateur figure. ments in the fifteenth-century style, from the The “baron” was responsible for the hyper- National Gallery of Ireland in and the restoration of several works of art, including a National Museum of Warsaw, is represen- Ghirlandaio in the Metropolitan Museum of tative of another talented forger, Umberto Art, Francesco Sassetti and His Son Teodoro, in Giunti, who created many fakes between 1907 which the father’s face was completely over- and 1925. Giunti painted an admired work in painted, figures in the background were re- the style of during the 1920s, at the moved, and other unnecessary emendations height of his career. Other impressive works were carried out (Secrest 2013:251). It was are a large panel in the style of Sano di Pietro said that ’s hyper-restorations were and Ritratto Virile in an “Antonellian” style in so similar in their effect that his pictures all the Collezione Bologna-Buonsignori of the looked alike. Societie di Pie Disposizioni of Siena. Other A painting of the Montefeltro family of known works include Madonna and Child with Urbino in the National Gallery, London, Saint Catherine of Alexandria in the style of attributed to the late fifteenth-century artist Matteo di Giovanni (circa 1430–1495), which Melozzo da Forli (1438–1494), has caused a was left to the Academia di San Luca in Rome great deal of trouble. The expert restorer at in the legacy of Baron Michele Lazzaroni, the National Gallery pronounced the work authentic in the 1930s. But it was not actually the work of Melozzo da Forli. It was paint- ed around 1920, probably by Joni or Giunti (Wieseman 2010:36–38). Apparently the raised cuff carries folds that defy gravity, while the extent of cloth above the elbow is too liberal. To the expert eye, the checkered cap is tilted back too far for the period. The armorial badge stamped into the gesso at upper right, a very sophisticated touch, suggests that the sitters were members of the Montefeltro family. In the gallery’s 1951 catalog of early Italian paintings, opinion had shifted. Curator Martin Davies concluded that “this picture appears to be modern.” Further evidence of the modern origins of the portrait group emerged in 1960, when costume historian Stella Mary Newton demonstrated that the garments worn by the figures were both anachronistic and structurally impossible. In Figure 8.22. Art forger Icilio Frederico Joni. fact, the man’s checkered cap was inspired by (Photographer unknown. Image courtesy of Web a distinctive woman’s fashion of about 1913. Art Academy) The painting’s curious technical aspects were

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explored yet again in 1996, when a scientific scanning electron microscopy with energy- investigation was launched to determine dispersive analysis of X-rays, identified a how the forgery was crafted (Wieseman number of modern pigments in the samples: 2010:36–38). It was painted on a thin wood cobalt blue, cadmium yellow, viridian, and panel that was stuck onto a thicker panel of chrome yellow. None of these were available old wood and artificially cracked to heighten before the nineteenth century, and Joni or the impression of great age. Although the Giunti, unlike van Meegeren, were not traditional gesso ground and egg tempera bothered by or especially interested in these medium were used, the latter confirmed by gas technical niceties. Giunti’s creations follow chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis, the same paradigm as Joni’s: admired fakes Fourier transform infrared microscopy, and of the twentieth century.

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Chapter 9 From the Baroque to the Early Twentieth Century

Baroque and Rococo Excesses Posthumous Works The Century of Restorations Copies A Desire for the Original Forgeries Romantic Decay

During the seventeenth century the central role played by reproductions of antique statues within the academic curriculum was enshrined increasingly in theoretical texts. —Martin Postle, Antique Statuary in the English Academy: From Lely to Haydon

Introduction of ennobling the spirit and the worship of The seventeenth/early eighteenth century God. The era saw the creation of sumptu- ushered in what has been called the Baroque ous palaces, buildings, and works of art, the period, although the artists then living would sheer cost of which led some into bankruptcy never have referred to themselves as such. (Harbison 2000). The Baroque is widely recognized as a pe- The desire to create visions of ecstatic ven- riod of flamboyance, exuberance, and lavish- eration was one of the Catholic aims of the ness in creation of and spending on the arts, period, to convince worshippers that the true which contained the contradictory notions church was the Roman version of the Christian

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From the Baroque to the Early Twentieth Century

faith, with its saints and miracles, incense and creativity imbued with spiritual presence indulgences, not the purified version offered (Baudrillard 1998; Buci-Glucksmann 1994). by the Reformation (Lambert 2004). The cabinets of curiosities contained works The present-day fascination with the whose conceptual authenticity was of para- Baroque, however that is defined, is part of mount importance. Whether a merman, such the postmodern reevaluation of the interac- as the example illustrated in Figure 2.14, was tion between viewer, artist, and object, seen regarded as materially authentic or not de- by Mieke Bal as a “shared entanglement” (Bal pended on its mode of reception, which the 1999:30). That entanglement is part of the cabinet of curiosities made palpable and in- discourse between representation and reality. triguing and which created for its contents Maggie MacLure writes: the aura of authenticity. As far as the completion of fragmentary The art and philosophy of baroque is works of art are concerned, the tradition of currently providing a fertile source of remaking ancient statues continued through reclaimed theoretical energy in fields the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. including art and cultural theory . . . ac- During this period the production of pas- tor network theory . . . philosophy and tiche works increased. There was no inter- aesthetics . . . and literary theory. The est in undertaking a faithful reconstruction baroque has come to stand for an entan- of a sculpture. Preferred instead was a rein- gled, confounded vision . . . the blurring terpretation and restitution of the work as of distinctions between subject and ob- an allegorical or mythological figure, often ject, surface and depth, reality and rep- with the addition of imaginative details. An resentation (MacLure 2006:740) example is the addition of the Cupid to the Ludovisi Ares (Conti and Longhi 1973:103), The subject of authenticity is rarely ad- discussed earlier. Many works were altered dressed in Baroque studies, since it involves to suit the taste of the Baroque period. both the conceptual authenticity of the view- They were adapted to the style of the period er’s interaction with the work and how mate- without regard to the material authenticity rial and aesthetic authenticity are evaluated. of the original, but as modern scholarship In that sense, its relations with the postmod- points out, this is one of the salient char- ern are dynamic and relevant, as evidenced by acteristics of the Baroque (Harbison 2000; the numerous texts that deal with the Baroque Lambert 2004). sensitivity in the contemporary context, such The taste for restoration in the Baroque as works by MacLure (2006), Lambert (2004), was part of its exuberance. During the sev- Harbison (2000), Buci-Glucksmann (1994), enteenth and eighteenth centuries, the fam- and Baudrillard (1998). ilies of the papal entourage began to assem- ble collections of ancient sculptures, which Baroque Instantiations were largely present in Rome at the time and The fabrication of fantastical objects during were also discovered in the first archaeolog- the Baroque period—from cabinets of curi- ical excavations, carried out under the aegis osities to anamorphic artworks and trompe of King Charles III (1716–1788), who ruled l’oeil creations—is part of its fascination with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Charles

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Baroque Instantiations

III began a systematic campaign to unearth Several authors (Belting 1994; Jaffé 1977) the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum (Loh observed that Rubens consciously painted 2004). Many of the finds were skillfully re- the altarpiece for the Oratorians’ church in stored by artists as elevated as Gian Lorenzo Rome in the style of Paolo Veronese (1528– Bernini (1598–1680). 1588), with Gian Pietro Bellori (1613–1696) Loh (2004:478) provides numerous ex- writing that it was based on the intentions amples of the problems of imitation. In 1614 of Veronese. Good style was to be achieved a virtually unknown painter, Alessandro through discriminating imitation, recombi- Varotari (1588–1649), copied Titian’s (Tiziano nation, and transformation of previous and Vecellio, circa 1488–1576) Bacchanal of the existing artists (Loh 2004). The ambivalence Andrians, dating from 1520–1523, as well with which we view these transformations as a pastiche of works by Venetian, Roman, today is a contested field, with the Baroque and Bolognese masters of the sixteenth and instantiations of altered works of art alien to early seventeenth century. Giovanni Andrea the intentions of the original artist but work- Podestà (1608–circa 1673) produced en- ing playfully with representation and reality graved copies. The Florentine painter Giovan (MacLure 2006). As testament to the histori- Battista Vanni (circa 1599–1660) also copied cal taste of the Baroque, these alterations are Bacchanal of the Andrians (1523–1526), while frequently not removed but left as authentic Peter Paul Rubens produced two for imitations of the period. To remove all of the king of Spain, Philip IV (Loh 2004:478). them would deny the historical understand- The two are today regarded as authentic ing of Baroque taste. works qua Rubens rather than as Rubens’s The Council of Trent (1545–1563), called forgeries of works by Titian. by Pope Paul III (1468–1549) to counter the Other painters, including Domenichino effects of the Reformation, stated that art (Domenico Zampieri, 1581–1641), should be used to explain profound dogmas made two drawings, now lost, of Titian’s of faith for everyone, not just the educated Bacchanalia, while Nicolas Poussin (1594– elite. The new art was to be direct, emotion- 1665) and François Duquesnoy (1597– ally persuasive, and powerful. Certain works 1643) produced sculptures after Titian’s oil by Michelangelo were censured as not being painting The Worship of Venus (1518–1519). fit for this purpose, resulting in the overpaint- As late as the second half of the seventeenth ing of 11 depictions of genitals and bottoms century, Neapolitan artist Luca Giordano on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, as discussed (1634–1705) copied Titian’s Bacchus and above. Despite this, the council encouraged Ariadne and reused the same figures in nu- the depiction of grandiose visions, ecstasies, merous paintings in the 1680s. The painted conversions, martyrdoms, and deaths, proba- copies of Bacchanal of the Andrians made by bly because such simple themes could be ap- Varotari and others are not demonstrative, preciated by peasants as authentic expressions creative, or competitive repetitions per se of Christian faith (Spear 1989). according to Loh (2004), who writes: “They The Jesuits were in the vanguard of the belong to another category of imitation Counter-Reformation but were not neces- that fulfills a documentary purpose before sarily convinced that the copies artists sup- cameras.” plied them with performed the authentic

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functionality they sought. It is fitting to quote (1755–1849); the authenticity of the collec- from an argument Pierre II Legros (1666– tion was viewed as being too heavily compro- 1719) had with the Jesuits in support of the mised by spurious restorations. replication in plaster of his own marble sculp- The eighteenth century saw an increas- ture Saint Stanislas Kostka in Sant’Andrea al ing professionalism in the questioning of the Quirinale in 1703: “The piety that the statue recognition and narrative value of works of is said to stimulate in the little chapel will be art. Baroque inventions or transformations equally stimulated by a similar statue of the were no longer regarded as desirable, and a same shape, since it is not the material that reassessment of what kind of authenticity stimulates piety but rather what is represent- one was to seek in the fragmentary remains ed. . . . The veneration given to God and the of the classical world resulted in increasing saints increases through the multiplicity of demands for documentary research and com- their images. . . . In venerating them one does parisons between different works and artists. not think about whether they are originals or This reformulation created a philosophy that copies by the artist” (Spear 1988:99). sought to respect the original intention of the Some years later, during the French remaining physical components of the work, Revolution, art historian and dealer Alexander as far as practicable. Lenoir (1761–1839) devised a plan to pre- This became something of a mantra, which serve historical French monuments from gained in stature as a camouflage to restorative the destructive tide of the revolution. Lenoir acts that failed to respect the true nature of the gathered pieces from French castles, church- surviving fragments. Bartolomeo Cavaceppi es, and cathedrals, exhibiting them in the (circa 1716–1799), the most successful restorer former Les Petits Augustins cloister in Paris and sculptor of his time, is a typical example of to show the French people the artistic value this philosophical shift. While he pronounced of monuments that had lost their political or that his restorations respected the concept of religious value. This collection is considered the original, in many cases they did nothing of the first public museum of the modern era. It the kind. For example, when Thomas Jenkins shared one interesting characteristic with the (circa 1722–1798) purchased the Barberini Baroque: Many pieces were assembled with Venus, it was missing its head, right arm, left fragments of different origins, as if at the end forearm, and part of a buttock. Cavaceppi of the eighteenth century, the fragment had had a suitably sized head of Agrippina (Julia not the same value as a complete work of art. Agrippina the Younger, Roman empress, 15– An example is the marble funerary monu- 59 C.E.) wearing a veil in his workshop, so ment of Abelard and Heloise in the courtyard the veil was chiseled away, and the head was of the cloister (today in the École des Beaux- pared down to fit the body of Venus. Newly Arts courtyard, Paris), which was assembled carved arms were added, one coyly placed from various unrelated components of differ- to allow Venus’s hand to rest over her gen- ent ages and remains a complex pastiche today. itals, which the Roman original would not This approach to the restoration of ancient have done. It was sold as an original work to monuments was also the principal reason the William Weddell (1736–1792) of Newby Hall museum was closed in 1815, by a and was recently sold at auction in London, under the direction of Quartemère de Quincy restorations noted, for £7.3 million.

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The Late Eighteenth to Early Twentieth Century

Where possible, Cavaceppi tried to be The Late Eighteenth to Early more respectful of the original: He left the Twentieth Century ancient fragments intact, without polishing The late eighteenth century to the early their surfaces, adapting the new components twentieth century was not only a time of to the original fragments and leaving the joints increasing innovations in art, how artworks visible. This change in philosophy, away from were produced, and what they represented; a completely deceitful or entirely fanciful res- the period has also earned the dubious so- toration, inspired or encouraged attention to briquet “the century of restorations” (De a “stylistic and . . . iconographic accuracy, as Angelis-D’Ossat 1948:51). It is also known well as archaeological and philological mean- as the century when fakes and forgeries ingfulness based on scholarly pursuits and began to achieve increasing prominence. objectivity,” along with a demand for “an au- Because of the rapid rise in the number of thenticity verifiable in ancient literature and people who could appreciate works of art, physical evidence” (Howard 1990:24). visit museums to see them, read about them, This philological approach was influenced see lithographs of them, or actually own by the works of Johann Joachim Winckelmann them, an increasing number of imitations, (1717–1768), whose project was to create a replicas, and forgeries began to be produced “comprehensive and lucid chronological ac- to satisfy the demand. count of all antique art” depending on “an Many of the restorations and fakes dis- analysis of successive stylistic phases” (Haskell cussed in earlier chapters were created in the and Penny 1981:101). Winckelmann’s meth- period from 1850 to 1930. This was a peri- odology was characterized by a thorough od of greatly renewed interest in medieval analysis of small details of the work of art and and Renaissance art, spurred by the many attention to the shape and size of anatomi- European travelers on the Grand Tour and cal parts, such as nipples, fingers, and knees by exposure to ethnographic and exotic arts (Haskell and Penny 1981:102). seen or obtained from around the globe. The results of this new attitude were the The renewed interest, especially in the arts elimination of most Baroque restorations and of old Europe, China, and Japan, coincided the increasing importance of historical and with a period when many skilled craftsmen material authenticity, evidenced by stylisti- had ready access to imported materials such cally faithful additions. In some cases, such as as elephant ivory, turtle shell, gemstones, the Elgin Marbles or the Ceres of Cambridge, precious woods, and blocks of Roman mar- sculptures were not restored at all, to preserve ble; precious or ancient fragments that could their documentary and educative value or to be used to produce fakes; and a ready supply highlight the intrinsic aesthetic qualities of of fourteenth- to sixteenth-century panels, the remaining fragments (Conti and Longhi sixteenth- and eighteenth-century canvases, 1973:197). The refusal of such a famous hand-ground pigments, old oils, and tradi- sculptor as (1757–1822) to tional varnishes. Clocks, watches, manu- restore the fragmentary Elgin Marbles was a scripts, carpets, lithographs, and ceramics sign that wholesale completion was no longer were added to the ever-growing list of the in- necessarily the desirable state of a work of art authentic. Dawson (1990:212) notes that soft- (Philippot 1966:216; True 2003:5). paste Sèvres porcelain, much in demand from

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1804, began to be extensively faked, along in the eighteenth century were reassessed in with Meissen, Chelsea, and Chinese ceram- the nineteenth. Vaughan (1992:42) makes the ics. Even redecorated Sèvres milk jugs with point that many of these were restored partial applied gilding, bearing the authentic marks fakes, that eighteenth-century taste for visual of the original French gilders, were faked. homogeneity tolerated excessive restorations Abraham Moore mugs from 1765 were much that would be unacceptable in 1992, and that faked, as was anything else for which the de- a paradigm shift occurred in 1812 with the mand exceeded the legitimate supply. The fak- decision not to restore the Elgin Marbles in ing of classical gems in the eighteenth and early the British Museum, although that may have nineteenth century became so prevalent, due been farsightedness on the part of Canova to the activities of British fakers James Byres rather than the real shift alluded to by and Thomas Jenkins, that the market was in Vaughan. However, it is true that there were turmoil for many years. The taste for gems other voices raised against excessive Baroque reached a peak in the 1780s. The 1990 British and Rococo restorations. Risser and Saunders Museum catalog of fakes illustrates an inta- (2013:199) cite evidence from an Italian con- glio in sard of a drunken satyr and an intaglio text: In 1818 Naples issued a royal decree that bust in carnelian of a warrior—a fine piece of sought to limit the extent to which additions work but dating from the eighteenth century, could be made to ancient artifacts. It stated, not classical Greece (Rudoe 1990:147). These “Restorations are an obstacle to the certain forgeries were principally made for monetary interpretation of ancient monuments, which gain, and while of interest in their own right, come to be permanently altered if the re- they do not add anything especially new to storers are not fully informed as to the style the story of authenticity. as much as the ideas that guided the ancient craftsmen in their work” and “It is universally The Nineteenth Century desired by scholars that ancient works of art As far as the themes of this book are con- are left in the state in which they are found, cerned, four principal concepts come into adding fragments only in a way that does not sharper focus in the nineteenth century: the alter the ancient ones.” Risser and Saunders relative merits of restoration of originals; the (2013:199) note that when discussing marble value of copies and replicas; how fakes and sculpture, the decree advises that restorations forgeries are to be regarded; and the valoriz- be carried out in plaster rather than marble. It ing of the original. made a ruling specifically for bronzes, stating Because of the Baroque and Rococo ex- that the patina should not be removed as it cesses, restoration was now based on the aim provided a sure sign of authenticity. to preserve as much of an original as possible; The nineteenth century also saw the in- many examples have already been discussed. ception of conservation and restoration as There was a new art historical interpretation, legitimate subjects of study rather than just a desire for the original that sought to remove as artisans working on the cleaning or res- obtrusive or misleading restorations from toration of works of art. This questioning works of art in an effort to assess and evalu- of the purpose and aims of conservation re- ate the artistic quality of the unadorned orig- sulted in notable intellectual debates and a inal. Many restored pastiche works created synergism or influence between restoration

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The Nineteenth Century

and philosophical inquiry. The nineteenth- condition (Hayes 2013:49). This was part of century reflection on the nature of resto- a nineteenth-century nostalgia overwhelmed ration is intimately connected to the idealists by the grandeur of the classical past, leading and the view that only the painted surface it- to the taste for Victorian pessimism. Matthew self carried the potential for contemplation of Arnold’s (1822–1888) poem Dover Beach was the essence of the work—that the materiality a watershed, stemming from a reaction to the of the work was secondary to its ability to rep- excesses of the Baroque and a loss of Christian resent what was eternal and universal. faith, which had seemed so certain to a prior In the context of the transfer of paintings generation, who believed in the literal truth from decayed wooden panels to lined canvas, of the Bible. then much in vogue, Hayes (2013:47) notes A typically pragmatic British response that Schopenhauer had referenced, in pass- to this admiration of degradation as far as ing, the transfer of frescoes in Venice and paintings were concerned was to question that while he was curious about the beauty the extent to which transcendent experiences of ’s colors, he suggested that they could be reconciled with decayed pictures. As should be investigated chemically. This was Hayes (2013:50) writes: something of an aside, for Schopenhauer saw art as an expression of a Platonic ideal, some- The restorer Merritt, in Pictures and thing that transcended the mere materiality Dirt Separated in the Works of the Old of its form. Schopenhauer writes (1988:369): Masters, took issue with this approach, “Thus this sequestration, this separation of celebrating instead works that would form from matter, belongs to the character have perished but for their timely trans- of the aesthetic artwork, indeed because its fer from the worn-out timber on which purpose is to bring us to the awareness of a they were painted to other and sounder (Platonic) idea. It is hence essential that the material. Today these views can be read artwork gives the form alone, without materi- both as opposition in a dialectic of ro- al, and to do this clearly and obviously.” mantic decay versus preservation, but The lack of a tangible material component also as a kind of synthesis: two varieties for paintings transferred from wooden panels of dematerialized existence. to canvas is therefore seen by Hayes as being underpinned by philosophical currents active For while aesthetics admitted the phys- at the time. Hayes gives as his prime example icality of an artwork, it to some degree dis- Hegel, who was not only an art connoisseur placed the materiality. Hegel (1974–1975) but knew several restorers and artists person- writes: “Thereby the sensuous aspect of a ally. Hegel was also much influenced by the work of art in comparison with the immedi- idea of pure form or pure spirit as a transcen- ate existence of things in nature is elevated to dental experience above the physical plane on a pure appearance, and the work of art stands which art existed. Some of his statements re- in the middle between the immediate sensu- garding art are discussed in chapter 2. ousness and ideal thought.” There was even admiration for decayed While the attitude toward restorations pictures, which seemed even more evoca- gradually underwent a swing toward purism, tive to some viewers than pictures in perfect intellectual currents regarding the merits or

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demerits of condition, replicas, and copies The Thinker (1879–1889), one of the most were circulating. Debates concerning what reproduced sculptures in the world, and how pictures should actually look like created a authentic these works are to the aims of the storm of criticism whenever the National artist or to the materiality of his mode of pro- Gallery in London embarked on the cleaning duction. We have already mentioned Rodin’s of paintings. There were outraged letters to seminal work The Age of Bronze (1877), for The Times, committees of inquiry, and investi- which he was accused of taking molds from gations by prominent scientists. Between 1850 a living model, a kind of surmoulage, rather and 1853, Michael Faraday (1791–1867) car- than creating the standing figure himself (Le ried out analytical and deterioration studies for Normand-Roman 2007). Rodin was sensitive the National Gallery, investigating varnishes, to these kinds of criticisms and often pro- cleaning methods, and the impact of London duced sculptures that were much smaller in fog, coal smoke, and gas lighting on the dis- scale or works that were over life-size. coloration of surface coatings. Paintings with The authenticity of a bronze sculpture exposed lead white areas were blackened by inheres in the artist’s sanction (Irvin 2005b), alteration to lead sulfide, while chalk grounds since the “original” work is a clay, plaster, could grow pustular excrescences or induce or wooden model that is then used to cre- delamination of paint layers (Saunders 2000). ate the piece-molds from which a wax copy One consequence of damage from London’s is produced. This wax copy is then invested, heady concoction of pollutants was that paint- burned out, and replaced by molten bronze. ings were covered with glass to protect them It is subsequently finished, chased, and pati- and the backs were protected with canvas, both nated, not usually by the artist himself or her- of which are an impediment to connoisseur- self, to produce the finished work. Artisans ship (Brimblecombe 2012). To delve more employed by the studio produce versions in deeply into a painting’s underdrawing, the different sizes. The original model for The glazing would have to be removed. Some pic- Thinker, for example, was quite small, but tures of the Pre-Raphaelites kept under glass the sculpture is known principally from large, at the Tate Gallery could easily be substituted life-size casts in numerous cities around the by high-quality prints. Lighting reflections ob- world. Indications of authenticity are found scure the authentic nature of their surfaces to in the signature of the artist in the wax mod- such an extent that when the author visited in el and foundry stamps applied to the bronze 2014, the works themselves were hard to see. by the casting studio. Hundreds of authentic Rodin multiples were produced during the The Problems of Posthumous Rodins artist’s lifetime, and thousands were produced Many artists produce posthumous works, long after his death. Some of these posthu- sanctioned by the artist’s relatives, collectors, mous works are authentic, and some are in- curators, museums, or estates. authentic. The major problem with the latter (1840–1917) is a particularly contentious was created by French art dealer Guy Hain case. His multiple modes of production have (Wikipedia 2013), who was responsible for prompted questions concerning whether his many thousands of forged Rodin sculptures. oeuvre is truly represented by the scores of Hain convinced one of the original foundries instantiations of his bronze castings, such as and its owners, Georges and Bernard Rudier,

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The Problems of Posthumous Rodins

to use the original molds, employed 75 to 90 than $27 million, was questioned by the Musée years before, to recast known Rodin works as Rodin, which declared that none of the works well as plaster copies. Hain even purchased were authentic. The Royal Ontario Museum the Balland Foundry to undertake produc- refused to accept this verdict and maintained tion. These Rodin bronzes were fabricated that its Rodins were authentic and that many using the same molds employed for the legit- of the plasters were signed. The Musée Rodin imate posthumous replications. The forgeries countered that these signed plasters appeared were stamped with the name Alexis Rudier, only in the 1950s (Edemariam 2001). who had been one of the casters for Rodin. The material authenticity of the bronzes The numerous works Hain produced brought and plasters is complicated by the fact that in more than $18 million. authentic Rodin bronzes can still be pur- Hain expanded his production to in- chased from the Musée Rodin until 12 casts clude forgeries of works by Alfred Barye have been made from the plaster molds, (1839–1892), Antoine-Louis Barye (1796– such as the collection purchased by the Los 1875), Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827–1875), Angeles County Museum of Art in 1967. The Christophe Fratin (1801–1864), Emmanuel authenticity of these posthumous casts has to Frémiet (1826–1910), Aristide Maillol (1861– be based on a purely conceptual authenticity 1944), Pierre-Jules Mene (1810–1879), rather than on material or historic authentici- Auguste (1841–1919), and Camille ty, since, as with the forgeries issued by Hain, Claudel (1864–1943). The astonishing range they are cast from the same molds used by the of this fabrication was revealed when Hain Musée Rodin itself. was finally arrested in January 1992, in pos- The artist sanctioned the Musée Rodin to session of more than 20 metric tons of bronze act as his agent in the continual production sculptures dispersed among various foundries of his bronzes. These posthumous works are in Burgundy and Paris. He was sentenced by validated by the intention of the artist, and the courts, but when released, he just started they exist qua sculpture, independent of aes- up production again. Hain was rearrested in thetic appreciation of the works themselves. 2002. Evidence collected by the Dijon Police Extrinsic to a scientific concept of material Department included some 1,100 copies of authenticity, the intrinsic visual appreciation the works of 98 different French sculptors. of the sculptures made by Hain cannot be dif- Art expert Gilles Perrault calculated that ferent from the casts made in 1967. Indeed, Hain had produced more than 6,000 copies it is the compositional and material compo- beyond those the police found and confiscat- nents of the works that are missing from this ed. Only one-third of the inauthentic posthu- story: No attempt seems to have been made mous Rodin replicas have been traced, which to discriminate between works cast for Rodin means that thousands of them are circulat- during his lifetime, those cast legitimately by ing as genuine Rodin bronzes somewhere the Musée Rodin after his death, and those (Wikipedia 2013). cast by forgers. Scientific examination of ma- Disputes regarding authenticity are there- teriality should not be extrinsic to the argu- fore inevitable. An exhibition of Rodin plas- ment here but should constitute integrally, ter casts and bronzes at the Royal Ontario with art historical connoisseurship, an evalu- Museum in Canada in 2001, valued at more ation of claims by stakeholders.

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Regardless, some artists and critics take a from plaster casts of the original and includ- dim view of posthumous casts. These include ed photographs, reproductions of prints or artist Gary Arseneau; a page from his web- drawings, and electrotype replicas of original site entries is shown in Figure 9.1. Arseneau art in a variety of different metals or finishes maintains that the “dead do not sculpt” and (Scott and Stevens 2013). holds the view that all of the posthumous The use of copies in the museum environ- casts are forgeries. ment was heralded across Europe as a noble The Musée Rodin approaches this prob- enterprise that sought verisimilitude of ad- lem by maintaining that it designates itself mired originals that could not be possessed as of the artist’s moral rights. It themselves. Appreciation of aesthetic form stresses that its own documentation circum- came via replicas, which negated the archae- navigates problems or protests concerning ological or material veracity of substance, the authenticity of Rodin sculptures, whose subsumed in the Victorian sensibility of the production, long after the death of the art- beautiful rather than the material authenticity ist, continues, but officially only at the behest of the original. of the Musée Rodin. Each authentic cast is A pan-European agreement promoting therefore imbued with the intangible authen- universal Reproduction of Works of Art for ticity of a moral right of the dead artist, to- the benefits of Museums of all Countries, gether with a certificate of authenticity issued signed at the Paris Exhibition of 1867, obli- by the museum. That is what separates the gated the signatories to form their own com- real from the inauthentic, even if there are no missions for obtaining such reproductions as visible or discernible differences between the they might require for their own museums. posthumous forged copies and the posthu- The signatories were from Great Britain mous legitimate copies. and Ireland, Prussia, Hesse, Saxony, France, Russia, Sweden and Norway, Italy, Austria, The Virtue of Copies and Denmark (Department of Science and In terms of fine art, as a result of the ex- Art 1867). Of these countries, few formed panding appreciation of artistic works, there a national collection of copies that survives was an increasing desire to contemplate the today; many collections were not conserved, original, not copies or replicas, which were and some were destroyed or lost. The most increasingly viewed with distaste as the nine- well-known collections are the Royal Cast teenth century progressed. From the point Collection in Copenhagen, part of the of view of the connoisseur, it was desirable National Gallery of Denmark, founded in or necessary to be able to differentiate cop- 1896, and the Cast Galleries of the Victoria ies from originals to understand the devel- and Albert Museum in London, founded opment of art and its stylistic and diachronic in 1873 (Baker 1982), the latter containing material alterations. many plaster casts and electrotypes. However, this is only one side of the story. What happened to the other collections? The Victorians were also enthusiastic copiers The philosophical tide of art historical opin- whose aim was to provide an enlightenment ion began to turn against the view that plaster universalism of artistic forms for the benefit facsimiles or electrotyped copies were of any of the educated elite. Copies were often taken aesthetic or historical value. This denigration

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The Virtue of Copies

Figure 9.1. Page from the website of Gary Arseneau, an artist who takes a particularly dim view of the authenticity of posthumous casts, declaring them to be forgeries. This view represents an extreme end of the spectrum in terms of evaluating the authenticity of later casts. (Image courtesy of Gary Arseneau and GaryArseneau.com)

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was also connected to the use of plaster casts the renewed emphasis on the original work of in academic art classes toward the end of art as something distinct from a replica. This the nineteenth century. Sir view became prevalent after the First World (1978:23) wrote: War and effectively lasted through the 1970s. The use of plaster of Paris or flexible mold- I was taught drawing at school in a dis- ing materials based on animal glue and treacle mal room that contained about a dozen mixtures, employed in the nineteenth century casts, which I was required to draw in for the taking of casts, may well have occasioned pencil. As I drew them every week for surface damage to delicate polychromy or pat- four years I got to know them fairly well. inated sculpture. Signs of surmoulage—where Four of them were by Bastianini, one was a knife or blade was used to cut molding ma- the British Museum Caesar, another fake terial applied to a bronze sculpture to separate long lauded as the best bust of Caesar the mold into pieces, which could be removed ever, and a bust of a female saint that was from undercuts or other areas of the limbs— undoubtedly nineteenth century. There can sometimes be seen. Surmoulage could dam- was not a single cast that was authentic, age the delicate patina of Renaissance bronze even a Donatello would have had a style sculpture. If the original was not waxed or upsetting to my drawing master, and the oiled, plaster casts from fragile stone originals same was probably true of art schools all could easily disturb the surface. Since casting over the country. operations were carried out by skilled crafts- men rather than conservators, traces of oil or The travails of some of these casts were wax used as a separation layer sometimes re- quite extraordinary. As recounted by Avery mained on original sculpture, encouraging the (1994), Robinson mentions that one cast of accumulation of dirt and grime. a Giovanni di Bologna (Giambologna, 1529– On the other hand, art historians and con- 1608) sculpture was discovered in a London servators argue that preservation of replicas of antiques shop by an Italian dealer and pur- some works of art allows the material authen- chased for £20. The dealer took it back to ticity of the original to be assessed in terms of Florence, where it was sold to a British buy- preservation of surface detail. Replicas have er for £300. It then made its way back to substantially more detail than some originals, England. The Victoria and Albert Museum which have withstood more than 100 years later acquired it for £470. Clark’s statement is of weathering, deterioration, alteration, or a revealing commentary on nineteenth-cen- loss. As Baker (1982) remarks, in the case of tury taste, and how the cultural ethos of the the tympanum from the north portal of the time appropriated inauthentic portrait busts Church of Saint Godchard in Hildesheim, a because they conformed with what had come lunette marble carving of a rather Byzantine- to be expected of admired artistic creations. influenced Christ, Saint Godchard, and a It was not just the outcry against the end- nimbed bishop, probably Saint Epiphanius of less use of copies for teaching purposes and Pavia (Williamson 1998), the original has un- the stultifying influence of copies on original dergone the usual sad deterioration to which creation that caused problems for the reten- marble sculptures are prone after centuries of tion of museum replicas. It was exacerbated by exposure to polluted air.

