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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level E , Case DR, Shelf 102

Carrying the Ark of the Covenant

Manuscript Cutting
ca. 1900 (illuminated), 14th century-15th century (written)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The Spanish Forger was a skillful and prolific forger, who capitalised on the fashion for collecting medieval panel paintings and illuminated manuscripts, which was widespread in Europe and the United States between the mid-nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. His distinctive repertory of sweet faced figures set against a background of steep hills and castles derived from the study of illustrated books on the Middle Ages. His work was exposed as that of a forger in the 1930s, on the basis of a panel formerly attributed to the fifteenth century Spanish painter Jorge Inglés. This association provided the name of convenience by which he is still known, although it is generally believed that he was active in Paris in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

This is one of a group of five or six miniatures of similar size and borders, painted on the back of cuttings from a text page of an Italian choir book of fifteenth or sixteenth century date. It depicts King David. The King is shown playing his harp in the foreground surrounded by figures. Four youths carry a box with an arched lid which is protected by a white cloth draped over it. This has been identified by Voelkle as depicting the carrying of the Ark of the Covenant. The costume of the figures and the castellated landscape are reminiscent of Franco-Flemish manuscripts of around 1400. However the costume worn by the two women are from different dates. The headdress of the lady on the right being from the late fourteenth century, while the lady playing the lute wears a mid fifteenth century model. This anachronistic tendency to combine subjects from different sources is a principal reason why the works of the Spanish Forger are readily identifiable as fakes.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleCarrying the Ark of the Covenant (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Brief description
Miniature of the Carrying the Ark of the Covenant, painted on a manuscript cutting from a medieval Italian antiphonary, attributed to the 'Spanish Forger', Paris (?), ca. 1900.
Physical description
Miniature painted ca.1900 in France on a piece of parchment cut from a 14th- or 15th- century Italian antiphonary (a type of choir book).
Dimensions
  • Height: 205mm
  • Width: 145mm
Production typeUnique
Credit line
Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2008
Object history
Part of a group of five miniatures sharing the same provenance (E.527-2008 to E.531-2008) and acquired at the same time. All miniatures were painted on cuttings from the same 14th or 15th-century Italian antiphonary.
Collection of Mr. Brown (d. ca.1925), Switzerland; inherited by his wife; bequeathed to Maria Teweles, Twentynine Palms, California; Mr Kerrison Preston, Surrey, England; collection of Jean F. Preston, Princeton (in 1978).
Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2008.
Other miniatures from the same series in other collections: formerly Hartman Galleries, Ltd, Beverly Hills (Rebecca at the well; see The Spanish Forger, 1978, no. L10, fig. 189).
Summary
The Spanish Forger was a skillful and prolific forger, who capitalised on the fashion for collecting medieval panel paintings and illuminated manuscripts, which was widespread in Europe and the United States between the mid-nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. His distinctive repertory of sweet faced figures set against a background of steep hills and castles derived from the study of illustrated books on the Middle Ages. His work was exposed as that of a forger in the 1930s, on the basis of a panel formerly attributed to the fifteenth century Spanish painter Jorge Inglés. This association provided the name of convenience by which he is still known, although it is generally believed that he was active in Paris in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

This is one of a group of five or six miniatures of similar size and borders, painted on the back of cuttings from a text page of an Italian choir book of fifteenth or sixteenth century date. It depicts King David. The King is shown playing his harp in the foreground surrounded by figures. Four youths carry a box with an arched lid which is protected by a white cloth draped over it. This has been identified by Voelkle as depicting the carrying of the Ark of the Covenant. The costume of the figures and the castellated landscape are reminiscent of Franco-Flemish manuscripts of around 1400. However the costume worn by the two women are from different dates. The headdress of the lady on the right being from the late fourteenth century, while the lady playing the lute wears a mid fifteenth century model. This anachronistic tendency to combine subjects from different sources is a principal reason why the works of the Spanish Forger are readily identifiable as fakes.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Voelkle, W., The Spanish Forger, The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1978. no. L68, fig. 187.
  • Burgio, L., Clark, R.J.H. and Hark, R.R., 'Spectroscopic investigation of modern pigments on purportedly medieval miniatures by the ‘Spanish Forger', in Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, vol 40 (2009). pp. 2031-2036.
Collection
Accession number
E.530-2008

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Record createdJune 27, 2008
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