Innocent cheating

The exhibition brings together sheets from important portfolio works based on hand drawings of the time, such as the "Recueil Jullienne" (1726), the "Prints in Imitation of Drawings" (1732-1736), the "Disegni originali d'eccellenti pittori" (1774-1782), the "Liber veritatis" (1777/1819) or the "Hofbibliothek zu Wien" (1785) - including sheets from the compendium of reproduction engravings by the etcher Bernard Picart (1673-1733), which was published posthumously in 1734 under the title "Impostures innocentes" (roughly: "Innocent Impostures"). Contrary to what the title suggests, however, Picart did not aim at deception. Rather, paintings and drawings by different masters were to be made accessible for direct comparison in reproduction. In this way, portfolios such as the "Impostures innocentes" or the incomparably more famous "Recueil Crozat" (1729), which was produced around the same time, established a publication format that paved new paths for the study of painting and drawing.

The exhibition thus also sheds light on the art connoisseurship of the 18th century and once again recalls how much connoisseurship and art historiography were dependent for a long time on pictures for which "faithfulness to the original" was unanimously claimed, but which sometimes reproduced their originals in a very stubborn manner.

Last edited on 27.02.2025