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Recent occurrences in the world of Art—lawsuits, faulty attributions and real frauds—have engendered a strong feeling of suspicion not only among collectors but also among connoisseurs and students. With this in mind the Burlington Fine Arts Club (London) has organized an extremely interesting Exhibition, furnished with a catalogue raissoné by Sir Robert Witt, in which he points out that the practice of copying and reproducing works of art has been equally widespread in other ages and for the greater part without a dishonest or nefarious purpose. Some of the world's greatest artists have not been above it—"Raphael copied Masaccio; Rubens, Mantegna and Titian (Mrs. Gardner of Boston owns along with that magnificent canvas Europa and the Bull by Titian, Rubens' wish drawing of it), Teniers, many of the 16th Century Italians, Rembrandt, Velasquez, Gainsborough, Constable and many more all made copies." Among examples of this sort on view is a sanguine drawing Portrait of a Man by Amstel made "for the purpose of reproduction in the volumes of facsimiles of his drawings left unfinished after his death, published by Josi in 1821." Another item is the Harvard Museum Benozro Gozzoli Madonna in its original state, with a photograph made of it before the modern tempera and oil painting was removed. There are real and forged Chinese ceramics, remarkable furniture fakes beside the genuine pieces, carefully analyzed in the catalogue. Even modern Impressionists and Post-Impressionists have been forged. Mr. Walter Sickert (the English artist whose famous portrait of George Moore hangs in the Tate Gallery) says that he has seen pictures exhibited for sale bearing his signature which have never passed through his hands.
Personal Jewelry
Just as the unco elegant have their gowns and hats, houses and gardens designed to shadow forth their personality, individuality or lack of it as the case may be, so Mme. Annie Hystak, a goldsmith of Vienna, designs her jewelry exclusively for its wearer—"she studies the hand for which she is to make a ring, its characteristic movements, its shape, its coloring, and only after she has managed to get a real insight into the personality of the prospective wearer does the ring shape itself before her mental vision." She prefers silver to platinum because silver oxidizes and in the course of time tones into every conceivable shade from the brightest white to darkest gray, while platinum retains always the same cold surface. She has an instinctive feeling for the different qualities of every gem and always tries to create the setting which will most enhance the special beauty of each individual stone. The execution, taste and discrimination of Mme. Hystak's work in the little exhibition arranged at the Mannheim Art Gallery proclaim her no mere craftsman but a real artist. It may be recalled that many of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance began their artistic careers in the atelier of a goldsmith—Ghirlandajo, Cellini, Bartolini, Verrocchio among them.
In London