Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren

Transcription

1 Carnegie Mellon University Research CMU Department of Philosophy Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren Preston K. Covey Carnegie Mellon University, dtrollcovey@gmail.com Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Philosophy Commons This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Research CMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Department of Philosophy by an authorized administrator of Research CMU. For more information, please contact research-showcase@andrew.cmu.edu.

2 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren A Videodisc for Aesthetics & Art History Preston K. Covey Director, Center for Design of Educational Computing Carnegie Mellon University June 15, 1990 The Journal of Computing in Higher Education Volume 2, Number 1 (Fall, 1990) The videodisc package by Lisa Leizman and Preston Covey won the 1990 Best Humanities Software Award in the EDUCOM / NCRIPTAL Higher Education Software Awards Program.

3 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 2 Contents Educational Goals 3 Student Difficulties in the Domain 5 Interactive Video Solutions 7 Specific Software Features 8 Figure 1: The Program Index Card 9 The Bookshelf 9 Figure 2: The Bookshelf Card 10 The Vermeer and Van Meegeren Albums 10 Figure 3: The Vermeer Album 11 Figure 4: Vermeer Album Table of Contents 12 Figure 5: Vermeer Album List of Plates 13 Figure 6: Vermeer Album Plates 14 The Documentary Film 14 Figure 7: Index and Control Card for the Documentary Film 15 The Critics File 15 Figure 8: Index Card for the Critics File 16 The Investigation Modules 16 Figure 9: Card Classifying the Internal Evidence 17 Figure 10: Sample Comment on Religious Subject Matter 18 Figure 11: Sample Comment on Composition 19 Figure 12: Sample Comment on Details of Figures 20 Figure 13: Sample Comment on Facial Features 21 Investigation One: The Internal Evidence 21 Figure 14: A Dramatic Development 22 Investigation Two: The External Evidence 22 Figure 15: Sample Comment on Bredius Certification 23 Figure 16: Sample Comment on Cobalt Blue Finding 24 Figure 17: Sample Comment on Condition of Canvas 25 Figure 18: Sample Comment on Other Alleged Forgeries 26 Experiential Learning 2 6 Developmental Testing 28 Impact 29 References 30 Availability and Acknowledgements 31

4 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 3 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren A Videodisc for Aesthetics & Art History Educational Goals. The appreciation or historical study of visual art depends crucially on assumptions or claims that given art works can be attributed to given artists in given periods; both the appreciation and history of art presuppose a methodology of attribution and a theory of evidence; and these are open to philosophic question and analysis. Apparently straighforward, deceptively prosaic empirical questions of attribution (By whom was a given work created and when? ) are themselves often influenced by judgments of aesthetic value (as when features reflecting the artistry or artfulness of a work are themselves taken as evidence for attributing the work to a given master). Philosophy begins in wonder, and our wonder about What is art? o r why we value it, wonder about what makes any artifact a work of art, wonder about the source and nature of aesthetic value is best catalyzed when our assumptions about the attribution of a presumed art work are cast in doubt or violated. For this reason, the study of forgery and issues of artistic attribution is a powerful motivation to philosophic wonder and aesthetic inquiry. Of all the realms of arguable human values, aesthetics perhaps purports the most mystifying questions. Aesthetic inquiry can therefore provide paradigmatic insights into very generic issues of human valuing and inquiry. But the student requires special means, motive, and opportunity for the study. A primary concern of aesthetics or the philosophic study of art is the critical understanding of the criteria and methods by which we attribute aesthetic properties or value -- which in turn requires the critical analysis of evidence and evidentiary issues, which in turn requires close attention to data and detail, which in turn requires access to the relevant data and detail. The Art or Forgery? videodisc is an educational tool and resource that provides for these three requirements of the philosophic and historical study of art, for we might call the Triple A tour of visual art and aesthetic values: Convenient access both to information about the art works in question ( external evidence) as well as to the relevant works themselves ( internal evidence). Close attention to the primary data, the details and features of visual art works themselves (the internal evidence for aesthetic judgments and attributions). Critical analysis of both the evidence and the evidentiary issues inter-related judgments of attribution and aesthetic value. pertinent to our

