Art and science of painting attributions: bernard berenson.

Abstract

Art is naturally associated with collecting. The crucial issues for collectors of art are paintings' authenticity and attribution. Attribution, i.e., determining the authorship, is complex and always involves a degree of uncertainty (1). Attributing a painting includes documentation of provenance as well as corroboration of historical circumstances of the period and the artist's life. Today, authentication of paintings would also involve objective measures such as paint analysis, x-ray, and ultraviolet light examinations. A demonstration of changes and corrections made by the painter may, for instance, help to differentiate between an original and a copy. The end of the 19th century was a time when art history emerged as a separate field. Also at this time the accumulation of wealth in the US increased the purchasing power of American collectors. The wealthy Americans became strongly interested in acquiring European paintings. This naturally involved a demand for expert authentication and attribution. The person who played a central role in formalizing the processes of attribution was Bernard Berenson (1865–1955) (2, 3). He developed an observation-based method of attribution that made him the most sought after art connoisseur in Europe. He was …