Forgers and ForgeriesConstable, W. G. (William George)
History
Forgers and Forgeries
Constable, W. G. (William George)
Art -- Forgeries
[Illustration: A forgery of Egyptian limestone sculpture (RIGHT)
compared with a genuine example of the type (LEFT). The forgery was
proved so by analyzing the binding material of the color.]
So far, the forgeries discussed have been substantially new
constructions. This is to be expected when the motives of challenge to
the past or self-vindication are at work; usually, however, the forger
prefers to use a genuine piece, wholly or in part, as a starting point
for his operations. This has none of the disadvantages of a copy; it
avoids some of the difficulties of finding suitable materials; and it
provides a pattern for such things as color, texture, and surface
condition, in any changes or additions that the forger may make.
One possibility is to construct a forgery with the aid of genuine
fragments, or on the basis of a damaged original. Joseph Nollekens, the
eighteenth-century English sculptor, who worked with Thomas Jenkins in
Rome, himself tells of making extensive additions to pieces of Roman
sculpture found as the result of excavation, which in due course went
into famous collections in England. Similarly, Dossena sometimes used
fragments of genuine _quattrocento_ work in his forgeries. This, too,
was the method favored by Ioni for making his early Italian paintings.
One great convenience of such procedures (for the forger) is that if
suspicion is aroused and investigation made, it can always be alleged
that the added work is merely honest restoration. Indeed, the line
between restoration and forgery sometimes becomes blurred. Occasionally
there appears in the art market a graft of a piece of one original onto
another; its sellers would be consumed with indignation were it
suggested that they had handled a forgery.
The exploitation of genuine work, however, often takes much simpler
forms than that described above. The signature of a master may be added
to a school piece, or to anything that bears some superficial
resemblances to his work; sometimes, indeed, the addition is to a work
by the master himself, to convince the doubting and to increase its sale
value. Not infrequently, however, there is present an inconvenient
signature of the real author, which has to be obliterated or manipulated
into something more attractive. A special form of manipulation is to put
on some anonymous portrait a name which more or less fits the dress and
character of the sitter, and so increases its sale value. Shakespeare
and Milton are often so honored; and many mediocre portraits picked up
in England have been adorned with the names of Colonial worthies, and
thus found a ready market in the United States.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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