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Comparison of the plaster cast in the V&A The Neo-Renaissance of the with the original reveals the degradation of Nineteenth Century the surface of the original following 120 years Given the plethora of forgeries produced of additional and more severe environmen- during the nineteenth century, one of the tal deterioration, suggesting the potential of most interesting developments, as the quo- historic casts to act as long-term conservation tation from Kenneth Clark above reveals, monitoring devices or as more authentic rep- is the reverence accorded to certain ancient resentatives of the appearance of the original and Renaissance artistic styles created by work than the original itself. nineteenth-century artists such as Giovanni Unlike Lowenthal’s quip that old forg- Bastianini (1830–1868), whose oeuvre has eries show us how the past came to view the recently been the subject of a reassessment past, the preservation of these replicas allows (Moskowitz 2013). Bastianini, a skilled arti- us to see how the past has helped preserve an san with little formal education, was even- appearance of the originals. The renewed in- tually apprenticed to Giralomo Torrini terest in these Victorian replicas has been es- (1795–1853). Even at this time, his reliefs tablished as a historical referent to an inquiry and busts were purchased by discerning concerning the nature of the copies themselves clients and acquired Renaissance attribu- (Scott and Stevens 2013). There is a phenom- tions along the way. Later, while working enological problem with the continued pro- for the antiquarian dealer Giovanni Freppa, duction or collection of copies vis-à-vis casts Bastianini began to exhibit his own work. collected 130 years ago. Can copies produced He continued to make busts, portraits, and in 2016 be regarded as viable art object repli- statues for Freppa, which were often sold cas in the same way copies produced in 1870 as antiques or Renaissance examples, but are regarded today? Are modern replicas less there is no evidence that Bastianini ever historically authentic than those made in the attempted to misrepresent his own work, a Victorian period even though the standard of point that Moskowitz (2013) makes in dis- their physical surface appearance may be high- tinguishing Bastianini’s output from that of er in some cases than that of a cast produced a forger. Bastianini was a neo-Renaissance in 1870? A Japanese museum exhibits only imitator. One of Bastianini’s highly skilled recently made, very high-resolution copies of creations, a terra-cotta bust of the humanist a variety of Western art objects, which shows poet Girolamo Benivieni (1453–1542), one that modern copies assembled as an entire mu- of the most admired “Renaissance” works of seum for the benefit of the public are not nec- portraiture, created an embarrassing public essarily incompatible with the verisimilitude scandal. Made in 1863, it was purchased by of artistic creation. In the Victorian period, the Louvre in 1866 for an enormous amount the newly discovered chemical technology of (of which the artist typically received only electrotyping was used extensively for the pro- a tiny fraction) as an unattributed and un- duction of works of art as well as commercial disputed Renaissance masterpiece. It was production. This forgotten technology was in subsequently exhibited in a gallery along fact an important facet of the founding of the with sculptures by Desiderio da Settignano, Metropolitan Museum of Art as a museum of Michelangelo, and . copies and replicas. When it was learned that the sculptor was

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still alive and living in Florence, the French known Renaissance examples that it does authorities could not believe it and vigor- not misinterpret; it only reinterprets them. ously denied it, eventually forcing Bastianini Moskowitz finds more derogatory com- to issue declarations and letters that he had, ments, made with hindsight, concerning in fact, created the Benivieni bust in 1863. some of Bastianini’s busts, but if this par- When this became widely known, it created ticular Bust of Giovanna Tornabuoni was not a media sensation. known to have been produced by Bastianini, Many forgeries purchased as masterpiec- then art connoisseurship would not be able es at the time of their creation came to be to prove otherwise on the basis of its visual easily recognized as forgeries by succeeding appearance and art historical assessment. generations of scholars. Let us examine in The same is true of some sculptures at- detail one of Bastianini’s fakes, the gesso Bust tributed to Bastianini, reattributed to the of Giovanna Tornabuoni, formerly identified Renaissance, doubted again as being mod- as Ginevra dei Benci, in the Galleria d’Arte ern, and left in a state of confused identity— Moderna in Florence (Moskowitz 2013:fig- further proof of the lack of definitive ability ure 17). Moskowitz (2013:55) writes: to discern nineteenth-century production from fifteenth-century originals based solely The image is not based on a sculptural on art historical connoisseurship. For exam- prototype but rather on painted pic- ple, two terra-cotta busts in the Hermitage tures by Domenico Ghirlandaio. . . . were attributed to the nineteenth century Rather than repeating the coiffure of (Moskowitz 2013:100) and cataloged as by the Giovanna in the fresco . . . Bastianini Bastianini, although Moskowitz sees no dis- creates a variation of the knotted scarf cernible characteristics of our faker at work in wound about the head of Ghirlandaio’s one of them. The other was later thought to Mary in the Visitation. . . . It is tempt- have been made by a follower of Benedetto da ing to imagine that, having received Maiano (1442–1497). Moskowitz (2013:102) commissions from the Pandolfini fami- writes: “Two other reliefs have been suggest- ly, Bastianini saw Ghirlandaio’s portrait, ed to be by the hand of Bastianini, the much which then, together with the fresco in debated Santa Cecilia/Sant’Elena in Toledo, Santa Maria Novella, inspired his own Ohio and the Singing Youth in Cleveland. rendering of the lady. The former has recently been restored to Desiderio da Settignano. . . . Having exam- The Ghirlandaio painting dates from ined the relief carefully . . . I remain strongly 1488 and was certainly an influence on his inclined to see it as dating from the Ottocento, act of emulation. Much of Bastianini’s out- although probably not by Bastianini.” That put can be criticized on the grounds of art Bastianini had later imitators or copyists is historical connoisseurship, in keeping with undoubted, but the problems of aesthetic ap- the belief mentioned above, but this por- preciation in determining exactly what was trait cannot be dismissed in these terms, as created by Bastianini and what wasn’t, over the evaluation of Moskowitz makes clear. the course of three generations of scholars, is The most that can be said is that in terms of illustrative of the authentic neo-Renaissance style and cultural setting, it closely matches world that he created.

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Figure 9.2. Neo-Renaissance por- trait bust of Giovanna Albizzi by Giovanni Bastianini, circa 1860; gesso and polychromy over wood and mixed media. Andrew W. Mellon Collection, National Gallery, Washington, DC (Image courtesy of blog.naver.com/cjlw)

What is missing, somewhat surprisingly (2013) makes clear, his work was inspired by given the recent date of Moskowitz’s work, is Renaissance examples, but none of his out- the general application of scientific connois- put is actually a direct copy of a Renaissance seurship to determine the extent to which original. Rather the works are nineteenth- Bastianini’s works have made their way into century versions of an evocation of how an au- museum collections as genuine Renaissance thentic Renaissance work would look. Some works. There seems to have been little effort of Bastianini’s works are signed by him and to characterize the marble, terra-cotta, or some are portraits of nineteenth-century in- gesso used by the artist for comparison with dividuals. No attempt was made to add false authentic artworks. Only in the case of the signatures to his work, and his abilities were bust illustrated in Figure 9.2 was modern not secreted away behind a veil of decep- X-ray radiography used. It showed that in- tion. Bastianini, like Dossena, received little ternal constructional details of the bust were monetary reward for his exceptional talents. not Renaissance but nineteenth century. Dealers, middlemen, and collectors made This is an obvious omission in current re- the real monetary gain. search that will no doubt be tackled in the fu- Moskowitz (2013) argues that there is ture, for without a database of scientific deter- no proof that Bastianini ever functioned as minables, it is doubtful if the extent to which a forger, despite assertions to the contrary works by Bastianini have entered the hallowed throughout the early twentieth century. To halls of Renaissance art can ever be discovered. analyze this statement, three considerations During his lifetime, Bastianini was rec- need to be discussed: the intentions of the ognized and known as a sculptor who imitat- artist, the nature of the work, and the mode ed or based his models on fifteenth-century of reception of the work. The intent to forge prototypes, but with encouragement he and to pass off the forgery as real is intimate- could create works that showed the full ex- ly connected to the four criteria discussed tent of his own originality rather than being earlier: stylistic mimicry, artificial aging, a solely inspired by the past. As Moskowitz spurious context of reception, and the use of

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old materials only. Bastianini’s involvement Hebborn (1991): After publication of his au- here is comparatively minimal. He did not tobiography, Hebborn was murdered on a use old materials, artificial aging, or a fake street in Rome by having his skull smashed, context. Stylistic mimicry was the principal a crime possibly organized by a disgruntled methodology, but even here there was no di- member of the art establishment. The same rect copying, and any spurious context was may well be true in the case of Bastianini. devised by dealers or collectors, not by the Hebborn’s killer was never found, and wheth- artist himself. The intention of the faker was er Bastianini was the victim of foul play or to create a sculpture that embodied the aes- not, we will never know. thetic of the quattrocento, regardless of how In terms of Goodman’s categories, the his work came to be regarded. class of works attributed to Bastianini com- The nature of the work was evaluated by pared with the class of works attributed to art historians, based on similar works from the Renaissance cannot be used to assess the Renaissance, and was judged to be au- which class a given work belongs to because thentic. The consequence of the valorizing the class of Bastianini’s work still cannot be of the sculptures was their purchase by most unequivocally distinguished from the class of the major museums and their entry into of genuine works of real Renaissance mas- permanent collections, often after the sculp- ters. His achievement is a remarkable one. tures had changed hands several times and It is overly simplistic, or even misleading in gained their own spurious Renaissance at- Moskowitz’s view, to describe the oeuvre of tributions. The mode of reception of these Bastianini as equivalent to that of a forger. works has changed; following the realization The certainty of the twentieth century in that the sculptures were made in the nine- dismissing his works as transparent forgeries teenth century, many observers who origi- can be seen, on a closer examination, to be nally regarded them as authentic came to de- based on prejudices of the time and the deni- scribe them as forgeries (Moskowitz 2013). gration in absolutist terms that was part of the From the perspective of the viewer, this may art historical critique of nineteenth-century be true. Observers perceive a work and in- production. In the twenty-first century, the ternalize their reactions to it as they would emulation evoked by the neo-Renaissance of to a work they regard as a forgery and then the nineteenth can be reassessed, as all histor- ascribe that motive to the sculptor himself. ical periods enter their process of adjustment The ontology of intentionalist aims cannot and reconfiguration of what is regarded as be inferred from the mode of reception of an authentic mode of expression of the artist the works, but this is what has tended to oc- and his time and what is not. cur, for example with the pronouncements Documentary sources from the eigh- of Pope-Hennessy (1958), who believed that teenth and nineteenth centuries indicate Bastianini was guilty of forgery. that the practice of adulterating consumer Bastianini died at the suspiciously young goods was widespread (Carlyle 2007). Ample age of 38, when his notoriety had achieved evidence in artists’ manuals, treatises, and international attention, shortly after purchase handbooks, as well as contemporary ency- by the Louvre of the Girolamo Benivieni bust. clopedias, suggests that artists’ materials Exactly the same thing happened to Eric were not exempt from fraudulent practices.

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Pigments, oil, and resins were all subject to was often subverted by commercial gain. significant adulteration as well as outright Cheaper substitutes were sold to the artist substitution with cheaper materials. Thus in lieu of the superior pigments the artist the use of authentic materials by the artist thought he was purchasing.

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Chapter 10 The Modern, Postmodern, and Contemporary

Conceptual Authenticity Self-degrading Art Ephemeral Art Modern Art Forgery Performance Art The Meaning of Original Narratives of Engagement Duchamp’s Readymades Appropriation The Artist’s Intention Reenactment Contested Works

It is not only that not everything about art happens to be through which it makes its natural entry into philosophical consciousness, and that which makes art entrancing and absorbing and important often is simply philosophically irrelevant. —Arthur C. Danto, The Transfiguration of the Commonplace

Introduction its relationship to art, conservation, and the The modern and contemporary field of art— philosophy of art. An inquiry into the topic its cognates, replicas, and reproductions— reveals just how valuable, or disputed, the no- is both a treasure trove and a minefield for tion of authenticity is in relation to a whole any discussion regarding authenticity and range of contemporary works, from the point

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of view of the original artist (who may deny transitory states commemorated in postcards that a displayed version of his or her work is but that otherwise reside only in the memo- authentic) to artists who continually subvert ry. Wharton (personal communication 2015) the concept altogether, to viewers and their draws attention to the fact that Christo creates interaction with the work, which represents vast quantities of documentation, which he their own subjective interpretation of it. then sells, which is how he makes much of his This may be all that remains in the case of an income. The ontological and epistemological ephemeral production. problems created by the multitudinous facets This interaction may encompass perfor- of contemporary art reflect our uncertainty as mative, self-directed, and direct feedback from to how to deal with problems of authentici- the artist or from the work itself. Discovering ty and how these interact with the intentions how an iterative exhibition of an installation of the artist, the prerogatives of institutional may be considered authentic or not is now owners, and the desires of collectors. Some part of a discourse between artist, conservator, of these reflections entail recognition that and curator. Given the problems with installa- authenticity is not a fixed entity at the time tion and digital artworks, there is a burgeoning of creation, contra De Clercq (2013), but an field of literature that will undoubtedly expand ongoing process that interacts with observers greatly over the next few years. International and actors and how they are engaged with the working groups now address concerns with in- work in its various instantiations, particularly stallation art. These include the InterPARES in the museum, studio, or gallery (Richmond project (Roeder 2009), which represents a col- and Bracker 2009:xiv–xviii). laboration between archival theorists, artists, The ephemeral nature of many modern conservation scientists, and government agen- and contemporary works of art is part of cies investigating what authenticity means to their essential existence. Ephemeral art is of- creators of digital content, including interac- ten regarded as a phenomenon of the recent tive installations, performance art, animation, avant-garde, but the medieval tableau vivant theater, and multimedia works. Authenticity was ephemeral too (Eichberger 1988), and lit- steps out of the shadows in the contemporary tle attention has been paid to issues surround- arena only to be surrounded by a myriad of ing this kind of art of the past. The ephemeral burning questions concerning its relevance has been recognized in terms of ethnographic and whether it can be anything beyond the arts, such as Australian Aboriginal sand paint- purely conceptual. ings produced for a ritual performance and destroyed after the event, so there is nothing The Ever-Expanding Field of new about conceptual authenticity in this re- Authenticity gard. There are areas of overlap between art The widening areas of artistic expression that is ephemeral, conceptual, auto-destruc- range from thought experiments—where no tive, performative, and reenactive. All these material authenticity is involved, only the modes of artistic expression subvert the ma- conceptual authenticity of the artist and the terial authenticity of production and place interaction with the observer, such as some emphasis on the intangible, so that the work works by Yoko Ono or Tino Sehgal—to en- of art may have, in some cases, no physical tire buildings wrapped in plastic by Christo, existence at all.

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Artists have become gallery exhibits in the problem of the lack of aesthetic or percep- themselves, while deceased artists’ studios tually discernible differences between Warhol’s have achieved a kind of immortality as re- Brillo Boxes and the commercial originals that creations or replicas displayed as permanent forced Danto to reconsider the nature of con- art installations to be gazed at voyeuristically. temporary art. Aspects of this argument have Words displayed as the written word can func- already been discussed in this book. tion as works of art in their own right, some- Artworks may not exist only in their orig- times self-referentially, or as philosophical inal physical manifestation and condition; de- statements about the work itself, which may composition and degradation may be central refer back to the meanings of words associ- to their authenticity, as an individual path of ated with the exhibit. Telephone installations decay may be an integral function or purpose offer a philosophical explanation as to why no in the creation of a work. The potential for artwork can be displayed in the gallery by the the ephemerality of degradation or deliberate artist, the conceptual inability to display the destruction of artwork has already been men- work representing the work itself. In terms tioned, in the case of Goldsworthy, the art of of ethnographic parallels, the conceptual art the Zuni, and Navajo sand paintings, to name of the Igbo of Nigeria (Achebe 1988 [1958]) only three examples of different approaches constitutes an interesting example in which to either sanctioning ephemerality or actively original works of art are destroyed so that embracing it. each succeeding generation has to re-create Modern and contemporary artists often the essence of the original, which is available employ materials that were never intended to only as a conceptual phenomenon. last, as with paintings incorporating elephant Artists have assumed the performative tasks dung, fish suspended from trees, fruit encased of conservators in dusting vitrines as an artistic in lead wrappings, and bathtubs full of rotting statement, with the result that the cleaning of meat. Even materials that were once stan- the vitrine in question is now elevated to the dardized and sought after for their defined status of artwork and lodged with the museum levels of chemical stability may be spurned registrar as a documented phenomenon to be by modern artists, who instead seek house recorded as an artistic event, not as a janito- paints, brilliant synthetic dyes, or pigments rial prerogative of conservation maintenance. that fade badly on exposure to light. Some Certificates of authenticity have themselves be- artists have covered their work with varnish- come museum exhibits, as authentic statements es, finishes, and binders that blanch, exude, of the authenticity of something else, since the crack, delaminate, or discolor. While certain often contested texts have been recontextual- artists embrace this alteration or ephemer- ized as art exhibits from their own materiali- ality, others are materially illiterate and are ty. The list of possibilities and manifestations dismayed to discover that their work will not knows no limit, prompting some philosophers, last even for 10 years. ’s chapel such as Danto (1981), to opine that no further paintings (Anfam 1998), for example, suffer developments can take place in the theory of from inherent vice due to the idiosyncratic art, or even in art itself, a statement that has use of mixed media and paints employing dif- given rise to numerous philosophical discus- ferential binders, such as egg tempera or vari- sions (see, for example, Rollins 1993). It was ous acrylic formulations (Stenger et al. 2015).

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Artists have created a variety of concep- and documentation. Indeed, the creation, tual works whose transitory existence can be continuation, or reinterpretation of some preserved by conservation documentation, contemporary works is dependent on the digital video recordings, source-code preser- involvement of the conservator, so much so vation or transcription, artist interviews, gal- that material or historical authenticity can be lery records, and the detritus sometimes left thought of as a process rather than inhered from works that have suffered from inherent in the fixed production of an artwork, which vice, the latter often inadvertently destroy- may not be able to exist in an essentialist state ing themselves unless conserved at a partic- but only as a contingent event, dependent for ular stage of their lives. More controversially, realization not only on the artist but also on physical remnants of works that were de- the physical intervention of the conservator. signed as auto-destruction art are sometimes There is only one conclusion to be preserved in museum collections when no drawn from this disparity: Modern and con- material remains of the work were meant to temporary art of the last 100 years is more survive at all. highly valued and requires more constant The boundaries between some of these cat- attention than millions of artifacts whose egories, such as the ephemeral, the conceptu- origins cover the entire history of the earth, al, the performative, and the auto-destructive, including huge reference collections of fish, are not simply static boundaries whose fixed nematodes, birds, and butterflies and dis- points can be seen as demarcations. They are plays of dinosaurs, insects, bird skeletons, broad movements with different artistic and rare , and minerals, and en passant, cultural contexts, so that discussion of them steam cars, electric trams, ancient aircraft, could easily merge across several related dioramas, old film props, costumes, and in- fields, including the disputed territory of re- digenous Indian remains. productions (Hughes and Ranfft 1999). The importance of the conservator’s in- The rapid development and expanding teraction with the preservation of contempo- number of artists in the field of contempo- rary art, or the preservation of the record of rary art and its tendency to commodification art that once existed but is no longer extant, have been responsible for conservators of is recognized within the museum context as modern and contemporary art achieving a being of fundamental importance in the pro- certain degree of personal prominence and cess of contemporary interactions between enhanced job security. It was not long ago artist, conservator, curator, and art historian. that the Natural History Museum of Los As interest in contemporary art has increased Angeles County sacked its only conservator, among the public, it has created its own aura of who was responsible for 33.5 million objects. appeal to those who visit art galleries, seeking Such an event would be unthinkable at the the latest fashionable creation, the next sen- Museum of Modern Art in New York, where sational installation, or the next controversial several conservators are employed and are exhibition. The vibrant nature of that interest even supported by dedicated conservation is part of the phenomenon of the early twen- scientists delving into the complex issues ty-first-century museum. While the brilliant- associated with modern material utilization, ly revamped galleries of historic silverware of characterization, degradation, stabilization, the Victoria and Albert Museum were sparsely

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attended on the day the author visited in 2013, exposure to the elements, and the use of a the queues for the David Bowie exhibition blow dryer. The case involved some $80 mil- trailed down Exhibition Road. lion of fraud, with the amounts accruing to the Modern and contemporary art is now the forgers in excess of $33 million. The London lingua franca of the international avant-garde. gallery Pure Evil purchased works by Haring The tens of millions of dollars paid at auction and Warhol online, although one might as- for even modestly regarded modern and con- sume it should have known better. One of the temporary artworks have spawned a veritable Warhol boxes was supplied with a certificate industry of fakers creating forgeries of works of authenticity that proved to be a facsimile by Chagall, Mondrian, Warhol, Nicholson, of a unique Warhol original in a museum in de Kooning, Rothko, Coons, Ernst, Pollock, Pittsburgh (Kinsella 2014). In 2014 a Florida Motherwell, Still, and so on. The names and pastor was convicted for selling forged paint- identities of some of these forgers are still un- ings by Damien Hirst (Peltz 2014), and it is known to us, and their work will continue to only recently that the work of Ken Perenyi create problems in the art market and for the (2012), active for more than 30 years, and the nature of contemporary artworks that are os- great German forger Wolfgang Beltracchi tensibly authentic for decades to come. (2014), active for more than 25 years, has A recent book by Jonathon Keats (2013) been revealed, with Beltracchi producing is entitled Why Fakes Are the Great Art of Our works by Picasso, Chagall, Motherwell, Age, although the book discusses mostly his- Ernst, and others. An FBI investigation into torical cases of well-known forgers such as the activities of Perenyi was mysterious- Lothar Malskat (1913–1988), Alceo Dossena ly dropped after he had been shadowed for (1878–1937), Han van Meegeren (1889– some time by FBI agents trying to build a 1947), Eric Hebborn (1934–1996), and Tom charge against him. Perenyi, a very street- Keating (1917–1984), who are in fact not re- smart operator, learning that the case had sponsible for the great art fakes of our age at lapsed, waited for the statue of limitations to all but for those of the past. It was either Sir expire and then published his autobiography. Ernst Gombrich or Richard Wollheim who His file at the FBI is apparently so sensitive remarked that the great art fakers of our time that it still cannot be seen, not even via a are still unknown because forgers currently at freedom of information request. Presumably work have not yet been unmasked. How true his case was closed because it would have this is: In 2014 it was revealed that Spanish art been too embarrassing for the New York art dealer Jose Carlos Bergantiños had employed elite if it had gone to trial. The sheer range New York artist Pei-Shen Qian to produce of the premodern work produced by Perenyi scores of forgeries of works by Rothko, that eventually must have been sold through Pollock, de Kooning, Motherwell, and Still London and New York may have been part of (Shoichet 2014). Bergantiños bought old the problem, as the forger produced scores of frames at flea markets and stained newer can- works supposedly by Martin Johnson Heade, vases with tea while providing Qian with old Fernand Léger, Maurice Utrillo, Sisley, paints for his work. The freshly produced Monet, Modigliani, , Claude forgeries were then subjected to a variety of Joseph Vernet, Sir Peter Lely, Charles aging processes, including heating, cooling, Brooking, and Giovanni Paolo Pannini, to

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name only a prominent few, that have been recipient in accepting the gift. Given that effortlessly absorbed into the mainstream scores of paintings executed by Landis have art market. One suspects, therefore, that been widely disseminated and assumed to be high-level New York FBI contacts suggested authentic, it will take decades to distinguish that it would be better for all concerned if them all, in terms of museum documenta- his case was just filed away, which is exact- tion, from those works actually by the orig- ly what occurred. What is intriguing is that inal artists. Perenyi’s file cannot be seen at all, which Examples of fakes and forgeries will, simply adds to the allure of the story, excit- without doubt, continue into the future be- ing the curiosity to determine what exactly cause the demand for modern and contem- remains unknown. porary works is so high. Beltracchi, who did spend a short period The insatiable world demand for works in jail, ensuring his notoriety, is one of the of art of all kinds is not the only problem. truly gifted fakers of our time. He was only The commercialization of the art market has caught initially because a tube of zinc white raised prices to such an extent that an original paint he had purchased for one of his forg- cannot be insured on display in a home and eries was contaminated by the manufactur- instead must languish in a bank vault. At the er with titanium dioxide white. A supposed same time, a Chinese art factory artist produc- Max Ernst painting made by Beltracchi es a high-class replica, which can be placed on was returned to the artist as a known forg- display as a surrogate for the authentic work, ery during a court case in Germany, but the while the value of the latter increases until it New York collector missed it so much that can be sold again, sometimes for millions of he paid to get it back, declaring it one of the dollars in profit. Thus the authentic work has best Max Ernsts he had ever seen. become so valued that it ceases to perform Scores of fake artworks by quixotic any function except to be used as a source of American artist Mark Landis (1955–) were investment for its accrual of monetary worth. accepted as real by some 60 museums and According to one art expert who examines institutions in more than 20 US states over a great deal of art submitted for authentica- a period of more than 20 years. These fakes tion (Martin 2007), the startling truth is that were all donated to the museums by Landis, forgeries make up some 90 percent of art of- who took no monetary reward or tax de- fered for sale today, including Banksy prints, duction for them. Landis used a variety of woodblocks, Buddhist bronze sculp- disguises and aliases to donate his work. tures, and Jackson Pollock paintings. Similar He was exposed in 2008 with the donation sentiments are expressed by of- of a Maynard Dixon (1875–1946) picture ficers responsible for hauling in forged works to a Californian museum (Miranda 2014). of art sold as real in the United Kingdom Landis’s works could truly be described (Mould and Bruce 2012). In this sense, fakes as fakes in the sense employed by Dutton are indeed the great art of our age because rather than forgeries. The conceptual na- our desire for the authentic is now so perva- ture of Landis’s action is in giving—donat- sive that the only way to satisfy that desire is ing his fakes to institutions whose readiness to embrace the inauthentic on an increasingly to believe in them is the complicity of the massive scale and to call it authentic.

