The Gentle Art of Faking

ew views do not seem to favour old ways-Art patronage and collectomania tend to disap

entirely symbolic, no more satisfied with the early plagarisms, apparently lisping a new tongue but ready to dispel all pagan sentiment in art, to establish the elements of a new expression and purpose more in harmony with the reborn civili

ditions in art. Collectomania very likely became a thing of the past. There must have been dealers in art and antiques, as we can gather from the Digest, and transactions betwee

painted, they decided that the painting belonged to the one who owned the board. Justinian was forced to do justice by stating that if a quarrel arose between the artist and the one who furnished the board the owner of the

and the all but consequent faking, and all the char

name, was like nothing that had been seen before or has since appeared. The objects treasured generally had more intrinsic value than real artistic

nd while suitable for princely display, could be turned into money at any moment. The craze for manuscripts, rare penmanship, and early illuminated parchments may represent an excepti

f life often necessitated the65 packing of the whole museum into a coffer and dragging it with them in their pilgrimages, wars, etc. This not only in some way explains the preference given to goldsmiths' wor

e one of his rarest cups of jasper all studded with precious stones, and seeing Clovis' sorrow at such a loss, picked up the fragments and praying over them, performed a miracle, han

rpose he sent everywhere for all that might be worthy of his collection. Gr

between 560 and 580, Saint Radegond, the daughter of the king of Thuringia, received the poet and canon Fortunatus in her convent of Poitiers and gave him a dinner with the table covered in roses and the richest ornamented silver plates and precious jasper cups. Such a treat inspired the poet with one of his fine Latin poems. Dagober

e and his successors private collections of treasures, art and fine pieces of work again seem to acquire importance. The Bibl

onyx. In the will of this monarch's brother, the Marquis of Friuli, a document dated 870, there is, among other legacies, the enumeration of arms studded with precious stones, clothes in silk and gold embroideries, silver vases and ivory cups, finely chiselled, and a library in which among other notable works are the writings of Saint Basil, Saint Isidore and Saint Cypria

d by the Emperor Frederick II, the son of Barbarossa, bu

sorrowful part, nor was there any inducement to indulge in any of the trickery that had characterized the world of lovers of art during the Rom

being a less hazardous venture seems to have tempted ability in all age

the seed from which sprang the arch-deceive

alloy that is with the Baptist stamped

ns whom he met in hell. Adamo was burned at the stake near the castle of Romena in the Casentino

onoured the Republic of Florence with not a few of his swindling specimens of the golden florin. Marostica, a village in the Venetian domains, challe