5 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 4 The pivotal problem posed by the videodisc is the problem of attribution, the prosaic problem of attributing authorship to an art work. But this problem, made dramatic in the notorious case of Han Van Meegeren s alleged forgery, is really a heuristic vehicle for the larger educational mission of the videodisc: an introduction to paradigmatic evidentiary issues in the study of visual art. In trying to decide the disputed attribution of a painting, a student must confront more fundamental questions like the following: What is the relevant evidence? What makes it relevant? Why does it count as evidence for or against a given attribution? What are your reasons for selecting, weighing, and balancing the evidence as you do? ineluctably, the apparently factual question of attribution entails questions of aesthetic value: What value judgments contribute to the attribution? What evidence supports these value judgments? What difference does the attribution make? What value is added or lost by an attribution? Is a forgery, a successful* forgery, any less a work of art for not being attributable to a given master? What makes a work a work of art, anyway? That it was created by a certain master? Or that it was a rtfu lly created? This is a version of Plato s classic Euthyphro question about the authoritative source of 'goodness : Is X good because the Gods say so, or do the Gods say so because it is good? As Socrates could turn the most prosaic of questions into the most profound of inquiries, aesthetics can turn the matter of attribution into fruitful philosophic wonder or, at the least, critical thinking and analysis. Aesthetics teaches more than art appreciation; it offers very basic but special lessons in the problems of evidence and truth in the realm of disputed human values, in the problematic relationships between putative facts and values, in the protean nature of human knowledge and the complex web of interdependencies among our beliefs-crucial lessons all for educated persons. But these are lessons that are best learned by doing, through first-hand experience with the task of attribution, rather than through the second-hand deliverances of the textbook or lecture. The attribution problem provides an opportunity to exercise skills essential to the critical and analytical investigation of what makes a work of art art. These include the skills of observation, attention to detail, defeasible judgment, and critical reflection involved in the generation and testing of hypotheses in any domain afflicted with ambiguous data, conflicted evidence, competing authorities, and self-serving motivations - normal vitiating factors in fallible human inquiry. The enjoyment of first-hand experience in the task of attribution (and the aesthetic terrain that unfolds in the process) requires motive, opportunity, and means. The strange case of Han Van Meegeren s forgeries is a classic case study in the fallibility of authoritative human judgment. The

6 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 5 drama of conflict among experts, the intrigue of an international art scandal in the historic setting of the Nazis defeat provides motivation in itself. The videodisc brings this drama to the student with the opportunity to explore the data of the case (albums, documentary film, and textual resources from many sources and remote sites) -- in detail, at her own pace, in one convenient, perspicuous environment. The software and interface provide the moans to interrogate the evidence in the case in order to formulate and test her own hypotheses. The environment is designed to facilitate as well as motivate attention to data and analysis better than lectures or books. Student Difficulties in the Domain. Aesthetics, as much as any laboratory science or studio art, requires a convenient environment for active, hands-on exercise in the skills of close observation, hypothesizing, and critical analysis. We believe that any conceptual or learning difficulties students may encounter in aesthetics or art history can only be helped by on-demand access to the resources for study and by tools that facilitate careful attention to detail and the critical analysis of evidence. The Art or Forgery? videodisc is designed to exercise the user firs t hand in the kinds of observation, hypothesizing, and analysis that are presupposed by any critical understanding of aesthetic issues, not just by the attribution of suspected forgeries. The difficulties we address are largely logistical, motivational, and instrumental difficulties: difficulties in providing students with the means, motive and opportunity to engage actively in the kinds of self-directed observation, hypothesizing, and analysis required for the critical study of visual art (be it in aesthetics, art history, or art appreciation courses). For convenience, I summarize the target educational objectives as facilitating access, attention, and analysis and describe the associated difficulties, respectively, as follows. We take these difficulties to be obvious to commonsense, but they are just as commonly observed by our students. Providing convenient access to a variety of relevant resources for study, including the primary data of the relevant art works as well as textual and animated visual information about them. Students do not have the opportunity to study the paintings presented on slides during a lecture. No single book in the library will provide them immediate access to all the relevant paintings. It is not convenient to manipulate several heavy art books at a time. And few libraries have all the books that cover all the paintings of interest for comparison (ours does not; we gathered our uniquely complete collection of the Vermeer and Van Meegeren prints and slides for the videodisc

7 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 6 from libraries and museums in several countries). The computer/videodisc environment makes a large quantity and variety of resources easy to access in one place. Students do not suffer the costs of gathering the resources on their own, the inconvenience of manipulating them, the distraction of viewing them at disparate times, the involuntary and limited exposure of lecture presentations, or the limitation of what a teacher or editor selects for their consideration. This is one very important value of the quantity of data we provide: One relevant skill in any inquiry is discerning and selecting relevant data; therefore, the capability to provide a superfluity of data ready to hand, hard to ignore, and easy to explore provides an important educational opportunity to learn to exercise one s intuitive skills in relevantly selective attention. We therefore provide many more paintings for comparison than would be required to argue or decide the attribution of the alleged forgery, to allow (indeed, force) the users to discover, revise, or reinforce criteria of relevance on their own. Motivating atte n tio n to data and detail. It is an age-old shiboleth of learning: you can bring a horse to water, but.... You can show paintings in a dark room and point to details, but the user s attention and schedule of interests may be elsewhere during that lecture period. We assumed the following from the start: that there is an advantage to the self-scheduled learning afforded by the computer; that the easy availability of a wealth of resources in one place, under one s control, helps motivate attention to the data; and that attention to detail will be motivated by the dynamic capability to compare data at will side-by-side, to focus on detail, to change focus quickly, and to be goaded by commentary in the midst of this process, which can be very iterative or extensively reflective, as the user wills. Students often comment that the very ease and animation of the software s exploratory mechanisms tends to compel playful exploration. In the prototype generations of the videodisc and software (an IBM system in 1988, a Macintosh system in 1989), we made available only a limited number of paintings attributed to Vermeer to compare with the alleged forgery by Van Meegeren; we had minimal textual material to provide commentary or historical color; and we did not include the historic documentary film on the Coreman s Commission investigation of the case. Our students most universal and vociferous demand was for more paintings, more information, historical and biographical; they all wanted more primary and contextual data. This was data they did not strictly need for the investigation of the key internal evidence for and against the forgery claim, but a vast majority of the students