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The Readymade One way of thinking about Marcel With Marcel Duchamp’s (1887–1968) ready- Duchamp’s readymades, which have ex- mades, art began its philosophical conver- ercised an influence over contemporary sation with the nature of its own existence, aesthetics that seems to me quite out of in one sense, a theoretical object as Mieke proportion to their interest or signif- Bal (1990, 1992) has it. Readymades were icance, is that they occur in an interval found objects, in theory authentic craft ob- or space that this discussion opens up. jects of commercial manufacture. The first This is the interval that lies between the readymade, dating from 1913 and entitled possibility of the singular transgression Bicycle Wheel, was a bicycle wheel attached of any of the assumptions upon which art to a European stool. A bottle rack, signed by rests and the impossibility of the univer- Duchamp and called Bottle Rack, was the first sal transgression of any such assumption. unaltered utilitarian object to be produced as a readymade under the influence of the Since Wollheim was writing, now more movement. In 1919 Duchamp created than 20 years ago, the transgression that his L.H.O.O.Q., a reproduction of the Mona readymades was responsible for has, if any- Lisa altered by the addition of a mustache and thing, assumed not a singular event horizon goatee and the inscription “L.H.O.O.Q.,” but a continuum of transgressions, resulting which is said to sound like “She has a hot ass” in Fountain being voted the most influential in French, although in a later interview with artwork of the twentieth century in 2004 by Arturo Schwarz, Duchamp gave a loose trans- a poll of 500 recognized artists and art critics. lation as “there is fire down below.” A 1964 Part of its reputation is its ability to act replica of the 1919 “original” is in the Norton as a symbol for the problems and potentiali- Simon Museum in Pasadena. A color repro- ties of what made art possible in the twenti- duction made from the original in 1940 was eth century. Could another porcelain urinal stolen in 1981 and has not been seen since. from the same manufacturer, of exactly the Thirty-eight replicas were made to be insert- same type, be considered to be a work of ed into a limited edition of Pierre de Massot’s art? The artistically mimetic properties of Marcel Duchamp, propos et souvenirs, while in an identical urinal have come under attack, 1965 Duchamp completed his philosophical or defense, from a number of directions. As cycle by producing L.H.O.O.Q, rasée, an un- Danto (1981:91) remarks, the question is modified reproduction of theMona Lisa ex- whether aesthetic considerations belong to cept for the inscription “L.H.O.O.Q.” the definition of art in such cases. An aes- The most famous of Duchamp’s ready- thetic condition has been deemed necessary mades is a porcelain urinal, or Fountain, which by Dickie (1974) in that things considered is signed with the pseudonym R. Mutt. It was to be works of art are “candidates for appre- unleashed onto the unsuspecting art world in ciation,” almost akin to a status conferred 1917 and refused admittance to a modern art upon an artifact by the art world. “If some- exhibition, ensuring its continued fame and thing cannot be appreciated” writes Dickie, prominence. Wollheim (1993:34) thinks that “it cannot be a work of art.” the importance of Duchamp’s readymades Objections to this, raised by Cohen, are has been overstated. He writes: mentioned by Danto (1981). Cohen lists

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among a series of mundane objects that can- urinals lack: it is daring, impudent. . . . not be appreciated as artworks such things as My own view is that a work of art has a tacks, carpet runners, and urinals. As Danto great many qualities, indeed a great many says, the objection to Dickie’s theory is that qualities of a different sort altogether, negative reactions to something considered than the qualities belonging to objects to be a work of art cannot by themselves materially indiscernible from them but constitute a criterion of unacceptability of not themselves artworks. And some of appreciation. We may regard a bathtub full these qualities may very well be aesthet- of rotting offal, as exhibited by British artist ic ones, or qualities one can experience Stuart Brisley (1933–, sometimes called the aesthetically. . . . But in order to respond “godfather of British performance art”) at the aesthetically to these, one must first know Institute of Contemporary Arts in the 1980s, that the object is an artwork, and hence as quite disgusting. Indeed, the author was the distinction between what is art and unable to stay in the room for more than a what is not is presumed [to be] available few seconds. But simultaneously, it is clear before the difference in response to that that not only is it a bathtub full of rotting of- difference in identity is possible. fal but that the bath and offal have an effect on the viewer as a work of art in an art gallery, Solomon and Higgins (1993:116) state that in a different sense than the effect on a view- Danto proposes that an artwork can usually be er in an abattoir. Even if that effect is one of distinguished from its material counterpoint revulsion, it is revulsion with a purpose that by virtue of its historical characteristics. A stays in the memory long after the event. thing can be an artwork only if it has an appro- Dickie (1974) asks why the ordinary qual- priate history and is appropriately positioned ities of Fountain are such that they can be within an art historical context. The philoso- appreciated as an artwork, whereas its shiny phers here are not attempting to understand surfaces and deep reflections invoke quali- the work of art in its historical actuality, with ties similar to those of works by Brancusi and the consequent material degradations and in- Moore. Danto (1981:95) replies: cidental damage that history inflicts on a work of art, which is part of its authentic condition, There are qualities of the urinal in ques- but only the historical antecedent existence tion, which do resemble certain quali- of it, which a non-artwork would not possess. ties of Bird in Flight. But the question is Therefore the artwork might also be distin- whether the artwork Fountain is indeed guished from its material replica by virtue of identical with that urinal, and hence the historical processes of alteration or decay whether those gleaming surfaces and that have afflicted the work since it was made, deep reflections are indeed qualities of as well as its mode of manufacture or installa- the artwork. Cohen has supposed that tion as a work of art. Duchamp’s work is not the urinal at all, Some theoretical positions regarding the but the gesture of exhibiting it; and the supervenience theory are of interest in re- gesture, if that indeed is the work, has no lation to the notion of conceptual art. The gleaming surfaces to speak of. . . . But cer- core of the idea has been stated by Gracyk tainly the work itself has properties that (2012:126), who distinguishes between

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metaphysical supervenience and epistemo- to the remade surrogate work? According to logical supervenience: “A relationship of su- Duchamp’s philosophical position, which fol- pervenience is present if the existence of a lows from his statement that copies are to be property of one type depends on the presence encouraged “because they devalue the origi- of a property or arrangement of properties of nal so,” what would be the difference between a different type.” my version of Bicycle Wheel, made in 2013 in In the former, one property depends on Mar Vista, California, and the one dating from one or more other types of properties while 1964, especially since I had Duchamp’s en- with the latter, one judgment depends on one couragement in my enterprise and my entirely or more of the others. Gracyk (2012:128) authentic authorial purpose is to question the asks: Does the supervenience base for aes- validity of any special status for posthumous thetic properties require sensory properties copies in the absence of the original? The and is the supervenience base for aesthetic valorized remade readymades are only such properties restricted to sensory properties? because they reside in museum collections. However conceptual art does not require that I cannot see how they have an aesthetic dif- any sensory properties be inherent to the art- ference from my copy, which could be inter- work itself, since the work may not actually changed with the 1964 version as neither can possess a physical component, such as Yoko claim to be original. If the intentions of the Ono’s 1964 Listen to the Sound of the Earth artist were to restrict the work to presently Turning. If the artwork as a concept invokes existing copies, then one could argue that my aesthetic enjoyment, then it cannot have a su- copy is a fake, but if Duchamp believes in the pervenience relationship to a sensory percep- antiestablishment encouragement of copies tion. The sensory experience of a conceptual in their ability to undermine the monetary artwork that does physically exist, such as a value of “originals,” then I have the blessing urinal or a bicycle wheel, is not dependent on of the artist in his stated intention, particular- the sensory properties of a urinal or a wheel ly as there is no original and the entire func- qua utilitarian object but as a conceptual in- tion of Bicycle Wheel is to question the basis of stantiation of a work of art. what constitutes a work of art, although that As the original version of Bicycle Wheel, is not my aim; my work is intended as a phil- dating from 1913, was thrown away by osophical point of discussion regarding the Duchamp’s sister and later American ver- status of posthumous replicas and the issue sions sit on stools of a different height than of materiality. Can I function as a legitimate the European original, how are we to assess appropriation artist in the manner suggested the authentic state of the later remade ready- by Irvin (2005b), whose account contrasts mades, such as the third version, made in 1951 how a forger might anticipate the work of an under the directions of Duchamp, currently in artist he is trying to copy, which he then pro- the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, duces in advance of the actual artist’s work, New York (Tomkins 1996); a version made in and the appropriation artist who produces a 1963; or one in the Philadelphia Museum of replica of the artist’s work post facto. If, as Art from 1964? If an artwork has only a weak Irvin reminds us, Foucault (1979) asks what interaction with an original work to begin difference it makes who is speaking, then it with, how much significance can be accorded in fact does matter who is speaking in trying

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to describe what appropriation artists create. that the innovation is the act of appropriation Irvin (2005b) acknowledges that appropri- itself, as a conceptual event, rather than any ation artists are recognized in the world of physical innovation of the instantiation of the art as artists, as authors of their works, not work being required. Sturtevant sometimes as forgers, and this is bolstered by the fact introduced small errors or blemishes into her that innovation is not an essential feature appropriated images to physically distinguish of artistic authorship; nor is motive. Irvin them from the originals. Even if the ordinary (2005b:127) writes: “We might want to think viewer would be unable to discern if the dam- that some form of authenticity, purity of mo- age was perfectly contiguous with the origi- tive or freedom from instrumental concerns nal, that is what the artist stated, clearly not is an ideal for artists; but it could be implausi- entirely unself-consciously (Arning 1989). ble to claim that lack of authenticity prevents Irvin’s analysis adds additional confir- one from being an artist at all. Authenticity of mation to the conceptual authenticity of my this sort cannot make for the difference be- copy of Bicycle Wheel. It is not a copy I made tween the forger [of the art not yet created to understand the construction or materials by the artist] and the artist in the present dis- of the original, in the hallowed tradition that cussion.” What Irvin appeals to rather than all artists follow in paying homage to previous motives is that the artist may need to possess inspirational works. Nor did I make my ver- only a minimal intention that is constitutive sion to pass it off as a forgery of the original. of authorship, that the artworks are produced If I invoke a hypothetical intentionality in this by virtue of the intention that they be art- artwork, it is in homage to the lost original works. The artist qua artist has to stay true and to question the status of copies that are to the objectives inherent in the work. The also imbued with a conceptual authenticity authorship of the artist does not consist in ei- rather than an original material authenticity ther the mode of production, writes Irvin, or (Meiland 1983). As a scientist, I may be espe- the type of product. Authorship is defined by cially interested in the aura of the nickel- or the ultimate responsibility for every aspect of chromium-plated steel of the original, which the objectives of the artist sought through the is clearly delineated metallurgically from work itself. In assigning meaning to features materials available for copies produced after of a work, Irwin sympathetically invokes a hy- the Second World War, when differences pothetical intentionalist approach to looking from the 1913 work in terms of materiality at how works can be validated. The appropri- would be especially apparent. I may even be ation artist does not remove the work from especially interested in the authentic aura of authorial intention; many works are signed by diachronic degradation that the original has the appropriation artist or are otherwise dis- suffered, as if that itself validated my response played in a gallery in circumstances that make to the authentic work. If the aura of the origi- clear that the voice of the appropriated works nal can be appreciated in those terms, all later is different than that of the originals. Even if versions could be viewed as lesser works in there is no innovation or invention in terms my estimation. That may be the intention of of the materiality of the appropriated forms, my version to question. that does not prevent the work from being According to Danto (1981), your ability viewed as an artistic creation. One could argue to distinguish between my version from 2013

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and that from 1964 involves you being in a connoisseurship, the paint, wood, steel, and position to know which one is an artwork and iron components could be dated to a period which not, to be able to arrive at a different re- around 1913, confirming the material au- sponse to it, and to see a difference in identity thenticity of the newly discovered original, between these physically identical versions. quelling the doubters. The result would be Can the transfiguration of the commonplace that the version in the Museum of Modern apply to the version from 1964 without ap- Art, as well as my version from 2013, would plying to mine? If we accept the historical be reduced in status to simply examples of nexus of creation as being an integral part later copies. If the 1913 version was then pur- of the link between artist and artwork, how chased by the Museum of Modern Art, the much historical credence can be attached to original would, without doubt, be on display a version made 50 years after the original if and the 1951 version would be consigned to the intention of the original was not only to storage. Unlike the Laocoön, there would spawn copies but to be devalued by so doing? be no interest in displaying the two versions The aesthetic component of the argument together, since iconic works of modern and rests on the assumption that I will experience contemporary art do not like body doubles a different response to the 1964 version than but prefer to be admired on huge plinths to mine of 2013, but I am aware that the 1964 where they take center stage as singular enti- version is just another copy, so how much ties. The ontological problem here is to make significance can I invest in it compared with a distinction between surrogate copies and mine? The answer is that both versions lack nonoriginals that cannot be easily resolved in the intangible authenticity or material au- aesthetic terms. The context of appreciation thenticity of the original, so it is hard to see, may be all that divides the phenomenology of beyond the commodification of the art mar- our experience. The reader will have to form ket, any aesthetic difference between the two. his or her own ideas on what this entails, since The Kantian view that origins always make there can be no easy consensus. an aesthetic difference seems quite reason- The readymades, contra Wollheim, have able in terms of classical art, but in the post- now assumed a historical instantiation of their modern era, this may be almost as irrelevant own, so that endless references are now made as a concern about materiality, which may be to Bicycle Wheel by a succession of artists who transposed in semiotic directions that vali- have either appropriated the concept as orig- date origins in a whole complex of contexts, inally defined materially or have produced not just materiality tied to a specific mode their own versions based on the concept of the of production. In connection to my copy of work. Examples include French Fluxus artist Bicycle Wheel, it is interesting to note that in Robert Filliou’s For Duchamp (1969), Mike 1963 Ulf Linde made an unauthorized repli- Bidlo’s Not Duchamp (Bicycle Wheel 1913) ca of Fountain, which was later endorsed and (1986), Rob Pruitt’s Low Rider Art (2004), therefore rendered conceptually authentic by Richard Hamilton’s Readymade Shadows Duchamp (Paterson 2009:185). (2006), and Scott’s (2014) The Representation Let us suppose that instead of being of Difference: Bicycle Wheel (2014). thrown away, the original Bicycle Wheel sud- Duchamp remains a central figure in con- denly turned up. By means of scientific ceptual art, where ideas inherent in the work,

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the conceptual or intangible authenticity that The Conceptualization of the they represent, take precedence over the ma- Authentic terial authenticity, which simply may not exist The conceptual nature of contemporary art in any ordinary sense of the word. If the art- marks a return to the same kind of criteria ist refuses to commit to having conservation valorized during the medieval period, when documentation recorded and kept, there is no gravel from a path trodden by the saint was historical authenticity to consider either. Some considered to be as permeated with the es- conceptual works can be freely replicated with sence of the saint himself as was his skeletal permission of the artist granted as an a priori remains. Instead of the image of the relic in- condition of the existence of the work itself. voking the spiritual presence of the saint, the A posteriori statements imply that the viewer artwork may now invoke an abstract concept would have to ask permission of the artist to of what the work of art is, what it is for, what reproduce the work, as in these cases it has not it represents, or how it could have existed if it been granted beforehand. That does not stop had ever been actualized. appropriation artists such as Elaine Sturtevant In 1953 Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) or Sherry Levine from undertaking their ref- created Erased de Kooning Drawing, in which a erential artistic creations, because in their cas- drawing by Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) es, unlike yours or mine, their appropriations was erased, resulting in a work with the intan- are evaluated by the art market as act of re-cre- gible authenticity of the scrubbed-out drawing ation, not of simple replication. However, art- and, as the drawing was formerly known to ists such as Pierre Pinoncelli (Paterson 2009) exist, creating its afterlife as a purely conceptu- take exception to the fact that, unlike the al phenomenon. The viewer believes that the original shown in Figure 4.8, modern muse- erased work becomes a work of art itself be- um displays of Duchamp’s Fountain are based cause the act of Rauschenberg is recognized as on a series of numerous copies or replicas, being different from the erasure of the drawing some signed by the artist later and some not. by a child, who could have produced the same As Paterson (2009:186) writes, “Pinoncelli’s erasure; the fact that it took Rauschenberg desire to save Fountain from its own success hours to rub out the drawing is neither here . . . was first manifested at the Carré d’Art in nor there. The work is now embedded with a Nimes on 24th August 1993 when he splashed conceptual authenticity because Rauschenberg urine on it and attacked it with a hammer, himself performed the erasure as part of the claiming joint authorship with Duchamp of artist’s intention to destroy the drawing. the resulting ‘work.’” The point here is that In 1958 Yves Klein (1928–1962) completed Pinoncelli claimed to be first returning the his seminal work The Void, declaring that his urinal to its original function and then hitting paintings were now invisible. To prove it, he the simple object it had become to create a exhibited an empty room. It was seminal, since new work of art. This performance art, which in 2001, nearly 50 years later, British artist is in Duchampian terms perfectly justifiable, Martin Creed (1968–) won the Turner Prize pits the philosophy of art against the commod- for Work No. 227, which consisted of an empty ification of the art market, in which case it is room in which the lights went on and off at philosophy that loses the contest and the per- five-second intervals. Creed does not make any former is fined or imprisoned. philosophical statement of any consequence

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Figure 10.1. Erased de Kooning Drawing by Robert Rauschenberg, 1953. Traces of drawing media on paper with label and gilded frame. Collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. (Image courtesy of Art © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation/licensed by VAGA, New York. Photograph by Ben Blackwell) about this work, which was “purchased” by the that all of the planning and decisions are made Tate in 2014 for an undisclosed sum, probably beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory in excess of $150,000 (Clark 2014). It has since affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes been exhibited abroad. I have been unable to art” (LeWitt 1993:24). The aim of some con- determine if exhibits of The Void have also re- ceptual artists, such as Joseph Kosuth, is to in- cently traveled. voke a self-referential philosophical statement In another early work, Klein created his or phrase that is part of the work of art itself Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility. This (Bann 1999). For example, in 1966 Kosuth work involved selling empty gallery space, the created a series of works entitled Art as Idea Immaterial Zone, for various amounts of mon- as Idea, involving textual statements of dictio- ey, to collectors who were then presented with nary definitions of water, meaning, and idea. receipts. To complete the transaction, Klein Accompanying these photographic images exchanged the purchase amount for gold leaf, were certificates of documentation and owner- which he then threw into the Seine (Lindquist ship, indicating that the works could be made 2010). The collector then burned the receipt, and remade for the purposes of exhibition. leaving no record of the transaction whatsoev- One of Kosuth’s most famous works is One and er. However, the intangible authenticity of the Three Chairs (1968), inspired by Platonic forms event has been subverted by the existence of of representation and the question this raises. photographs as documentary evidence of some The work features a , a photograph of the of the immaterial sensibility of the work. same chair, and the text of a dictionary defini- As artist and theorist Sol LeWitt writes: tion of the word chair. “In conceptual art the idea or concept is the This is art as an explanation of a philos- most important aspect of the work. When an ophy, or a philosophical justification of the artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means art of chairs rather than art as an explanation

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Figure 10.2. One and Three Chairs by Joseph Kosuth. This 1965 work consists of a chair, a photograph of the chair, and a dictionary definition of the wordchair. (Image courtesy of Wikiart Visual Art Encyclopedia) of itself, and the concept could easily be ex- accord with the artist’s intent. Stigter (2011) tended to illustrate the philosophy of Sartre, thought of replacing the glass with a smaller Foucault, or Hegel. An appropriate Hegelian sheet or using a digital inkjet photograph of model would be Hegel’s dialectic spiral, in the glass sheet but realized that these options which a thesis is countered by an antithesis denied the authenticity of the original work. leading to a new historical synthesis of chairs How much could she function as a surrogate as events in themselves or as a combinatorial of the original artist? Stigter (2011:40) writes: concept of chairs and the words used to de- “Analysis of art-historical sources in combi- scribe the photograph of the chairs. nation with the artwork’s material particular- Kosuth’s work continues to create problems ities and fabrication techniques, the specialist regarding its presentation (Kosuth 1991). For focus of the conservator is indispensable for example, Glass (One and Three), which consists decision-making, as installation practice it- of a pane of glass leaning against the gallery self will translate the concept into a materi- wall, a photograph (exactly the same size) of al manifestation again, it is important to be the pane of glass, and its dictionary definition, aware of the constructed nature of decision dating from 1965, has been replicated for rep- directing this.” Wharton (personal communi- resentation, but since the photograph has to be cation 2016) notes, “The fact that the chair in retaken, it can no longer be the same size as the the photo was taken on a different floor from pane of glass because silver gelatin prints can- the exhibition may cause concern among not be made to those dimensions. The pho- some of your readers—especially those who tograph was “renewed” in 2005 in a version read Stigter. You might choose to use another by Sanneke Stigter installed in the Stedelijk photo where the floor in the photo matches Museum, Amsterdam, which was claimed to the floor in the room.” This example reveals

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the complexity of representation of these cultural authenticity of these works is thus kinds of works. evident, acknowledged and reinforced by Contemporary design may exhibit fur- museum acquisitions and by its commercial niture, such as chairs, as works of art them- success.” The view that an authentic piece of selves, as Darby (2012) explored in her exam- nineteenth-century furniture, probably made ination of The Smoke series by Maarten Baas. of mahogany or oak, can be charred to create Darby writes that a discussion of authenticity something more immediately authentic in the in relation to contemporary design may be twenty-first century is perhaps debatable, since posited in the idea of authorship and origi- some of us might prefer the beauty of irreplace- nality and in the notion of genuineness of ex- able nineteenth-century wood to the individu- pression. As computers are increasingly used ality of a charred twenty-first-century wreck. in both the design and production of objects, If the Dutch museum could find no better use questions concerning authorship and authen- for fine nineteenth-century furniture than to ticity become complex in relation to much have it transformed into authentically burned contemporary modes of production. The versions of itself, surely a more socially au- Smoke series launched Baas’s career in 2002. thentic use of these art objects would be to The idea was that furniture was assaulted by donate them to the poor. A revolutionary crushing, melting, and throwing before the use of unwanted furniture of this kind would artist settled on the idea of burning it. fulfill the authentic purpose of the furniture These wooden relics are now scorched in itself, the function intended by its maker, au- stages with a blowpipe and water, after sever- thentic in its use. But in the hermetic world al disastrous events with plastic furniture. In of art today, such gestures would deny the Where There’s Smoke, Baas burned 25 pieces of art’s commodification, as has indeed since oc- furniture in front of an audience at the Moss curred with this conception. As French phi- Gallery in New York in 2004. In late 2004, the losopher Michel Foucault (1979) writes: “Art artist was invited to burn 10 pieces of furni- in our society has become something which is ture from the nineteenth century, then in stor- only related to objects and not to individuals age, at the Groninger Museum in Holland. or to life, that art is something specialized or Since then he has charred a staircase at an performed by experts who might be artists.” Amsterdam hairdressing salon, a paneled din- ing room, and a timber wall. In Los Angeles he The Denial of Authenticity burned a 1938 Steinway grand piano. The consequences of the flood of fakes com- Moooi, a design company, has since gone ing onto the market today have resulted in into partnership with the artist to produce a several committees of authentication refusing whole series of commercially burned articles, to even look at potential works by artists they most of which Baas has never even touched. are supposed to be the preeminent experts As Darby (2014:135) writes, “The Smoke se- for. Their connoisseurship is often superla- ries serves as an exemplar of many facets of tive, and the pronouncements of these com- contemporary design, the theme of appropri- mittees carry great authority in the art world. ation, the interest in material and technical For example, when interviewed in 2014, the experimentation, and the challenge to for- head of the authenticating committee for mal neutrality and simple functionality. The Andy Warhol’s (1928–1987) work, located in

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New York, stated that if any potential “new” Red Self-Portrait (1985), was signed by Warhol was presented to the committee for Warhol, and its provenance established a di- evaluation, it would “just let it go by.” The rect link to the artist (McClean 2011), but in apparent lack of interest in material inau- 2007 the board refused to authenticate the thenticity implied by the statement that the picture and would not divulge any rationale committee would just let the work of art pass for its decision, maintaining that to do so by without comment is a consequence of the would only assist others who wanted to cre- enormous sums of money involved, the com- ate forged Warhols. modification of the art market, and the legal “Denied” was imprinted on the back of dangers of being sued in the courts, poten- Red Self-Portrait, rendering it worthless. The tially for millions of dollars, should a wrong legal case on behalf of Simon-Whelan was decision be reached, or even a correct deci- dismissed by a US court in 2010, and the col- sion that is then contested by owners with lector was declared bankrupt as a result of the their own panel of connoisseurs. The safest legal costs involved. option is not to get involved with judging the The former director of the Moderna authenticity of dubious Warhol artworks at Museet in , Karl Gunnar Vougt all, and there are particular reasons why the Pontus Hultén (1924–2006), one of the Warhol authenticating committee should most distinguished museum directors of the be so fey, having been involved in a number twentieth century, secretly fabricated some of complex disputes. For example, in 2007 of Warhol’s Brillo Boxes around 1990 in the the English collector Joe Simon-Whelan south of Sweden. He later sold the forgeries initiated a class-action lawsuit against the for millions of dollars. Warhol Art Authentication Board for un- These were all attributed to Warhol, with lawful restraint of trade in the United States. Hultén backdating their existence to 1968, to- In 1987 the same authenticating board had gether with faked Warhol Art Authentication decided that the artwork in question, owned Board certificates (McClean 2011:91), actions by Simon-Whelan, was genuine. The work, that could have resulted in a prison sentence

Figure 10.3. Karl Gunnar Vougt Pontus Hultén, first director of the Centre Pompidou, Paris, was a Swedish art collector and a forger of Warhol’s work. (Image licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)

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for Hultén had his death not intervened. The Warhol Art Authentication Board has sub- sequently declared that these are all copies, not originals, reducing the value of the fake Brillo Boxes from a few million to a few hun- dred dollars each, even though aesthetically one cannot discern any perceptible differ- ence between the original copies produced by Warhol and the later copies produced by Hultén that were attributed to Warhol, an argument apropos of the intertwined phil- osophical debates spurred by Danto (1981) concerning Brillo Boxes in a somewhat differ- ent context. However, the faked certificates of authenticity are a different matter. Outside of a conceptual artistic process, the production of fake certificates of authenticity is not ac- ceptable as a statement about the work itself. It is a statement about the intentions of the forger, not the intentions of the artist. This is an ironic turn of events, since Hultén, a per- spicacious observer of the contemporary art scene, was responsible for the first retrospec- tive exhibition of Warhol’s works, in 1968. The general problem for the board is that Warhol engaged in extensive replication and reproduction of his own work, aided by named assistants such as Gerard Malanga (1943–) and others. Warhol was inconsistent in his own practices; his work was sometimes signed, sometimes not. Certificates of au- thenticity were issued for some works but not for others. Like Salvador Dalí (1904–1989), Warhol would also sign blank sheets of paper, or shopping bags, so the existence of the art- ist’s signature is not sufficient proof of mate- rial authenticity. The opaque pronouncements of authenti- Figure 10.4. Twenty-Ninth Copper Cardinal by Carl Andre, 1975. Whitney Museum of cating bodies have resulted in justifiable criti- American Art, New York. (Image copyright by cism concerning the mode of authenticity they Carl Andre. Licensed by VAGA, New York. are pronouncing on. Is the statement of the Photographer unspecified) four experts on the Warhol panel corroborated

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by art historical connoisseurship, scientific worth $20,000 at auction but actually sold for connoisseurship, documentary evidence, per- $302,000 (Brown 2011). stated that sonal knowledge of the artist, catalogue raison- he had mistaken the portrait for Mao himself né considerations, or all five criteria? We will in one of his drug-induced hazes. Hopper probably never know, as the opinions of the later showed the bullet holes to Warhol, who board are not based on evidence that can be drew circles around them, labeling the one seen outside of the authenticating board itself. over Mao’s right shoulder a “warning shot” Artists such as Carl Andre (1935–), Hans and the one at his left eyelid “bullet hole.” Haacke (1936–), and Lawrence Weiner (1942– Warhol declared Hopper a collaborator on ) all have idiosyncratic preoccupations with the piece, which in this case imbued a con- certificates of authenticity in connection with ceptual authenticity to the print, elevating it their own work and their concepts of what from the hundreds of Chairman Mao prints, constitutes legitimization. Andre not only is- which also represent one of Warhol’s most sues certificates of authenticity, but he has faked works of art. created a registry of his works, which carefully catalogs and numbers them, as well as listing The Withdrawal of Authenticity the owners, with a meticulous approach to Closely related to the problems of denial are numbering, location, and provenance. Joseph those of withdrawal. McClean (2011) quotes Kosuth refuses to reissue certificates if they from a poster by artist Siegelaub (1941– are lost or stolen, while Gordon Matta-Clark 2013) and New York lawyer Bob Projansky (1943–1978) warned on the certificate itself from 1971, advising artists to withdraw au- that it would not be replaced by another if the thenticity from their work if it were not sold original was lost or destroyed (Lee 2001). or resold by future collectors in accordance If the owner of a conceptual work of art with the rules of the contract they advised be does not possess a certificate of authenticity adopted by artists. The revocation of concep- from the artist, then the conceptual work may tual authenticity, in an analogous sense to what not be able to be sold at auction, even if the happened in the medieval period, is well exam- owner can establish that it is the “original” pled by the case of Robert Morris (1931–) and work in terms of materials and provenance, his 1963 “Statement of Aesthetic Withdrawal” and even if there are no materials or materi- in response to collector Philip Johnson, who ality to the work concerned. In such cases, the refused to pay Morris for the artwork Litanies. collector would have to appeal to the estate, The artist presented the statement on no- if the artist were dead; one of the authenticat- tarized paper together with a sheet made of ing bodies; museum ; or conservation lead inscribed with the image of a lock and documentation. key. In 1974 Donald Judd (1928–1994) sold Unique events may affect the materiality plans of 14 works, including Galvanized Wall, of a multiple work, such as a print of Warhol’s to collector Giuseppe Panza, along with the Chairman Mao, which exists in hundreds rights to construct and reconstruct the art- of versions. One print was shot at twice by works at Panza’s expense (Buskirk 2003). But actor Dennis Hopper (1936–2010) in the in 1989, when Panza showed Galvanized Wall 1970s. As a result of the notoriety of Hopper at the Ace Gallery in Los Angeles, Judd denied and his action, the print was estimated as that the work was authentic, writing, “The

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Fall 1989 show of sculpture at Ace Gallery in was that Andre himself had suggested Los Angeles exhibited an installation wrong- the work’s potential for dematerialization ly attributed to Donald Judd. Fabrication of during a conflict with the museum about the piece was authorized by Giuseppe Panza how it had been installed in the exhibi- without the approval or permission of Donald tion “200 years of American Sculpture Judd” (Buskirk 2003). Clearly Judd was not (1976).” After the museum refused able to regard this work as an authentic ex- Andre’s attempt to buy the work back, pression of his own. But despite this and in the artist reduced his offer to 70 cents per contradiction to the views of conservators pound, for the scrap metal, and mount- and museum curators recognizing the “art- ed a counter exhibition with a competing ist’s voice,” the artwork was purchased by the version of the work. Despite the refer- Guggenheim Museum and is attributed by the ence to dematerialization, the Whitney’s museum, without comment, to Donald Judd. publication of Andre’s certificate [of au- Carl Andre was very concerned with the thenticity] alongside the installation pho- materiality of his artworks, which is a perfect tographs suggests that it is the museum’s backdrop for contentious issues surround- possession of the original sheet of paper ing his installations. In 1989 the catalog for as much as the actual metal plates that af- Immaterial Objects at the Whitney Museum firms its ownership of a work of art rather reproduced certificates of authenticity from than a pile of raw material. the various artists alongside their works. An interesting exhibit in its own right, this re- Artist’s certificates of authenticity may be vealed the range of views expressed by art- fundamental to the continuation of the work, ists concerning their own certificates. Some especially as they increasingly refer to con- artists stipulated that their works had to be ceptual events. The self-referential nature of completely re-created whenever they were these certificates could be viewed as an exam- exhibited. Examples include drawings by Sol ple of metaphysical supervenience, since the LeWitt (1928–2007), who later in life changed documents legitimate something that has en- his views, allowing specially trained artists to tirely different properties than the documents work on his creations. Others specified that themselves. A certificate of authenticity may a particular approach to materiality had to be the only physical manifestation of a work. be retained, with clearly defined installation Kwon (2006:295) writes, “It is the certificate requirements for each gallery exhibition. rather than ‘the work’ that matters more, or Unfortunately, the Whitney Museum installed does more work, one could say, in determin- Carl Andre’s Twenty-Ninth Copper Cardinal ing both the aesthetic and market value of (1975) in a manner the artist regarded as not ‘the work’ in question (and by extension, the authentic. As Buskirk (2011:99) writes: cultural capital of the artist).” Certificates of authenticity can function The material presence [of the piece] is as devolved signatures. Dematerialized works arguably not lessened by the need to posi- such as conceptual events cannot be signed, tion the copper plates in accordance with but their authorized reenactment can be sanc- the arrangement described on the asso- tioned by a physically separate material enti- ciated certificate. In this case the irony ty, even if the way the certificate is depicted

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documentation, and artist interviews. As Gordon (2011:56) writes:

This has meant placing weight on the artist’s intentions for the work and his or her decision-making process, rather than the subsequent interpretations of curators and conservators that inevita- bly inform the artwork’s institutional afterlife. Doing so has led to a greater understanding of artists’ conceptions of Figure 10.5. Primo Piano III by David Smith, material significance and their thoughts 1962; steel painted white or repainted white. on the identity of their works. This inev- (Image © The Estate of David Smith. Licensed by VAGA, New York) itably bears implications for the preser- vation and display of contemporary art. or rendered is an idiosyncratic expression of Discussions between the conservator and the artist. artist typically result in a compromise solution, The certificate can also be used to create such as that described by Gordon (2014) in an authentic sphere of action for the collec- the case of the various incarnations of Journey tor rather than for the artist. George Brecht to the Edge of the World—The New Republic (1926–2008), a Fluxus artist much interest- of St. Kilda, 1999–2002 by Ross Sinclair ed in participatory events, forces the owner (1966–), installed in the Fruitmarket Gallery, of his work Relocation to define the location- Edinburgh; the Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth; al parameters of the artwork. He grants the Art Basel; and the Hamburger Kunsthalle; as owner permission to relocate the work, what- well as other venues. The material instanti- ever it is, up to five times (Hapgood and Lauf ation of each exhibit was a reflection of the 2014:83). authenticity of what Gordon calls the “criti- cal mass” of the work as an immaterial value The Voice of the Artist that governs and activates the authenticity of As the relationship between many modern the artwork. Gordon (2014:106) writes, “As and contemporary works of art and the plane an indicator of the artist’s decision-making of material authenticity becomes tenuous, so process, the identification of the critical mass the conceptual authenticity of the relation- can provide valuable insight into appropriate ship increases. Some see the only hope of sal- incarnations of the work, the way it is inter- vation from these problems in terms of valo- preted within the museum or gallery, and of- rizing the notion of the artist’s voice (Gordon fers insight into the weighting of value of the 2011). Indeed, the artist’s voice has been a work’s attributes that will ultimately inform crucial source of signification in the reeval- potential conservation treatment.” uation of installations that have been contex- The intention of the artist regarding in- tualized by reference to published compendi- terpretation of the work can be viewed as an ums, international case studies, conservation epistemological problem separate from the

