Exhibiting authenticity / David Phillips.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Phillips, David, 1946-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art--Expertising.

Art.

Physical Description:

xi, 234 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed exclusively in the USA by St. Martin's Press, 1997.

Summary:

Is authenticity a sham? A widening rift between traditional presentation of artifacts in the name of authenticity and critical comment that recognizes it only as a relative and power-laden term confronts art Museum visitors and workers alike. Meanings of authenticity are considered in contemporary society; in historical roles of church and museum in policing the cults of saints and of art, in the practical and conceptual problems of classifying and conserving objects and in our experience as museum visitors. Along the way there are detailed accounts of evidence in art attribution of how it is weighed in scholarly judgements and when art comes to court, of the transformations of works of art through aging and treatment, of perceptual anomaly as a source of changing meanings in artifacts and of the framing of experience.

Contents:

1 The cult of saints and the cult of art 5

2 The connoisseurs' paradox 28

3 The evidence 42

4 Verdicts 70

5 The judges in the dock 91

6 Conservation and condition 126

7 Conservation and intention 165

8 Curators and authenticity 197.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [219]-224) and index.

ISBN:

071904796X

0719047978

OCLC:

36648926