The current exhibit at the Fogg Museum, "Art, Genuine or Counterfeit," is successful because it places little emphasis upon the highly technical methods by which a true painting can be distinguished from a false one. By limiting the scope of its explanations to what can actually be seen by the spectator, the demonstration avoids that laboratory amosphere into which it so easily could slip.

Genuine paintings from the thirteenth through the nineteenth centuries are shown side by side with their respective counterfeits. Examples include pieces by Bellini, Raphael, Constable, Corot, Guardi, Ingres, and Durer. Egyptian, Greek, and Italian Renaissance sculpture, together with Chinese and Aztec figures in stone, complete the main body of the exhibit. Forgetting the line of demarcation which can be drawn between the false art and the true, it can be said that many of the examples shown are products of great craftsmanship and skill. The counterfeit Raphael as well as the Constable indicates that the forger can often be placed within the category of the true, but misdirected artist.

In one sense only can I say that this exhibit is apt to give a false impression: certain standards of excellence are attributed to the artists whose works have been copied and these standards are pre-supposed for the purpose of distinguishing more clearly between what is genuine and what is not. This may lead one to believe that Raphael for example, never produced a poorly executed painting, or that Constable never failed to gain his desired effect, or again, that Corot was always successful in the creation of his shimmering landscapes. It should be understood that even the greatest artists must, at some time, have produced paintings which were badly done and which consequently stand a chance of being mistakenly branded as counterfeit.