8 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 7 were motivated to view, read, and explore further, and wished there had been more to explore. Spontaneous comments from over half the students like the following are indicative of the motivational effects we want: I would love to do this more ofteni... forced us to look at the paintings very closely [and] compare... I looked at and studied paintings harder than I ever have. Facilitating critical analysis of the evidence. I say facilitating because we have no hard evidence yet that the environment does in fact induce a deeper understanding of evidentiary issues. We assume, however, that a facility with which to access and attend to a rich store of conflicting data and commentary is a necessary if not sufficient condition for thinking critically about criteria and evidence relevant to aesthetic judgment or attribution. Ordinarily, without the computer/videodisc environment, the students do not have the opportunity to easily, freely, and iteratively combine attention to detail with critical analysis and with transparent, immediate access to the relevant resources. Ordinarily, they are busy taking notes or impressions and must rely on those notes and impressions when they later, in the absence of visual data, sit down to think hard about the issues. In our environment, there is a continuous feed loop among the processes of access, attention, and analysis which is hard to replicate in lecture or literary presentations. Our supposition is that this iterative processing can only help the cause of analysis. Interactive Video Solutions. Our attempted solutions to the needs posed above exploit both the interactivity of the computer and the availability of both still and motion video resources on videodisc. The common, familiar technologies of photography and slide projection have long made it possible for teachers to bring high-quality images of art works located in distant and disparate museums into the classroom. Lecture presentations can then provide learned commentary with the aid of good visual images. Art books collect and provide scholarly commentary on the images of art works and allow convenient access in local libraries. For the appreciation of scale and textural details that are not well enough captured in photographic images, many major cities and schools have available original art works in museums. All these facilities provide us with variously effective modes of access to art works or representations of them as well as information about them. But the slide-show lecture, while drawing attention to relevant detail and expounding analysis, does not allow a student to selectively explore, actively hypothesize, and reflectively analyze by her own lights at her own pace. And art books, while allowing self-directed attention and self-paced reflection, provide inanimate repositories of data or argumentative essays with limited editorial purviews.

9 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 8 As a supplement to these traditional tools for the study of art works unavailable in a local museum, interactive video provides a dynamic, animated enviroment that combines access to several kinds of resources (still images, motion video, and text) with interactive modes for stimulating attention to detail and analysis under the user s control. Unlike the slide-show lecture, the videodisc does not didactically preempt the course of the user s inquiry, while still providing structure and guidance. Unlike the book, the videodisc environment provides a greater quantity and variety of visual resources (more plates than are available in a single book or library as well as an engaging documentary film) and a more flexible but perspicuous structure within which to freely explore and test one s own hypotheses. In short, the videodisc provides an opportunity for students to explore and to hypothesize on their own initiative within a dynamic, open, but structured environment. For this reason, the videodisc is conceived as an educational tool not only for aesthetics and art history students, but also as a self-study aid for sharpening the observational capacities and sensibilities of the museum-going public. While the videodisc is typically employed by individuals or small groups, it can also be used with a projector, like a slide carousel, in lectures or seminars. Besides its use as a curriculum module, as a discussion or lecture presentation aid, or as a standalone self-study aid (for a course, library, or museum), the videodisc could be used to import humanistic context into a calculus or chemistry class for calculating spectographic or radiographic analyses (Van Meegeren s case is one chapter in Braun et a/. s Differential Equation Casebook). Specific Software Features. There are two basic modes in which to navigate the A rt or Forgery? environment: free exploration of the case materials using the Bookshelf of generic resources and the more structured tasks assigned in the two Investigation modules. The user s selection is made from the program s title card (Figure 1, below).

10 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 9 Figure 1. The Program Index Card. The Bookshelf- The Bookshelf is simply a visual index for direct access to the following resources, which can be opened simply by clicking with the mouse on the item s icon. Each resource is described further below. > Vermeer Album. The total Vermeer corpus as authenticated in An Album of Van Meegeren s Forgeries. Paintings he claimed to have forged. An Album of Van Meegeren s Own Work. Works painted under his own name. A Documentary Film on the laboratory investigations of the alleged forgeries. >1 Critics File. A sample of critical reactions in the historic controversy. A Bibliography. Scholarly references on forgery, Vermeer, and Van Meegeren.

