{"product_id":"responses-to-rembrandt-9780943221182","title":"Responses to Rembrandt","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1910  Henry Clay Frick purchased Rembrandt van Rijns The Polish Rider for his private collection. Ever since  the painting has hung - undisturbed and uncontested - on the wall of Fricks Fifth Avenue mansion in New York City. There  year in and year out  it has beguiled thousands of visitors. The paintings subject matter has been debated over the years - but never its author  or its impact on viewers  many of whom think it not just a Rembrandt but one of the finest paintings the master executed during his long  prolific career. In 1968  a group of Dutch scholars known as the Rembrandt Research Project  feeling that the masters oeuvre was inflated  began to take Rembrandt to task. The groups members traveled around the world  subjecting Rembrandt to intense scrutiny: they x-rayed paintings; examined the rendering of lace  hands  and signatures; counted threads of warp and woof. Paintings long considered Rembrandts started to fall. Then  in 1984  one of the members of the Project suggested  in print  that The Polish Rider might be next. Perhaps this painting  \"one of the worlds masterpieces \" wasnt a Rembrandt after all but the work of a lesser-known pupil  Willem Drost. Deattribution of a Rembrandt makes front-page news and sends shock waves through the community of art historians  museum curators  and private collectors. A painting  once worth ten million dollars  sells at auction for a mere eight hundred thousand; one that was the centerpiece of a museum collection is moved to the basement. Yet the paintings themselves do not change - whether they are attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn or Isack Jouderville. In a lively and accessible discussion  novelist and essayist Anthony Bailey presents the drama of The Polish Riders threatened deattribution. With the painting as a springboard  Bailey explores basic issues of art history  authenticity  and connoisseurship  and discusses the difficulties involved when a single person or committee attempts to reach definitive conclusions on matters of authorship and creative genius.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67932726362165,"sku":"ByrdShop_0943221188","price":59.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780943221182.jpg?v=1794229144","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/responses-to-rembrandt-9780943221182","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}