An entertaining story here about how some well-meaning Victorians unwittingly misled millions of people for nigh-on 150 years:

How Victorian restorers faked the clothes that seemed to show Hadrian’s softer side

As always, this sort of story leads one to wonder just how common this sort of well-intentioned mistake is…  I suspect this isn’t the first or last example to come to light, although no doubt some museums would have been sorely tempted to have just kept quiet about it.

It appears that the Chapman brothers have been stirring up a little controversy recently with some work ripping off some dead Austrian artist.  It’s really very unlike them.

I haven’t been to see the exhibition yet – though I do plan to and will report back – but I should confess something of a soft spot for Jake & Dinos.  If nothing else, their critics must surely accept they draw upon great references – Goya, Goya and mainly Goya – and their work is nothing if not carefully crafted.  That, at least, negates the usual ‘my kid could paint that’ line of attack.

I didn’t necessarily intend this blog to be a place for debating the merits of an artist’s career or body of work as such, but if you are interested you can follow your intrepid correspondent’s futile attempts to defend the pair here.

Your own comments on the subject will be more than welcomed in the thought-capture-box below…