11 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren Figure 2. The Bookshelf Card. The Vermeer and Van Meegeren Albums All the albums contain the following navigational aids: A table of contents and a list of plates, where the user has only to click to access any item; or the user can browse by clicking back and forth through each book page by page. Each album contains a brief synopsis of historical or scholarly background in an Introduction and a Catalogue of the works. The button for the title entry on each plate in any album activates a pop-up menu that allows the user to select full-frame or detail views of the given painting and to view the painting alongside the alleged forgery for direct comparison. Some plate entries draw further attention to particular detail views and comparisons. The Vermeer album also contains a supplementary plate of a painting by Caravaggio illustrating his postulated influence on Christ at Emmaus (still ragarded as an authentic and important Vermeer in 1944, but eventually claimed as a forgery by Van Meegeren) and an animated illustration of the Camera Obscura technique. A key pedagogical strategem of the Vermeer

12 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren album is that it situates the user in the historical context of the evidence available to and authenticated by leading art experts as of 1944; at that time, however, the "authentic Vermeer corpus was in fact contaminated by other forgeries by Van Meegeren, including Christ at Emmaus. (See the section Experiential Learning, below, for the importance of preserving this artifact of mistaken and misleading scholarship.) Clicking on any icon on the Bookshelf will open HyperCard access to the named collection of textual or visual resources. Figures 3 through 6, below, illustrate typical functions of an album, in this case the 1944 Vermeer Album. Figure 3. The Vermeer Album.

13 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 1 Figure 4. Vermeer Album Table of Contents.

14 A rt or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 1 L ist of P lates 9. MAIDSERVANT POURING MILK 10. GIRL DRINKING VITH A GENTLEMAN 11. THE COUPLE VITH A VINE GLASS 12. VIEV OE DELFT 13. GIRL INTERRUPTED AT HER MUSIC 14. LADY AND GENTLEMAN AT THE VIRGINALS (THE MUSIC LESSON) L ist of P lates 16. LADY VEIGHING PEARLS (LADY VITH A BALANCE) 17. YOUNG LADY ADORNING HERSELF VITH A PEARL NECKLACE 18. LADY VITH A LUTE 19. VOMAN VITH A VATER JUG 20. HEAD OF A GIRL VITH PEARL EAR-DROPS 13. VOMAN IN BLUE READING A LETTER Figure 5. Vermeer Album List of Plates.

15 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren P lates 3. CHRIST ÀT EMMAUS Rotterdam: Boymans Museum oil/canvas x cm (4 5 1 /2 x /8 " ) C.1656 T P lates 5. GIRL ASLEEP AT THE TABLE NevYork: Metropolitan Museum oil/canvas 87.5 x 76 cm (34 1/2 x 301/8") c AT THE PROCURESS _ifull-fraae IL L XL TR l TR... BR I BR BL I BL Conpare Full Franes 6. LADY READING A LETTER AT AN OPEN VINDOV Dresden: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Gemäldegalerie oil/canvas 83 x 64.5 cm (32 3/4 x 25 3/8") c Figure 6. Vermeer Album Plates. When the user selects a particular view of a plate in the HyperCard album displayed on the Macintosh monitor, the painting, detail or comparison is presented on the system s separate color display monitor. The buttons at the bottom of each HyperCard graphic allow the user to navigate directly to other parts of the program and return to the previous location in the album or program. The Documentary Film. The videodisc contains the film that was made in 1949 documenting the intensive scientific and forensic investigation of Van Meegeren s alleged forgeries by an international team headed by the distinguished art historian P.B. Coreman s, Van Meegeren s Faked Vermeers and De Hooghs. This film adds historic ambience to the case material but also provides important "external" evidence for the attribution of the alleged forgeries as well as a motivational study of Van Meegeren s career and his ingenious techniques. The film may be run in its entirety or controlled and viewed

16 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren selectively like a VCR. The film s control panel (Figure 7, below) contains an index to the Vermeers allegedly forged by Van Meeegeren and to the topics and specific evidence of the Coreman's investigation, whereby relevant video segments can be accessed directly. This film also dramatizes science and technology in the service of the arts. Figure 7. Index and Control Card for the Documentary Film. The Critics File. This textual resource (Figure 8, below) contains representative journal articles and press clippings that reflect the intense controversy among the art experts and in the press at the time of the Van Meegeren scandal. Besides adding historic color, this external evidence of authoritative judgment helps the user (who may suffer the delusions of wisdom associated with 20/20 hindsight) to appreciate how persistently controversial the Van Meegeren case was for many years.

