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James Beck
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From Duccio to Raphael |
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Connoisseurship in Crisis |
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In 2004, two paintings, a little inspiring Raphael Madonna and an equally little
inspiring Duccio Madonna were sold for prices totaling over 100 million dollars. The
first, known as the Madonna of the Pinks, was bought by London’s National Gallery
and the second, sometimes called the Stoclet Duccio, by New York’s Metropolitan
Museum of Art. The way in which the attributions to their famous authors was
achieved, graphically demonstrates the crisis facing modern connoisseurship in
today’s billion dollar art world. The two objects represent an expenditure of public
money for pictures the size of a sheet of paper. The book explains where and why
the Connoisseurship went wrong, and seeks to establish guidelines for correcting the
process. In the exercise, the author rigorously studies the two pictures and determines
that both are fakes created in the 19th century.
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| | Reviews | | | The New York Times | | A Columbia University professor known for challenging the art historical establishment asserts that a painting purchased in 2004 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for an estimated $45 million is not the work of the early-Renaissance master Duccio di Buoninsegna, to whom it has long been attributed. (Read more ...) | | | The Forbes Art Market Insider | | Is it an ethereal 14th-century masterpiece or a clumsy 19th-century fake? Pull up a ringside seat, folks. (Read more ...) | | | The Art History Newsletter | | From Columbia Magazine: "[James] Beck’s challenge to the authenticity of the Metropolitan Duccio has been laid out in the appendix of his book, Connoisseurship in Crisis: From Duccio to Raphael, to be published by European Press Academic Publishing this fall. (Read more ...) | | | CBC.ca Arts | | The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is refuting claims that a painting it bought for a reported $50 million US is a fake. (Read more ...) | | | CultureGrrl: Lee Rosenbaum’s Cultural Commentary | | Another Met-sensitive book, also due out from an Italian publisher this month (after several delays), is James Beck's From Duccio to Raphael: Connoisseurship in Crisis, which elucidates his doubts about the attributions to Duccio of the Metropolitan Museum's "Madonna and Child" and to Raphael of the London National Gallery's "Madonna of the Pinks. (Read more ...) | | | Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary | | (Helpful Hint: For those of you who just journeyed to this post, via the ArtsJournal link, I also discuss the Duccio here and here. (Read more ...) |
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James Beck
is Professor of Italian Renaissance painting and sculpture at Columbia University of New York.
Since 1992 he is the president of ArtWatch International. He is one of the main expert of the Italian Renaissance, in particular of Jacopo della Quercia, Masaccio, Raffaello and Michelangelo.
He is the author of many articles and books as:
Michelangelo: A Lesson in Anatomy (1975); Raphael (1976; ed. italiana 1983; ed. tedesca 1984); Masaccio: The Documents, in collaborazione con Gino Corti (1975, ed. italiana 1985); Leonardo's Rules of Painting: An Unconventional Approach to Modem Art (1979); Italian Renaissance Painting (1981) Revised and expanded edition, in English, French, German, Italian, 1999-2001; The Doors of the Fiorentine Baptistry (1985, inglese, italiano e tedesco) Jan Sawka. A Book of Fiction, Introduzione (1986); Raphael Before Rome, cura e introduzione (1986); The Sepulchral Monument for Ilaria del Carretto by Jacopo della Quercia (1988 e 1989, ed. italiana e inglese); Jacopo della Quercia (1991); The Tyranny of the Detail. Contemporary art in an urban setting (1992); Raphael. The Camera della Segnatura (1993); The Three Worlds of Michelangelo (New York, 1998) (German, Korean, and Polish editions); Masaccio, a Monograph (2002).
For European
Press Academic Publishing, he published the Italian edition of his book on art restoration
and scandals L'Arte Violata (2002) and From Duccio to Raphael. Connoisseurship in Crisis (2006). |
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