Yesterday I went back to the Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn, PA. I am currently doing research on a Northern Ch’i altarpiece. When I first visited the museum back in February, research on my piece looked bleak-to say the least. No one had ever researched it before, as well as its authenticity and provenance were certainly in question. Upon my first glance at the back of the sculpture, I noticed a drawing that had never been mentioned by any of the previous collectors, inventories nor curators’ personal notes. To make matters worse, the pigment of the drawing was almost gone, layered and iconographically dated from a different period than the frontal images and the inscription on the back. The stone from which it is carved is not only unfamiliar to me, but also, as far as I can tell, not native to anything in or around Northern China (the region denoted as the source of the work).
I don’t want to bore youany further with what I deem may be a fake… so with that said, here are some other pictures from my visit.
