 |
Martin Kemp presented "It Doesn't Look Like Leonardo"
on the first day of the Authenticity in Art Congress |
by Virginia M. Curry
THE HAGUE -- The
Authenticity in Art Congress opened Wednesday here at
the
Louwman [Automobile] Museum in The Hague to discuss how the seemingly opposed
spheres of
science and art history
connoisseurship
might be
aligned
to synthesize a protocol
for establishing authenticity of art, specifically paintings.
Jugen W. Wittmann, the Senior Manager of the Mercedes Benz
archives and Collection Brand Communications, presented the protocols utilized
by Mercedes Benz to preserve the integrity of their vehicles against
forgery. Documents in their archives
record each car manufactured and the “as delivered” condition of the vehicle to
the original owner, with the serial numbers recorded on the vehicle. Wittman noted that such
transparency is important since although there were only 33 of the Mercedes SSK
ever built, there are more than 100 hundred registered as SSKs with the
international Vintage Collectors Group.
Keynote Speaker Javier Lumbreras, the CEO of Artemundi
Global Fund, discussed the collection of art and the frustrations of the
purchaser who is burdened with the proof of due diligence.
He concluded by saying that inasmuch as
science cannot provide a “bulletproof” decision which can stand up as evidence
in court, litigation, in his experience, is not worth the effort.
Lumbreras drew an analogy similar to
that of Jugen Wittmann of Mercedes Benz by noting that of the fourteen
Rembrandt works in the collection of
The Metropolitan Museum of Art only seven of them
have an agreed authenticity.
Professor
Martin Kemp, FBA, Emeritus Professor in the History of Art, Trinity College
Oxford, (and an acknowledged Leonardo scholar) initiated the section on the Historical
Developments in Painting Authentication and spoke about professional opinion in
his paper, “It Doesn’t Look Like Leonardo”. Professor Kemp
argued
the construction of evidence of authenticity as “The judgment by eye in science
and art and the tendency for the eye to see what it expects to see.”
He illustrated his point by comparing
the points of view of a traffic accident, such as the point of view of the
insurance adjuster, driver, weatherman, etc. noting that each one’s
interpretation of what they see is relative to their interest. Professor Kemp
concluded that the observable consequences of the visual techniques of
historical and scientific that are the most specific in identification are the
most malleable.
Above all, he
cautioned, “We should be more cautious and prudent in our personal investments
in our malleable acts and seeing.”
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| Marker for Vermeer in The Hague |
Dr. Margaret Dalivalle presented a paper, “Picturarum vere
Originalium: Inventing originality in early Modern London", which explored the
question of originality of paintings and the invention of the idea of artistic
originality in the eighteenth century.
Professor Frank James, Professor of the History of Science,
Head of Collections and Heritage of the Royal Institution, London, spoke about
the work of Humphrey Davy and Michael Faraday who developed chemical techniques
in the late 18th, early 19th century to understand,
conserve and record archeological and artistic objects, such as the wall
painting and vase painting from Pompeii; the Lewis chess pieces; the unfurling
and attempts to read the Herculaneum Papyri; and their comparisons with the
pigments found on the Elgin marbles.
Dr. Lynn Catterson, an Art Historian from Columbia
University, presented an extraordinary paper and cautionary tale about Stefano
Bardini and his Art of Crafting Authenticity. Dr. Catterson's research led into the archives of Stefano
Bardini whose expertize involved the forgery of “originals” and falsification
of context and provenance. Dr.
Catterson’s research in the
Bardini archive challenges the accepted comparanda and consequently, perceived
authenticity and attributions in major museums.
Dr. John Brewer, Professor of Humanities and Social
Sciences, CalTech, discussed the Duveen Trial of 1929, the hazards of presenting scientific
evidence of authenticity in court, and the subsequent rejection of
conflicting connoisseurship in
court.
Evan Hepler-Smith, a Historian of modern science and
doctoral candidate at Princeton University, discussed the early utilization of
x-ray to fit the material, intellectual and social contours of authentication
and connoisseurship.
Ms. Curry is a retired FBI agent, a licensed private investigator, and an art historian.
Judge Arthur Tompkins,The Four Horses of San Marco
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Judge Arthur Tompkins,The Four Horses of San Marco
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