| December 25, 2004 |
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Medieval Mystery
This  clever exhibit, sponsored by several museums in the U.S. and Europe, examines a group of eerily similar fifteenth-century paintings from the Netherlands. All of them feature a familiar pose: a beatific virgin gazing down at her lap-bound infant Messiah. In all four paintings, her head is tilted just so, her pinkie extends at just the right angle, even the folds of her dress are identical. Only the backgrounds are different. Sensibly enough, in 1926 a German art historian declared them the work of one artist, the "Master of Embroidered Foliage." But were they? Follow a detailed analysis of the four paintings, from pigment to pinkie, and see why today's curators have a different opinion. (in Art History) |
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