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intentions of the artist regarding the mate- the study collection of the museum, where it riality of the work and its potentially varied could still be observed, even if not by mem- instantiations. This distinction has been bers of the general public. proposed by Irvin (2005a), who defines the In reviewing the fact that the original state artist’s sanction as an important concept that of this artwork was no longer valorized by the operates in concert or synergy with inten- artist’s sanction, Irvin (2005b:125), echoing tion but that is not an ineffable intention as the criticisms of Eggert (2009), writes: such and does not invoke behavioral states or unknown psychological events that per- Successful restoration efforts sometimes meate the notion of absolute intentionalism. reveal that we have misapprehended the Irvin asserts that acceptance of the concept work, as when Michelangelo’s Sistine of the artist’s sanction legitimates features of Chapel ceiling was restored to its unex- the work but does not oblige the viewer to pectedly gaudy array of original colors. accept that the artist has, in applying his or If we are unable to carry out physical her sanction, fixed the correct interpretation restoration of the object to its privileged of the work. state, we do imaginative restoration in- As an example of the application of her stead, ignoring damage or color change criterion of the artist’s sanction, Irvin (2005a) and trying to see the work as it was discusses the original state of the installation when the artist first made it. Change in exhibit of Time and Mrs. Tibor by Liz Magor, the object over time is something to be displayed by the National Gallery of Canada ignored as we interpret the work, not in 1977. The artwork consists of a kitchen something to be acknowledged and fig- cupboard shelf unit with numerous glass jars ured into our interpretations. of different preserves found in an abandoned house in British Columbia. The inherent vice Presumably Irvin means that the viewer of the preserves is in tension with the gen- has misapprehended the work, not that the eral degradation of the installation desired restoration of the gaudy colors was a misap- by Magor, who had thought the artwork prehension on the part of the restorer. The would last as long as her lifetime before be- restorer is concerned here essentially with the ing thrown out with the garbage. This is how removal of grime, the daily bread and Magor imagined the future state of Time and of picture restoration, which certainly does Mrs. Tibor, as the degradation of the artwork not, in the twenty-first century, promulgate was originally intended to finally lead to its imaginative restoration over the reintegra- nonexistence. However the inherent vice of tion of missing components of the image. the work became alarming when a microbi- Nor is it true that diachronic change is an ologist declared that seven of the jars had de- ontological problem of interpretation for the veloped botulism. As a result, Magor agreed conservator. For many in the profession, ar- to the addition of preservatives and made tifacts present themselves as altered or dam- replacements for the jars that had to be dis- aged survivors whose amelioration does not posed of. Magor then revised her view of the necessarily imply a return to some imagina- work and stated that when the work was no tive state created through restoration but that longer exhibitable, it should be transferred to respects alterations through time. Irving does

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not refer to even Brandi’s strictures here, be- that connect the features of objects to those cause the loci of conservation theory has not of artworks in ways that abide by conventions intersected sufficiently the loci of art philos- established or manipulated by the artist. For ophy. This is, however, a distraction from the some contemporary works, such as Time and principal thrust of Irvin’s seminal argument Mrs. Tibor, the sanction of the artist is essential concerning what is and what is not autho- in making or keeping the artwork what it is or rized by the artist. Irvin (2005a:320) does not what it will become. Irvin (2005a:323) writes, claim that the artist has authority regarding “Recognition of the role the artist’s sanction how the work should be interpreted, which is plays in fixing certain features of the work does a view she repudiates. The only role the art- not, however, mean that we must accept the ist’s sanction plays in constraining interpreta- interpretation the artist would have proposed, tion is an indirectly mediated one. Irvin does or did propose, for that work.” The sanction of not claim that an artist endows the work with the artist is an externally accessible authoriza- features simply by intending that it have those tion, and in that sense it is very relevant to the features. She writes: “Neither the artist’s con- problems of material or conceptual authentic- scious or unconscious thoughts or ideas about ity of contemporary art. Time and Mrs. Tibor the work, nor the artist’s behavioral disposi- underwent changes in terms of artist’s sanction tions, have any effect on the work’s features that could be read as a major alteration of the except insofar as they lead to certain kinds of concept of the work, which was to initially actions in appropriate contexts, Moreover, the have been allowed to completely degrade until work may, on my view, have features that ex- it had to be thrown away, existing thereafter pressly conflict with those the artist intended” only as a conceptually authentic event in time. (2005a:320). The features of a work determine By keeping existing jars of preserves from un- how the artist’s sanction interacts with it; in- dergoing biodeterioration and producing her- tention is not sufficient to establish a sanc- metically sealed replacement jars, the artist tion. A sanction, says Irvin, is like a contract. incorporated a far greater sense of material au- Learning about the artist’s sanction does not thenticity to the work than originally intended depend on retrieving the intention of the art- for the work in its former state. If, like Mrs. ist but on the actions and communications of Tibor herself, the artwork of her jars of pre- the artist, including the presentation within a serves is to be slowly allowed to decay and die, defined context. Hypothetical intentionalism then that aim is now in tension with the desire might be viewed as closer to the concept of of the museum to arrest decay and to conserve the artist’s sanction than actual intentionalism, the work into the future way beyond the time since the former may imply that what is debat- originally envisaged by the artist. The sanction ed are the actual intentions of the artist and of the artist still sees the work as decaying, but how they were actualized, but the concept of not at the rate originally discovered, which the sanction is less concerned with interpre- alarmed the artist. tation by the observer and more concerned In connection to the discourse between the with the artwork and its existence. Nor is the artist and the work, Wharton (personal com- artist’s sanction seen by Irvin as a purely mod- munication 2016) draws attention to a recent ernist concept. Historic artworks incorporate Mellon-funded project: “the multi-year Panza the artist’s sanction within a set of conventions research project at the Guggenheim in which

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Contested Materiality

a conservator and an art historian are go- after that; so it runs about twenty-five ing through all documentation, interviewing or thirty coats and that’s about three artists and others to get a full understanding times the paint coat on a Mercedes or of issues of authorship and authenticity with about thirty times the paint coat on a the minimal artists in the collection they pur- Ford or Chevrolet. And if it doesn’t chased from Panza.” These recent develop- get scratched or hammered, I think the ments will have consequences for the framing paint coat will last longer than I do. of this discussion in the future. Greenberg, who had known Smith for Contested Materiality 20 years, maintained that the white coating Alteration of the material features of a work was simply a primer and that the artist would of art has created special problems with the never have intended for the sculptures to authenticity of modern art, intersecting remain white, or if that was the case, they through material, conceptual, or historical were degrading and should be removed. In issues with what the artist wanted or what the development of , the work became. Greenberg was not simply an observer: His Mulholland (2014) describes some of the predilections and desires were sometimes disputed rationalizations surrounding the foisted onto the artist himself, with the result appearance of late sculptures by David Smith that polychrome sculptures by Smith were (1906–1965), such as Primo Piano III (1962). viewed by Greenberg as being overelaborat- The famous critic Clement Greenberg ed beyond the point to which the momentum (1909–1994) ordered the removal of the of inspiration had carried them. Polychromy white coating on a number of Smith’s sculp- was viewed as not authentic to the aims of tures in 1973. The stripped and rusted works, Greenberg’s vision of abstract expressionism. such as Primo Piano III, were then presented As Mulholland (2014:91) notes, the atti- as authentic originals. Greenberg saw him- tude of Smith to problems of restoration was self as the arbiter on what the artist would complex. For example, he denounced the have wanted, while his critics claimed he had stripping of original paint from his sculpture removed all trace of the original intention of 17Hs (1950) by a private collector as an act of the artist and imposed a subjective aesthetic vandalism and publicly disowned the work, judgment, vitiating the art’s authenticity as declaring it to be of no value. But in the case true works by Smith. of Fish (1950–1), he allowed the collector to The materiality in terms of surface finish of repaint the work when the initial paint coat these sculptures is potentially critical by virtue had deteriorated. Greenberg assumed the of Smith’s dedication to his coatings and their conceptual authenticity of the artist in re- desired longevity. Smith (1965:89) states: moving what he took to be a deteriorating white preparatory layer on Primo Piano III, First the iron is ground down so that it an action already condemned by classical the- is raw, and it is primed with about fif- orists such as Brandi. The estate acting for teen coats of epoxy primer; and then a Smith took the decision to eliminate the rust- few coats of zinc, and then a few coats ed and stripped surfaces, which Greenberg of white, and then the color is put on saw as authentic to the artist’s wishes, and

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in 1997 had the sculptures repainted with a conditionalist intentionalism. The absolute white finish, in imitation of the original fin- intentionalism sought by the conservator of ish. The estate took the view that it was not contemporary art is often at odds with the restoring the works to their original condition disputed instantiation of works whose origi- but to a condition that matched the aesthetic nal condition or perceptible properties have of their unfinished, white-painted appearance been altered. The compromise here is to pre- as left by the artist. These events have created serve the successive stages of the existence of the impression that all of Smith’s later works the work as a series of documented images have been repainted and lack aspects of the and records and to make these records read- material authenticity of the sculptures as they ily available. Mulholland (2014) reminds us left the hand of the artist, which is not always of what Dykstra wrote 20 years ago (Dykstra the case. 1996:200), namely that artists’ purposes, However much an original work may be aims, and objectives “exist in a psycholog- valued as created by Smith, from the view- ical arena where they do not decompose or point of ontological contextualism, the his- deteriorate.” torical trajectory of works subject to surface That psychological arena can be consid- degradation results in an ongoing process ered an essential component of conceptual of authenticity as proposed by Heidegger authenticity, whose relevance is especially (see chapter 2). Similar philosophies of dia- germane to the problem at hand. The knowl- chronic conceptual change have been pro- edge that the artist was working through the posed by several conservators dealing with stages of production of Primo Piano III when contemporary art, such as Van de Vall et al. he died results in the material manifestation (2011:6), who suggest that these works have of that stage of his production, the concept of a trajectory over time, a series of biographies which is his, and lacking any physical form, to which they are subject, and that instead of the work is part of the conceptualization of assigning authenticity to a single point on this the artist, which cannot be interfered with trajectory, the work has to be seen in terms without part of its authenticity being dimin- of the different biographies that have evolved ished. This case, in contemporary art is far in the lifetime of the work—very much a from unique, as many works have been al- Heideggerian perspective. tered to suit the image of the collector, dealer, That is all very well, but can the actions of or museum rather than the artist. Greenberg be seen as essentially contingent The problem is not with just contempo- events in the life of the artwork, to be dis- rary art but also with art that has been al- guised completely by stripping away a rusted tered beyond the conception of the material surface back to clean metal and repainting the presence of the work intended by the artist. sculpture with white coatings never used or For example, conservation treatments car- available at the time of creation of the orig- ried out in the past on sculpture by Jean Arp inal work? From the perspective of the on- (1886–1966) emphasized the finely polished going accretion of authentic events that have metallic surfaces, analogous to the aesthetic altered the work, Greenberg’s actions could of Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957), many of be seen as essential, even if misguided, rath- whose cast-brass sculptures are polished to a er than contingent, an extreme example of highly reflective finish.

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However, further research (Hirx, person- conditional intentionalism, which the artist’s al communication 2013) suggests that this is voice implies, can really function only in terms not at all the kind of surface finish Arp was of how much significance is actually placed on aiming for and that institutional decisions the voice and whether what it says are things have completely ignored the intention of the the institution or collector can agree with or artist. Knowing the artist’s philosophy regard- have knowledge of, which, as earlier examples ing continual natural degradation is no bar- illustrate, is not always the case. rier to continued restoration. For example, The argument concerning the proximity Edvard (1863–1944) was interested in of the artist’s intention to the contemporary the defects of change and decay on his own conservation debate can produce some fairly work. In his early life he painted on cheap dense prose that borders on the unintelligi- supports, such as cardboard, using mixed ble. For example, Martore (2009:15) writes: media, sometimes allowing the cardboard to show through. He was quite happy that Furthermore, dualism returns to opposi- many viewers regarded his work as unfin- tion in aesthetic and historical instances ished. He never varnished his work, did not where the aesthetic faction is ruled by like frames, and spoke about his concept of vision. Western critics have tended to be the “horse-cure”: that his work would have obsessed by [the] visual, this persists with an organic presence as it aged and altered some contemporaries, including Brandi, (Jackson 2014). Visitors to Munch’s house who focuses on visibility to that which is would find paintings out in the yard while recognizable. Rik Van Wegen insists on rain or snow fell on them. Munch took the original “external appearance” [an] idea view that his paintings had to fend for them- as a guarantee for artist’s intention; he selves in the organic process of their own believes contemporary art has a “theat- degradation. When one of his many versions rical aspect,” distinguishing it from the of The Scream (1893) was stolen and later re- past. Ernst van de Wetering tends to- trieved in a damaged condition, it was quite ward the same theme, he sees in conser- clear that the artist’s intention would result vators, who are chronologically close to in the recovered painting being left in that the artist, a preference for the theatrical, condition. However, Jackson (2014) notes to match visual aspect with artistic intent. that several conservators were immediately at Therefore, the theatrical dimension, re- work on the recovered masterpiece. Thus the lated to object presentation and its “exis- artist’s voice was ignored and the work-being tential power,” seems to assume the duty promulgated by Heidegger’s philosophy was of Brandi’s aesthetic instance. Once again, stunted. The institutional prerogative of safe- the only solid reference is the object in its guarding condition or attempting to return physical consistency, however aesthet- the work to the condition in which it existed ic and historical instances must split, to before the theft was valorized at the expense avoid material authenticity from clashing of the artist’s intention. with the transmission of the original ex- Notions of the artist’s intention have al- ternal appearance. . . . Most of the pres- ready been reviewed in this book, and the ervation strategies for contemporary art increasing prominence given to absolute or adopt a decision making model chiefly

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devoted to the original meaning’s re- been responsible for an outgrowth of luxuriant covery. Such orientation is still far from texts whose dense philosophical foliage is ex- providing suitable solutions to face typ- citing to peer through but whose relevance as ical problems regarding time-based and a critical commentary on current conservation hi-tech-based media art. Now, the ongo- practice is doubtful. However, the problems ing weaving of aesthetics and technology of time-based and high-tech-based media art binds kinetic art, video art, multimedi- to which Martore (2009) refers are not eas- al installation, digital and cyber art etc. ily solved and normally involve a pragmatic This categorically heavy knot is a much assessment of what is possible or feasible in more coherent fundament for study the gallery space concerned, which indeed than many other classifications. Techno- may be contrary to the desired preservation sphere inherent properties (designing, strategies for contemporary art. , seriality, functionality, It is inevitable that the preservation interactivity etc.) have the ability to problems associated with software-based move and [form] practices into which art will be addressed in the future. For ex- they are a contradiction in basic terms, ample, Engel and Wharton (2014) selected such as historical aspect and authenticity. 33 Questions per Minute by Rafael Lozano- Hemmer (1967–) and Shadow Monsters by Immersion of the modern artwork in its Philip Worthington (1977–)—on display in own philosophical bath is partially respon- 2014 at the Museum of Modern Art, New sible for the hermetic language of some of York—for investigation. One of these works these conservation texts concerning the con- was written in Delphi, a derivative of Pascal, temporary, its complex interaction with the while the other was written in Processing. conservator, and how some of the problems Keeping program documentation synchro- in relation to the conservation of modern nized with the source code it purports to art are to be approached or discussed. Much represent is an authenticity concern with the ephemeral art of the past had an import- preservation of art of this kind. As Engel and ant “theatrical aspect,” such as that used in Wharton (2014:411) write: “Documenting medieval pageants and carnivals. Kneeling blocks of code that were clearly no longer in down and praying in front of a painted icon use provided insights into the software - involves an aspect of performance that is an neering or the artistic process, depending on intrinsic function of the work of art—surely whether the software was written by the artist part of its “existential power.” The existen- or by a programmer working with the artist. tial mode lies in the relationship between the This form of digital archaeology is parallel to individual and his consciousness of the work the examination of sketches and maquettes and how that particular work affects him as made by artists in traditional media.” an individual in a cultural or spiritual con- For the authenticity of these works to be text. Contemporary art does not have a mo- assured into the future, the documentation of nopoly on existential theatricality. source codes used by the artists has to be seri- The obscurity of some artists’ statements ously considered by the museum immediately about the context of their own art, and the following acquisition. Otherwise the works contested field over which these operate, has may be lost and would have to be re-created

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in a different format, which may entail con- and must be characterized as a broad, tingent loss. cross-cultural response rather than a his- torical movement. An attitude: a process Self-Destructive Art and a way of proceeding, destruction art The problems with the authenticity of self- is both reactionary and responsive; it is destructive art are connected to tensions not an aesthetic; nor a method, nor a between material and conceptual authentic- technique. Destruction art is an ethical ity. An artwork that self-destructs cannot be position involving diverse practices that preserved in its original state, but the con- investigate the engulfments of terminal cept of the work may survive, although even culture. this survival is not necessarily sanctioned by the stated intentions of the artist concerned. The saliency of the ethical as stated by There are subtle differentiations here re- Stiles here seems at variance with the diverse garding how intentionality is perceived, all approaches to auto-destruction taken by dif- the way from antirealist absolute intention- ferent artists. Is an ethical imputation part alism to absolute anti-intentionalism, aspects of the artist’s intention in auto-destruction of which have already been discussed in this because it is envisaged as a commentary on book (Livingston 2005) but that need to be the terminal state of modern art? This seems revisited in the postmodern context, espe- to privilege the position of such artists by cially because of the contested nature of mu- comparison to numerous other tendencies seum preservation of fragments of destroyed where the concept of an objective set of ethi- works or the reliance on conservation doc- cal pronouncements as applied to their work umentation of the former materiality of a would seem misplaced. In some ways it is an work of art. What of this documentation? aesthetic: To watch a beautifully crafted col- Conservation documentation now fulfills an lection of New York detritus destroy itself is epistemological supervenience, especially in a visual experience rather than a philosophi- cases where the original work of art has ceased cal reflection on the engulfment of a termi- to exist. The sensory and perceptual properties nal art culture of the late twentieth century. of the artwork are now represented by a se- The New York work referenced here is Jean ries of interviews, files, notes, films, or conser- Tinguely’s (1925–1991) Homage to New York, vation documentation of the instances of the whose auto-destruction took place in the gar- work, a kind of documentary supervenience den of the Museum of Modern Art on March whose preservation itself could be regarded as 17, 1960 (Klüver 1968). The 8-m-high sculp- part of the concept of the work to ensure that ture, a complex mechanism of eclectic objects survival of the knowledge of its disintegration gathered from refuse, including wheels from or destruction continues into the future. Stiles various bicycles, tricycles, and baby carriages; (1991:136) has defined auto-destructive art as: a bath tub; a go-cart; a piano; bottles; fire ex- tinguishers; a weather balloon; various tools; Interdisciplinary and multinational, and a cacophony of bells, car horns, and ra- combining media and subject matter. dios, once set into motion committed suicide Destruction art addresses the phenome- by sawing, hammering, and melting itself into nology and epistemology of destruction complete degradation.

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A repeat performance is probably impos- sible, as no detailed documentation of the original exists. The event itself has gone, and some of the privileged spectators took away with them fragments of the destroyed work. Other pieces of detritus were retained by the Museum of Modern Art as a mate- rial reminder of the transitory moment of self-destruction, an artwork now called Fragment from Homage to New York (1960). Figure 10.6. Homage to New York by Jean Tinguely, which destroyed itself in the garden Without the context of their former exis- of the Museum of Modern Art on the March 17, tence, the cataloged fragments are a mean- 1960. (Image courtesy of the Museum of Modern ingless heap of charred remains. As some of Art, New York) these remnants include rubber, the artwork’s destroyed components are themselves lia- ble to undergo further diachronic environ- In connection with the preservation of au- mental deterioration, as the stabilization of to-destructive art, Leen (2005) writes: “The rubber-containing artifacts is both expensive problem . . . is whether a museum should col- and difficult, demanding attention from a lect art objects with little or no material en- properly trained conservator due to au- durance. This problem is directly linked with to-catalytic breakdown, surely a mechanism the issues of the work’s objective authenticity, of deterioration that auto-destruction artists and with the question how a museum can col- would condone. But whether there are any lect contemporary art.” The belief that there conservation measures in place is unknown, is a readily definable objective authenticity in as is Tinguely’s attitude to these archival such cases belies the historical and material museum remnants. complexity of the ephemeral. The concept of Swiss artist Gustav Metzger (1926–) an objective authenticity cannot be sustained, was responsible for creating the term auto- as this book demonstrates, and perhaps Leen destructive art. In his 1959 eponymous mani- should have said “material authenticity” rath- festo he defines it as er than “objective authenticity.”

art which contains within itself an agent Performance Art which automatically leads to its de- Performance as a confrontation with societal struction within a period of time not norms of belief and behavior, as a philosoph- to exceed twenty years. Other forms ical interaction with the audience, as a novel of auto-destructive art involve manual entertainment, or as a spectacle to shock the manipulation. There are forms of auto- viewer out of his or her normal range of re- destructive art where the artist has a sponses goes back at least as far as Diogenes tight control over the nature and timing (412–323 B.C.E.) and Antisthenes (445–365 of the disintegrative process, and there B.C.E.), followers of Socrates (469–399 are other forms where the artist’s con- B.C.E.) who utilized performance exactly trol is slight. for this purpose. The hardy individualism,

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questioning of received authority, existen- was photographed nude by Icelandic art- tial approach to virtue, and independent ist Erró, with two garden snakes crawling spirit of Diogenes (Hurd 2012) was even over her torso and with her clitoris visible admired by Alexander the Great (356–323 (Schneider 1997). The work was certainly B.C.E). Cynic in Greek means “dog,” and at authentic to the aims of Schneemann’s fas- one dinner party, Diogenes performed as a cination with the body but was not to ev- dog, gnawing at bones thrown by the oth- eryone’s taste. Chris Burden, in his 1971 er guests before urinating over the guests work Shoot, was shot in the left arm by an themselves. Diogenes would eat lupines as assistant from a distance of 5 m. This was a a performance and accost marketgoers with staged event, but the authenticity of the ac- strange or philosophical questions, much tion was ensured when the artist was actually as Socrates had done before him. He slept shot. Marta Minujín performed her artwork in a gigantic ceramic urn. Like dogs, some Reading the News by partially immersing her- Cynics would make love in public and allow self in the Río de la Plata, wrapped complete- women to choose who they wanted to sleep ly in newspaper. The startling immediacy of with (Hobbes 2005). The aim of Diogenes’s these performances undermines attempts to authentically individual performances was repeat them, which is a tendency now asso- to question the nature of reality, the con- ciated with performance art that seeks the ventional wisdom of society, restrictions to comfort of legitimated reenactment in the virtue, and the liberation from convention twenty-first century. attained as a result of freeing oneself from Montenegrin performance artist Marina the debasement of modern society, an idea Abramović presented a work at the Serpentine that may even have influenced Jesus via lat- Gallery in London in 2014. Performing for er Cynical philosophers who abandoned the 512 hours, she interacted with more than depraved world and wandered as mendicants 110,000 visitors, who left their handbags, through the fields. telephones, and wristwatches at the door and As far as twentieth- and twenty-first- donned noise-blocking earphones (Wright century performance art is concerned, 2014). The participants were then led around Goldberg (2001:34) writes, “Performance has the gallery by the artist. Activities within the been a way of appealing directly to a large space included staring at the wall, slow walk- public, as well as shocking audiences into re- ing, and counting grains of rice, the aim being assessing their own notions of art and its re- to be “present in the moment.” lation to culture.” This statement could easily Abramović has been responsible for many be applied to the actions of the Greek Cynics controversial performance artworks. At the before Cynical philosophy became more re- Museum of Modern Art, New York, she sat in spectable under the Romans (Hobbs 2005). a chair for 700 hours. Her solo performances Urinating over guests in public and appearing in the 1970s included stabbing herself, taking naked were not Roman cultural norms; nor drugs to induce a catatonic state, and hanging were they tolerated. Carolee Schneemann herself from the gallery wall (Adams 2012). (1939–) produced her work Eye Body in 1963. These performances left no trace except in Becoming a work of art herself, she covered conservation documentation, if such exists. her naked body in a variety of materials and Even so, seeing a film of the artist stabbing

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herself is not the same as seeing the artist Hartford Wash; Washing Tracks, Maintenance stabbing herself. The mediated nature of Inside, she scrubbed and mopped the floor of authenticity is all too apparent in these per- the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Connecticut formances, and the desire to keep them de- for four hours. In Transfer: The Maintenance spite their conceptual authenticity is devoid of the Art Object, she cleaned a in of materiality. the museum and designated it an artwork, a Bishop (2012) discusses how the outsourc- dust painting. Her performance The Keeping ing of performance art to other actors besides of the Keys consisted of Ukeles taking the mu- the artist became increasingly prevalent in seum guards’ keys and locking and unlocking the late twentieth and early twenty-first cen- galleries and offices, which when locked were tury. Bishop (2012:110) writes of outsourced deemed to be “maintenance art.” This work or delegated performances: was not popular with museum curators, many of whom apparently rushed out of the At the same time, the realism invoked by building. Her work included charts, posted this work is clearly not a return to mod- announcements, and a “Maintenance Art” ernist authenticity of the kind disman- verification stamp. Ukeles’s work constitutes tled by Adorno and poststructuralism. By a dialogue between private and public space, setting up a situation that unfolds with a as well as a feminist on the hidden greater or lesser degree of unpredictabil- nature of activities such as dusting, cleaning, ity, artists give rise to a highly directed and washing, compared with the public per- form of authenticity: singular authorship formance of the museum, which is always is put into question by delegating con- observed in its cleaned state by the public. trol of the work to the performers; they Molesworth (1999:116) quotes here from confer upon the project a guarantee of philosopher Carole Pateman, who writes: realism, but do this through a highly au- “The public sphere is always assumed to thored situation whose precise outcome throw light onto the private sphere, rather cannot be foreseen. than vice versa. On the contrary, an under- standing of modern patriarchy requires that It is not clear which conception regarding the employment contract is illuminated by authenticity is being denied here and which the structure of domestic relations.” Ukeles’s is being invoked, especially since the artists artistic performances were conducted in the are engaging in a highly directed form of 1970s, before the trend to make the activities authenticity. of museum conservators a visible public event, The performance of an act of mainte- something that had previously been regarded nance, previously regarded as essentially as a private function within the museum, not non-art, can also be seen as maintenance for general observation. As conservators are qua art in the postmodern discourse of ar- normally viewed through glass screens, there tistic expression. In 1969 Mierle Laderman is an element of the panopticon concept to Ukeles (1939–) issued her Maintenance Art the experience; the conservators (predom- Manifesto, in which she divides labor into inantly female) are “performance artists” development and maintenance (Molesworth whose antics and controlled movements ren- 1999:114). In 1972, in her conceptual work der the work of art a static material entity

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being massaged and cosseted, valorizing its the Benjaminian concept of aura as adher- material manifestation. “Dust paintings” as ing as strongly to hired performers as to the an authentic art experience are integral to original artist is debatable. This is a con- the conservator’s performance, especially text-dependent contingency that is not ful- when they themselves are on public display, ly explored in the article by Laurenson and which surely vitiates part of the raison d’être van Saaze (2014), because the cases they dis- of conceptual museum events that them- cuss do not involve the presence of the artist selves consist of dusting vitrines. The mys- as part of the performance. Artists are not a terious activities of museum curators under- sine qua non for the legitimate repeatability taking research on artifacts in storage is seen of the works in question. For example, Good only in the abstract, the supervenience of the Feelings in Good Times (2003) by Roman written word, not the panopticon of our ob- Ondák involves the queue-forming specta- servation of them. cle of 8 to 12 people queuing for 40 minutes Since the advent of the twenty-first cen- at a time throughout the day. But the artist tury, museums have increasingly come to is not physically present, so the authentic- regard performance art as collectible en- ity of a re-enactment is not dependent on tities, even if there is nothing tangible to the artist’s presence. In the case of Tino collect. Conservators have been instrumen- Sehgal’s work This Is Propaganda (2002), for tal as agents of transmission and dealers in which no documentation is allowed to exist, the operation of works that may exist in “A woman can be heard singing and on en- an inactive state, until the time comes for tering the gallery, a female gallery assistant their repeat performance. Fiske (2009:233) turns and faces the wall and the singing be- writes, in connection with these dormant gins again. . . . At the end of the refrain, the works: “Tethering secures the work-in-ab- title of the work and the name of the artist sentia, disarming absence as a condition is spoken, along with the date of the work that could threaten the viability of the and when it was acquired, simulating a wall work, and rendering it essentially benign.” text” (Laurenson and van Saaze 2014:35). Views concerning the authentic nature of The work, despite being an ephemeral per- reenacted performance art (Laurenson and formance of a women singing, comes in a van Saaze 2014:33) are being catalyzed or limited edition, which can be enacted only reformulated by the expanding criteria of by the artist’s sanction. However, especially what constitutes performance and the more in a performance enacted after the death of prevalent museum acquisition of live works the artist, what would it mean to produce that can exist independently of the artist a forgery of the work or to appropriate it? and be endlessly repeated into the future, in The forgery would be ephemerally indis- conceptual terms. From 1960 to 1980, the tinguishable from the legitimate work but authentic presence of the artist’s own body materially inauthentic, one could argue, in was essential, but since the 1990s, the re- virtue of the agreement between the gallery peatability of delegated performance is con- and the artist that must exist in the docu- sidered central to the economics of perfor- mentary history. The appropriation of the mance art (Laurenson and van Saaze 2014), work by another artist, however, may not although whether the viewer might regard invoke any bad faith on the part of the

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appropriator. Therefore it can be regarded extraordinary items whose history is part of a as an authentic performance, both aesthet- simulacrum of events that may never have oc- ically, through the performance of singing, curred but that succeed in taking the visitor to and conceptually, through the exploration an entirely different place and time than con- of repetition and difference. In that respect, temporary urban Los Angeles. authenticity resides in the certificate of au- This museum, as an event in itself, is au- thenticity rather than anything else that thentic in terms of its conceptual aims and its characterizes the work. blend of genuine and fake materiality, chal- lenging the viewer to rethink the nature of Narratives of Museum Exhibitions how exhibitions are perceived and our own As the website of the Museum of Modern Art relationship with what we consider authentic in New York (2014) states, the act of assembling or simply fictional. The experience is an in- assorted artifacts, the invocation of bricolage, teresting blend of suspended belief and puz- can be an artistic gesture in and of itself, an zlement at the marvels of intricately carved echo of the cabinet of curiosities whose origins ivory miniatures, fake newspaper reports, go back to the early Renaissance period and ethnographic curiosities that may or may not the medieval. Many contemporary artists have be authentic, strange scientific facts that may created museum narratives of their collections subsequently have been disproved or remain and turned spaces into literal or conceptual unknown, Hollywood stories, anthropolog- cabinets of curiosities. They include Marcel ical specimens, and the history of museums Broodthaers (1924–1976) with his Department as an exhibit in itself. New York Times critic of Eagles at the Museum of Modern Art, New Edward Rothstein described it as a “museum York (Buchloh 1988) and Herbert Distel with about museums.” Smithsonian magazine de- his Museum of Drawers, Museum of Jurassic scribed it as “a witty, self-conscious homage Technology in Los Angeles, Salon De Fleurus to private museums of yore . . . when natural in New York (a re-creation of ’s history was only barely charted by science, Parisian salon from 1904 to 1934), and City and museums were closer to Renaissance Reliquary in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (a muse- cabinets of curiosity” (Rothstein 2012). um of local cultural ephemera). Neither of these quotations provides a sense As with many conceptual works, the of the totality of the Museum of Jurassic material authenticity of such exhibits is in Technology, which creates a disputation of doubt; never existed; was fabricated recent- phenomenology, playing with reality, ap- ly in Anaheim; is an outrageous pastiche; is parently exhibiting technological wonders actually an authentic poster, newsreel, sound from the Jurassic period, a geological period recording, or art object; or is entirely irrele- far removed from human habitation of the vant to the artistic aims of the artist. earth. The surrealistic experience of the un- The Museum of Jurassic Technology rep- real and fabricated is blended with impossi- resents and presents an entire museum in a ble but sometimes authentic creations. It is modernist cabinet of curiosities that comingles not a museum about museums, as the New authentic artifacts with modern re-creations of York critic described it, but an experience of fictitious events, ambivalent artifacts, or appar- the authentic in the inauthentic, of the au- ently real historical periods of production of thentic seen as unreal, or the inauthentic as

