Abstract

The artist Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) is a highly regarded master of the Dutch Golden Age, and consequently the subject of extensive international research. Museums worldwide give him pride of place in their collections. Given the artist’s established prominence it is therefore shocking that in the last fifty years researchers have been able to successfully challenge the status of hundreds of artworks previously considered authentic. Added now to these challenges is a small unsigned portrait of an old bearded man in the University of Pretoria Museums. In 2016 this painting formed part of a pilot study investigating the provenance and authenticity of the J. A. van Tilburg Collection, donated to the university in 1980. Although international experts had attributed the portrait to Rembrandt since the 1890s, this article presents contradictory research that raises significant issues regarding these authentication processes and highlights the current position of considered art experts in such processes. Exploring the provenance of the painting and using the conclusions drawn from technical analysis, we show it is clear the painting in the University of Pretoria collection is not a Rembrandt.

摘要

艺术家 Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) 是荷兰黄金时代备受推崇的大师，因此成为广泛国际研究的主题。世界各地的博物馆都让他在他们的收藏中占有一席之地。鉴于这位艺术家已确立的知名度，因此令人震惊的是，在过去的五十年中，研究人员能够成功地挑战数百件以前被认为是真实的艺术品的地位。现在，除了这些挑战之外，还有比勒陀利亚大学博物馆中一位留着胡子的老人的小型未签名肖像。2016 年，这幅画成为调查 1980 年捐赠给大学的 JA van Tilburg 收藏的出处和真实性的试点研究的一部分。尽管国际专家自 1890 年代以来将这幅肖像归于伦勃朗，本文介绍了相互矛盾的研究，这些研究提出了有关这些认证过程的重大问题，并强调了经过深思熟虑的艺术专家在这些过程中的当前地位。探索这幅画的出处并使用技术分析得出的结论，我们表明比勒陀利亚大学收藏的这幅画显然不是伦勃朗。