Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries

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A Botticelli that has been found not to be a Botticelli, but a painting by a follower of the Florentine master; an authentic early Botticelli that was once believed to be a work by Filippo Lippi; a 15th-century portrait of a Bavarian town clerk that was transformed in the 18th century to resemble a work by Hans Holbein the Younger; and Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks - famously rediscovered by National Gallery director Nicholas Penny at the Duke of Northumberland’s ancestral home, Alnwick Castle, in 1991 - are just a few of the 40 works on display in a definitive exhibition that marks three-quarters of a century of scientific investigation of works from the museum’s collection.

It celebrates the fakes, misattributions and discoveries revealed through interdisciplinary research - a trademark of the museum - involving curators, conservators and scientists.

Although the museum has previously mounted shows concentrating on technical apects of individual artists’ works, this is the first exhibition to focus on a range of pictures from the collection. “We would like people to think about the physical reality of pictures, not just about the image portrayed or what their history might be - both very important - but this exhibition is really about how pictures are created in a material sense,” said Ashok Roy, director of scientific research at the museum, who co-curated the show with Dutch paintings curator, Marjorie Wieseman. “It’s our hope that people will develop an understanding and interest in this type of approach to looking at pictures,” he added.

Displayed thematically over six rooms, the exhibition opens with “Deception and Deceit”, a section devoted to period copies and modern forgeries, including a portrait of a man and two children once believed to be a 15th-century painting depicting members of Urbino’s ruling Montefeltro family, but now determined to be a 20th-century fake, possibly the work of Italian restorer and forger Icilio Federico Joni or one of his contemporaries. “Transformation and Modifications” features paintings that have been modified to suit changing tastes.

Included in this section is Portrait of Alexander Mornauer, about 1468-88, which was altered in the 1700s to resemble portraits by Holbein.

Paint samples taken in the 1990s revealed that blue overpaint contained Prussian blue - a pigment not widely available until the 1720s. “Mistakes: Attributions Downgraded” contains previously misattributed paintings that have been correctly ascribed thanks to scientific investigation, including Baptism of Christ, a painting that when acquired by the museum in 1894 was “ascribed to” Perugino, within five years it was pronounced a 19th-century forgery by a prominent historian.

Research conducted in 2009 has revealed that it is most likely a 17th-century copy of a Perugino work now in Rouen made by Giovan Battista Salvi (Sassoferrato). “Secrets and Conundrums” features works that continue to baffle experts. The museum has turned what could be an embarrassing purchase into an instructive exercise of connoisseurship with “Being Botticelli”, which features Botticelli’s Venus and Mars, about 1485, and An Allegory, about 1500 (above), by a follower of Botticelli.

Both were purchased as Botticellis at auction by the museum in 1874 with more money being paid for the latter.

According to Roy, the misattribution of An Allegory “can be attributed to the evolution in understanding what types of pictures Botticelli painted and this scholarship has grown since the mid-19th century.” He added: “There is an interest in these kinds of pictures [referring to An Allegory]; they are not the greatest paintings, but they have something to tell us about other works of art produced in this period.” The final room, “Redemption and Recovery”, contains works such as Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks, about 1506-07, and Caspar David Friedrich’s Winter Landscape, 1811.

Visitors are shown how the Raphael was authenticated, while an infrared reflectogram of the London version of the Friedrich revealed an underdrawing not found in the version at the Museum für Kunst in Dortmund, suggesting that the London painting is the original. E.S.