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real. That is the achievement of this unique art, according to Reiss (1999), is spectator Jurassic wonder—to force the viewer to participation, although the parameters clearly question the nature of the experience of the may extend beyond that, depending on how museum itself. The entire museum functions audience interaction is defined. as an exhibit that reflects upon its own para- Museums began to collect and conserve doxical existence and our interpretation of it. installation art during the late 1980s, an act It is much more than a museum about mu- that some see as a process of commodifica- seums. The Eurocentric disposition of muse- tion or an undue concern with materiality, um exhibitions has been exposed in a series sometimes seen as antithetical to the inher- of mock museums by American artist Fred ent social dimensions of the work, which may Wilson (1954–), whose work questions the have been of critical importance (Kwon 2000, conceptual authenticity of the past as repre- 2002). sented by current museum exhibitions, which American Ann Hamilton (1956–) is a well- may fail to address the presence of Native known installation artist whose work includes American or African American peoples. In an enormous wall of water in front of the 1999 1992 Wilson reconfigured the collection of Venice Biennale. Inside were arranged Braille the Maryland Historical Society to highlight dots arranged to spell out verses related to Native American and African American cul- human suffering, slowly being covered with tural and societal contexts within Maryland garish fuchsia-colored powder that descend- (Garfield 1993). The museum as an exhibit of ed from the walls. According to Katy Kline itself has become an interesting commentary (2015), director of Bowdoin College Museum on the framing of the museum as originally of Art in Maine: “She invites the viewer into envisaged, even if what is presented is not a set of visible and auditory conditions where true to the totality of historical facts but is their entire bodily experience is activated. skewed by cultural bias. They are swept into a state of awareness be- yond that of the normal viewer. She tries to Installation Art intrigue the whole body.” Art of unusual materials, designed as brico- Another internationally recognized art- lage, or formed from diverse objects installed ist is Christo, who together with his wife, either within a gallery space or outside might Jeanne-Claude Christo (1935–2009), has be regarded as installation art. Some installa- created many large-scale installations. Their tions are ephemeral, part of a process of deg- work includes wrapping the Reichstag in radation, made with materials that are no lon- Berlin, wrapping the Pont-Neuf in Paris, ger available, or fabricated using time-based and Running Fence, a 39-km installation in media or other forms of video or sound input Sonoma and Marin Counties. The artists whose preservation is often problematic. The have repeatedly denied that their projects term installation art became prominent after have any intention other than to create an the 1960s and has been applied to the cre- aesthetic impact. The purpose of their art, ation of specific events, site-specific phenom- they contend, is simply to create works of joy ena, engaged theatrical activity, the process and beauty and to recognize that there are itself, spectatorship, and temporality (Van significantly different ways of seeing familiar Saaze 2013:17). The essence of installation landscapes (Wikipedia 2014). David

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Bourdon (1970) has described Christo’s wrap- D. An installation can be purely conceptual. pings as a revelation through concealment.” It can be reenacted in virtue of the issu- To his critics Christo replies, “I am an art- ance of a certificate of authenticity by the ist, and I have to have courage. . . . Do you artist or the artist’s estate, which confers know that I don’t have any artworks that ex- upon the event its authentic ability to be ist? They all go away when they’re finished. restaged. Only the preparatory drawings, and collages E. An installation can be restored, or have se- are left, giving my works an almost legendary lected parts restored, in virtue of the aes- character. I think it takes much greater cour- thetic appeal of the work or its ability to age to create things to be gone than to create function in a manner as close as possible to things that will remain.” that of the original. The material authen- Installation art and its various instantia- ticity may be of secondary importance. tions constitute an active field of inquiry in F. An installation cannot be reperformed in contemporary art conservation. Many prob- virtue of the artist’s expressed desire that lems have to be addressed in such cases, and no documentation of the work be kept. to make a proleptic argument, artist’s intent The work must reside only in memory. If is paramount in cases where the artist is still the artist opposes reenactment, this oppo- alive. However, there is a complex web of sition must be adhered to. possibilities regarding conservation that will G. An installation cannot be reperformed be dependent on a variety of factors. The in virtue of the artist’s refusal to coun- nature of these problems is connected to the tenance any substitutions whatsoever. following issues: Denial would render the reinstallation in- authentic as a consequence of the artist’s A. An installation may have only one valid intention. instantiation in virtue of the unique con- ditions of the original materials, space, These seven propositions cover most of the environment, building, or containment in case studies reviewed in the art historical or con- which it appeared. It may be a site-specific servation literature. For example, Caianiello work that cannot be re-created. (2009) discusses art created by Günther Uecker B. An installation may have components of and exhibited in Creamcheese, one of the first the work replaced, in virtue of the degra- psychedelic discotheques in Germany, which dation, loss, or nonfunctionability of the opened in 1967. The artworks were dis- original installation. The original may played in the Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf, in be seen as fungible by the artist or artist’s 1985 and in a different configuration in 2001 representatives. (Witte de With 2005). Caianiello (2009:157) C. An installation that is media-based can writes that the artworks had lost important have its performance repeated on different aspects of their authenticity, including the equipment in virtue of the desire to repeat original space, dancing, and drug taking the performance even if far removed from that were part of the intertextuality of the the original installation. This repeated work. There is an antinomy here between performance may valorize its conceptual arguments that valorize only the materiality authenticity over any material concerns. of the work as opposed to the site-specific

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nature of the installation, which the most re- work, which appear materially altered each cent reconfiguration attempts to give a taste time One Candle is performed, van Saaze of with videos of the original Creamcheese (2009:194) applies the philosophical diagno- and the 1960s. sis of Annemarie Mol, taken from her book Jadzinska (2009) discusses Koji Kamoji, a The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice. Japanese artist long resident in Poland, whose Van Saaze (2009:194) writes, “[Applying] works are often a complex intermixture of the Mol’s reasoning to contemporary artworks, ephemeral and the permanent. For example, then different One Candles appear and au- his work Martwa natura (Still Life, 2003), in thentically can be explored as being done in the Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, contains practice. In other words: by focusing on the ways in which One Candle is manufactured permanent elements, reused in each in practice, authenticity becomes part of what re-exhibition (album, musical scores, let- is done in practice rather than already being ters, photographs and other objects), but there and waiting to be discovered.” also ephemeral ones—an apple which in This view seems to confuse a site- each exhibition passes every time from a specific requirement with the need for con- state of full freshness to the process of ceptual authenticity of the work, especially rotting, water in a glass, or earth from since the Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) the gallery’s garden heaped on a news- in Frankfurt clings to the notion that, despite paper. These items were all linked with the work being an installation piece, shown the artist’s apparatus for “giving things in different versions in Bremen, New York, a voice,” pieces of aluminum strip bent Seoul, Bilbao, Iowa, Paris, and so on, the only into arcs. authentic version of the work is theirs. Paik died in 2006, and his assistant is responsible Jadzinska (2009:173) arrives at the con- for creating authentic Paik reenactments, but clusion that the authenticity of a work of according to van Saaze (2009:196), these are installation art is an ecosystem based on the labeled “exhibition copies,” not “versions” unity of the conceptual structure, material or “variations.” Van Saaze (2009:196) writes, structure, and experience of the viewer, ac- “Interestingly enough, when I tried to gather cording to the artist’s intent. Her response to images of the several One Candles abroad by the problems inherent in this case are that the collecting the catalogues, time and again I was elements that determine the authenticity of confronted with a single image—that of One the work can be sought through the conser- Candle at the MMK.” Apparently, one single vator’s analysis of the work, the collection of press image of the MMK installation is used, data, interviews with the artist, the creation even when the installation itself has features of specialist documentation, and above all de- very different form that of the version at the bate among specialists from different fields to MMK. It has a frozen presence. Proposition create a framework for practical treatment. E, above, is relevant to this example. The Vivian van Saaze (2009) discusses what ethnographic inquiry that this investigation she calls an ethnographic study into the pres- would demand entails the discussion of many ervation of One Candle by Nam June Paik. voices in connection with this study, which Because of the various instantiations of the would be interesting to present.

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Time-Based Media Works matters of preservation, to name only a few. Time-based media works can be considered a Real (2001) gives several examples of works form of installation art with special problems that cannot be effectively reenacted, such as of preservation into the future. Proposition C Nam June Paik’s work Moon Is the Oldest TV above is particularly relevant to the problems (1963–1965), which was produced by mag- of authenticity of such works. Real (2001) netically disrupting the image on 12 cathode mentions the usual array of media that may ray tubes to mimic the appearance of phases represent a work as originally installed: vid- of the moon. Real (2001) regards the work as eotapes, laser disks, film, DVDs, color slides, so removed from its origins if re-recreated, and so on. Real (2001) asks eight long per- somehow, on LCD monitors that its authen- tinent questions concerning how media art ticity would be lost. may interact with the conservator. Laurenson Noël de Tilly (2009) considers two me- (1999) notes that as a performance, an in- dia-based works, the 1982 installation of John stallation may well be seen as either poorly Massey’s (1950–) As the Hammer Strikes (A performed or as well performed, although Partial Illustration) in the exhibition OKanada there could be difficulties in deciding whose at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. It opinion to present in such cases. Some subtle was first made of three synchronized 16mm details of media installations are evident only films. There were several difficulties in the to the artist. For example, the reinstallation original installation, and in 1985 the work of INITIALS (1993–1994) by James Coleman was sold to the National Gallery of Canada. (1941–) at the San Francisco Museum of The institution bought three projectors and Modern Art was judged as defective by the other equipment, but since the synchroni- artist, as the projected image was wrong. The zation problem was never solved, the work only difference was the projector bulb, rated was placed in storage. In 1994 the three films for 30 hours rather than 75 hours, as in the were transferred to Betacam tapes, and from original installation. This is an example rele- the perspective of 2016, the permanence of vant to Proposition G. Betacam tapes themselves becomes evanes- As Real (2001) writes, “Repeat perfor- cent. However, in one sense the artist took mances of time-based media art is the best back the authenticity of the work for himself guarantee for survival.” However, even an by creating an “artist’s proof” copy, enabling experienced time-based media artist such him to sell other copies of the work. The con- as Bill Viola (Viola 1998, 1999) has found servation of the work has therefore become that some of his earlier work is practically a conceptual event, along with many other unplayable. There are palpable costs associ- examples of how media works have been con- ated with keeping some of this art into the served for the future. In 2002 artist Douglas future. Real (2001) lists the cost of produc- Gordon (1966–) filmed an elephant playing ing archival masters of audiovisual compo- dead in the Gagosian Gallery, New York. A nents, the cost of future periodic migrations three-channel video installation entitled Play of the masters to newer formats, the cost of Dead: Real Time used two large projections on successive generations of presentation play- double-sided screens and one video played back instrumentation, storage costs, and the on a monitor. Since 2003 the work has been cost of bringing in a living artist to discuss exhibited more than a dozen times. This was

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possible because the work was sold as a num- problematic in chapter 2. The art may be re- bered edition of three. Its authenticity lies in garded as an authentic expression qua artist its presentation in the exhibition space, which but not of unwitting participants who may feel is decided upon by the artist—an example rel- ripped off by the inclusion of their personal evant to Propositions B and C. imagery in a context they never envisaged. As Noël de Tilly (2009:215), writes: After a Berlin artist exhibited Grindr profiles “These examples serve to illustrate how the in a public square ( 2014), he was punched editioning in relation to video and film works by one of the Grindr online participants, of- can impact on notions of authenticity. I would fended at his personal images becoming part suggest that authenticity is something that is of an art installation. So the question is: If ev- constantly being redefined and challenged by eryone except you sees a photographic image many external factors, such as the exhibition of your penis hanging in a gallery, is it art? space, the medium of the work, and the inter- Grindr is an app that enables gay and bisex- vention of the artist.” ual men to find sexual partners. The penises As the premise of this book concerns the on view are certainly authentic, but whether notion that there is no singular authenticity, the artwork can function legitimately without de Tilly is using the word in a universal sense, permission to exist in such circumstances is a where conceptual, material, or aesthetic au- question yet to be answered. Glenn Wharton thenticity would be well suited to a deeper (personal communication 2016) comments: analysis. “From my understanding Grindr doesn’t al- The seven propositions given above rep- low members to show images of their penis- resent the range of events of material, aes- es on their site. Members are allowed to text thetic, and conceptual authenticity that the each other individually and swap photos, but examples discussed here manifest. How each not on the site. I just googled the Grindr site of them is navigated depends to a great ex- and they have all kinds of rules. I imagine this tent on the intentions of the artist, the artist’s is especially so, now that they are owned by a sanction (Irvin 2005b), or how the institu- Chinese conglomerate.” tion concerned takes ownership of the work In 2013 the feminist art collective Future and then decides what it wants to do with Femme put on a show in Boston called Show it, which may have very little to do with the Me More, an art exhibit of 400 photographic original intention of the artist. images of penises. Female artists had combed dating apps for potential contributors, some- Gallery Exhibits of Appropriated times asking unknown men specifically for Images images of their penises without telling them Can art be considered authentic if its content they would be part of an art exhibit (Cain is derived from personal or intimate photo- 2014). Arne Svenson’s New York gallery ex- graphs reused by the artist without the knowl- hibition The Neighbors featured artistically edge of the participants? Appropriation from framed but potentially troubling pictures other artists’ works, as in the case of Elaine of his neighbors engaged in daily activities Sturtevant and the subsequent (re)appropri- (Pearson 2013), what Henri Cartier-Bresson ation of her appropriations from the work (1908–2004) called “the decisive moment.” of Walker Evans, is discussed as intrinsically Cartier-Bresson was known to have wrapped

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his camera in black tape to disguise it (Cartier- permanence. The voyeuristic experience of Bresson 1952). Walker Evans (1903–1975) gazing at a replica of an artist’s studio invokes hid his camera in his coat to take photographs awe at the faithful reproduction of the milieu on the subway, and Merry Alpern (1955–) of the artist in his or her intimate surround- peered into the windows of the sex hotel ings. None of these may be authentic in terms across the road from where he stayed (Mutual of spatial location or artifactual content. Vere Art.com 2015). Miroslav Tichy (1926–2011) (2012) discusses reconstruction of the origi- took up-skirt photographs of women without nal studio of Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005) their knowledge and created an artwork from as a museum exhibit. The materiality of the the pictures (Cain 2014). Unlike Tino Sehgal studio is represented by re-creation of the and Marina Abramović, who in theory have artist’s studio in Edinburgh, translocated willing audiences in terms of museum vis- from its original locale in Chelsea, London. itors who choose to enter the museum, the The reality is that Paolozzi never had a lack of knowledge of participants that they Scottish studio and divided his time between are functioning as participants, from the days London and Germany. However, Paolozzi of Walker Evans to the present, subverts the gifted his studio to the National Galleries barrier between the private and the public of Scotland (Vere 2012). This displacement that is presumably part of the intention of the of authentic location applies to several oth- art. Artists such as Brassaï (1899–1994), Nan er reenactments of artists’ studios, such as Goldin (1953–), Boris Mikhailov (1938–), and the Dublin location of the London studio Larry Clark (1943–) captured intimate and of Francis Bacon (1909–1992). Constantin ugly examples of sexual activity, abuse, and Brancusi’s studio was re-created in the court- drug misuse by spending time with their sub- yard of the Pompidou Centre instead of at jects, much as an anthropologist spends time his home, and the studio of with the tribes they seek to document. Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964) was re-created The desire to capture authentic rather in the center of Bologna instead of at the Casa than staged images of real life is in conflict Morandi, his former home. with the right to privacy: a subject of conten- The display of authentic artists’ tools and tion in the era of hacked naked photographs artwork is an essential part of these recon- of celebrities and Grindr images of homosex- structions, even if the geography of location ual men recontextualized as art. Of necessity is inauthentic and the surroundings of the in the philosophy of modern art, if it is ex- original studio are far away. Why are studios hibited in a major gallery, it is an authentic so important that galleries have decided to work of art because it is recognized as such, create copies of them? A reconstruction of and being so recognized it is authentic. a studio is not an artwork in the traditional sense, but by supervenience it assumes all The Authenticity of Reenactment the properties of the works the artist created. Nostalgia for bygone exhibitions and dead Invoking some of the famous tenets derived artists’ studios has led to the desire for their from Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of re-creation in the present. Reexhibitions Mechanical Reproduction discussed earlier, Vere of original exhibitions seek to resurrect the (2012) argues that a photograph of a studio memory of transitory events that possessed no can indeed convey the aura of the place even

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though photography, according to Benjamin, far from presenting Paolozzi’s work from has no aura. Benjamin (1968:230) writes of the 1940s, most of the sculpture on view was a cathedral that leaves its site to be received fabricated from the 1970s onward. In a 1995 in the studio of an art lover: “These changed interview, Paolozzi envisaged the space of circumstances may leave the artwork’s prop- his reconstructed studio to be “busy, noisy erties unchanged. . . . They certainly devalue and active.” The epidiascope (a projector the here and now of the artwork.” This is a capable of displaying images of both opaque contentious issue, and there may be disagree- and transparent materials) representative of ments with what Benjamin writes. It took the artist’s fascination with the projection of three years to exactly replicate Francis Bacon’s seemingly random advertising images, is no- chaotic and unkempt Reece Mews studio in where to be seen either. Whether it is a more Dublin. Apparently, every thumb print, fin- authentic experience to stand behind a barrier gerprint, or intervention made by Bacon has looking at the reconstruction of a studio in a been reproduced (Vere 2012). In contrast, city where it never was, or to look at a rope the Scottish re-creation of Paolozzi’s London originally designed for climbing simply as a studio is sanitized, without the knee-deep “sculptural element,” as in Morris’s 2009 re- piles of pornographic magazines Paolozzi constructed Bodyspacemotionthings at the Tate surrounded himself with, perhaps, the cura- Modern, is a question asked by Vere (2012). It tor speculates, for what they conveyed about remains unanswered. the human body rather than for erotic grati- If the trend to preserve or create resto- fication. With this bowdlerized version of the rations of original studios used by artists were original revealed, Vere passes over the star- to continue over the next 50 years, one might tling admission without comment, which only well be overwhelmed by the commodity of tends to support the criticisms of Lowenthal the artist’s studio as art in itself. The viewer of that the modern cult of the authentic vitiates the studio on display regards what he or she the original authenticity because what is pre- is seeing as a re-creation or preservation of sented today is more real than the historical something with undisputed veracity. If these facts. The viewer is not offered the image of instantiations are to be properly understood, Paolozzi gazing at a pornographic magazine the viewer should also be presented with a and deriving aesthetic sustenance from it for photograph by which the material presence of his own art. Instead the viewer is presented the original studio can be appreciated. Or is with an inauthentic image of the original the concern with only the conceptual authen- that seems to undermine the entire fabric of ticity of the work and not its material manifes- the replication. If it cannot even be known tation? In the case of the re-creation of Francis whether what is being observed through a Bacon’s studio, this is clearly not the case, since glass window or a gallery barrier is faithful to every thumb print was replicated to ensure the form and substance of the original studio, complete allegiance to historical authenticity. how can its authentic or inauthentic presence be assessed? These questions are not raised Digital Reality and the Authenticity by Vere (2012) but clearly should form an of Art important concern in the debate concerning In the Internet age, art can exist in digi- “authentic” replications. It transpires that tal rather than analogue form, either in real

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or virtual space. Art today can be produced services; registration of unique docu- digitally or exist online in myriad formats, ment identifiers; publishing “key“ data which subvert the distinction between what about documents which, when hashed, is authentic and what is a copy, not to ev- or otherwise calculated in a publicly eryone’s satisfaction. When photographer available way, should match that of the William Eggleston (1939–) produced a lim- document in hand, and defining metada- ited series of 20 prints of one of his works in ta structures to carry document authen- the 1970s, using a now obsolete dye-transfer tication declarations or proofs. process, collector Jonathan Sobel thought Secret methods involve hiding data in he possessed one of only 20 versions in the the object to reveal its source. Techniques world. However, Eggleston began to pro- include: digital watermarking; stegonog- duce much larger digital versions of the same raphy and digital signatures. image in 2011. Sobel sued, unhappy that his Functionally dependent methods authentic limited-edition original was now employ specific technologies that are supplanted by a totally digital version ( bound together with the information 2012). In terms of indistinguishability, a very source. Methods employing technical high-quality scan of the digital Eggleston dependencies include: object encapsula- print would be able to be distributed on the tion (whether physical or logical), crypo- Internet with exactly the same fidelity as the tolopes (TM), encryption and embedded 2011 version and would effectively carry the active agents. same aura as that digital version. The ability of the Internet to replicate perfectly a digital Some of the techniques proposed by original subverts the concept of “an original,” Bearman and Taylor (1997) have already be- as there may be no way to define what an come obsolete themselves: No one today has original is. The ubiquity of digital represen- ever heard of crypotolopes as a functional mo- tations and the ease with which source infor- dality for ensuring authenticity. The danger mation can be disseminated creates a series of of any pronouncements regarding authentic- problems for anything defined as an “authen- ity or replication concerning the Internet is tic copy” or even “authentic.” that they are doomed to irrelevance by the Bearman and Trant (1997) are concerned relentless march of technological change. with this issue and suggest various modes of Douglas Davis (2014) created the world’s documentation that can be brought to bear on first collaborative sentence, which is now the ontological problem. They suggest three more than 3 miles in length and which exists technical and social strategies for asserting au- and grows only in hyperspace. Davis (1995) thenticity: public authenticity, secret authen- refers back to Benjamin with the title of his ticity, and functional authenticity. They write: paper The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction. The aura as imagined by Public methods for asserting the authen- Benjamin, which is potentially damaged by ticity of sources include: the creation of the act of mechanical reproduction, is even copyright deposit “collections of record”; more in danger from the faultless repro- certified deposits of original sourc- duction created by digital processes or, one es combined with record certification could argue, transferable to them. Artworks

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may have a materiality in real life and a vir- Internet may have no materiality whatever. tual existence on the Internet; the source Distinguishing these creations from human or physical location of the material work of productions in terms of significance or au- art is on a different continent than the virtu- thenticity will be a contested area for some al. The Internet may also be used to create time to come, as the avenues leading into artworks by direct interaction with partici- conceptual authenticity become wider while pants. According to An Xiao Mina (2013), the those leading toward material authenticity American Twitter community was shocked shrink or become cul-de-sacs. In the ever-ex- to learn that @Horse ebooks was actually a panding field of digital reality or unreality, performance artwork by Jacob Bakkila and the art historical and philosophical discussion Thomas Bender. Hundreds of thousands of seems to be slow in coming to grips with the followers were fooled into thinking that it problems for authenticity that are thereby was not an artwork at all. As machines them- created. The future is a conceptual space of selves can now draw, paint, and talk, what manipulation, of transfiguration of the com- can be created in conceptual space on the monplace into a place with no fixed abode.

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Chapter 11 Some Final Thoughts and Reflections

The traditional forms of the debate and dialogue between tradition and innovation—by that I mean that the forms that disregard the extreme cases of provocative and open forgery—have survived. The reason why modern art is in a crisis is not that there are no great artists to sustain the connection of high art with the past . . . but that high art, or autonomous art, has been frustrated and can no longer play the part of one of the poles in the family of arts. It has been frustrated by everyday life, mass culture, the media, and multiculturalism. These are the four apocalyptic rides of the other pole, of aesthetic heteronomy. —Sándor Radnóti, The Fake: Forgery and Its Place in Art

t the beginning of this book, the au- art while respecting the relevance of ques- thor posed a number of questions tions concerning materiality and conceptual A concerning how authenticity is to be and historical authenticity. I discuss, in clos- regarded. Any analysis of the problems of au- ing, some of the salient points from these thenticity has to allow for different scenarios questions. of interpretation. The approach suggested The first question was: What does au- in this book is both flexible and transdisci- thenticity mean? The simple appellation plinary, as it does not seek to restrict modes authenticity is still used in common speech of interaction between the viewer and the ob- or when referring in passing to the topic at ject to a rigid system of interrogation of the hand as “authentic” in situations or contexts work or its textuality as perceived by a viewer where a deeper analysis of the concept is re- but presents an analysis that is sensitive to the quired in relation to art but all too often none temporal and cultural context of the works of is offered. The words forgery and authenticity

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are studiously avoided by some writers, espe- involving disciplines that all too often do not cially in modern and contemporary contexts, communicate outside their own confines. where authors are increasingly conscious of One reason authenticity is contested be- the problems that references to the concepts tween different stakeholders is that each has might create, especially under the influence a tendency to ignore the voices of outsiders. of postmodernism, deconstructivism, or Western art critics, modern African mask twentieth-century semiotics, where doubt makers, and conservation scientists may hold exists that authenticity has any meaning or three different opinions regarding the au- relevance whatsoever. Forgery is less relevant thenticity of the same mask. The conceptual to postmodern thought because the interpre- criteria invoked by the modern African maker tation of the viewer—rather than the purely may be in opposition to the determination by material nature of the work itself—is a critical the conservation scientist that the wood used feature of the evaluation of how works of art for the mask is only a few years old and thus are regarded, and as digital productions be- is materially inauthentic for an ethnic African come ever more dominant, the need for the product in a major American collection. concept itself becomes contested. The ob- Similarly, the themes explored in the carving server, however, is frequently concerned with may be thought by the art historian to have the notion of originality, especially in terms been influenced by Picasso, so aesthetically of the economic value of the work he or she the work is found wanting; it is not an au- might be interested in purchasing. In the case thentic portrayal of truly indigenous stylistic of some contemporary artworks, what is pur- norms but one sullied by Westernized tastes chased may be the certificate of authenticity and influences. The African mask maker re- itself, which confers upon the work the orig- gards his work as authentic because he is from inality it would otherwise disguise behind its a family of mask makers. An analysis of these lack of material substance. three different viewpoints entails the need for Authenticity has been regarded as an en- an interdisciplinary approach to the prob- tirely culturally dependent idea, seen as a lem and recognition of different evaluative psychological-behavioral phenomenon, a norms. The art historian is using a historical/ semiotic construct, an ontological problem, aesthetic authenticity; the conservation sci- a delusion of a mistaken essentialism, an im- entist material authenticity; and the Africa portant feature of works of art, or a subject carver conceptual authenticity. Increasingly, ripe for philosophical debate. This book pro- recognition of the African carver as an artist poses that the multidimensional nature of the in his or her own right is seen in the emer- concept can be interrogated by analyzing the gence of contemporary African art exhibits in contested, performative, and fragmented asso- the twenty-first century. ciations of what authenticity means across sev- The performative features of authentici- eral fields of inquiry, including conservation, ty can function in many ways, and as Dutton restoration, aesthetics, art history, philosophy, remarked, even forgery could be regard- anthropology, and scientific evaluation. ed as misrepresented performance because There is a need for greater intertextu- the agency or social interaction with the ality of discussion concerning authenticity work belies the performance or communi- that implies a willingness to cross boundaries cative power of the authentic. Artworks may

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perform as participants with the viewer and the subject, not only among art historians but may have active or multifarious lives. Those also among philosophers, critics, restorers, that auto-destruct in front of the viewer par- and conservators. ticipate in a performance of their own demise. Crucially important concepts such as resto- Engagement with the artwork may be perfor- ration, which has a major impact on the con- mative in many senses of the word, as when a cept of authenticity, remain poorly understood nun begins to pray in front of an altarpiece or outside of the professional conservation liter- when the empty room provides the realiza- ature, a situation aggravated by the hermetic tion that the artwork on view is now invisible. nature of conservation-related journals and Artworks may perform their own acts publications, many of which are not readily of subtle interaction diachronically or syn- available online. Nor is the debate helped by chronically in the way they decay. The dia- sensational newspaper headlines accusing, for chronic degradation or alteration of works example, conservators as staid and mainstream is often overlooked in a discussion of their as Martin Wyld, the retired former chief re- authentic appearance or exactly what their storer at the National Gallery, London, of ru- altered state implies for a discussion of their ining paintings without any informed debate, authenticity or desired state. Heidegger was just the brutal infliction of treatments inspired not the first to propose that the decay of an by empiricist scientific methodologies, result- object was particularly important in the life of ing in paintings emerging from the laborato- a work of art, represented by its work-being. ry as mere shadows of their authentic selves. In 1859 Ruskin gave a lecture “in praise of Most of this criticism is fired from literary can- rust” (Ruskin 2010 [1898]). He described the ons with poor aim and range. The damage in- rusting of iron as part of its natural state and flicted is in terms of public perception of what condition and its decay as an integral part of restorers in the twenty-first century do rather its existence, as a desirable state dependent on than what they actually do. the iron, an authentic sign of the passing of Restoration and authenticity remain trou- time as the iron rusts away. This was a central bled bedfellows. Some of the case studies in tenet of the Ruskinesque philosophy of the this book seek to further explore their fasci- grandeur of ruins, the falsifications wrought nating juxtaposition. The nature of this her- by nineteenth-century restoration, and the meneutical inquiry is an evaluation of what impossibility of not destroying what was au- happens to works of art as they are observed thentic of the past. in time, discussed, or interpreted. The mate- The fragmentation of the field of inqui- riality of the work itself, and the alterations ry into authenticity is apparent from some of that have taken place diachronically, may be the discussion presented in this book, which of crucial importance to this inquiry. In terms makes use of literature spanning many differ- of aesthetics or philosophical writings, the ent fields. As disciplinary boundaries contin- author has found only a handful of papers ue to erode, the authenticity of art objects and from the aesthetic and philosophical side of how they are to be regarded is an exciting area the argument that have restoration as their for future research. Indeed, the sheer number principal focus. Many of these papers were of new books and articles related to the top- written some time ago, while interest in the ic are evidence of a resurgence of interest in topic within the conservation profession has

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grown enormously over the past 20 years, The argument as to who defines what is as a perusal of the online database Art and an authentic or inauthentic artwork is often a Archaeology Technical Abstracts, hosted by contested state between evaluations and crite- the Getty Conservation Institute, will reveal. ria, between cultures and ethnic representatives, Fragmentation of the discussion, as in the between material, conceptual, or historical as- case of the Sistine Chapel, results in old argu- sociations. For example, visitors to sites or mu- ments in the art historical and philosophical seums may experience authenticity and aura literature being repeated. They fail to discuss in front of forgeries as much as originals as the work in a context sufficiently elaborated long as they do not believe them to be forg- to allow for informed evaluative debate con- eries. In many circumstances, authenticity cerning the restoration work, which does not and aura, it could be argued, are not essenc- receive the discussion it deserves. es of sites or objects but human constructs It is possible to define authenticity as an in particular contexts (Holtorf 2001). This is extensive list of attributes, as some recent con- particularly relevant to our responses to ar- servation charters propose, but enumerative chaeological objects and sites but is less rele- attempts to include every possible attribute vant to our appreciation of viewing a painting that might be considered authentic creates a that we believe is by Rembrandt rather than a laundry list of topics that seems counterpro- copy produced last year in China that appears ductive to the holistic picture of the inquiry. perceptually identical. Most visitors are quite This book proposes that authenticity be dis- happy, as the Manitou Springs discussion re- cussed in terms of the conceptual, historic, veals, to live with inauthentic archaeological or material authenticity of the artwork, since sites as long as they fulfill our desire for them different planes of involvement are represent- and invoke in us an aura of having visited ed by these attributes, which simplifies the something real. discussion. A complex question this book is much con- The relationship between authentication cerned with is: How has the concept of what and authenticity is not homologous; nor is it constitutes the authentic changed over the linear or necessarily divorced. Some writers past few thousand years, and how might this claim that authentication is completely differ- interact with conservation and restoration? ent from authenticity, but the mediated con- Some writers do not agree that the concept dition of what authenticity means sometimes of “art” can be extended in time to ancient relies upon, or is interlinked with, authenti- cultures or even pre-Renaissance periods. cation, which need not be an assessment of Rather than seeing an evolutionary advance a material attribute necessarily but evaluation in the concept of art in these terms, this book of a conceptual belief or culturally mitigated takes the perspective that the human concern functionality of the object. Similarly, objects for art and authenticity predates the modern deemed to have passed through some kind era and stretches back into the distant past. of authentication procedure may be thought For example, a Neolithic necklace consisting of as authentic works of art, but the cultur- of 118 deer teeth and 65 bones carved to look al context and relationships between the two like deer teeth illustrates how the act of repli- need to be coincident or judged in the same cation clearly has a long prehistory. The idea societal context. that a material visually similar to deer teeth

