Much of our evidence for the past comes from paintings and sculpture. But how reliable is this source? Kenneth Clark examines the history of forgeries in art and discusses the motives of the forgers and the reasons for which what now seem to us obvious forgeries were accepted in their time as authentic. He concludes with a discussion of the ethical problems raised by forgeries.
Elka Schrijver documents the productions and popularity of these 18th-century engravings and prints.
In 1764, writes Stuart Andrews, during his successful Grand Tour, James Boswell, then aged twenty-four, visited two great European thinkers, who were, he wrote, far more interesting to him ‘than most statues or pictures’.
Philip E. Burnham Jr. describes how the court of Clement VI at Avignon became a model of humanism and scholarship for princely courts elsewhere in Europe.
At a time when the Turkish rulers of Greece were conducting a profitable trade in ancient statues, Charles Fellows, an enlightened English tourist, rescued a precious hoard from Asia Minor. By Sarah Searight.
M.L. Ryder describes the use of skins for writing material from about 2000 B.C. in Egypt down to recent times.
F.R. Cowell describes how the Romans were keen book-collectors; and the works they bought were often expensive and beautifully produced.
Michael Grant describes how, in their portrait-heads, which reveal an extraordinary grasp of the subject’s personality, Roman sculptors ‘created one of the outstanding arts of all time’.
Stella Margetson describes how English drama arose from the series of religious plays in which men of the Middle Ages expressed their profound, but direct and simple faith.
R.W. Brockway presents palaeolithic man as an accomplished artist.
