On Tue, 23 May 2000, Pat Sloane <patsloane[_at_]aol.com> wrote:
>
> Here's how I see it. There's an art historian whose name escapes
> me (although well-known in his field) who's been claiming that
> important Italian buildings are being damaged because the
> government, when it sets out to restore, say, a medieval or
> renaissance basilica, does a grossly incompetent job, and in the
> end does more harm than good. This is not my area but I believe
> what I've read, partly because the descriptions of what was done
> at particular sites, and what should have been done instead, make
> sense. Also, I'm disposed to trust the author, because he's
> studied and taught about this area for years, and has the expected
> credentials -- which amount to a PhD at minimum. My default
> assumption is that he knows what he's talking about, that he's
> proved his competence in this area.
>
> That's not my default assumption about a stockbroker with an
> undergraduate specialisation in art history. He has no more
> standing than a law school dropout who claims to know as much
> about the law as a supreme court judge. I'd urge your man to
> recognize this hard fact of life, and get to work filling in the
> gaps. The first thing I'd like to see is some evidence that this
> man -- who at the moment is a self-styled expert -- is able to
> stand up to peer review. He should publish articles in
> professional journals like the Art Bulletin, so that Martini
> specialists can see what he's doing. I don't say they have to
> agree with him. I just want to see that they take him seriously
> enough to believe his ideas are worth publishing. Also, isn't
> he interested in finding out how original his ideas really are?
> What if Martini specialists already know that the attribution is
> dubious, as in fact are many, many attributions?
>
> I'm assuming he's of an age where he doesn't feel it's worth
> back-tracing to pick up a PhD (and perhaps develop his theory
> as a dissertation). But don't rule that out either, as it's
> been done. Robert Spoo is an established James Joyce scholar who
> found himself gravitating to copyright issues re Joyce's manuscripts.
> He's presently in law school, and the strategy makes sense. He's
> going to be extremely persuasive on Joyce and copyright issues if
> he has a background in law as well as literature.
>
> I'm not belittling your man so much as cutting to the core of what
> I see as his claim. That he's an exception, an untrained person
> (or a person with only limited training) who knows more than those
> who have the expected credentials in the area. It's possible.
> Benjamin Whorf was an insurance adjustor for Hartford Fire and
> Casualty who proved himself as an expert on Mayan Indian languages.
> But this is the peer review issue. It was linguists who attested
> to the importance of Whorf's ideas, and he wasn't just walking
> around promoting himself among people who didn't know a thing about
> Mayan Indian languages.
>
> As you describe the situation, I see a few areas your man might
> want to rethink. An undergraduate degree from Yale is not too
> impressive when what's expected would be a PhD, from Yale or
> anywhere else. He's got to be careful here, as he doesn't want to
> look as if he's trying to pull the wool over people's eyes. Also,
> it's common knowledge among art historians that many works of art
> are misattributed. About twice a year the NY Times runs an article
> about a particularly egregious example. Bernard Berenson made his
> reputation on straightening out many of the misattributions. A
> basic problem particularly with the early renaissance is that so
> many works are unsigned. If there isn't documentation establishing
> who the artist was, it boils down to guess work, and not every art
> historian has as good an eye as Berenson.
>
> If your man feels the misattribution of this particular Martini is
> much more important than hundreds or thousands of other misattributions
> -- so important that everyone should get involved--that's going to
> require a separate justification. That owners have an economic stake
> in the work, and therefore resist exposure of misattributions and
> forgeries, is not exactly news either. And, yes, governments like
> to attract tourists. What baffles me the most, in fact, is this
> urge to slug it out with "local officals" in a foreign country and
> solicitation of an attorney for that purpose. This simply isn't
> what research is about. Look to Amnesty International for a better
> example. They've had a tremendous effect through their publications,
> and they know better than to get sidetracked into fights with every
> "local official" they see mistreating a prisoner. Should the editors
> of Consumer Reports take time out to sue every manufacturer whom they
> discover to be producing an inferior product? Does your man want to
> be a scholar or a policeman?