17 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 16 F ile of Expert V iew s Clfok f*r ttc r v k v s. 1 I I I Detractors Click on the name of the file you wish to open. Bookshelf I Quit I Figure 8. Index Card for the Critics Files. In addition to the bibliography of selective scholarship on art forgery, Vermeer and the Van Meegeren case, we will add a Manual of Evidence, indexed and linked to the abums and documentary film, to explain and illustrate the various types of internal" and "external evidence deployed in the attribution of art works (for example, thematic evidence, stylistic evidence, compositional motifs, the nature and bearing of cobalt blue in pigment analysis, the techniques of radiographic and spectrographic analysis, etc.). This manual will provide a systematic overview or review of the evidentiary issues that are documented in the user s odyssey through the program s two Investigation Modules. We plan an additional module on a new and recently authenticated Vermeer. The Investigation Modules. These are not tutorials, but merely structured tasks that direct the user s attention to certain types of evidence and critical assessment of that evidence. A typical introductory class assignment

18 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren with the videodisc would assign these tasks in order, inasmuch as they build one on the other, and only then allow the students to review and explore at will the resources of the Bookshelf to which they will have been discretely introduced in the Investigations. (Instructors can deactivate direct access to the Bookshelf.) An intermediate or advanced class where students may have some prior knowledge of the facts and disposition of the Van Meegeren case could allow students to construct an analysis of the case directly from the Bookshelf resources. Students may also simply be rewarded by watching the documentary film in its entirety. They may then review the documentary selectively, using the VCR-like controls and index of evidence provided in the Bookshelf. The basic structure of each investigation is to pose the attribution problem and then lead the user systematically to consider different types of evidence, directing attention to particularly important pieces of evidence throughout. In each case, the user decides how she thinks each category of internal" or external evidence counts: whether it is evidence for forgery, or for authenticity, or whether the evidence is ambiguous or she is unsure how it should weigh. The user can then receive comments on her choices (by clicking on the Comments button as in Figure 9). Click in the appropriate box to indicate how each of the following factors counts. FORGERY UNSURE AUTHENTIC Details of figures 4. Facial features 5. Circumstances of discovery 6. Light Visual quality D - -D - - o - - o - > o- a - a- oo - a - - o - a - O - o - a - Click COMMENTS button for feedback after each decision. ( Comments ) You may change your mind as often as you wish, but you must ultimately decide how every factor is to be counted. When you have made a judgement about all of the factors, click on the SUMMARY button to obtain a summary of your considered judgement. ithutm fi' Ti "jfi nrra rrrra nm ct'tth Figure 9. Card for Classifying the Internal Evidence.

19 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 1 8 The Comments consist of brief heuristic questions, observations that suggest counter examples or the ambiguous double-edged nature of the evidence, or suggestions to examine other pieces of evidence, the details or specific comparisons of paintings (directly accessible by clicking HyperCard buttons in the Comment, as in Figures 10 through 13, below). R eligions Subject Matter-FORGERY Are you sure? Remember that Vermeer did paint some religious subjects. Take a look at "Christ in the House of Mary and Martha" and Christ at Emmaus" and re-read the introduction to the Vermeer album. (C hrist in the House o f M ar^and M a rth a ) I ( Christ at Emmaus J ( introduction) Figure 10. Sample Comment on Religious Subject Matter.

20 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 1 9 C om position -FORGERY The crowded arrangement of the figures in "Christ and the Adulteress" might suggest that Vermeer is not the author of this painting. Go back and compare it again with Vermeer s "Christ in the House of Mary and Martha", "Diana and her Companions", and "At the Procuress". Do you find any similarities in the compositions? ( Christ In the House o f M ary and M artha ) ( Diana and her Companions) ( fit the Procuress) Figure 11. Sample Comment on Composition.

21 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren D etails of Figures FORGERY Are you sure? Compare the clothing of the figures in the Adulteress" with those of the figures in "Christ at Emmaus, "At the Procuress" and "Girl Drinking with a Gentleman". Also look at the details of sleeve stiching in the "Adulteress" and "Maidservant Pouring Milk". (M aidseruant Pouring M ilk) ( Christ at Emmaus] (flt the Procuress) (G irl Drinking uiith a G entlem an) Figure 12. Sample Comment on Details of Figures.

22 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 21 Facial F eatu res FORGERY Well, don't the features of the Adulteress look like those of the women in Lady Reading a Letter at an Open Window" and "Woman in Blue Reading a Letter"? You might also compare the features of Christ in the "Adulteress" with those of Christ in "Christ in the House of Mary and Martha" and "Christ at Emmaus" and with those of the man in "The Geographer". (Lady Beading a L e tte r at an Open lulndoui) ( Christ in the House o f M ary and M a rth a ] (C hrist at Emmaus) (liloman in Blue Beading a Letter) (The Geographer) B B S S DSD 023 Figure 13. Sample Comment on Facial Features. Investigation One: The internal Evidence. This module provides a systematic tour of certain generic types of internal evidence relevant to attribution and aesthetic judgment: theme (religious subject matter), composition, stylistic factors (figure details, facial features, lighting), visual quality, and circumstances of discovery (a contextual factor external" to the paintings themselves but included here because these facts are so inextricably tied to the identity of the artifacts). Within this Investigation, the 1944 Vermeer album is always available to the user, but the total Bookshelf of resources is not. The user is directed to consider certain crucial pieces of evidence, but is otherwise free to explore the Vermeer album as exhaustively as she wishes. The exercise is open-ended. When the user has decided how to weigh the various categories of evidence, no answer to the attribution question is given; her judgments are summarized and a startling revelation is made, as it was at the time of Van Meegeren s trial: Van Meegeren claimed also to have painted Christ at Emmaus, a key piece