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could be created by the carving of bone to look the white wings of other angels and are dis- like teeth reveals both the ability as well as the cussed in art historical terms as such, how vi- desire to create replicas. Mimetic intention able is that discussion if scientific examination from the Neolithic should not be a surprise. reveals that the black wings were originally The writings of Dutton (2012) highlight the painted in an azurite blue? The interpretation manufacture of Acheulean hand axes, won- or denotation of these wings has to be seen derfully made for a useful purpose but never from a holistic perspective that takes account used as utilitarian objects, which shows that of both art connoisseurship and scientific the concept of beauty is deeply rooted in the connoisseurship. human consciousness, for some show no sign The scientific distinction between three of wear and are exceptionally well crafted. states of alteration—alterations that have oc- An important concern for a wider debate curred to the material constituents of a work is: How can the scientific nexus of authentic- through natural processes of diagenesis; alter- ity be integrated into a wider approach to the ations that have occurred due to the deposi- subject? This remains a contentious issue be- tion of foreign substances such as soot, dust, cause, while a heuristic approach to material and grime; and alterations created through authenticity would demand the participation deliberate acts of restoration—is important of scientific investigation of the work, all too for authenticity. An ontological approach to often this is ignored. As far as the historical understanding the materiality of artworks phenomenology of materials is concerned, involves four historical modes of inquiry: the scientist has a belief that these are im- the history of fabrication, the history of use, portant aspects of the physical existence of the history of degradation, and the history the work of art. If no value is placed on the of preservation. These interact with scien- original materiality of the work, its diachron- tific distinctions to create a real depth to the ic degradation, the historical accidents of discussion. damage and deterioration, or subsequent acts For example, in the case of Leonardo’s of restoration, then an authentic scientific (1489–1490), the history component of the work is denied as being of of fabrication involved the intention to paint any consequence for aesthetic appreciation or a portrait of Cecilia Gallorani, the mistress of discussion. In some cases the chemical degra- Ludovico Sforza, the duke of Milan (Brown dation of works of art is considered to be an 1990). There are three versions by Leonardo aesthetically relevant value, but not in others. hidden in the one painting (Nikkhah 2014). The implication is that scientific phenom- In the first, Gallorani is painted without an enology has a descriptive role to play in the ermine (or polecat). In the second, Gallorani subject of authentic appearance. This often has a small ermine. In the final version, goes unacknowledged or is not discussed in Gallorani has a much larger ermine, reflect- terms of validating or valorizing the original. ing either the demands of the sitter to be Authentic lives have a hermeneutics of associated with her famous lover or with the degradative interaction with time that is part symbolic association of them as finally paint- of the scientific interest and relevance they ed by Leonardo. The history of degradation generate. If the ostensibly black wings of an (Bull 1992) reveals that later a black overpaint angel in a Renaissance work contrasts with was applied to the background; some braids

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and ribbons were touched up with black, the Leonardo himself. The four historical modes lips with red; white highlights were added of inquiry reveal a depth to the work, its con- in the eyes; and a brown glaze was applied dition, and its historical evolution that an art to the end of the nose. A deep craquelure in historical study alone cannot create. the paint was caused by the inherent vice of The story of forgeries and how they are a brown bitumen used by Leonardo. In res- regarded, their representation and denota- toration of this work, the later additions to tion, is highly relevant to problems inherent “improve” upon the dramatic portrait were in defining the authentic state of the work. removed by the restorer, but this kind of re- Forgeries have sometimes created a neces- moval rarely creates waves of consternation. sary history that never actually existed but Somov (2008) in a semiotic analysis of that came to (rep)present what was historical- the painting, talks of the “dark background.” ly true or valorized. Forgeries, in this sense, However, from our restoration investiga- became real, or they validated cultural claims tion, it is known that the background was a to a genuine antecedent past in need of addi- bluish-gray rather than black. So what is the tional proof or less subtle alteration. authentic state of the work? Unfinished in Emulations, replicas, and appropriations parts as some art historians have erroneously mix with authenticity in complex ways, some- suggested? A simple masterpiece of a painting times as clearly a copy of what an earlier civ- that sets out to depict the lover with a large ilization produced or adapted to new cultural ermine? A background that is almost black? needs, or as a work appropriated to show Obviously not. Clearly, without the inclusion the power of the appropriator in assigning a of scientific connoisseurship, ontological or new value to it. In the medieval period, the semiotic studies of a painting cannot denote strength of spiritual need as validating the or interpret the hidden historical nature of aura of both stolen and fake relics, because of a work and its altered signs, understand the their intangible authenticity, is very apparent. origins of deep surface craquelure, or under- The laws of supply and demand lead in- stand gross alterations made by incompetent exorably to the production of forgeries, from seventeenth- or eighteenth-century restor- ancient Egypt to today. The human desire for ers long after the artist’s death. As a desired ownership and possession is so strong that if masterpiece, the painting has been stolen the supply is not there, forgeries will be cre- from Poland more than once, hidden by the ated to fulfill the void, to create a supply of Germans in a Bavarian home until the end of inauthentic works, created by either directly the Second World War, returned to Poland, copying the original artist or imitating his and, in an extraordinarily poignant photo- or her style. Indeed, forgeries are an inextri- graph, taken from its rough wooden crate and cable part of what is real, valued, or desired held up by US troops in a German wag- or what has become so in the course of time. on at the end of the war. Having performed How could the Victoria and Albert Museum in so many settings, its authentic state has purchase a bust by Bastianini in the late nine- not been denigrated by restoration but has teenth century, knowing that it was not of been substantiated and incorporated in a new Renaissance date, for the same price it would understanding of what the painting original- have paid for an authentically Renaissance ly looked like and the alterations created by work? The bust represented inherent aspects

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of taste sought after by the late Victorians. The very skillful productions have entirely It was an authentic expression of what was correct Buddhist attributes. They are chased true and sublime in the refinement of early and -amalgam gilded and are indis- Renaissance art. In one sense, the forged bust tinguishable from genuine fifteenth-century was imbued with a conceptual authenticity, Buddhist works. The monasteries employ tra- even if the material authenticity, now con- ditional casting techniques, which they have sidered of greater significance, has consigned been using for generations. Some museums the bust to storage. and collectors believe they are purchasing gen- It is startling to learn that a large per- uine fifteenth-century imperial Ming Buddhist centage of art offered for sale today is fake. works when in fact they might have been made As museums and elite collectors hoover up last month in China or Nepal. They do not most of the authentic art currently on offer, possess the historical authenticity of the fif- the rest of the market is increasingly satu- teenth-century works, but in other respects rated with fakes. Some fakes have consider- they are authentic mimetic works of art made able artistic merit, which is one reason the by Buddhist monks in a monastic setting. works of Eric Hebborn, James Little, Jef van When traditional forms are part of a living der Veken, Icilio Frederico Joni, Wolfgang cultural system, the production of superlative Beltracchi, Ken Perenyi, Alceo Dossena, forgeries of Buddhist art is more of a discom- Giovanni Bastianini, James Myatt, and Han fort to the Westernized art market than a re- van Meegeren have become valued in their flection on the works of art themselves. own right as interesting and desirable because An exciting field of discussion is: Can the they have authentic stories attached to them. postmodernist approach to art entail a mean- Forgeries purporting to be from the sev- ingful discussion of authenticity or is the con- enteenth century but painted by Han van cept irrelevant to conservation actions taken Meegeren are valued more highly on the art on behalf of objects? The chapter dealing market than authentic seventeenth-century with the modern and contemporary reveals work by minor artists of the time. The no- just how valuable or disputed the notion of toriety of name recognition is valued over authenticity is in relation to a whole range of the authenticity of the art itself, except that contemporary works, from the point of view what one is now buying is an authentic van of both the original artist, who may deny that Meegeren work, which might also be copied a displayed version of his or her work is au- by others in imitation of the forger to cash thentic, and artists who continually subvert in on the fame of the name. The emulation the concept altogether. of successful forgers by later artists is a com- Despite the fact that fakes are so prevalent ment event, driven by greed. today, there is not necessarily extensive schol- The problem with high-class forgeries is arly interest in them. Numerous newspaper whether they subvert genuine appreciation reports attest to continuing public amuse- of artworks known to be authentic. Pieter ment at the sight of art experts being made Meyers (personal communication 2014) to look foolish by the endless stream of reve- notes recent forgeries of early Ming Dynasty lations concerning forged art, often involving imperial Sino-Tibetan cast-bronze sculptures millions of dollars of fraud, once pronounced produced in monasteries in Nepal and China. by major auction houses to be authentic.

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There is a deeper problem in terms of Meegeren. If connoisseurship is of no conse- contemporary art and postmodern tropes re- quence, would the semiotic visual inquiry see garding the mediated nature of representation, no difference between the version painted by the concept of difference, and the loss of au- van Meegeren and that painted by Baburen? thorial empiricism. If the author is dead and Different paradigms concerning the the observer cannot escape from the semiotic authenticity of art intersect and are interde- constructions of his or her own interpreta- pendent. If semiotics is able to ignore con- tions, does it matter if what is being observed noisseurship, both scientific and art historical, is a construct of a forger or a real work by then it has to live with the consequences of the artist? In terms of our mental states, there writing a detailed account of the visual signs will be a difference if the participant is told of a forgery that only purports to be from the that what he or she is looking at is really a seventeenth century. fake Chagall rather than an authentic one, The various philosophical paradigms or a fake Damian Hurst shark in a tank of represented by the inquiry into modern and formaldehyde rather than the original (which contemporary art are one reason why au- decomposed and had to be replaced with an- thenticity and forgery are seldom addressed other). Our mediated response to a work of directly, because the physicality of the work is art is less dependent on the physical existence seen through the construction of the viewer, of the object and more dependent on our in- an interpretation of signs, or his or her medi- terpretation of it in postmodern theory, and ated response to the work. Authenticity and it is certainly true that today there is more our interaction with the notion raises a whole awareness of the problems and limitations host of important and interesting questions in in viewing the so-called objective nature of relation to art, such as the artist’s intention, objects, as exemplified by logical positivism, the value ascribed to replicas and copies, the than there was 20 or 30 years ago. nature of the original work and ersatz versions For example, Mieke Bal (1996:580) con- of it, the degradation and restoration it has siders the paradigm of semiotics as rather suffered, the problems of fakes and forger- different in intent from an art historical in- ies, what to do with perfectly identical digital quiry. She writes that semiotics is “not condu- copies, and the philosophical debates between cive to inquiries about attribution, patronage, art historians, restorers, critics, and aestheti- connoisseurship, economic conditions, studio cians. I return to Dutton’s pertinent question: practices, and the age of wood panels and pig- Authentic compared with what? The cultural ment; nor does it have a stake in reconstructing context cannot be divorced from the general social relations between artists and the biog- scope of the question. In the medieval period, raphies of individuals.” By contributing to the materially inauthentic relics were authentic in academic study of visual images, semiotics is virtue of the attested miracles they had per- not directly concerned if the visual images be- formed. They were authentic compared to ing analyzed are actually by Baburen or van those relics that were inactive. In the contem- Meegeren, and obviously in this case, a purely porary art world, an authentic reinstallation visual interpretation of signs in the work does may be disowned by the original artist as not not allow for differentiation between signs conforming to his or her specifications. The of the authentic artist and of the forger van reinstallation is therefore inauthentic when

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compared with the original. A work of art by until 2006, when scientific dating of the wood Bastianini, the portrait Head of Julius Caesar proved that the sculpture could not possibly in the British Museum, was hailed through- be ancient Egyptian, has become so admired out the Victorian and Edwardian eras as one for more than a generation that its material of best examples of ancient carving known; inauthenticity becomes almost irrelevant. casts were taken to teach students the correct The constructivist approach might well take techniques of proportion and style. However, the view that the participation of this sculp- the head had been carved in the nineteenth ture in its public existence has been validated century by Bastianini. It was considered au- by its instantiation as an admired work of art thentic compared with other, similar portrait from the Amarna period. Forgeries may lie busts in the museum, but scientific connois- about their origins, but they may not commit seurship showed that the work was inau- a lie about their presence, as suggested earlier thentic compared with known examples and in this text. materials from the ancient world and was “Authentic compared to what?” has had a therefore a forgery. However, what is espe- field day in this book, and the analyses pre- cially interesting is that the head was known sented here will hopefully be of interest to the to have been created by Bastianini at the reader and a spur to more thought devoted time of purchase but was so admired that it to the subject of authenticity and its sphere was purchased as if it had been a Renaissance of interaction with works of art. Many books work. Forgeries by masters of the stature of that discuss contemporary, Renaissance, or Dossena and Bastianini may be regarded as ancient art do not mention the subject of au- admired works of art compared with lesser thenticity at all. works, and because of their aesthetic appeal, There is plenty of life and scope in the they are often compared by art historians to topic for years to come and many more books Renaissance works and even exhibited with to be written to illuminate the goddess of au- them. The social biography of forgeries thenticity in all her glory and to reveal the creates a complex presence. For example, a nuances of her existence, as our contempo- much admired Egyptian head in the Louvre, rary world becomes its own past. Others who reproduced in many expensive books of an- follow will pass judgment on our cult of au- cient Egyptian art and shown on one of the thenticity and how we became so obsessed best-selling postcards the Louvre produced with its discovery that we could never find it.

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Glossary of Terms

Definitions by the author, except where stated otherwise

abbozzo: In painting, blocking in—the first altarblock: A consecrated table at which Mass sketching done on the canvas and also the was read and on which an altarpiece rested first underpainting. Insculpture , a mass of anastylosis: Repair of historic fabric using material that has been carved or manipulat- only the original materials employed in its ed into a rough form of the ultimate work. construction in the first place, clearly de- The word is Italian for “sketch.” lineated in any reconstruction from added acrolith: An whose new parts. Strict adherence to the principles head, arms, and feet are made of marble of anastylosis may be desirable, but in the or another stone. At first an acrolith was repair of ancient sculptures, they are rarely considered to be a wooden sculpture with followed. marble extremities and later a limestone ancona: A panel or altarpiece sculpture with marble features. The word arriccio: A coarse plaster or gesso layer laid is Greek for “stone-ended.” The adjectival down on a wall or stone substrate and then form is acrolithic. covered with a finerintonaco layer as prepa- alabastron: A container for perfumed oil ration for painting. This plaster might be that takes its name from alabaster, the mate- made from gypsum, anhydrite, or calcium rial from which the original Egyptian exam- carbonates in the form of chalk or crushed ples were made. Greek artists adopted the limestone. Pozzolanic mortars made of Egyptian alabastron’s form in the 600s B.C.E. complex decayed volcanic materials make but made the vessel in a variety of materials. strong arriccio layers. Lime mortars are Other types of Greek vases include the am- made from calcined lime forming calcium phora, hydria, kantharos, krater, kyathos, hydroxide, which is then carbonated to re- kylix, lekythos, oinochoe, pelike, phiale, pinax, form calcium carbonate. Arriccio is much pithos, pyxis, and rhyton. used in fresco production.

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artist’s replica: A work made by the artist or rest of a print, etching, engraving, or other someone sanctioned by the artist, as a re- reproduction rather than being made by the placement for a version of the original, and artist directly on each image after it is creat- using the same specifications. May be quali- ed. The artist signs once, and the signature fied as “editioned” (Tate Papers 2012) is reproduced on all subsequent examples or astrazione cromatica: In large areas of loss, copies of the image. Prints not signed in the where the original can no longer be recon- block but signed with (false) signatures on pa- structed, the colors surrounding the loss per become essentially worthless in the trade. dictate the color scheme. With the tech- bole: An iron oxide clay used as an underlay- nique of astrazione cromatica, the loss be- er for gold leaf in water gilding. Bole can comes a single tone made up of multilay- be reddish brown or greenish. The clay ered strokes of color. is slightly reflective and helps deepen the authentic work: Preservation of the original color of the gold leaf, especially if any fine without falsifications added through resto- breaks were created in the gilding. ration or additions of new parts or paint braccio: A varied unit of length. The authenticated replica: A work certified as Florentine braccio was a cloth measure of having been made by the artist or someone 58.4 cm. sanctioned by the artist, as a replacement brass: An alloy of copper and zinc. Zinc con- for, or as a version of the original, and using tent is usually under 20 percent in ancient the same specifications (Tate Papers 2012) alloys, but a whole range of compositions autographed originals: A series of usual- are possible. The zinc content is less than ly limited copies of an original work of art 28 percent if the alloy is made by the ce- that are signed directly by the artist to dis- mentation of zinc ores and copper ores in tinguish between original copies and later co-smelting. The authenticity of ancient reproductions copper alloys containing much zinc is often bambagia: Textile waste of cotton or wool problematic. barbe: A raised lip of gesso left when frame bronze: An alloy of copper and tin, used for moldings that were originally attached to thousands of years. Normally tin contents a panel and were therefore gessoed at the in bronze are less than 12 percent, but when same time are removed. The lip is created a number of special alloys are also used, tin by the accumulation of gesso in the angle contents can be 21 to 28 percent. The high- between the flat surface and the molding. er tin alloys are brittle. batten: A length of wood attached to the catalogue raisonné: The definitive publi- back of a panel, partly to keep it flat and as cation of an artist’s known works together support with all documentary and historical refer- blind stamp: In fine art, an impression of ences and evidence, sales inventories, own- a signature, logo, or other marking that is erships, picture sizes, media, restorations, embossed without ink onto a print and that and assessments of authenticity. For some distinguishes the artist, editor, publisher, or artists, the definitive version has yet to be someone else written. For others, the publication may in- block signature: Also called a plate signature, clude spurious works, often deleted or re- the artist’s signature printed along with the vised in later catalogs.

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chapelet: A rod or other solid material, such craquelure: A fine network of interlaced as a nail or piece of broken bronze, used to cracks caused by shrinkage of either paint hold the core material (qv) steady inside a or substrate. Craquelure commonly afflicts lost wax casting. See also “indirect casting.” glazed ceramics and varnished paintings. chiaroscuro: Variation of light and shade in The type of craquelure can be related to the drawings or paintings, particularly associat- type of support. Frequently fractal in mor- ed with Leonardo da Vinci. phology, craquelure may be of assistance in ciborium: A canopy, usually of stone, over authorship or authenticity studies. the altar on columns cultural significance: The aesthetic, histor- cinquecento: The sixteenth century in ic, scientific, social, or symbolic values of Italian art and literature art objects or places for past, present, and conservation: The art and science of the future generations care of objects without necessarily involv- delamination: The separation of one layer ing restoration of them. Conservation of a surface of material from an underlying may involve documentation, investigation, layer or substrate cleaning, repairing, joining, mending, direct casting: Casting metal into a mold supporting, stabilizing, and making de- to directly take the shape of that mold. In cisions about old restorations, additions, direct casting—as opposed to indirect cast- repaintings, or recoatings. Terms differ in ing (qv)—the original is destroyed. Also, a different countries. The conservation pro- model made in wax may be directly invest- fessional in Europe might be called the re- ed in a mold, with the wax burned out and storer-conservator or simply the restorer. metal poured in. In old European designations, the conser- droit moral: In France, the legal holder of vator was in fact the curator, not the con- succession of an artist’s works—often a de- servator as we understand the term. scendant of the artist and often the final au- copy: A work of art made by a person other thority on the artist’s oeuvre. If a supposed than the artist of the original that is not work sent to France for this appraisal and is supposed to be deceptive. To function as rejected by the droit moral, the work may be such, a copy must present itself as not be- destroyed as a fake. ing the original. As Gilles Deleuze says, a duplicate: An inference for only one replica copy has nothing to do with a simulacrum or copy of a single object (Tate Papers 2012) in that it leaves the privilege of the original duecento: The thirteenth century C.E. in Italy. intact. editioned replica: One of several numbered core material: A mixture of clay and dung items made by the artist or by someone or of clay, sand, and other minerals shaped sanctioned by the artist (Tate Papers n.d.) into the interior space of a metal casting so emulation: The intention to re-create the es- that it can removed later, creating a hollow sence of a work (Tate Papers 2012) casting. The core material may be a plas- exhibition copy: Work made by someone ter-like mixture that can be poured into a other than the artist, as a public substitute wax shape or a clay and mineral mixture, for the original, according to the artist’s which is less fluid. Cores must be baked specifications or sanctioned by the artist or completely dry before metal is cast. his or her descendants

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fabrication: The act of making a work from fresco or buon fresco: The art of laying pig- raw or starting materials ments on a wall prepared with a lime-based facsimile: An exact copy or a faithful likeness substrate that sets, entrapping the pigment of the original work (Tate Papers 2012) as the lime mortar carbonates, producing fake and related terms: A forgery is a false an enduring painted surface. Fresco is one work of art sold to deceive the buyer. A of the most important techniques for wall forgery is not the same as a fake. For ex- paintings. ample, a play may have a backdrop of fake gesso grosso: A coarse layer of gesso, which Monets, but there is no intention to deceive can be anhydrite, gypsum, calcite, or lime, a buyer. If these fake Monets were passed over wood or another substrate, over which off as real Monets, they would be regard- gesso sotile is then applied ed as forged Monets. According to some, a gesso sotile: A fine layer of gesso, which can fake is designed to steal the identity, place, be either a lime plaster or a gypsum plaster, and status of the original it simulates, so this used as the final coating for wall paintings term might cause confusion. A copy is made or paintings on rough wood before the ap- by a person other than the artist of the orig- plication of the pigment layer inal and is not supposed to be deceptive. To glair: egg white whipped to a froth and then function as such, a copy must present itself left to stand until the froth has subsided. as not being the original. As Deleuze says, a Glair is used as pigment and paint medium. copy has nothing to do with a simulacrum ground: The support layer used for painting. in that it leaves the privilege of the original Fourteenth-century Italian panels always intact. A replica is a body double of an origi- had white gesso grounds. The gesso was nal, usually made by the same artist or under usually made from gypsum and glue but his or her close supervision. It is endowed could be made from chalk and glue or size. with the same artistic qualities as the origi- harder line etching: Etching directly into a nal and is implicitly certified as a replica by copper plate with dilute acids, with the de- its author. The creators of a replica do not pressed areas taking up more ink on print- lie about its origin; it is like a “second orig- ing and therefore appearing dark inal.” A pastiche is a work in the manner of heritage: The worldwide artistic, tangible, another artist that may incorporate more or and nontangible inheritance deemed wor- less intact borrowings from different origi- thy of trying to keep for the next generation. nals. An imitation has an intent to mystify. In It encompasses an ever-widening array of contrast to the copy, replica, or pastiche, the things. imitation belongs to the family of simulacra imitation: The preservation of art by trying to because it serves to undermine the viewer’s produce an exact copy of an original or by capacity to discriminate between the imita- more roughly attempting to reproduce the tion and the real. A reproduction of a work style of the original of art can involve any process, now usual- indirect casting: A process that usually in- ly digital, that creates an exact copy of the volves taking molds from an original model original but often merely by a photograph- and filling them with a wax shell, which is ic process. Here a copy and a reproduction then packed with core material. On removal might involve similar intents. from the mold, the wax model is invested for

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casting, with the wax being melted out and re- lithography: Originally, drawing or etching placed by metal. The internal core may have an image into a coating of wax or an oily to be held in place by chapelets, or core pins. substance applied to a plate of lithographic This process makes possible multiple casts stone, used to transfer ink to a blank sheet from same model. of paper to produce a printed image inherent vice: A preexisting condition of neutro: Toning of losses with watercolors, chemical or physical instability in an art ob- mainly using sepia, ocher, and natural or ject that may result in further decay. Inherent burnt umbers instability is a similar term. What is inherent original: A work made, ordered, certified, comes from within the structure or materials or otherwise sanctioned by the artist (Tate used to fabricate the work of art. Papers 2012) imitation: An artwork that has an intent to original condition: A supposed earlier state mystify. In contrast to the copy, the replica, of an artifact, usually representing the pe- or the pastiche, the imitation belongs to the riod after it was made. The term can also family of simulacra because it means to un- mean the condition in which something dermine the viewer’s capacity to discriminate was found, such as fresh from burial, or its between the imitation and the real. condition after a ritual killing, which makes imprimatura: In painting, either a colored it a potentially difficult term to use in all ground, usually of an earth color such as si- contexts. enna, umber, or ocher, or an initial layer of pastiche: a work of art made in the manner color on the ground itself. It provides a trans- of another artist that may incorporate more parent, toned ground that allows light falling or less intact borrowings from different onto the painting to reflect through the paint originals layers. The imprimatura provides an overall patina: The accretions of time on an object, tonal optical unity in a painting and is also which may in fact represent corrosion or useful in the initial stages of the work, since deterioration but are seen as desirable facets it helps the painter establish value relations of events that have occurred in an object’s from dark to light. It is most useful in the life. Patina on bronze is kept while patina on classical approach of indirect painting, where lead objects is often removed. Controversies the drawing and underpainting are estab- about paintings and their patinas continue. lished ahead of time and allowed to dry. pentimento: Original alteration made by an intonaco: The final layer of fine gesso or lime artist and then covered over or altered. It applied to the surface of a wall painting or is often revealed by infrared or X-ray ex- fresco before the final paint layer is applied. amination or during the cleaning of old in- In the case of fresco, the final pigment or painting or altered layers of paint. pigment underlayer might already be within pouncing: The method of forming visible this layer. traces of an outline of a work of art, usu- justification du tirage: An official document ally involving a muslin bag filled with fine that accompanies graphic works of art and soot which is then pounced along a series gives specific information, such as the year of holes in the paper, leaving marks on the of printing or the size of the edition. If it is plaster or paper or linen which is then used missing, authenticity is very doubtful. as a guide for the whole outline.

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pozzolana: A lime mortar incorporating artwork by repainting missing parts or fill- volcanic fragments, ash, or other materials ing in missing areas to match the original that result in a very strong or impervious to a greater or lesser extent mortar or plaster relining: Adhering a new canvas to the back preventive conservation: Acts of care that of the original with glue, wax, mastic, or attempt to preserve whole collections or another product. Wax resin relining fol- objects by control of the environment or lowed by applying hot irons to the back of conditions without the use of heavily in- the canvas often results in damage to the terventive actions on objects themselves. impasto or paint structure. In the worst ex- Preventive conservation now predomi- amples, paint might flake off and the whole nates the profession in many respects as work becomes damaged. the desire to preserve buildings and whole remake: Work originally made by an artist collections is recognized as increasingly and then remade using new materials important. replica: An artwork made by someone oth- predella: A long horizontal structure sup- er than the original artist, although possi- porting the main panels of an altarpiece. bly under license as a public substitute for It is sometimes damaged or missing after the original (Tate Papers 2012). In general many years. terms, some objects or artworks may be preservation: Essentially the same as con- preserved only via close or direct replicas servation, but possibly with the connota- of the original, with the original being tion that the artifact or work of art is going damaged, lost, or no longer in existence. to be kept in its present state for perpe- replicas in casting: Bronze casts from the tuity, such as constitutions kept in sealed same wax or clay model. A replica has to glass cases under nitrogen or another inert be distinguished from the variant and the gas. Historic preservation is used in build- aftercast. A variant is a bronze that is sim- ing conservation. It is most of the time re- ilar to another but is cast from an inde- ally restoration rather than preservation. pendently fashioned model. Variant may quattrocento: The fifteenth century in range from a second form by the origi- Italian art and literature nal sculptor to a fake. In either case, new realization: An idea or proposal made con- models have to be made. With an aftercast crete (Tate Papers 2012) there is no new model. An already extant reassembled work: Work originally made bronze is used as a model for a necessar- by an artist and then put back together us- ily indirect cast. Note that an aftercast is ing the original components always an indirect cast, while two directly reconstruction: Work originally made by cast bronzes can be only variants. the artist and then reassembled using orig- repoussé: Metal sheet work in which the de- inal and newly made components (Tate sign is impressed from the front and subse- Papers 2012). The term may imply that an quently depressed relative to the unworked object or building has been made new by surfaces. The technique is often facilitated rebuilding with no regard for the preserva- by scribing from the back and then resting tion of authenticity. the work on a bed of hard wax or pitch and reintegration: Producing a new vision of an hammering out the form from the front.

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reproduction: work made by someone oth- selezione cromatica: Color matching done er than the artist, resembling the appearance in varnish colors with short strokes. These of the original superficially, but not necessar- strokes follow the dynamic movement of the ily its materials or techniques (Tate Papers original. 2012). def.]; an exact copy of an original, sfumato: A painting technique, introduced often made using a digital or photographic by Leonardo da Vinci, in which the brush is process. A copy and a reproduction might held fan shaped and a series of fine lines of involve similar intents. varying density are painted to give the illu- restoration: Adding material to an original sion of depth. Michelangelo used the tech- work to complete it or to improve its com- nique in the Sistine Chapel paintings. pleteness. In a worst case scenario, resto- sgraffito: Paint over gold leaf, or slip over clay, ration may involve the addition of parts or that is then scraped away to make a design. paint with no evidence that they were used The words means “scratched” in Italian. on the original work. In the best case sce- shell gold: Powdered gold or brass alloy used nario, restoration or restored parts are vi- as a paint, so named because it was originally sually differentiated from the original using held in a shell. Imitation shell gold can be not the eye but special equipment, particu- made from a copper–zinc alloy with about larly with fine paintings where the reinte- 30 percent zinc content in the form of fine grated parts mesh perfectly with the origi- powder or leaf fragments. nal painting or parts. silver point: Fine lines made with a silver retouching: The painting in of missing or stylus, often in advance of more detailed damaged areas with new paint, usually in a drawing different media than the original work simulation: An attempt at close representation reworking: Action taken, possibly at a later in order to study a specific problem or aspect date, on an existing artwork by an artist or of the artist’s practice (Tate Papers 2012) by sanctioned workers, to correct a defect soft ground etching: An etching prepared (Tate Papers 2012) from a plate covered with a thin, soft, tacky rifiorire: A general Italian term for an over- material. Soft ground etching has been used painted work since the late eighteenth century to produce rigatino or tratteggio: Color matching done drawings with very fine textures. A printing in watercolors with short, vertical strokes. plate is spread with the soft ground (often The losses are visible only from close-up. containing resin, wax, and/or grease) and Ruskinesque: Describing the cult of the ruin then covered with drawing paper. As the art- as a preserved image of the past, usually in ist draws the image, the pressure causes the terms of ruined structures in a rural setting, tacky ground to adhere to the paper and thus preserved as such expose the metal plate. Once the paper is re- secco: Pigment applied to fresco but in a differ- moved, the plate is etched with a weak acid. ent media. It is not fixed into the plaster by the substitute: A work that can take the place of fresco technique but is essentially painted on another but is not necessarily made from and therefore liable to loss. the same materials. This may also be said seicento: The seventeenth century in Italian of a surrogate, which represents the absent art and literature. work.

