Real or Fake #3

Can we fool you? The term “fake” may be slightly sensationalist when it comes to old drawings. Copying originals and prints has formed a key part of an artist’s education since the Renaissance and with the passing of time the distinction between the two can be innocently mistaken.

In this example we have a curious case of a master and his apprentice. Both men were sculptors: one highly celebrated and popular in his lifetime; the other less-so and now perhaps of greatest interest for his activity as a forger of 19th century sculptural and Old Master drawings. The drawings in question depict the master’s most renowned sculptural monument, now housed in the Pitti Palace in Florence. One drawing is simply a copy of the other, but which is which?

Scroll to the end of the December newsletter for answers.