The Sculpture of Giovanni Bastianini

FAIN: FA-37625-03

Anita F. Moskowitz
SUNY Research Foundation, Stony Brook (Stony Brook, NY 11794-0001)

No project description available

Associated Products

“The Case of Giovanni Bastianini-II: A Hung Jury?,”artibus et historiae, Fall 2006 (Article)
Title: “The Case of Giovanni Bastianini-II: A Hung Jury?,”artibus et historiae, Fall 2006
Author: Anita Moskowitz
Abstract: Giovanni Bastianini is best known for works that have been considered forgeries, skillful evocations as they are of Renaissance busts and reliefs. Yet the earliest notices regarding the sculptor are completely lacking in any allegation or even hint of fraud on the sculptor’s part. Several decades later the word “forgery” is first attached to his name. This paper will examine the early sources and documentary information regarding a series of sculptures known to be by Bastianini, and to evaluate the more recent and almost uniformly accusatory scholarly allegations. It will become evident that the latter are based on spurious assertions, speculation, and misinterpretations of the sources. For, once it was suggested that he was a forger, the notion gathered momentum and, as in a game of “telephone,” all sight was lost of the earliest evidence.
Year: 2006
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: artibus et historiae

“The Case of Giovanni Bastianini-A Fair and Balanced View (Article)
Title: “The Case of Giovanni Bastianini-A Fair and Balanced View
Author: Anita Moskowitz
Abstract: Giovanni Bastianini is best known for works that have been considered forgeries, skillful evocations as they are of Renaissance busts and reliefs. Yet the earliest notices regarding the sculptor are completely lacking in any allegation or even hint of fraud on the sculptor’s part. Several decades later the word “forgery” is first attached to his name. This paper will examine the early sources and documentary information regarding a series of sculptures known to be by Bastianini, and to evaluate the more recent and almost uniformly accusatory scholarly allegations. It will become evident that the latter are based on spurious assertions, speculation, and misinterpretations of the sources. For, once it was suggested that he was a forger, the notion gathered momentum and, as in a game of “telephone,” all sight was lost of the earliest evidence.
Year: 2004
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: artibus et historiae

“The Case of Giovanni Bastianini-II: A Hung Jury?,”artibus et historiae, Fall 2006 (Article)
Title: “The Case of Giovanni Bastianini-II: A Hung Jury?,”artibus et historiae, Fall 2006
Author: Anita Moskowitz
Abstract: The view that Giovanni Bastianini (1830-68) participated in the deceptions regarding his work sold as Renaissance was questioned in my recent article in this journal. Based in part on the discovery of a damaging letter regarding Bastianini from Alessandro Foresi to the French dealer Davillier, Jeremy Warren has contended that the sculptor did, indeed, act with knowing fraudulent intent. In addition to questioning the validity of Warren’s conclusions, this paper argues that Bastianini’s generally uncontested reputation as a forger has created a barrier to assessing those sculptures that move beyond the historicizing, while also impeding the search for the names and styles of other masters working in stile. Scholars and curators who assume the important role of connoisseurs of Renaissance sculpture would do well to cast a less jaundiced eye on their collection of “forgeries” and related sculptures.
Year: 2006
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: artibus et historiae

Forging Authenticity: Bastianini and the Neo-Renaissance in Florence (Book)
Title: Forging Authenticity: Bastianini and the Neo-Renaissance in Florence
Author: Anita Moskowitz
Abstract: Places the work of the Florentine sculptor Giovanni Bastianini (1830-1868) within the context of cultural, historical and economic forces at work during the second half of the nineteenth-century.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Leo S. Olschki
Type: Single author monograph

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