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strappo: The detachment of a fresco (qv) adhered to a facing layer and then stripped from its original support. It may be viewed away from the wood. Laid onto new canvas, as necessary but is usually now considered the paint layer is firmly adhered in place. undesirable, as it seriously interferes with the Warm water is used to remove the facing authenticity of the original. It also may dras- from the front. Small missing areas can then tically alter the appearance of the original if be retouched. Some paintings have been difficulties occur in the transfer. badly damaged in the process of being trans- sustainable conservation: Conservation ef- ferred from panel to canvas. Others have forts that can be continued into the future been saved from total loss when the wood without a heavy expenditure of manpower was in danger of collapse. Once a universal and materials fashion, transfer is now widely deprecated. tecnica a velatura: A painting technique that tratteggio: A technique of inpainting missing employs covering pure colors with tinted areas with a series of fine lines, which match varnishes or glazes to produce the desired the color of the painted area but are visually chromaticity. It was commonly used with easily distinguished from it. The technique fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italian is advocated in Italian restoration practice works on panel. to avoid visually deceptive inpainting. It is tempera: Egg yolk used as a medium for rarely used in the United States or Great painting. The yolk can be mixed directly Britain. with pigment or diluted with water or other trecento: The fourteenth century in Italy substances. triptych: an altarpiece of three panels, terminus ante quem: the date before which probably derived from ancient Egyptian something could not be used. The terminus three-panel paintings and adopted especial- post quem is the date after which the tech- ly for religious works in the Renaissance nique was known to have been introduced. true nature: A term initially applied to origi- thermoluminescent dating: A method of nal material, whose “true nature” needed to dating that relies on the gradual accumu- be protected. But it is difficult to determine lation of trapped electrons in ceramics and the “true nature” of some works of art cur- other materials that have been heated to re- rently and in the past. set their thermoluminescence to zero during underdrawing: The first drawing on a ges- firing. Some electrons are trapped in the lat- soed panel, usually in charcoal or black ink. tice of the ceramics. On heating, these give Underdrawing can often be imaged with in- off light energy, which can be measured. The frared reflectography. amount of light is equivalent to certain peri- value: A many-sided attribute of an art object ods of time, so that the date of an object can that can be analyzed or stated in a number be calculated within certain error margins. of different ways, from value as a historical The technique cannot be easily carried out document to value as function, form, effect, on artifacts that are X-rayed or heated, or on or perceived attributes to value invested in samples exposed to ambient light. an object for nontangible or cultural reasons transfer: A conservation technique—now verdaccio: Black, white, and yellow pigments rarely performed—in which a work on pan- combined to make a dull greenish brown, el is transferred to canvas. The painting is often used to model shadows in flesh tones

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water gilding: Use of glue, gum, or egg to is necessary only to ink the block and bring hold gold layers to a bole or gesso support it into firm and even contact with the paper woodblock printing: Preparing a wood- to achieve an acceptable print. The con- block as a relief matrix, with the areas to tent prints in a mirror image, a complica- show in “white” cut away with a knife, chis- tion when text is involved. The art of carv- el, or sandpaper, leaving the areas to show ing the woodblock is technically known as in “black” at the original surface level. The xylography, though the term is rarely used block is cut along the grain of the wood. It in English.

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Index

Abramović, Marina, 401–402 desirable aspects of, 90 Absolute anti-intentionalism, 81 restoration and, 327–328 Accidental intertextuality, 29–30 Agnano Polyptych, 350 Achievable equilibrium, 22 Agoracritus of Paros, 297 Action type hypothesis (ATH), 127 Aitken, Henry, 74 Adorno, Theodor, 49, 50, 69 Albacini, Carlo, 318 Aesthetic agency, 75 Alcamenes, 297 Aesthetic authenticity, 67, 68, 200 Aldrovandi, Ulisse, 316–317 Aesthetic criterion, 148 Alexander the Great, 167, 202, 203, 401 Aesthetic effect, reversibility of, 6 Allington, Edward, 188–189 Aesthetic expression, 75 Roman from Greek in America 1987, 188 Aesthetic integrity, 8 Allographic arts, 123 Aesthetic reconstruction, 195 Along the Riverbank (Dong), 263–264 Aesthetic restoration, 334, 336–338 Alpern, Merry, 410 African art, 21, 59, 60, 67, 134, 168, 217, 224, Altamira cave paintings, 221 241–242, 256–257, 257, 416. See also Altarpieces, 289–290 Ethnography Altered paintings, 344 After Walker Evans (Levine), 85 Amarna torso, 176, 177 Agency, 61–70 Amenemhet III, 165, 166 Age of Bronze (Rodin), 151, 362 Anasazi, 218–220, 219 Age-value, 13, 78 Anastylosis, 5–6, 98, 125 Aging. See also Inherent vice Andre, Carl, 390, 391 artificial, forgeries and, 90–91 Twenty-Ninth Copper Cardinal, 389, 391 authenticity and, 89 Angel of the Annunciation (Dossena), 286, 288 cleaning and, 23 Annunciation, The (Martini), 286, 289

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Index

Antinous, 169 As the Hammer Strikes (A Partial Illustration) Antirealist absolute intentionalism, 81 (Massey), 408 Antisthenes, 400 Astrazione cromatica, 26 Aphaea pedimental sculptures, 196–198 Athenian Agora, 184 Aphrodite of the Gardens, 297 Athens Charter for Restoration of Historical Apollo Belvedere, 188 Documents, 96, 102, 125 Apollo Branchidae, 189 Audience, intention and, 80–81 Apollo Ismenios, 189 Austen, Jane Apostle Matthew (Michelangelo), 311 Northanger Abbey, 133–134 Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, 23 Australian Aboriginal art, 251–252, 269–271, 271 Apoxyomenos (Lysippos), 187, 187–188 Authentication, 57–61, 250 Appadurai, Arjun, 84, 197, 351 Authentic cleaning, 20–24, 22–24 Appeal for reference and characterization, 75 Authenticity Appropriated images, exhibition of, 409–410 aesthetic, 67, 68, 200 Appropriation, 85–87, 138, 141, 152, 159, 165– agency and, 61–70 172, 172, 205–206, 220–221, 240, 299, 352, aging and, 89 381–384, 403–404 aims and, 38–39 Archaeological past, authenticities of, 206–207 in anthropological context, 65 Aristides of Thebes, 20 appreciation of, 91–93 Aristogeiton, 167, 184 archaeology and, 206–207 Aristotle, 48, 126, 191 in art-culture system, 40–41, 41 Arius Didymus, 190 authentication and, 57–61, 250 Arnold, Matthew certificates of, 60, 375, 391–392 Dover Beach, 361 Chinese art and, 257–261 Arp, Jean, 396 conceptual, 66, 68 Arseneau, Gary, 365 conceptualization of, 384–387, 385, 386 Art, craft vs., 147–149 contemporary, 32–34 Art and Its Objects (Wollheim), 121 as contested, 65, 66 Art: Fake or Fortune? (television program), 4 context and, 38 Artistic connoisseurship, scientificvs., 3–4. See contextual, 232–235 also Connoisseurship contingent nature of, 73–82, 76, 79 Artistic creation, 18 criticisms of, 37–39 Artist’s intention, conservation and, 7 cult of, 35–36 Artist’s Shit (Manzoni), 150–151 cultural considerations with, 99, 137–138 Artist’s speaking, 75 as culturally-dependent, 416 Artist’s telling, 75 defined, 61 Artist’s voice, 392–395 delusions of, 101–103 Arts and Crafts movement, 108 denial of, 387–390 Art-value, 13 “destruction art” and, 70 Aslanian, Oxan, 175, 176 digital reality and, 411–413 Asmus, John, 302 early debates on, 103–109, 107 Assistants, in creation of paintings, 341 Egyptian art and, 165–168, 166, 167

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Index

emergence of concept, 187 in Renaissance, 296–299 emulation and, 420 restoration and, 3, 8–9, 64, 189, 331–332, ephemeral art and, 70 417–418 ethnography and, 73, 224–229, 232–238, 241 in RIP triangle, 41–42, 42, 108 as ever-expanding field, 374–378 Roman, 183–191, 185, 187 exact reintegration and, 8–9 in Sartre, 48 examples of use of word, 36 in self-destructive art, 399–400 exhibition of, 70–73, 72, 73 singularity and, 138 expressive, 62 singularization and, 250 faithfulness and, 37–39 in software-based art, 398–399 fakes and, 83–84, 89 spolia and, 168–169 fields of, 150–151 stylistic mimicry and, 88–89 as fragmented, 65, 66 subject, 69 Greek, 183–191 as subjective concept, 58 identity maintenance and, 42, 43 subversion of, 88–89 indistinguishability and, 151–160, 152, 153, surreal, 243–246, 244, 245 155, 157, 159 survival and, 40–43, 41–44 inherent vice and, 33–34, 67 as term, 415–416 intangible, 157 translatio and, 275–277, 278–279 intention and, 73–82, 76, 79, 157, 180–183, valorization and, 2 182, 384 value and, 12–13, 15 interpretation and, 65, 99 withdrawal of, 390–392 in literature, 37 Authenticity Is Not Art (Chettiar), 61 material, 66–67, 68, 73, 77, 200, 336 Auto-destructive art, 33, 374, 376, 399–400, 400 medieval, 274–275 Autographic arts, 123 neurological reactions and, 91 Avrami, Erica, 14 nominal, 62 normativity and, 68–69 Baas, Maarten olfactory, 280 Smoke series, 387 original artist and, 39 Where There’s Smoke, 387 original form and substance in, 37 Bacchanalia (Titian), 357 originality and, 138 Bacchanal of the Andrians (Titian), 357 overpainting and, 31–32 Bacchus (Dresden-Getty), 202–204, 203 patina and, 31–32 Bacchus and Ariadne (Titian), 338–340, 339, 357 as performative, 65–66, 66, 416 Background reintegration, 8 in philosophy, 37, 46–48 Bacon, Francis, 410 in postmodernism, 64–65 Baiae, 184 provenance and, 62, 249, 278, 388, 390 Bailly, David reconstruction and, 96–100, 98, 100 Vanitas Still Life with a Portrait of a Young reenactment, 410–411 Painter, 28, 78–80, 79 referential, 67, 69–70 Vanitas with Self-Portrait, 78 rehabilitation and, 136–137 Baj, Enrico, 150

481 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Index

Bakkila, Jacob, 413 Bicycle Wheel (Duchamp), 152, 379, 381, 382, Bal, Mieke, 356, 379, 422 383 Balanced meaning-loss, 5 Bidlo, Mike Baldicinni, Filippo, 306 Not Duchamp (Bicycle Wheel 1913), 383 Bandinelli, Bartolomeo, 311, 314 Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, 39 Banks, Joseph, 236 Biro, Paul, 87 Barassi, Sebastiano, 13, 27 Blaker, Hugh, 300–302 Barberini Venus, 358 Bodyspacemotionthings (Morris), 411 Barcilon, Pinin Brambilla, 330, 331 Boethus Herm of Dionysus, 306 Barezzi, Stefano, 330 Boito, Camillo, 105–106 Baroque Bologna, Giovanni di, 366 Catholic Church and, 355–356 Bondone, Giotto di, 26 instantiations, 356–359 Borchardt, Ludwig, 171–172, 174–175 restorations, 356–357 Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil (attrib. Monet), Barthes, Roland, 30 4 Bartres, Leopoldo, 215 Boreux, Charles, 173–174 Barye, Alfred, 363 Bosch, Hieronymus, 305 Basilica di Santa Croce, 23, 24, 26 Boschini, Marco, 307 Bastianini, Giovanni, 347, 367, 368–370 Bosse, Abraham, 305–306 Bust of Giovanna Albizzi, 369 Bossi, Giuseppe, 333 Bust of Giovanna Tornabuoni, 368 Bottle Rack (Duchamp), 379 Head of Julius Caesar, 423 Bourdon, David, 405–406 Lucrezia Donati, 142, 143 Bouts, Dieric, 340 Batoni, Pompeo, 310 Brancacci Chapel, 21–22, 320, 320, 321 Battle of the Sea-Gods (Mantegna), 92–93 Brancusi, Constantin, 396, 410 Baudrillard, Jean, 84–85 Brandi, Cesare, 10, 25, 26, 136 Beck, James, 9, 122, 321, 322, 331 Brecht, George Bellini, Gentile, 29 Relocation, 392 Bellini, Giovanni, 338 Breughel the Elder, Jan, 341 Feast of the Gods, 339 Virgin and Child in Flower Garland with Bellori, Gian Pietro, 357 Angels, 343 Bellotti, Michelangelo, 330 Brillo Boxes (Warhol), 375, 389 Beltracchi, Wolfgang, 377, 378 Brisley, Stuart, 380 Beltrami, Luca, 105 Bronze Age, 162–163 Belvedere Torso, 308 Broodthaers, Marcel Bender, Thomas, 413 Department of Eagles, 404 Benivieni, Girolamo, 367, 370 Bruce, Fiona, 4 Benjamin,, Walter, 51–52, 55 Budge, Sir E. A. Wallis, 82 Berenson, Bernard, 348–349 Buildings in Need (Mills), 117–118 Bergantiños, Jose Carlos, 377 Bulul, 134 Bernini, Giovanni Lorenzo, 308–309, 357 Bulul guardian figurine,245 Betjeman, Sir John, 117, 118 Buoninsegna, Duccio di, 350

482 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Index

Burden, Chris Chinese art, 257–269, 262, 267, 421 Metropolis II, 8 Chinese bronzes, 264–268, 267 Shoot, 401 Chirico, Giorgio de, 344 Burra Charter, 254 Chi wara, 168 Burrup, Eddie, 269–271, 271 Christo, 374, 405–406 Bust of Giovanna Albizzi (Bastianini), 369 Running Fence, 405 Bust of Giovanna Tornabuoni (Bastianini), 368 Christo, Jeanne-Claude, 405–406 Byres, James, 360 Chromatic selection, 26 Chrysoloras, Manuel, 274 Cabinets of curiosities, 356 Cicero, 164 Caesar, Julius, 164 Cimabue, 23, 24, 26 Cahill, James, 263, 264 Cione, Nardo di Calvaert, Denis, 298 Saint John the Baptist with Saint John the Calvel, Patrice, 110 Evangelis and Saint James, 344–347 Canova, Antonio, 359 Clark, Larry, 410 Capasso, Luigi, 87 Clark, Sir Kenneth, 366, 367 Capitoline Museum, 205 Claudel, Camille, 363 Caple, Christopher, 4, 5, 6, 8 Claudius Marcellus, 163 Carpeaux, Jean-Baptiste, 363 Clavir, Miriam, 223 Carroll, Noël, 130 Cleaning Cartier-Bresson, Henri, 409–410 achievable equilibrium and, 22 Castelfranco, Giorgio da, 305 aging and, 23 Castelli, Leo, 159–160 authentic, 20–24, 22–24 Categories, 16–17, 340–347, 341–343, 345, 346 complete, 334–335 Catholic Church, 355–356 cultural considerations with, 21 Causes, in Aristotle, 191 ethnography and, 23, 240, 240, 240–241 Cavaceppi, Bartolomeo, 34, 309, 358–359 forgery and, 23–24 Cavalcaselle, Giovanni, 142, 334 original unity and, 22 Cellini, Benevenuto, 367 overcleaning, 31–32 Centre Pompidou, 61 partial, 9, 24, 334–335 Ceres of Cambridge, 359 restoration and, 9 Certificates of authenticity, 60, 375, 391–392 selective, 9, 24, 334–335 Chagall, Marc, 60–61 of Sistine Chapel, 2, 9, 319–320 Chairman Mao (Warhol), 390 total, 9, 24, 335 Changed paintings, 344 Cleopatra’s Needle, 170 Characterization, appeal for, 75 Clercq, Alfred, 173 Charles III, 356–357 Cognitive principle, in restoration, 127 Charters, on conservation, 2–3, 96–97, 99–100, Cohen, Leonard, 80–81 102–103, 125 Cole, Herbert M., 256 Chartres Cathedral, 2, 96, 109–117, 114, 115 Coleman, James Chemical deceit, 325 INITIALS, 408 Chettiar, Rm.Shanmugam, 61 Collaboration, paintings from, 341–342

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Index

Compensation for loss, in restoration, 11, 32, 125, Conti, Alessandro, 288, 289, 294, 334, 336 193, 337 Contingent properties, 63–64 Complete cleaning, 334–335 Cooke, John Conceptual art, 81, 188–189, 375, 380–387. See also Discussion on the Piltdown Skull, 214 Modern art Copies. See also Replica Conceptual authenticity, 66, 68 faithful, 343–344 Conditionalist intentionalism, 81–82 virtue of, 364–367 Condivi, Ascanio, 298 Copy criticism, 188 Connoisseurship. See also Scientific connoisseurship Cornacchini, Agostino, 310 in ancient world, 163–164 Cornet, Joseph, 247 art vs. science in, 3–4 Corot, Jean-Baptiste Camille, 344 Conservation “Correction,” 132 aims of, 8 Cotsen, Lloyd, 148 anastylosis concept in, 5–6, 98, 125 Cotte, Pascal, 300, 302 artist’s intention and, 7 Council of Trent, 329, 357 charters on, 2–3, 96–97, 99–100, 102–103, 125 Counter-Reformation, 357 concepts in, 4–12 Courtauld Institute of Art, 144–145 defined, 6 Covered Bridge, A (Rilko), 92 dynamics, 43, 43 Coypel, Charles-Antoine, 341 ethnography and, 226–227 Craft, art vs., 147–149 inherent vice concept in, 7–8 Craquelure, 90 installation art and, 406 Creation, artistic, 18 intention and, 397–398 Creative restorations, 308–309 minimal intervention concepts in, 4–15 Creativity, intention and, 75 minimalist, 195 Creed, Martin restoration as, 334, 337 Work No. 227, 384–385 restoration vs., 8 Crozier, William, 327 retreatability concept in, 6–7, 125 Crucifix (Cimabue), 23, 24, 26 reversability concept in, 6–7, 125 Cult of authenticity, 35–36 as subject of study, 360–361 Cultural context, restoration and, 8 true nature concept in, 6 Cultural significance, value and, 14 visual discernibility in, 7 Currie, Gregory, 127, 129, 155–156 Construction in Space: Two Cones (Gabo), 54, 55. See Curtis, Edward, 241 also Gabo, Naum Cynics, 401 Construction of Value in the Ancient World, The (Papadopoulos & Urton, eds.), 15 Daddi, Bernardo Contemporary Theory of Conservation (Muñoz-Viñas), Virgin Mary with Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint 1 Paul, 344, 345, 346 Content appropriation, 167 da Fiesole, Mino da, 142, 143 Contested materiality, 395–399 Dalí, Salvador, 389 Context, authenticity and, 38 Danto, Arthur, 18, 40, 152, 156–157, 158, 252–253, Contextual authenticity, 232–235 373, 375, 380, 382–383, 389

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Index

Davies, Martin, 353 Dixon, Maynard, 378 Davies, W. V., 82 Documentation, 39 da Vinci, Leonardo Doehne, Eric, 209 Lady with an Ermine, 419–420 Domenichino, 357 Last Supper, 329–334, 332 Domestication, 250 Mona Lisa, 135, 136, 299–304, 301, 303, 379 Dong Qichang, 263 Davis, Douglas, 412–413 Dong Yuan, 263, 264 Dawson, Charles, 215 Dossena, Alceo, 286–288, 287, 288, 290, 347 de Andrea, John Dossi, Dosso, 338 Dying Gaul 1984, 205 Dover Beach (Arnold), 361 Declaration of San Antonio, 101–102 Drinking and Singing at the Foot of a Precipitous De Clercq, Rafael, 130–131, 132, 133 Mountain (Tong), 262 Deconstruction, 30, 195 Dualism, normative, 149 Dedolomitization, 208–209 Duchamp, Marcel, 159, 344, 379, 383–384 Degas, Edgar, 47 Bicycle Wheel, 152, 379, 381, 382, 383 La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze, 139, 139–141 Bottle Rack, 379 de Kooning, William, 159, 384 Fountain, 152, 379, 380, 383, 384 Delegated performance art, 402, 403 L.H.O.O.Q., 379 Della Porta, Guglielmo, 317, 318 L.H.O.O.Q., rasée, 379 Deneux, Henri, 117 Duquesnoy, François, 357 Dense Forests and Layered Peaks (Zhang), 262–263 Durack, Elizabeth, 269–271, 271 Department of Eagles (Broodthaers), 404 Dürer, Albrecht, 92–93, 299 Derrida, Jacques, 30 “Dust paintings,” 403 Design appropriation, 167–168 Dutton, Denis, 61, 62, 134, 147, 150, 161, 249, “Destruction art,” 70 422 de Tilly, Noël, 408, 409 Duveen, Joseph, 348 Diachrony, 87, 393 Dying Gaul, 205 Diaries, of anthropologists, 227–228 Dying Gaul, 1984 (de Andrea), 205 Dickie, George, 18, 380 Dykstra, Steven W., 75–76 di Giorgio, Francesco, 154 Digital reality, 411–413 “East Croker” (Eliot), 118–119 Ding, 132–133 Eastlake, Sir Charles, 21 Dingli, Paolo, 175 Eco, Umberto, 69 Diogenes, 400, 401 Efficient cause, 191 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 183 Eggert, Paul, 319, 324, 325 Dionysus (Museo Nazionale Romano Palazzo), Eggleston, William, 412 205 Egypt, 71–72, 82, 83, 84, 162, 165–178, 166, Discussion on the Piltdown Skull (Cooke), 214 167, 170, 172, 176, 177 Distel, Herbert Ehecatl, 216, 217 City Reliquary, 404 Eighteenth Century, 359–360 Museum of Drawers, 404 Ejigboye, Yesufu, 248 Salon De Fleurus, 404 Elevatio, 275, 276, 278

485 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Index

Elgin Marbles, 359, 360 disputed authenticity and, 235–238 Eliot, T. S., 118–119 fakes and, 239 Ellis, George, 256 historical contexts and, 239–243 Elmham, Thomas, 274–275 intention and, 74, 240 Emulation(s) museum displays and, 242–243 authenticity and, 420 philosophical, 238–239, 249–255 copies and, 158 repatriation and, 230, 232–233, 236 defined, 186 scientific rationalismvs., 233–234 Egyptian art and, 165, 170, 171 surreal authenticity and, 243–246, 244, 245 of forgeries, 421 as term, 238 forgeries vs., 184–185 Etruscan terra-cotta warriors, 12–13 Levine and, 85, 86 Ettinger, Bracha, 87 originality and, 56–57 Evans, Sir Arthur, 178, 179 in Renaissance, 188, 304–307 Evans, Walker, 18, 85, 86, 409, 410 Renaissance and, 304–307 Exact reintegration, 8–9 study copies and, 343 Exhibitions Ennigaldi-Nanna, 70–71, 72 of appropriated images, 409–410 Ensor, James narratives of, 404–405 Entry of Christ Into Brussels, 8 Expressive authenticity, 62 Entry of Christ Into Brussels, The (Ensor), 8 Eye Body (Schneemann), 401 Ephemeral art, 70 Epiphanius, 274 Faenza, Antonio da, 289 Equilibrium, achievable, 22 Failing, Patricia, 140 Erased de Kooning Drawing (Rauschenberg), 384, Fakes. See also Forgery(ies) 385 accepted, 2 Ernst, Max, 36, 378 aesthetic value of, 2 Essential properties, 63–64 in ancient world, 163 Este, Alfonso d’, 338 authenticity and, 83–84, 89 Ethics Egyptian, 169–178, 170, 172, 176, 177 with relics, 283 ethnography and, 239 relics and, 283 forgeries vs., 87 of restoration, 11–12, 14, 97, 336–337, 338 intentionality and, 82–91, 83, 86, 90 reversibility and, 49, 125 literary, 134 self-destructive art and, 399 medieval art and, 286–288, 287, 288 Ethnography. See also African art as percentage of art sold, 421 authentic, 238 production criteria for, 90 authenticity and, 73, 224–229, 232–238, 241 restorations as, 2 cleaning and, 23, 240, 240, 240–241 Fakhry, Ahmed, 174 conservation and, 226–227 False signature, 344 contextual authenticity and, 232–235 Faraday, Michael, 362 critics of, 229–231 Farnese, Alessandro, 316 defined, 223 Farnese Herakles, 316–318, 317

486 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Index

Fasoli, Alberto, 286, 287 Form, 46–48 Feast of the Gods (Bellini), 339 Formal cause, 191 Feldman, Ronald, 321 Foucault, Michel, 78, 381–382, 387 Fenger, Ludvig, 46 Fountain (Duchamp), 152, 379, 380, 383, 384 Fictionalist intentionalism, 81 Four Quarters (Eliot), 118–119 Filliou, Robert Fragmentary sculpture, 195–196, 356 For Duchamp, 383 Fragment from Homage to New York, 400 Final cause, 191 Framing, 27–28 Florence Torso, 185 France, 60–61 Fluxus, 383, 392 Francesco Sassetti and His Son Teodoro (Ghirlandaio), For Duchamp (Filliou), 383 353 Foresi, Alessandro, 142 Francis I of France, 307, 314 Forgery(ies). See also Fakes Fratin, Christophe, 363 African art and, 256–257, 257 Fredis, Felice de, 310 aging and, 90–91 Freeman, Edward, 104 Chinese art and, 257–259 Frémiet, Emmanuel, 363 cleaning and, 23–24 French Revolution, 20, 224, 358 in contemporary art market, 378 Freppa, Giovanni, 367 context and, 89 Frick, Helen Clay, 286 defined, 154 Frontal polar cortex (FPC), 91 emulations vs., 184–185 Fujimura, Shinichi, 213–214 fakes vs., 87 Functional aesthetic quality, 148 of Greenhalgh family, 176–178, 177 Functional reintegration, 8 of Hebborn, 34 Furta sacra, 225, 230, 273, 275–278, 277, 284 as inevitable, 420 Furtwängler, Adolf, 181–182 intention and, 352–353, 369–370 Future Femme inventive, 141 Show Me More, 409 La Tiare de Saïtapharnès, 180–183, 182 in medieval period, 275 Gabo, Naum, 7, 33, 53–54, 54, 54, 55, 67, 126 in modern art, 377 Gadamer, Hans-George, 352 with modern materials only, 347 Gaius Petronius, 164 performance and, 416–417 “gallery varnish,” 21 pia fraus and, 165, 275, 276, 277, 281, 281 Gallorani, Cecilia, 419 problems of, 139–142 Galvanized Wall (Judd), 390–391 provenance and, 181 Gao Lian, 265–266 referential, 141 Geary, Patrick J., 273, 275, 278 religious fraud and, 165, 275, 276, 277, 281, 281 Gessate, Antonio da, 333–334 restoration and, 25, 34 Getty Herakles, 198–200, 199 snobbery and, 122 Getty Kouros, 142, 162, 207, 207–213 as term, 415–416 Getty Museum. See J. Paul Getty Museum value and, 16, 421 Ghirlandaio, Domenico Forli, Melozzo da, 353 Portrait of a Young Lady, 350, 351, 351

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Index

Giambologna Hain, Guy, 362–363 God Mars, 126–127 Hallett, Christopher, 163 Giordano, Luca, 298, 357 Hamilton, Andy, 80 Giorgione, 18 Hamilton, Ann, 405 Giotto, 337 Hamilton, Richard Giovanni, Benvenuto di Readymade Shadows, 383 Madonna and Child with Saints Michael, Caterina Harmodios, 166–167 d’Alessandria, and an Angel, 350 Hartford Wash; Washing Tracks, Maintenance Inside Giovanni, Matteo di, 353 (Ukeles), 402 Giunti, Umberto, 154, 353–354 Hawass, Zahi, 172 Glanville, Helen, 334, 336, 338 Headless Mannequins of the Attendees of the Berlin Glykon, 318 Conference of 1884-85 (Shonibare), 272 Glyptothek, 196 Head of Julius Caesar (Bastianini), 423 God Mars (Giambologna), 126–127 Hebborn, Eric, 34, 89, 91, 306, 348, 370 “God Save the Queen” (Sex Pistols), 80–81 Roman Harbour Scene, 183–184 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 318 Hedley, Gerry, 24 Goldin, Nan, 410 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 46, 47, 361 Goldsworthy, Andy, 50 Heidegger, Martin, 48–51, 135, 136, 138, 352, 396, Goller, Christian, 89 417 Gombrich, Ernst, 154, 324, 377 Heisenberg, Werner, 336 Good Feelings in Good Times (Ondák), 403 Heraclitus, 190 Goodman, Nelson, 123, 154, 155, 206 Herakles Gordon, Douglas Farnese, 316–318, 317 Play Dead: Real Time, 408–409 Getty, 198–200, 199 Göring, Hermann, 142, 146 Lansdowne, 204–205 Grand Midland Hotel, 117–120, 119 Herder, Johann, Gotfried, 238–239 Great Pyramid, 169 Hermes, 184 Great Sphinx, 71–72 Herodotus, 169 Greek artwork, 29, 31, 45–46, 56, 158, 162–164, Herz, Norman, 208 180, 183–191, 187, 195–196, 200, 207, Heteroglossia, 27 207–213, 210, 288, 306, 309 Hewett, Edgar Lee, 219 Greenberg, Clement, 395–396 Hick, Darren, 141 Greenhalgh productions, 176–178, 177 Hirst, Damien, 377 Grey Area (Brown Versions) (Wilson), 173 Historical value, 13 Grindr (smartphone app), 409 Hobbes, Thomas, 190 Guan Tong, 262 Holbein the Younger, Hans, 31 Guevara, Felipe de, 305 Homage to New York (Tinguely), 50, 399, 400 Guggenheim Museum, 70 Homer Iliad, 181 Haakanson, Sven, 232 Hopper, Dennis, 390 Hadra, 166 @Horse ebooks, 413 Hadrian, 169 Houlberg, Marilyn, 247–248

488 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Index

House, John, 4 artist’s telling and, 75 Hoving, Thomas, 163, 207–208, 282 audience and, 80–81 Howard, Seymour, 304, 335 authenticity and, 73–82, 76, 79, 157, 180–183, Hsing-jang t’ieh, 260–261 182, 384 Hsu, Andrew, 128–129 in conditionalist intentionalism, 81–82 Huddleston, Andrew, 17–18 conservation and, 397–398 Hugford, Ignazio, 294 creativity and, 75 Hultén, Karl Gunnar Vougt Pontus, 388, 388–389 defined, 76 Hume, David, 36 ethnography and, 74, 240 Hyper-restoration, 25 fakes and, 82–91, 83, 86, 90 in fictionalist intentionalism, 81 Ibejis, 248, 248 forgeries and, 352–353, 369–370 Ideal, Platonic, 44–46 interpretation and, 392–393 Identity maintenance, 42, 43 meaning vs., 81 Ifugao people, 245 in moderate fictionalism intentionalism, 81 Igbo people, 375 modes of, 76 Igorot people, 245 moral effect and, 75 Iliad (Homer), 181 in textualist intentionalism, 81 Illusionism, 46–48 Intentional commemorative value, 13 Imitation, 188, 343–344, 357 Internet, 411–413 Indistinguishability, 151–160, 152, 153, 155, 157, Interpretation 159, 412 authenticity and, 65, 99 Individualizing restoration, 126, 127 copies and, 158 Industrially manufactured reproductions, 347 inexhaustibility and, 80 Inherent creative spirit, intention and, 75 intentionalism and, 81 Inherent vice, 7–8, 28, 33–34, 67 intention and, 392–394 INITIALS (Coleman), 408 intertextuality and, 28, 29 Innocent XII, 28 restoration as, 19–20 Installation art, 405–407 Intertextuality, 27–30, 416 Instance multiplicity hypothesis (IMH), 127 Intervention, minimal, 4–15 Instantiations, Baroque, 356–359 In the Beginning…(Genesis 1) 1997 (Burrup), 271 Intangible authenticity, 157 Inventive forgeries, 141 Integral replication, 195 Invisible restoration, 335, 338 Integral restoration, 9, 123 Ionescu, Stephano, 270, 271 Intention, 51–57 Ironical appropriation, 206 in absolute anti-intentionalism, 81 Islamic rugs, 270–271 aesthetic agency and, 75 Isleworth Mona Lisa, 300–302 aesthetic expression and, 75 Iverson, Margaret, 54 age-value and, 78 in antirealist intentionalism, 81 Janssens, Abraham and appeal for reference and characterization, 75 Pomone, 341 artist’s speaking and, 75 Januszczak, Waldemar, 23

