Authentications & Attributions

piattino montanari 2

Precious colours of the empire

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The recent discovery of a very rare Chinese porcelain reminds us of another remarkable discovery for Eastern art and technique in which we were involved.

A few days ago, thanks to a search started in 2014, a RU bowl belonging to the Song dynasty was identified within the collection of the Dresden museum. A similar specimen was auctioned, and sold, in 2017, to the record price of 37.7 million dollars.

For the exclusive use of the imperial court, the colour of these porcelain is a particular blue shade made possible by the presence of agate. Poetically it is described as “blue of the sky in a clearing of the clouds after the rain”.

The subject of the discovery made by working together with S.T.Art-Test and the scholar Riccardo Montanari,  on an object of oriental origin too, was also colour, and its trade and use in the East.

The original aim of the research was to demonstrate how non-invasive investigations could be alternatives to micro-destructive ones and diriment in the authentication of oriental porcelain. Thus, favouring non-invasive diagnostics, the study featured a polychrome enameled Mukozuke porcelain, also very rare, produced in the Kan’ei period.

In particular, the analyses investigated blue and yellow pigments. The yellow surprisingly turned out to be Naples Yellow, a novelty for Japanese production. A somewhat destabilizing discovery.

But this data was crossed with historical sources, and it was possible to understand how the Jesuits imported, in their mission to Japan, the Renaissance technique of majolica decoration and therefore the use of this yellow pigment.

Only later, did the Japanese potters transfer this know-how to their Chinese colleagues.

Another step in the endless journey of research. Here is the article for those wishing to read more

(Emanuela Massa)
(Emanuela Massa)
Leonardo_da_Vinci_or_Boltraffio_(attrib)_Salvator_Mundi_circa_1500

Leonardo and the magic world of auctions

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The renewed controversy over the attribution of Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi calls for a reflection on how it has become all-important not so much to choose which painting to buy but which attribution.

We have seen several times how the purchase of some artworks was later refused because of a disputed attribution. Indeed, the painting does not change, but the attribution does, and it makes all the difference.

A typical path is that of the so-called dormant attributions, or works initially proposed in generalist auctions, which after a few years acquire credit , with new more prestigious attributions, and become among the objects of most interest of important circuits. The carousel often does not end there. Because the prestigious attributions are then challenged and questioned. And again the economic value changes.

Logically, one would think that the more important the proposed name is, the more thorough the testing, and, therefore, more certain and definitive the attribution.

Moreover, since the auction is governed by a sales contract, one could imagine that among the documents available to the buyer there must be also the results of a standardized scientific diagnostic campaign – not limited at mere photographic snapshots or involving the use of other not appropriate instrumentation, but following a specific protocol.

But in reality these cases are still rare.

In the magical world of auctions, unlike in other fields, the buyer is not allowed, for example, to appoint own consultants to check the documents exhibited or perform new tests.

Take the Salvator Mundi: it was initially a “Boltraffio” at a lesser auction, then it was later proposed as a “Leonardo” with great fanfare. And only today the controversy focuses on the effectiveness of the analyses used and questions whether all  possibilities have been examined.

We wonder, for example, if the recently discovered Salvator Mundi, owned by the Museum of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, has already been studied with a correct scientific perspective or if it will also be taken for a merrygoround.

We know that during the loan for the “Leonardo in Rome” exhibition in 2019, it underwent a restoration and was proposed with an uncertain attribution Girolamo Alibrandi or the beloved Caprotti. But what about a serious diagnostic campaign?

Of course it is not (yet) proposed as a work by Leonardo but nevertheless a complete diagnostic campaign could help to better clarify the genesis of the copies of this subject by the Leonardesque circle. And to record how it is scientifically possible to distinguish an Alibrandi from a Leonardo. And stop the carousel.

(Emanuela Massa)

(Emanuela Massa)

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Did scientific evidence make all the difference?

