What Objects Mean by Berger (chapters 8 – 14)

Elvie Mertz

Artifacts and Cultures

Fall 2013

What Objects Mean by   Berger (Chapters 8 – 14)

Chapter 8 - Authenticity

1. What different ideologies and world-views are reflected in the different ways of portraying royalty in the two versions of the painting?

Each painting reflects the current social views of that time about royalty.  The original painting by Peake has a lot of symbolism including Father Time, a plaque with the 3 feathers which identifies the rider, the jousting pole, the head dress and the massive sturdy white tilt horse which is used in jousting. There is more symbolism not listed here.  The first picture shows the wealth of the prince, the fact he is seizing the opportunity by showing Father Time, and the royal strength of the prince is implied by the horse which he controls. This is the ideas and the view of the royalty. The view of the time becomes one of wealth and strength with the ability to act quickly.

The second painting is given the view of how society thinks a prince or monarch should be viewed. The first painting was viewed as outdated. (Berger, p. 110)  One of the new symbolisms is of a leaner, well defined grey horse with a black mane.  Although quite a bit of the previous symbolism was removed there is still some in the picture.  The 3 feather plaque remains, a strong but leaner horse, and a change in the background with a tree (no house) as an Arcadian backdrop of the time.  This is a less cluttered, cleaner, streamlined look. This promotes the strength, as seen by society, in the house of royalty.   The revision of the oil painting promotes the changes in society’s view of how royalty should be portrayed.  This is much different from the medieval view of the first painting.

1. Write a paper on people who have created fake painting or false artifacts and fooled experts.  How did they do it?  What specific techniques did they use?  How were they found out?

In my search about faking artifacts is the article I found about Native American items. The author, Berner, termed the word Artifake.    According to this article there are several ways to create an “Artifake”.  Producers of such items will go to a museum and make 3 dimensional pictures or images of a true artifact.  These items are rendered in the exact raw materials that the Artifact was made in. Berner discusses how a fake Native American artifact can be produced by in the following quote:

Let me share a few examples, ‘Great Pipes’ of the ancient Southern cultures were made with brownish green Meig County steatite from Tennessee or greenish black steatite found in Virginia and North Carolina. To replicate modern copies of these expensive artifacts, the above-described material is again being quarried. Fresh material also carves easily and takes a nice polish. The "artifakers" sometimes even include a few marks. The final step in manufacturing is a chemical immersion-bath which produces a false patination.