Art Museum Journal

At a press conference on July 21, 2009, Nicholas Penny, Director of London’s National Gallery, announced the museum’s schedule of upcoming special exhibitions. Arguably the most interesting one is Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries (June 30-September 12, 2010) in the Sainsbury Wing.

Close Examination... describes the role of applied scientific techniques in determining the true origins of artworks with questionable authorship or authenticity, including workshop pieces, period copies and forgeries. Examples are drawn from the museum’s collection and storerooms.

Among the fakes to be displayed is a Portrait Group (early 20th Century). When the National Gallery purchased the painting in 1923, scholars believed it represented members of the family of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino (r. 1474-1482) and renowned Italian Renaissance condottiere (hired mercenary). Thought to have been executed by an unknown artist familiar with the work of Piero della Francesca (1406/12-1492), Ghirlandaio (1448/9-1494) and Pedro Berruguete (ca. 1450-1504), technical analysis of the painting’s materials proved the composition to be a modern forgery.

A similar fate befell A Man with a Skull, once believed to have been by the hand of Northern Renaissance painter Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8-1543). Scientific testing recently revealed that its wooden panel support postdates the artist’s death.

The results of cleaning and conservation, including the authentication of Old Master works, are also covered in the National Gallery’s intriguing exhibition. Chief among them is Madonna of the Pinks (ca. 1506-07). Once regarded as a 19th-century copy, Dr. Penny’s re-attribution of the painting to Raphael (1483-1520) in 1991 remains controversial. Other unresolved mysteries of art history are also discussed in the presentation.