23 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 22 of evidence for attributing Christ and the Adulteress, so similar in style, to Vermeer. When this revelation is made in the program, the user may directly re-examine and compare the two paintings by clicking on the appropriate buttons (per Figure 14, below). Further D evelopm ent When the authorities refused to believe that Christ and the Adulteress was not a genuine Vermeer, Van Meegeren made another shocking announcement. He claimed to have forged not only the "Adulteress", but several other acknowledged Vermeers", including "Christ at Emmaus" which was then hanging in a place of honor in the Boymans Museum in Rotterdam... and is included in your Vermeer album (as it was indeed included in the authoritative Vermeer corpus of the time). ( Christ a t Emmaus) (Com pare) (Christ and the Adulteress) Figure 14. A Dramatic Development. Investigation Two: The External Evidence. This Investigation takes up after Van Meegeren s trial at a time that expert opinion still refused to accept Van Meegeren s claims to have forged various Vermeers. The context of evidence is broadened to include conflicting scholarly and press opinion and the laboratory investigations that sought to resolve the matter. The user is confronted with the problem of resolving persistent disagreement about the interpretation of both art scholarship and scientific evidence. Within this module, the user has available and is systematically directed to all the resources of the Bookshelf, particularly the following categories of evidence whose weight as proof she must assess:

24 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 23 scholarly certification, chemical analysis (cobalt blue, synthetic medium), forensic evidence (condition of the canvas), other acknowledged forgeries, psychological motivation, and the work ( Christ and the Doctors ) that Van Meegeren painted on the spot in court in his attempt to prove his ability to paint in the style of Vermeer. In the Comments provided on the user s classification of the "external evidence (as supporting FORGERY or AUTHENTICITY or UNSURE), direct access is provided to the relevant Bookshelf resources by HyperCard buttons (as in Figures 15 through 18). Bredius* C ertification: AUTHENTIC Bredius had a long and distinguished career. He was a noted expert in the field of Dutch art and published books on Rembrandt, Steen, and other Dutch painters. By 1937, however, his eyesight was failing. Remember also that following his attribution of Vermeer's Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, Bredius hypothesized that Vermeer must have painted other religious works which would one day be discovered. This theory may have led to blindness of another kind. Figure 15. Sample Comment on Bredius Certification.

25 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren Cobalt blue: FORGERT Since cobalt blue is a pigment which was not known in the 17th century, Van Meegeren spent large amounts of money on the lapis lazuli which Vermeer would have used. The cobalt found in Christ and the Adulteress" was apparently contaminating what Van Meegeren believed was a pure batch of lapis lazuli. Do you think that the single instance of cobalt blue could have been applied in the restoration of the painting 7 Interestingly, the problem of the purity of pigments is an age-old one. In the 15th century, when paintings were commissioned by wealthy patrons, contracts specified the types of precious stones which the artist should purchase with the patron's money. ( Detection o f cobalt blue ) Return Quit Figure 16. Sample Comment on Cobalt Blue Finding.

26 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 25 Condition of th e canvas: UNSURE There are several factors in the consideration of the canvas: the condition of the canvas, the underpainting, the crackle network, the stretchers, and its age. Compare Van Meegeren as claims concerning these features with the scientific data. Do you think that Van Meegeren is telling the truth about how he obtained and prepared the canvas? ( Canuas ) ( Underpainting ) ( Canuasiforgerg technique) ( Underpainting:forgerg technique ) ( Crackle netuiork ) ( Crackle:forgerg technique) (S tretch ers) Return Quit Figure 17. Sample Comment on Condition of Canvas.