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Index

Japanese Paleolithic, 213–214 Kristeller, Paul, 15 Jedrzejewska, Hanna, 23 Kulka, Tomas, 143 Jenkins, Thomas, 358, 360 Kulma people, 254–255 Jesuits, 357 Kurin, Richard, 234 Johns, Jasper, 159–160 Kushites, 166–167 Johnson, Philip, 390 Johnson, Samuel, 103 Lady with Ermine (da Vinci), 419–420 Jones, Lloyd, 49 Lady with Lap-Dog (Raphael), 347 Joni, Icilio Frederico, 347–354, 351, 353 Laetz, Brian, 16, 17 Jordaens, Jacob, 340–341 Lamarque, Peter, 17 Jourd’heuil, Irene, 113 Lanark, 98–99 Journey to the Edge of the World—The New Republic Landi, Neroccio di Bartolomeo de’ of St. Kilda, 1999-2002 (Sinclair), 392 Madonna and Child with Saints Mary Magdalene J. Paul Getty Museum, 6, 8, 129, 131, 191–192, and Sebastian, 350 193, 194, 200, 200–202, 201, 202–204, Landis, Mark, 378 203. See also Getty Herakles; Getty Kouros Lang, Ulrich, 54 Judd, Donald Lansdowne Boxer, 204–205 Galvanized Wall, 390–391 Laocoön, 310–316, 312, 313 Julius II, Pope, 308, 310 La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze (Degas), 139, Juran, 262–263 139–141 Justice Panels, 340–341 Lara, Brigído, 215–218, 217 La Saveur des Larmes (The Flavor of Tears) Kamitakamori, 213–214 (Magritte), 57 Kamoji, Koji Last Judgment (Rubens), 341 Martwa natura, 407 Last Supper, The (da Vinci), 329–334, 332 Kanachos, 189 La Tiare de Saïtapharnès, 180–183, 182 Kant, Emmanuel, 36 Lawrence, Gavin, 62–63, 87 Kastner, Miriam, 209 Lazzaroni, Michele, 353 Keats, Jonathan, 377 Leach, Edmund, 227 Keck, Sheldon, 20 Lechner, Florian, 111 Keeping of the Keys, The (Ukeles), 402 Leda and the Swan, 200, 200–202, 201, 205 Kemp, Martin, 302, 331–332 Legros, Pierre II Kircher, Athanasius, 171 Saint Stanislas Kostka, 358 Klein, Yves Lenain, Thierry, 88 The Void, 384 Lenoir, Alexander, 358 Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility, 385 Leopold William of Austria, 307 Kline, Katy, 405 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (Picasso), 56 Knaller, Suzanne, 68, 69–70, 160 Lessing, Alfred, 142 Knossos, 162, 178–180, 179 Levine, Sherrie, 18, 85–86, 86, 299, 384 Koestler, Arthur, 122, 153 After Walker Evans, 85 Kopienkritic, 188 Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 30–31 Korsmeyer, Caroline, 130 LeWitt, Sol, 385, 391

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Index

L.H.O.O.Q. (Duchamp), 379 and Sebastian (Landi), 350 L.H.O.O.Q., rasée (Duchamp), 379 Madonna and Child with Saints Michael, Caterina Life of the Virgin, The (Dürer), 299 d’Alessandri, and an Angel (Giovanni), 350 Linde, Ulf, 383 Madsen, Stephan, 104 Listen to the Sound of the Earth Turning (Ono), 381 Maffei, Paolo Alessandro, 310 Litanies (Morris), 390 Magi, Filippo, 310 Little, James, 255, 255–256 Magor, Liz Little Warsaw (art duo), 172 Time and Mrs. Tibor, 393 Livingston, Paisley, 76–78, 80, 81 Magritte, René, 55–56, 343 Locard Exchange Principle, 87 La Saveur des Larmes (The Flavor of Tears), 57 Locke, John, 190 Not to Be Reproduced, 153 Lopes, Dominic, 15, 16, 17 Maiano, Benedetto da, 368 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 8, 204, 363 Mailfert, André, 89 Loss, compensation for, in restoration, 11, 32, Maillol, Aristide, 363 125, 193, 337 Maintenance art, 402 Louis XVI furniture, 89 Maintenance (Ukeles), 402 Louvre, 19, 20, 173–174, 176–177, 180–183, 182. Malagan wood carvings, 232 See also Mona Lisa (da Vinci) Malanga, Gerard, 389 Lowenthal, David, 37–39, 60, 109, 197, 229, Malinowski, Bronislaw, 227 237–238 Malvasia, Cesare, 298 Low Rider Art (Pruitt), 383 Mancini, Giulio, 304 Lozano-Hemmer, Rafael Mandiberg, Michael, 85, 91 33 Questions per Minute, 398 Untitled, 86 Lübeck, 98 Manet, Édouard Lucan, 169 Luncheon on the Grass, 55, 56 Lucrezia Donati (Bastianini), 142, 143 Manishtushu, 162 Ludovisi Ares, 309, 309–310, 356 Manitou Springs, 162, 218–220, 219 Luncheon on the Grass (Manet), 55, 56 Mantegna, Andrea Luncheon on the Grass (Picasso), 55, 138 Battle of the Sea-Gods, 92–93 Lyotard, Jean-François, 87 Manufactured reproductions, 347 Lysippos, 187, 187, 187–188, 318 Manuscripts, 133–135 Manzoni, Piero, 39, 150 MacLure, Maggie, 356 Artist’s Shit, 150–151 Madonna and Child (Dossena), 286, 290 Maori heads, 235–236, 236 Madonna and Child (Marcovaldo), 292 Maori James Little productions, 255, 255–256 Madonna and Child (Raphael), 123–125 Maratta, Carlo, 23, 298 Madonna and Child (van de Weyden), 22, 25 Marcovaldo, Coppo di, 289–290 Madonna and Child (van der Veken), 293 Madonna and Child, 292 Madonna and Child with Angels (Joni), 350 Marcus Aurelius Madonna and Child with Saint Catherine of Getty, 191–192, 194 Alexandria (Giunti), 353 Pergamon, 194–195 Madonna and Child with Saints Mary Magdalene Margolis, Stanley, 208–209

491 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Index

Marilyn x 100 (Warhol), 158 Michelangelo, 298, 308–309, 310, 313–314, 317, Markowitz, Sally, 148–149 338, 357, 367. See also Laocoön; Sistine Martini, Simone, 286 Chapel The Annunciation, 286, 289 Apostle Michelangelo, 311 Martwa natura (Kamoji), 407 Pietà, 121, 122–127, 124, 127, 192 Marx, Karl, 316 Sleeping Cupid, 89 Maryland Historical Society, 405 Tondo Doni, 326–327 Mashco-Piro tribe, 229 Michiel, Marcantonio, 305 Maspero, Gaston, 173 Mignard, Pierre, 298 Massey, John Mikhailov, Boris, 410 As the Hammer Strikes (A Partial Illustration), Milanese, Baldassare del, 89 408 Mills, Keely Massot, Pierre de, 379 Buildings in Need, 117–118 Master of Berlin, 175, 176 Mina, An Xiao, 413 Master of the Mornauer Portrait, 31 Minimal intervention, 4–15 Master of the Tabernacle Number 35, 350 Minimalist conservation, 195 Material authenticity, 66–67, 68, 73, 77, 200, 336 Minoans, 178–180, 179 Material cause, 191 Minoan Snake Goddess, 179–180 Materiality, contested, 395–399 Minujín, Marta Matta-Clark, Gordon, 390 Reading the News, 401 Mattusch, Carol, 163 Mirrors, 266–268, 267 Mazza, Giuseppe, 330, 333 Mis-pi incantation, 85 McClurg, Virginia, 219 Moderate fictionalist intentionalism, 81 Mead, Margaret, 227 Modern art, 7, 32–34, 35–36, 135, 186, 374–377, Meaning-loss, balanced, 5 395. See also Conceptual art Media works, 408–409 Modernism, 106–107 Medici, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’, 298, 311 Mokomokai, 235–236, 237 Medieval art Mol, Annemarie, 407 authenticity and, 274–275 Mona Lisa (da Vinci), 135, 136, 299–304, 301, elevatio and, 275, 276, 278 303, 379 fakes and, 286–288, 287, 288 Mona Lisa (in Prado), 300, 302–304, 303 relics and, 279–286, 281, 282, 284, 285 Mona Lisa (Isleworth), 300–302 restoration of, 288–294, 289–293 Mond head, 173–174 theft and, 275–278, 277 Mondrian, Piet, 61 translatio and, 275–277, 278–279 Monet, Claude, 4 Mellor, Doreen, 269 Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil (attrib.), 4 Melzi, Francesco, 302 Montorsoli, Giovanni Angelo, 310 Mene, Pierre-Jules, 363 Montoya, Maria, 241 Metropolis II (Burden), 8 Moon Is the Oldest TV (Paik), 408 Metropolitan Museum of Art, 174 Moooi (design company), 387 Metropolitan Torso, 185, 186 Moral effect, 75 Metzger, Gustav, 70, 400 Morandi, Giorgio, 410

492 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Index

Morelli, Giovanni, 306 Normative dualism, 149 Morris, Robert, 390 Normativity, 68–69 Bodyspacemotionthings, 411 Northanger Abbey (Austen), 133–134 Litanies, 390 Not Duchamp (Bicycle Wheel 1913) (Bidlo), 383 Morris, William, 105, 106–107, 108 Notre Dame, 104–105, 107 Mould, Philip, 4, 347 Not to Be Reproduced (Magritte), 153 Moving cause, 191 Mowaljarlai, David, 30 Object appropriation, 167 Mozo, Ana Gonzalez, 302 Obligatory intertextuality, 28 Mueller, Otto, 89 Oedipus Aegyptiacus (Kircher), 171 Munch, Edvard, 397 Ohly, Dieter, 196 The Scream, 397 Oldenburg, Claes, 86, 343–344 Muñoz-Viñas, Salvador, 1, 5, 39, 63, 112, 133, The Store, 86 136, 137, 138, 319 Olfactory authenticity, 280 Musée Rodin, 363–364 Ondák, Roman Museo Nazionale Romano Palazzo, 205 Good Feelings in Good Times, 403 Museum of Drawers (Distel), 404 One Candle (Paik), 407 Museum of Jurassic Technology, 404–405 Ono, Yoko, 374 Music, 129 Listen to the Sound of the Earth Turning, 381 Optional intertextuality, 28 Nara Document, 99–100, 100, 101 Original materiality, 8 Narratives, of museum exhibitions, 404–405 Original unity, 22 National Gallery of Art (London), 19, 21 Origin of the Work of Art, The (Heidegger), 48–49 Native American Graves Protection and Ortiz, Raphael Montanez, 70 Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 230 Outsourced performance art, 402, 403 Native Americans, 230–232, 237–238, 240–241, 375 Overcleaning, 31–32 Nature, true, 6 Overpainting, 31–32 Navajo sand paintings, 168 Owen, Robert, 98–99 Ndebele mural paintings, 251 Nefertiti head, 171–173 Paik, Nam June Neighbors, The (Svenson), 409 Moon Is The Oldest TV, 408 Neutro, 25 One Candle, 407 Newark Museum, 39 Paintings, categories of authentic, 340–347, New Lanark, 98–99 341–343, 345, 346 Newness-value, 13 Paleolithic Newton, Stella Mary, 353 Japanese, 213–214 Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle), 126 rock art, 221 Nikko, Japan, 100 Palmer, Alasdair, 112 Nineteenth Century, 360–362, 367–371 Panofsky, Erwin, 45 Ningyo merman, 73 Panza, Giuseppe, 390–391 Nobili, Ricardo, 163–164 Paolozzi, Eduardo, 410, 411 Nominal authenticity, 62 Papadopoulos, John, 15

493 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Index

Papua New Guinea, 254–255 Pliny the Elder, 20, 285, 296–297, 310, 314–315 Parerga and Paralipomena (Schopenhauer), 47 Pliny the Younger, 164, 184, 186–187 Partial cleaning, 9, 24, 334–335 Plutarch, 190–191 Pasiteles, 163 Podestà, Giovanni Andrea, 357 Pastiches, 141 Pollack, Ludwig, 310 Patina, 10–11, 27, 31–32 Pollock, Griselda, 87 Paul III, Pope, 357 Pollock, Jackson, 87 Peabody Museum (Harvard), 217, 218 Pomone (Janssens), 341 Pelletier, Luc, 113 Pompey, 164 Pelliccioli, Mauro, 330 Pon, Lisa, 299 Penny, Nicholas, 322–323 Pope-Hennessey, John, 45 Perenyi, Ken, 377–378 Pope Innocent XII, 28 Performance art, 135, 400–404 Pope Julius II, 308, 310 Pergamon Museum, 194–195 Pope Paul III, 357 Perkins, Frederick, 348 Porter, James, 15 Perrault, Gilles, 363 Portrait of Alexander Mornauer, 31 Perugino, Pietro, 347 Portrait of a Young Lady (Joni after Ghirlandaio), Petronius, 167 350, 351, 351 Phantom Springs, 220 Postmodernism, 30, 55–56, 64–65, 319, 326, 356, Pheidias, 297 421 Philip IV, 357 Pot People, 252–253 Philippot, Paul, 10, 22, 38, 197 Poussin, Nicolas, 357 Phillips, David, 32 Prado Mona Lisa, 300, 302–304, 303 Philosophical ethnography, 238–239 Praxiteles, 297 Phoedrus, 164 Primaticcio, Francesco, 306–307 Pia fraus, 165, 275, 276, 277, 281, 281 Primo Piano III (Smith), 392, 395–396 Picasso, Pablo, 243 Pritchard, E. E. Evans, 30 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 56 Procession of Fragments of the True Cross (Bellini), 29 Luncheon on the Grass, 55, 138 Procuress, The (van Baburen), 144, 146 The Tie, 156–157 Projansky, Bob, 390 Picault, Jean-Michel, 20 Prometheus Bound (Rubens), 341, 342 Picault, Robert, 20 Properties, essential vs. contingent, 63–64 Pietà (Michelangelo), 121, 122–127, 124, 127, 192 Prothogenes, 164 Pietro, Cecco di, 350 Proust, Marcel, 95 Pietro, Sano di, 350, 353 Provenance Piltdown Man, 214, 214–215 appropriation and, 167 Pinault, François, 177 authenticity and, 62, 249, 278, 388, 390 Pinoncelli, Pierre, 384 forgery and, 181 Piranesi, Giovanni Battista, 141–142 in production of fakes, 167, 181 Roman Harbour Scene, 183–184 Pruitt, Rob Platonic Ideal, 44–46, 47, 361 Low Rider Art, 383 Play Dead: Real Time (Gordon), 408–409 Purist deconstruction, 195

494 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Index

Purist reconstruction, 195 Relative art-value, 13 Purist restoration, 123 Relics, 279–286, 281, 282, 284, 285 Religious fraud, 165, 275, 276, 277, 281, 281 Qian, Pei-Shen, 377 Reliquaries, 280, 283–284, 284, 285 Qi Baishi, 258 Relocation (Brecht), 392 Queen Tetisheri statute, 82–83, 83, 84 Rembrandt, 340, 343 Quincy, Quartemère de, 358 Renaissance, 15, 295–296 authenticity in, 296–299 Radnóti, Sándor, 35, 53, 55, 56–57, 134–135, emulations in, 188, 304–307 152–153, 154–155, 156, 158–159, 415 Platonic Ideal and, 45 Raimondi, Marcantonio, 299 restoration and, 307–309, 319–329, 320–324 Ram, Giovanni, 305 value and, 15 Raphael, 23, 335, 339 Reni, Guido, 298 Lady with Lap-Dog, 347 Renoir, Auguste, 363 Madonna and Child, 123–125 Repatriation, 208, 230, 232–233, 236 School of Athens, 23 Replica, 53, 55, 55–56, 88, 91, 342–344, 366. See Rauschenberg, Robert, 160, 385 also Copies; Fakes; Forgery(ies) Erased de Kooning Drawing, 384 Representation, 51–57 Reading the News (Minujín), 401 Representation of Difference: Bicycle Wheel (Scott), Readymades, 379–384 383 Readymade Shadows (Hamilton), 383 Reproduction of Works of Art for the benefits of Reassembly, 8 Museums of all Countries, 364 Reconstruction Republic (Plato), 44 authenticity and, 96–100, 98, 100 Restoration purist, 195 ethics of, 11–12, 14, 97, 336–337, 338 Red Self-Portrait (Warhol), 388 Restoration(s) Reenactment, 410–411 aesthetic, 334, 336–338 Reference, appeal for, 75 aesthetic appreciation vs. historical veracity in, Referential authenticity, 67, 69–70 10 Referential forgeries, 141 aesthetic integrity and, 8 Reff, Theodore, 47 aging and, 327–328 Reformation, 356, 357 aims of, 8 Rehabilitation, authenticity and, 136–137 authenticity and, 3, 8–9, 64, 189, 331–332, Reims Cathedral, 116, 116–117 417–418 Reintegration Baroque, 356–357 authenticity and, 8–9 in Brandi, 10 background, 8 categories of, 128–133 exact, 8–9 cleaning and, 9 functional, 8 cognitive principle in, 127 in restoration, 8 compensation for loss in, 11, 32, 125, 193, 337 similar, 8 as conservation, 334, 337 Relational principle, in restoration, 127, 127 conservation vs., 8

495 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Index

conservative, 104 Richardson the Elder, Jonathan, 307 “correction” in, 132 Richartz-Museum, 4 creative, 308–309 Richter, Virginia, 58 cultural context and, 8 Riegl, Alois, 11, 12, 13, 78, 95, 109 damage and, 137 Rifaud, Jean-Jacques, 171 defined, 9, 26, 103–104 Riley, Catherine, 149 destructive, 104 Rilko, Jim eclectic, 104 A Covered Bridge, 92 emergence of term, 103–104 Son of a Covered Bridge, 92 ethics of, 11–12, 14, 97, 336–337 RIP triangle, 41–42, 42, 108 as fakes, 2 Ritratto Virile (Giunti), 353 forgery and, 25, 34 Robley, Horatio, 235 historical, 105, 126–127, 127 Rock art, Paleolithic, 221 hyper-restoration, 25 Rockefeller, Nelson, 226 identity and, 334–336, 335 Rodin, Auguste, 362–364 integral, 9, 123 Age of Bronze, 151, 362 as interpretation, 19–20 The Thinker, 362–363, 365 invisible, 335, 338 Rokeby Venus. See Toilet of Venus, The (Velázquez) of Last Supper, The (da Vinci), 329–334, 332 Roman Empire, 163–165, 169, 183–191, 185, 187, medieval, 288–294, 289–293 191–196, 194. See also Greek artwork modernism and, 106–107 Roman from Greek in America 1987 (Allington), 188 object type and, 8 Roman Harbour Scene (Piranesi), 183–184 original materiality and, 8 Roth, Dieter, 33 patina and, 10–11 Rothko, Mark, 375 philological, 105 Rothstein, Edward, 404 purist, 123 Rouchomowsky, Israël, 182, 182 reassembly in, 8 Rousseau, J. J., 239 reintegration in, 8 Rowe, Mark, 133 relational principle in, 127, 127 Royal Museum for Central Africa, 224 Renaissance, 307–309 Royal Ontario Museum, 363 Roman, contexts of, 191–196, 194 Rubens, Peter Paul, 357 of Sistine Chapel, 319–329, 320–324 Last Judgment, 341 as subject of study, 360–361 Prometheus Bound, 341, 342 value and, 12–19 Virgin and Child in Flower Garland with Angels, visible, 334, 335, 337, 338 343 visual discernibility and, 25–27 Rubenstein, Helena, 226 Retreatability, 6–7, 125 Rubino, Alfonso, 302 Reversibility, 6–7, 49, 125 Rudier, Bernard, 362–363 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 148 Rudier, Georges, 362–363 Riace bronzes, 189–190 Rugs, Islamic, 270–271 Riario, Raffaele, 298 Running Fence (Christo), 405 Richardson, Mary, 63 Ruskin, John, 104, 105, 107–108

496 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Index

Sacchi, Andrea, 298 Series, works produced in, 343 Sacred theft, 225, 230, 273, 275–278, 277, 284 Sesostris III, 177–178 Sagoff, Mark, 122–123, 125–126, 128–129, 191 Settignano, Desiderio da, 367, 368 Saint John the Baptist with Saint John the Evangelis Seuphor, Michel, 61 and Saint James (Cione), 344–347 17Hs (Smith), 395 Saint Stanislas Kostka (Legros), 358 Sex Pistols, 80–81 Saint Yrieix, 282–283 Sforza, Ludovico, 419 Saint Zita, 282, 282 Sfumato, 323–324 Salai, Andrea, 302 Shadow Monsters (Worthington), 398 Salon De Fleurus (Distel), 404 Shepperd, Alfred, 220–221 San Antonio Declaration, 101–102 Shiner, Larry, 15 Sand paintings, 168, 375 Shonibare, Yinka, 272 Sangallo, Giuliano da, 310, 312 Headless Mannequins of the Attendees of the Berlin Sarto, Andrea del, 298 Conference of 1884-85, 272 Sartre, Jean-Paul, 48 Shoot (Burden), 401 Satyricon (Gaius Petronius), 164 Show Me More (Future Femme), 409 Schaefer, Iris, 4 Sieber, Roy, 256 Schneemann, Carolee Siegel, Jeanne, 85 Eye Body, 401 Siegelaub, Seth, 390 School of Athens (Raphael), 23 Siena, Guido da, 294 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 46, 47, 48, 361 Signature, false, 344 Schwartz, Arturo, 379 Similar reintegration, 8 Scientific connoisseurship, 140–141 Simon-Whelan, Joe, 388 advantages of, 145 Sinclair, Ross artistic vs., 3–4 Journey to the Edge of the World—The New defined, 3 Republic of St. Kilda, 1999-2002, 392 with Getty Kouros, 208–209 Singularization, 250 Scott, George Gilbert, 104 Sistine Chapel, 2, 9, 319–329, 320–324 Scream, The (Munch), 397 Sleeping Cupid (Michelangelo), 89 Scroll paintings, 260, 261–264, 262 Smith David, 395–396 Seeley, Nigel J., 108 Primo Piano III, 392, 395–396 Seguier, John, 21 17Hs, 395 Sehgal, Tino, 374, 410 Smithson, Robert This Is New, 81 Spiral Jetty, 130 This Is Propaganda, 403 Smoke series (Baas), 387 This Objective of That Object, 81 Snobbery, 122 Selective cleaning, 9, 334–335 Snyders, Frans, 341 Selezione cromatica, 26 Sobel, Jonathan, 412 Self-destructive art, 33, 374, 376, 399–400, 400 Social Life of Things, The (Appadurai), 84 Self-portraits, 340, 341 Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings Semantic criterion, 148 (SPAB), 108 Seneca the Elder, 163 Socrates, 400

497 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Index

Software-based art, 398–399 Textualist intentionalism, 81 Songye mask, 257, 257 Theft, sacred, 225, 230, 273, 275–278, 277, 284 Son of a Covered Bridge (Rilko), 92 Theoretical object, 379 Spain, 171 Theseus’s ship, 190–191 Spinario (Vignola), 307 Thinker, The (Rodin), 362–363, 365 Spiral Jetty (Smithson), 130 Thins, Maria, 144 Spolia, authenticity and, 168–169 33 Questions per Minute (Lozano-Hemmer), 398 Stanza della Segnature, 23 This Is New (Sehgal), 81 Stecker, Robert, 18 This Is Propaganda (Sehgal), 403 Stierlin, Henri, 172 This Objective of That Object (Sehgal), 81 St. Louis Art Museum, 217 Thorvaldsen, Bertel, 196–197 Stone, Richard, 174 Three Worthies of Wu (Zhang), 263 Stonehenge II, 162, 220–221 Thutmose III, 174 Store, The (Oldenburg), 86 Tiberius, 187, 314 Store of Claes Oldenburg, The (Sturtevant), 86 Tichy, Miroslav, 410 Strawson, Peter, 141–142 Tie, The (Picasso), 156–157 Stubblebine, James H., 350 Time, 87 Studio replicas, 343–344 Time and Mrs. Tibor (Magor), 393 Study copies, 343 Time-based media works, 408–409 Sturtevant, Elaine, 186, 343–344, 382, 384, 409 Tinguely, Jean, 33 The Store of Claes Oldenburg, 86 Homage to New York, 50, 399, 400 Sturtevant, Sherrie, 85, 86–87 Tinterow, Gary, 140 Stylistic mimicry, 88–89 Tintoretto, 298 Subject authenticity, 69 Titian Suetonius, 304 Bacchanalia, 357 Sultanganj Buddha, 39 Bacchanal of the Andrians, 357 Sun K’uang, 260 Bacchus and Ariadne, 338–340, 339, 357 Surmoulage, 366 Worship of Venus, 357 Surreal authenticity, 243–246, 244, 245 Toilet of Venus, The (Velázquez), 63, 64 Survival, authenticity and, 40–43, 41–44 Tomb of Queen Nefertari, 336, 337 Susini, Giovanni Francesco, 309 Tondo Doni (Michelangelo), 326–327 Svenson, Arne Total cleaning, 9, 24, 335 The Neighbors, 409 Totonac ceramics, 215–216, 217 Tourist art, 41, 60, 134, 218, 239, 243, 245–246 Taranto Kore, 212 Transfer: The Maintenance of the Art Object Tate Gallery, 53, 150–151, 243–244 (Ukeles), 402 Tempera grassa, 330 Translatio, 275–277, 278–279 Tempest, The (Giorgione), 18 Translation, 188 Temples among Streams and Hills (attrib. Juran), 263 Tratteggio, 7, 26, 32, 328, 337 Teniers the Younger, David, 307 True Cross, 29, 278, 281, 281 Terra-cotta warriors, Etruscan, 12–13 True nature, 6 Tetisheri statue, 173 Tuduc, Teodor, 270–271

498 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS

Index

Twenty-Ninth Copper Cardinal (Andre), 389, 391 van der Veken, Jef, 25, 130–131, 293, 294, 336 Twitter, 413 van der Weyden, Rogier, 25, 130, 336, 343 Madonna and Child, 22 Uecker, Günther, 406 van de Wetering, Ernst, 397 Ukeles, Mierle Laderman Vanitas Still Life with a Portrait of a Young Painter Hartford Wash; Washing Tracks, Maintenance (Bailly), 28, 78–80, 79 Inside, 402 Vanitas with Self-Portrait (Bailly), 78 The Keeping of the Keys, 402 van Meegeren, Han, 121, 137, 142, 144–147, 153, Maintenance Art Manifesto, 402 158, 421 Transfer: The Maintenance of the Art Object, 402 Vanni, Giovan Battista, 357 Ukraine, 180–183, 182 van Wegen, Rik, 397 Uncertainty principle, 336 Varotari, Alessandro, 357 Unfinished paintings, completed by another, Vasari, Giorgio, 298, 299 340–341 Vatican, 23. See also Pietà (Michelangelo) Uniqueness, 85 Velázquez, Diego Untitled (Mandiberg), 86 The Toilet of Venus, 63, 64 Uppark House, 107, 108–109, 120 Venice, 82, 149 Urbino, Raffaello Sanzio da, 298 Venice Charter for the Conservation and Resto- Urton, Gary, 15 ration of Monuments and Sites, 96–97, 99 Use-value, 13 Vermeer, Johannes, 137, 142, 143–144, 144–147, Ushabtis, 170–171, 172, 173 153 Utrecht, Adriaen van, 341 View of Delft, 77 Verona, Altichiero da, 349 Value(s) Veronese, Paolo, 298–299, 357 aesthetic, 18–19 Vico, Enea, 305 age, 13, 78 Victorious Youth, 29 art, 13 View of Delft (Vermeer), 77 artistic, 19 Vignola, Giacomo Barozzi da, 307 authenticity and, 12–13, 15 Spinario, 307 cultural significance and, 14 Villefosse, Heron de, 181, 182 defined, 14 Villiers, Caroline, 5 forgeries and, 16, 421 Viola, Bill, 408 historical, 13 Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène, 104, 107 intentional commemorative, 13 Virgin and Child in Flower Garland with Angels modern art and, 376 (Rubens & Breughel the Elder), 343 newness, 13 Virgin Mary with Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint relative art, 13 Paul (Daddi), 344, 345, 346 Renaissance and, 15 Visible restoration, 334, 335, 337, 338 restoration and, 12–19 Visual discernibility use, 13 in conservation, 7 van Baburen, Dirck, 145, 154 in restoration, 25–27 The Procuress, 144, 146 Visual indiscernibility, in conservation, 7

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Index

Voice, of artist, 392–395 Wood, Christopher, 284–285 Voice appropriation, 167–168 Woodblock printing, 52–53 Void, The (Klein), 384 Woods-Marsden, Joanna, 300, 302, 327 Volterra, Daniele da, 329 Woolley, Sir Leonard, 70 Words from Abroad (Adorno), 69 Wady Gabbanat el-Qurud, 174 Work No. 227 (Creed), 384–385 Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew, 306 World Heritage Convention, 97, 98, 101 Walton, Kendall, 16 Worship of Venus, The (Titian), 357 Wang Hsi-chih, 260–261 Worthington, Philip Wang Shimin, 263 Shadow Masters, 398 Wantage, Lady Harriet Sarah, 350 Wyld, Martin, 417 Warhol, Andy, 186, 343, 377, 387–390 Brillo Boxes, 375, 389 Xerxes I, 166–167 Chairman Mao, 390 X-ray, 43, 208–209, 246, 252, 282, 289, 290, Marilyn x 100, 158 340, 369 Red Self-Portrait, 388 Warsaw, 97, 98 Yaka figure, 246–247, 252 Watrin, Luc, 177–178 Yoruba people, 248, 248, 252 Waugh, Evelyn, 178 Young Woman with Unicorn, 347 Weddell, William, 358 Weiner, Lawrence, 390 Zampezzi, Battista, 307 Wells, H. G., 107 Zapotec ceramics, 216–218 Westerman, Floyd, 230 Zembok, Udo, 111 Where There’s Smoke (Baas), 387 Zeus (Getty), 210, 210–211 Wildenstein Institute, 4, 59, 176 Zeuxis, 164 Wildung, Dietrich, 177 Zevio, Aldighieri, da, 349 Wilson, Fred, 405 Zhang Daqian, 261–264, 262 Grey Area (Brown Versions), 173 Zhao Zuo, 263 Winckelmann, Johann Joachim, 45–46, 359 Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility (Klein), Wollheim, Richard, 18, 121, 132, 158, 377, 379 385 Wolterstorff, Nicholas, 15–16 Zuni, 231

500 READ ONLY/NO DOWNLOADS Art: Authenticity, Restoration, Forgery

his book presents a detailed account of authenticity in the visual arts from the Palaeolithic to the postmodern. TThe restoration of works of art can alter the perception of authenticity, and may result in the creation of fakes and forgeries. These interactions set the stage for the subject of this book, which initially examines the conservation perspective, then continues with a detailed discussion of what “authenticity” means, and the philosophical background. The book discusses several case studies where the ideas of conceptual, aesthetic, and material authenticity can be incorporated into an informative discourse about art from the ancient to the contemporary, illuminating concerns relating to restoration and art forgery.

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