080064 VO Original - Forgery - Misattribution (2020W)

Anyone who visits the same museum more often will notice that the same work is attributed to different artists over time. The reason is the following: Until the 19th century, there are usually no firm clues (signature, written sources such as orders or invoices). Dating, localization and attribution of a work or even proof that it is a forgery can therefore usually only be provided on the basis of iconographic and, above all, stylistically analytical criteria. In recent decades, material-analytical procedures have been added as a decision-making aid.
The topic of “forgery” has become exciting in recent years, among other things due to the “Beltracchi case”: a whole series of supposed 20th century paintings, which fetched top prices in the art trade and were also shown in museums and exhibitions, ultimately proved to be forgeries. Their author, Wolfgang Beltracchi, was not only well informed about the content and style of the artists, but also about scientific methods of investigation and evaded the latter with great skill.
While the media like to deal with the topic of “fake” and thus make it accessible to a broad public, it is usually left out of university teaching. Own experiences with false dates and attributions as well as forgeries form the starting point of the lecture. They will be combined with examples from the research of others. The works will not only be placed in their supposed context of origin, but also in their factual context, thus forming an Ariadne’s thread that leads in two directions at once.

Methods:
Iconography, iconology, style analysis, source studies, etc.

The lecture will be supported by a power point presentation and streaming available on learning platform Moodle, as well as a tutorial.