27 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 26 Other acknow ledged forgeries: FORGERY There is a startling resemblance between Christ at Emmaus" and the other paintings which Van Meegeren claims to have painted. Is it possible that all of those other paintings could be genuine Vermeers as well? ( Christ fr Adulteress/Christ at Emmaus ) (W ashing o f the Feet/C hrist at Emmaus) ( Head o f Christ/C hrist at Emmaus) * ' ( Isaac & Jacob/Christ at Emmaus) (The Conuersation/Christ a t Emmaus) (Woman Playing M usic/christ at Emmaus) (Woman Reading M usic/christ at Emmaus) Return I Quit Figure 18. Sample Comment on Other Alleged Forgeries. Again, this Investigation is open-ended; Its function is to facilitate access to and analysis of the relevant Bookshelf resources, so that the user can continue a well informed investigation on her own. What can we expect or hope that a conscientious user might learn from this perspicuous configuration of evidence? Experiential Learning. Beneath the rationale of instrumentally facilitating access to data, attention to detail and the critical analysis of evidence discussed already above, there are substantive forms of experiential learning that we wish the videodisc environment to induce, specific experiential lessons that are endemic to human inquiry in general as well as to aesthetics. For example, we want the user to experience how problematic and complex evidentiary issues can be. The narrative material (for example, the Comments illustrated above) is kept simple, to allow a clear view of the contrapuntal play of the evidence. The Investigations facilitate Triple A tours of the case material and thereby aim to optimize access to the relevant resources, attention to detail, and critical analysis of the evidence in assessing competing claims to truth. The investigations are personalized; the user, in effect, is asked: What evidence do you find

28 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 27 convincing? But the user is accountable for her reasons, how she weighs and accounts the evidence. The objective of the investigations is not to arrive at a correct answer to the question Is Christ and the Adulteress a Vermeer or a Van Meegeren? but rather to learn what systematic considerations weigh in the attribution and aesthetic judgment of visual art. An answer to the question can be given simply by authority; but accounting for judgments is best learned by doing, by experiencing the difficulties first-hand. The strategems built into the Investigations and the historically contextualized arrangement of the evidence dramatize the protean nature of "knowledge and "evidence : a painting that was a "known" Vermeer today (evidence for authenticity) turns out tommorrow to be a fake (evidence against). There are evidentiary paradoxes: striking evidence can be two-edged, ambiguous; it can rationally mislead and compel at the same time. Evidence that strikes us as counting fo r authenticity (acute similarities in style and quality of technique) is the very commodity a good forger successfully produces; a high price paid by art cogniscenti only entails the (possibly false) belief that a work is authentic and may only be testament to the quality of the forgery. The lesson: evidence rarely speaks for itself; evidence is a fallible human artifact, "knowledge is a defeasible human construction from data, however tacit, subtle and sure the act of epistemic artifice may be. Human judgment can be rationally intransigent: Is it unaccountably so? If you have been pulled both ways, you may be more understanding of this all-too human phenomenon. What lessons can we learn about human judgment and the interpretation of evidence from the persistent disagreements over Van Meegeren's Vermeers? The "internal evidence is involuntarily compelling to many, as is the flat-earth hypothesis to many who lack a wider global context. But well rationalized belief can prove recalcitrant even to the "external evidence provided by a change in context. We want the user to internalize this tension between the fallibility and compulsion of human judgment. Self-serving motivation explains only some, but by no means all, of this phenomenon. The problem of evidence for attribution provides in microcasm first-hand experience with another important phenomenon: the intricate interdependencies in the web of our beliefs. A belief about an alleged forger s motives may strengthen or vitiate a belief about an alleged forgery, other "objective evidence notwithstanding; as one belief is defeated, so are others; fabrics of evidence are woven and unraveled by such dynamics; the Van Meegeren investigation is such an object lesson. Our structuring of the evidence and exposure thereto aims to induce a palpable, memorable impression of these dynamics of human inquiry: the rise and fall of hypotheses, the confrontation of competing explanations, the unfolding of new perspectives with new context, surprising results)

29 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 28 Finally, without asking, questions of aesthetic value force themselves to the fore: students will have involuntary intuitive or reflexive reactions to paintings, palpable but inchoate impressions of aesthetic quality; and these may change or be violated, just as involuntarily, as context and perspective change. These untutored responses, often experientially dramatic and conflicted, are the raw material for aesthetic inquiry; a reflective, interactive environment gives them free play. Developmental Testing. Formative evaluation and development have proceeded to date through the following three phases: * The first prototype written in C on an IBM XT platform with a text-over-video color graphics monitor was course tested in the Spring semester of 1988 at Carnegie Mellon in , Aesthetics. This is an elective course with freshmen through seniors from all colleges but with heaviest enrollment from Fine Arts. The videodisc was the users only information resource on the Van Meegeren case, on which they wrote a required analytical paper. Summary results of the users' evaluations are reported by David Carrier (who taught the course) and Robert Cavalier (who coordinated the course deployment) in LEONARDO (1989). The majority of the responding students thought the videodisc should be used again (79%), wanted more videodiscs of the kind (77%), and preferred the videodisc format to slide-lectures (78%). This prototype was essentially a truncated version of Investigation One: The Internal Evidence. On the basis of students critical comments, we dropped the role-play premise of the module, dispensed with the touch-screen and digital audio feedback, and decided to migrate the project to a two-screen Macintosh platform in HyperCard. * The second prototype, in HyperCard on a Macintosh platform, was deployed in the same large lecture course in the spring of Student reception was much better and absent the complaints about the IBM version. The students major complaints were limited to the visual quality of the plates and wanting more material to work with than what was provided in the single Investigation module. The two-monitor configuration allowed unencumbered display of the art works along with a separate screen for textual information and dialogue with the computer. * For the current Macintosh version, since an expanded environment of resources was our design all along, we made the following enhancements: we rephotographed the plates from better museum slides and transparencies using a new, much costlier camera; we included the complete works of Vermeer and Van Meegeren, in color when available (in all but a few cases); we

