James Beck

RAPHAEL'S "MADONNA OF THE PINKS": A CONNOISSEURSHIP CHALLENGE

However, connoisseurship of Renais sance paintings has declined with the deaths of Longhi, Berenson, and, more recently, Federico Zeri, and the field is now largely neglected in academic art-history depart ments. Most contemporary scholars prefer to deal with iconographic or contextual issues, although monographs and block buster exhibitions are in vogue. Of course, the need for connoisseurs—whose ability seems as much instinctive as acquired—has not disappeared. Works of art requiring proper credentials continue to appear on the art market. Many objects that have old attri James Beck

RESTORATION II: DEBUNKING THE "HAVE YOU SEEN IT?" MYTH

It took me too many years to arrive at a fundamental realization regarding the mod ern restoration industry, its various branch es, subdivisions, and operatives. Underly ing much of the activity is, of course, money, a factor that I had understood from the very start of my own involvement in the issues fifteen years ago. People need to pay the rent and eat, and it is readily appreciat ed that everyone down the line—the restor ers and their underpaid assistants, their technical backup, their suppliers, the pub lishers who grind out expensive new books after every important intervention, the jour nalists who soak up the news of restora tions like a sponge, the art scholars and critics who write the texts, the booksellers and advertisers, the sponsors and their affil iates—has to eat. For better or worse, this can be apprehended as a fact of life, al though not necessarily an admirable one. An additional element or, better stated, a probable motivation is that of fame, public ity, being invited to the right parties, being on the cutting edge, being envied, being hailed in the mass media as an uncoverer, being sought after as a person deeply in volved in the rediscovery of Leonardos original miracle, of Piero della Francescas real color, of Hans Holbeins true inten tions. By an alchemical transference, those involved in highly visible restorations (alas, no one cares about unimportant or minor ones) seem to accrue some of the creating artists force and genius. Who does not desire to appropriate even a fragment of Michelangelos power, Masaccios monu mentality, Rembrandts insights, or Cé zannes structuring? I have reluctantly and sadly understood that all of this is a fact of life, too. The Preacher of long ago knew very well the dangers of Vanitas. For some time, I have also recognized that great museums of the world are deeply conscious of their reputation, together with the realization that the restoration of their

RECENT DONATELLO EXHIBITIONS IN ITALY AND THE UNITED STATES

that without him, what had unfolded would have been dramatically different. That master was not, as one might first expect, Masaccio, however influential and magnificent his con tribution. One can readily imagine that his im mediate followers—Fra Filippo, Domenico Veneziano, and Fra Angelico (although older)— would have eventually arrived at a point that intersected Masaccios inventions, if with a decades time lag and perhaps a little the poorer. They had, after all, the example of Filippo Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Nanni di Banco, and Donatello. And one can go a step further: Don atello, whose reputation was as great in the six teenth century as it was in his own, more than Raphael or Michelangelo, symbolizes the Re naissance achievement. There are several ex