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Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel, by Sandro Botticelli, was last offered at auction at Christie’s London in December 1982 with the title Portrait of Giovanni de Pierfrancesco de’ Medici and it was sold to the New York real estate magnate Sheldon Solow for a then-record £810,0000 ($1.1 million in today’s currency).

Some eminent scholars at that time including the consultant in the Old Master department at Christie’s, held reservations about the attribution to Botticelli, and preferred to credit his less renowned colleague Francesco Botticini as actual painter.

As we read in The Art Newspaper Mr. Solow, the then buyer, to be reassured about the authorship of the painting asked an art historian go to the saleroom and report back to him. The scholar told Solow that he indeed did not know whether it was a Botticelli or a Botticini, but that it in his opinion it was the epitome of a great Renaissance portrait. Solow bought the picture the following day.

This time the painting had a thorough scientific examination dossier, including XRays, IR reflectography, XRFluorescence and more. The name Botticini never came back and Botticelli sold at at almost 9x price time compared to 1982.

May diagnostics take the credits for this?

(Anna Pelagotti)

 

vangogh

An Xrays can change your life!

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Much of what we know about Van Gogh comes from his correspondence, especially with his brother Theo, collected and published posthumously by Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, his brother’s widow. In one of the letters, dated January 22, 1886, composed while studying in Antwerp at the Academy, Vincent also writes “… this week I painted a big thing with two nude torsos … two wrestlers”, an exercise probably.

This annotation changed the life of the painting “Vase of Flowers”, later “Still life with meadow flowers and roses”, which experts claimed could not be by Van Gogh, despite the signature, because it was too big and too .. crowded. The signature was also in an unusual position, in the upper right corner. The painting hung for decades in a Dutch museum with an incorrect attribution before the X-ray revealed that it was hiding a completely different subject underneath: a boxing match, and, thanks to the letter, only in 2003, it was recognized. autograph to Van Gogh.

Do you want to have fun combining x-rays and paintings? This couple and others are in our game:

Let’s Play! – Art-Test • Art & Technology (art-test.com)

(Anna Pelagotti)

 

modigliani

Modigliani for all

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Never have paintings raised more doubts on authenticity than those attributable to Amedeo Modigliani.

Even when they are signed, with flawless provenance, doubt lingers.

For years, a painting hwas accepted as authentic only if accompanied by the expertise of very few “connoisseurs”, very often without any scientific dossier or, if existing, only self-referential.

The opinions pronounced by these “names”, even with a faint voice, could, and did, decree the fortune or oblivion of a painting.

Modigliani’s paintings have for years been the subject of studies, sometimes even pseudo-mathematical, on the proportions of the faces or the precise distance of the eyes. But the parameters to establish an authentic Modigliani are still unclear or in any case considered the prerogative of very few. Creating a monopoly that is everything but transparent and scientific.

However,, perhaps also thanks to the many scandals, the situation is changing. Soon there will be a new database to study, new reference elements!

For the first time, the investigations on a substantial number of Modigliani will be presented in an exhibition, and they will be shared. 

Thanks to a powerful diagnostic campaign carried out by C2RMF on 27 paintings, including two copies, and three sculptures, all from public collections, the secrets of Modi’ will be disclosed.

We will be able to dive into diagnostics during the exhibition that will open next February (hopefully), and to listen carefully to what will be discussed during the Symposium on March 17-18.

Starting with Antonia (in the image a collage of the investigations).

 

 

 

(Emanuela Massa)

el greco caen

The discreet charm … of small artworks

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If the History of Art was a big puzzle, there would be many pieces known and exhibited in museums, but just as many kept in private collections … and these are all to be studied and attributed! Each new discovery is a great thrill!
In this case we report about a small piece, but only in its size! It is a painting depicting a “Jesus Christ with the crown of thorns and the cross” owned by a private Catalan collector, previously attributed to El Greco’s workshop or to one of his pupils. The study conducted over two years by the Study Center of Modern Art (Caem) at the University of Lleida allowed for the work to be attributed to the hand of the master El Greco.
We couldn’t help but think of a “piece” that Art–Test had the honor of studying: the “San Giovanni Evangelista and San Francesco d’Assisi” in the Uffizi! The non-invasive, but in any case “in-depth” analyzes, also in this case allowed us to attribute the work to Master El Greco, as we describe here!