30 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 29 included the Coreman's Commission documentary; and we added historical textual material, the Bookshelf facility, and a second Investigation module. Because we did not press a new master disc from which multiple copies could be made until recently, we had only two check disc copies of the revised and amplified video materials to deploy and develop on. Consequently, we did not deploy the videodisc in the Carnegie Mellon Aesthetics course again this year, but instead gave one disc and software package to Professor Nancy Scott in the Fine Arts Department at Brandéis University to use in her Methods of Art History seminar, required for majors; to allow instructors to use the videodisc in sections of an introductory art history course, to get a comparative sense of the value of the videodisc with less sophisticated students; and to make the videodisc generally available in the Brandéis Fine Arts Library for the community and for review by museum and academic colleagues in the Boston area. Brandéis is our first major test and demonstration site beyond our own campus. Professor Scott s interim report of her students responses have been as favorable as our own, but with the exception that her more advanced students wanted more textual information available online. Amplifying the textual resources and intensifying the Investigation curriculum with a deeper, more extensive hypertext format is part of our longterm enhancement plan. Several of the Brandéis and Carnegie Mellon art students remarked that the visual quality of the plates on the videodisc is inferior to 35mm slides; but none thought this factor detracted from the motivational power or educational value of the disc. Impact. I outline the phases and results of formative evaluation to date above. I summarize here what I think we can say about impact to date. There are three dimensions of impact we would like and expect, associated with the three activities we aim to facilitate. Access. For the purposes of course use, the videodisc makes more and more various resources more readily and more perspicuously available to students than any book, lecture, slide collection, or local library. This is true as a brute logistical fact. In addition, apart from course deployments, the videodisc can be made available as a stand-alone resource for a museum, school, or library. Since this is the first semester that it is being made available, at our pilot test sites in Carnegie Mellon and Brandéis Universities libraries, we have no data yet on impact in the sense of actual incidence of spontaneous use for self-study.

31 A rt or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 30 A ttention. The evidence of student evaluations to date supports the motivational impact of the videodisc, the expectation that the users will be motivated to pay more and closer attention to relevant material, particularly paintings and their features, than in a slide-lecture presentation or if left to their own devices in a course. There is also the motivational impact reflected by our students unanimous testimony that they wanted more material to explore in the videodisc format and that they would like access to more videodiscs of the kind. But the only independent measure, besides their testimony, are the assigned papers from the Carnegie Mellon and Brandeis courses, wherefor the videodisc was the students only study resource. Some of the papers were inspired; all demonstrated the required attention to the case materials on the disc. But we have no comparative measure of the motivational efficacy of the videodisc vis-a-vis other traditional resources besides students (75%) preference for the videodisc over lecture-slide presentations. Analysis. The students subjective reports of motivational value is not evidence that the videodisc has had the desired or expected impact on the specific learning outcomes or thinking processes that I described above as our underlying educational objectives. Such evidence would require evaluative intervention of a different and costlier order. The reports from our Carnegie Mellon and Brandeis faculty as well as from the students suggest the desired impacts, but we have no measures. In this dimension of impact, we can only appeal at this time to the face validity of the instrumental rationale for the videodisc: that learning to analyze evidence and evidentiary issues in an active experiential way presupposes the access that the videodisc provides and the attention that the videodisc motivates. While neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for the desired learning, the videodisc aims to optimize the relevant learning conditions. We must for the time stand on the credibility of that rationale as supported by the perceived merits of the design of A rt or Forgery? References. Carrier, David and Robert Cavalier. Theoretical and Practical Perspectives on Technology and the History of Art History," LEONARDO Vol. 22, No. 2, 1989, pp

32 Art or Forgery? The Strange Case of Han Van Meegeren 31 A vailab ility. We plan to negotiate the release of version 1.0 for distribution in 1991 for a Macintosh II, SE, or Plus equipped with a supplementary color monitor and one of several standard videodisc players. Inquiries should be sent to Robert Cavalier, Center for Design of Educational Computing, Smith Hall, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA Acknowledgements. The design and development team for the current version are Preston Covey and Usa Leizman. Leizman is responsible for the background research and current HyperCard programming. Robert Cavalier coordinated permissions for the plates, slides, and transparencies gathered from museums around the world. Phillip Aspenwall, Steven Bend, Mihaela Roth, and Nicholas Spies all contributed design and programming effort to earlier versions. The project was supported in part by grants from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Pew Memorial Trust, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.