Word: art
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...first time at 15. I suppose that was a bit early. I was about the first in my class." Or Ringo Starr on the Beatles' tours: "The only fun part was the hotels in the evening, smoking pot and that." Or John Lennon on the art of writing lyrics: "We know we're conning them, because we know people want to be conned. Let's stick that in there, we say, that'll start them puzzling...
Normally the stuff of detective novels, such conundrums also bedevil scholars attempting to identify works of art whose authors are unknown. No matter how long such a painting has been hanging, the museum director cannot pass it without a worried, questioning glance. Illustrated on the following color pages are four famous mysteries that have resisted every detective effort...
...PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN. The ambiance is that of the 16th century French court at Fontainebleau. "There was something of a topless craze then," explains Daniel Catton Rich, director of the Worcester Art Museum, which owns the painting. In fact, museums in Dijon and Basel have similar paintings -of a woman, half-veiled, sitting at her dressing table. While the pose is the same, each face is different...
...painter of the Worcester portrait was long thought to be Francois Clouet and his subject Diane de Poitiers, the beautiful mistress of France's Henry II. But after the painting was seen in 1904 at an exhibition of French art, critics reluctantly concluded that the style was not Clouet and that the lady did not look like Diane. Most recently, a Paris scholar claimed that the lady resembled Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. Director Rich calls that opinion "moonshine" and "absurd." His thesis: "All three paintings go back to a lost original, perhaps by Clouet...
...FLORENTINE NOBLEMAN. The portrait is obviously a distinguished mannerist painting. It was bought by the St. Louis City Art Museum in 1943 as a Salviati (1510-63), then identified in 1951 as by Michele Tosini. But any number of other mid-16th century Italian painters have been mentioned as the artist, including Pontormo, Mirabello Cavalori, Jacopo del Conte and Vasari. At the moment, the museum displays it as attributed to Tosini, but no one is sure. Everyone agrees, however, that knowing who is portrayed in the picture would help. The painting's mood is mournful. It could...