 

 

(Federica Fani)

Confronto tra i due ritratti con "medaglione"

A proposal for Botticelli (at auction)

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“In the past century, and at the beginning of this one, dealing with Botticelli would have seemed madness”, wrote Symonds, a great scholar, specialist of the Italian Renaissance, in 1877. And in 1895, Bernard Shaw followed, among others: “Today ten acres of Carracci, Giulio Romano, Guido, Domenichino and Pietro da Cortona, would not buy an ounce of Botticelli, Lippi or Giovanni Bellini”. And in fact it was only at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that there was an abundant traffic of Botticelli’s works, at gradually increasing prices – and of course also of fakes, including documented ones by Joni.

However, original, exceptional works were also sold. For example, the Bardi family, heirs of the commissioners, sold the Santo Spirito altarpiece (Pala Bardi), now in Berlin.

Pala Bardi, Botticelli

Primitives were very popular, and people came to Tuscany to admire them, study them and buy them (the Horne museum, after all, was born this way).

And today? Botticelli are very rare in the market. Are they still so desirable? Or has taste changed?

This is what we will see on January 28 at Sotheby’s, where a very intriguing painting is auctioned. “The portrait of a young man with a roundel” is in fact per se a puzzle. Who is he? Why is he holding this small portrait cut from a more than a  century older painting?

The closest Botticelli painting we know is the “Portrait of a Young Man with a Medal” from the Uffizi. This medallion is also a “foreign body” embedded in the artwork.

Portrait of a Young Man with Medallion, Botticelli

The investigations on the work at auction (rather complete, with a dossier very similar to the one that Art–Test offers to our customers) refers of an unusual adhesive that is located at the edges of the roundel, and therefore it cannot be said with certainty that the composition we see today was originally so. Maybe he too originally had a medal in his hand?

Is it one of the Botticelli brothers who were goldsmiths, portraying their products? Was they who created the medallions with Cosimo?

In fact, the “sitter” of the Portrait of the Uffizi is also unknown. And, given the similarity with Botticelli’s self-portrait of the Pala with the Adoration of the Magi, the hypothesis of a brother has been advanced.

If it is not his brother, we have an idea. He is an ancestor of John Travolta.

pisasso

Picasso, it wasn’t you

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Art diagnostics is, among other things, an outpost for the protection of cultural heritage. The one case we are presenting here is one of the many we have treated. Not all of them become public, as they do not all end in court. Moreover, we have to respect the secrecy of the investigations and the necessary time before the conclusion of the trial.

In France legislation imposes to distroy fake paintings. Perhaps too extreme. But the damages that a fake painting can do to the buyer, to the understading of the esthetic of a painter and to the market, is vast.

Who wants to have a fake Picasso circulating the market?

Years ago we received a painting presented to us as by Picasso. During the first Scientific Condition Report we highlighted inconsistencies, despite the painting having deceived the members of the commission of the Export Office of the Superintendence of Turin. Thus we were asked to deepen the analysis with a complete diagnostic campaign, both with non-invasive and micro-destructive investigations: multispectral analysis, infrared reflectography, radiography, color analysis with XRF, and with chemical analysis on micro-samples. All the elements of the painting were evaluated, even the frame on which it was anchored and the labels affixed. All of course in concertation with the study of the Picasso’s technique and way of working.