>
> Life is not fair. One can publish an idea and find that nobody
> accepts it -- that one's judgment isn't respected. Maybe new
> information will come to light later, and one's peers will see that
> they were wrong. In the meantime, it rarely makes sense to look for
> a pretext to take "the issue" to court. A court doesn't have the
> power to order other people to agree with us.
Pat -- According to BHA (Bibliography of the History of Art), Gordon Moran is a published art historian (despite the fact that he earned his living as a stockbroker). He has a strong record of scholarship in prestigious art and art history international journals. Some of his writings have appeared as joint authorships, for example the first 10, with Michael Mallory, head of Art History at CUNY; for others he is listed as sole author. The following is the result of a simple search on his name in the BHA index:
1 Mallory, Michael. Aggiornamenti sulla controversia su Guid... 1983 2 Mallory, Michael. Altre documentazioni inerenti all'affres... 1983 3 Mallory, Michael. A border incident in the war over Guido ... 1985 4 Mallory, Michael. The border of Guido Riccio [letter]. 1987 5 Mallory, Michael. Guido Riccio Da Fogliano; a challenge to... 1982 6 Mallory, Michael. [Letter]. 1991 7 Mallory, Michael. New evidence concerning Guidoriccio. 1986 8 Mallory, Michael. Painting in Renaissance Siena, 1420-1500... 1989 9 Mallory, Michael. Precisazioni e aggiornamenti sul "caso' ... 1985 10 Mallory, Michael. Some recent developments regarding the M... 1987 11 Moran, Gordon. Appunti sull'affresco del ritratto eques... 1981 12 Moran, Gordon. Bartolo di Fredi e l'altare dell'Arte de... 1976 13 Moran, Gordon. Christ as Savior by Taddeo di Bartolo. 1975 14 Moran, Gordon. Guido Riccio Da Fogliano; a controversy ... 1982 15 Moran, Gordon. Guido Riccio e le "vigne" di Montemassi. 1983 16 Moran, Gordon. Il mistero di Guido Riccio. 1982 17 Moran, Gordon. Is the name Barna an incorrect transcrip... 1976 18 Moran, Gordon. Masterpieces attributed to Beccafumi and... 1981 19 Moran, Gordon. Niccolo di Ser Sozzo--Tegliacci or di St... 1976 20 Moran, Gordon. Novita su Simone? (n.d.r.) An investigat... 1977 21 Moran, Gordon. The original provenance of the predella ... 1980 22 Moran, Gordon. Pietro Sorri a San Gusme. 1981 23 Moran, Gordon. Un pittore chiantigiano; Dionisio Montor... 1980 24 Moran, Gordon. Simone Martini, Arcidosso e gli altri ca... 1981 25 Moran, Gordon. Studi sul Mappamondo. 198226 Moran, Gordon. Unusual vineyards in the fresco known as... 1982 27 Polzer, Joseph. The technical evidence and the origin an... 1985
28 Torriti, Piero. La parete del Guidoriccio. 1988
Mr. Moran is not the first art historian who has chosen to earn a living by doing something more lucrative than teaching or curating. With the amount of research and travel necessitated by a study like the one Mr. Moran has undertaken, one needs to have outside 'wealth' to survive.
This is not a question of credentials.
Christine L. Sundt
Visual Resources Curator
Architecture & Allied Arts Library
University of Oregon
Lawrence Hall - Room 300
Eugene, OR 97403-5249
PHONE: 541-346-2209
FAX: 541-346-2205
csundt[_at_]oregon.uoregon.edu http://libweb.uoregon.edu/aaa/vrc/VRCinfo.html http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/index.htmReceived on Wed May 24 2000 - 15:18:24 GMT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Mon Mar 26 2007 - 00:35:39 GMT