Forgeries

As the arts flourished during the Renaissance, so did the art of forgery. Some forgers copied the style of famous Renaissance artists, while others created fake artworks and other objects from ancient cultures. The increasing public demand for art, combined with the growing fascination with the ancient world, produced an ideal environment for forgery in all forms of art.

Forgery Types and Techniques. The invention of printing expanded opportunities for forgery in both art and literature. Some forgers published their own writings under the name of a famous author, while others passed off cheap copies of books as the work of respected printing houses. Authors had little power to stop fake versions of their work, since most societies at the time lacked copyright laws. Artists were also the victims of forgery. For example, adding the initials of master artist Albrecht DÜRER to a print practically guaranteed that it would sell, even if the forgery was fairly obvious. The blossoming of forgery led critics to develop better standards for telling real art from fake.

Perhaps the most popular type of forgery was the creation of fake "ancient" works of art. The revival of classical* styles during the Renaissance taught writers and artists to imitate ancient models and produce new works in the same style. In some cases, the line between imitation and forgery could grow blurry. One of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, supposedly created a statue of an ancient Roman god, treated it so that it looked like an antique, and buried it. When the statue's discoverers hailed their find as an antique, Michelangelo revealed his joke—proving, in the process, that he had truly mastered the classical style.

Famous Forgeries and Forgers. Perhaps the most famous forgery to be unmasked during the Renaissance was a document called the Donation of Constantine. This document, supposedly written by the Roman emperor Constantine in the 300s, transferred power over the empire to Pope Sylvester I. Popes had historically claimed that this document gave the church the right to involve itself in the politics of other states. In the mid-1400s, humanist* Lorenzo VALLA took a closer look at the Donation of Constantine. An expert in ancient Latin literature, Valla studied the document's style and proved that it had actually been written about 400 years after Constantine's death. Valla not only exposed the document as a fake but also produced a "corrected" version of the text, showing how it would have appeared in the Latin of Constantine's day.

The most successful forger of the Renaissance was Giovanni Nanni, a preacher from the Italian city of Viterbo. Viterbo stood on the site of an ancient city of the Etruscans, who predated the Romans. Nanni became a student of the Etruscans, the first to make serious progress toward translating their language. He then used his knowledge to create an entire false history of the Etruscans, based on objects he had unearthed around Viterbo. He claimed that the biblical figure Noah had traveled to Italy and established a kingdom on the site of Viterbo. Later, he offered "proof" that Noah was an ancient forerunner of the papacy*. This story won great favor with the popes, which may explain why Noah figures so prominently in Michelangelo's paintings in the Sistine Chapel. Interestingly, Nanni was also a great critic who developed strict standards for distinguishing ancient texts from forgeries.