After having realized that something is wrong, it is in fact necessary to recognize what are the irrefutable evidences that the artifact is an intentional forgery. In our world the word “false” has multiple declensions, nuances and not always totally negative, i.e. a work is not to be attributed to a given author but may still be of the same period, produced at the same time. In other cases paintings are sometimes incorrectly indicated as false when they are “academy exercises”, in this case they are in fact better defined as “copies”.

This time, however, we were confronted with an “intentional forgery”, that is, an artifact created and placed on the market with the sole purpose of defrauding a possible buyer.

The painting we are talking about is El Pintor, signed “Picasso”. Following the diligent work of the Carabinieri Protection Unit, on 2 August 2019, the investigation conducted was disclosed. Investigation and process that led to identify those responsible.

Of course, the advice is always to proceed with the analyzes before purchasing. And also this time our motto (originally by Leonardo)  falls perfectly: “it is better a small certainty than a big lie”.

(Emanuela Massa)

jodaens

The essential… is hanging in a dusty corner!

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“One sees clearly only with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eye “, said the fox to the Little Prince according to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
But the “essential” protagonist of our story is visible and is visible above all to diagnostic investigations such as reflectography, radiography, x-ray fluorescence and dendrochronology. We are talking about The Holy Family created by Jacob Jordaens which was exhibited for about sixty years in the offices of the city planning councilor of Saint Gilles (one of the 19 municipalities that make up Brussels) and considered a copy.
When, as part of the recent inventory campaign promoted by the Brussels Region, the painting was detached from the wall, it was possible to appreciated what was never seen before, first of all the presence of the trademarks of the panel. It was therefore decided to subject the work to in-depth scientific investigations, with the result of being able to attribute the work to the hand of Jordaens and to set the year 1615 as the date of realization. The same composition was replicated by Master in three more paintings, currently exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Alte Pinakotek in Munich.
The Brussels’ work will be restored and then exhibited in the Old Masters section of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels.
Who knows how many other unrecognized treasures adorn the waiting rooms of offices and buildings? What a teasing question!

(Federica Fani)

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Tale of two copies and one thief (a Cardinal)

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When in 1507 the Raphael‘s Baglioni Altarpiece was placed on the altar of San Matteo in the Church of San Francesco al Prato, in Perugia, no one would ever have imagined that about 100 years later Cardinal Scipione Borghese would have craved its possession so much to commission its theft. Robbery that, following the riot of the Perugians, in a few days became a “voluntary donation” by the friars, immediately ratified by Scipione’s uncle, Pope Paul V.

At the time of the crime, in 1608 Raphael’s art, the Baglioni Altarpiece and the subject of the central altarpiece, “The Transport of Christ“, still enjoyed great fortune. Therefore, many copies had been made over the years.

Two of these are now preserved in the National Gallery of Umbria.

Although of the same size (184 × 176 cm), and equal to the original one, which is now in the collection of the Galleria Borghese in Rome, the Perugian copies were made at different times and on different media.

A copy on wood was made in 1554, when the original was still in its initial location, by Domenico Alfani, a friend of Raphael, in collaboration with his son Orazio. The panel was destined to the church of Sant’Agostino, also in Perugia.

The other copy, instead, on canvas, is attributed to Cavalier d’Arpino, and dated 1609, considering that it was commissioned by the cardinal to compensate the city for the deprivation of the original.

On both of these two copies, Art-Test Firenze performed with the Vis-IR scanner Infrared Reflectography on the entire surface. Thanks to the particular flexibility of the instrumentation, and to excellent coordination with the restorers and art historians of the National Gallery of Umbria, we were able to complete the works in just two consecutive days.

The reflectographic campaign, returning the image of the preparatory drawing, will be used by scholars to study the theme of “copies”, evaluating the methods of execution, through similarities and differences between them and with the original, that was also recently investigated and restored. All of this was to be on display at the exhibition, currently canceled for the closing period due to COVID19, entitled “The fortune of Raphael’s Pala Baglioni through its copies”. 

We hope it will be rescheduled soon!

(Emanuela Massa)

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