‘Renaissance’ portrait was unmask as FORGERY

Italian ‘Renaissance’ portrait was unmask as a remarkably sophisticated 20th-century forgery.

Sometimes we see what we want to see. When this Italian ‘Renaissance’ portrait was acquired by the National Gallery in 1923, it was hailed as a unique art painting techniques by an undiscovered master of the 15th century. Since the 1950s, connoisseurship, art historical research and scientific analysis have combined forces to unmask a remarkably sophisticated 20th-century forgery.

This portrait was acquired by the National Gallery in 1923 as a painting techniques of the late 15th century, possibly by an accomplished but unknown artist in the circle of Melozzo da Forli (1438?1494), an artist primarily active in Urbino and Rome. The armorial badge stamped into the gesso at upper right suggested the sitters were members of the Montefeltro family of Urbino, although no family members of the appropriate age and gender could be identified.