- Falsification of history. Part two. Falsification of historical architectural monuments -
- Falsification of history. Part three. Falsification of archaeological finds. Antiquities forgeries -
Blatant forgeries are not limited to written documents. Many other fake objects of material culture were sometimes mistakenly sometimes deliberately assigned to the world heritage of mankind: paintings, sculptures, fake objects of religious worship, supposedly antique artifacts. Some of them have been specially forged antique, some are not dated correctly. But both those and others still prevent most of us from forming a correct idea of the history of mankind.
Falsification of history
The largest museums in the world have hundreds of thousands of museum exhibits. Historians and archaeologists attribute a significant part of these items either to the beginning of our era or in general to the pre-Christian era. Most of the museum visitors trustfully listen to the guides, as a rule, not paying attention to the fact that their stories often contradict not only historical facts, but even elementary logic. Let's take a fresh look at some famous historical sites. Hundreds of sculptural images of great people of the past have survived to this day. Almost all of them are made at a highly artistic level. Fine marble, excellent sculptural technique, the highest quality of images and almost always very good preservation. Looking at them it is impossible not to notice that they are all made in the same style,although historians date them to different centuries of antiquity.
Here is Socrates,
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here is Zeus,
and this is Alexander the Great,
Caligula,
Charlo the Great.
In addition, many sculptures depict people with clean-shaven well-groomed faces. For example, sculptures of Caesar and Nero.
But they lived in ancient times, supposedly in the fourth and fifth centuries BC. What did they shave with? Iron and steel appeared only in the Middle Ages. And it is rather difficult to use bronze products for these purposes, if not to say it is not possible. However, this does not bother historians at all. They go on to claim that both Nero and Caesar lived before our era. It is interesting how historians determined whose busts and sculptures were and when they were made. After all, as a rule, they have no names or dates. Unfortunately, it is very often necessary to be convinced that the majority of dates are absolutely not based on anything. Often, historians simply wonder whose image this is.
For example, on the famous cameo medal, which is called the big cameo of France.
This is not just an ordinary cameo, but a famous supposedly antique work of art. Today we are told that Tiberius and Livia are depicted in the center of the cameo. The man in the armor of the commander is supposedly Germanicus, and next to him is his mother Antonia. In the upper part, in the host of the gods, the emperor Augustus is depicted. This is probably why this cameo was previously called “the apotheosis of August”. But there are no inscriptions on the cameos. How did the experts determine who exactly is depicted here? Perhaps they compared the portrait likeness of the people depicted on the cameo with images of specific historical figures. They compared the oval of the face, hairstyle, cut of the eyes, but where did they get their original images. After all, as you know, lifetime portraits of ancient rulers have not survived. It is possible that after a while historians will announce that it is not Tiberius who is depicted on the cameo,and for example Constantine the great. After all, their imagination is not limited by anything. If in Skalegor's history even such works as the big cameo of France are not known, then perhaps historians would be better off admitting that much is unknown to them than to pretend to be indisputable authorities.
There is another interesting fact that attracts attention. All so-called antique statues are made with excellent knowledge of the anatomy of the human body. But the fact is that people acquired this knowledge only in the era of active development of medicine. It is known from the history of anatomy that the first detailed and realistic description of the human body appeared in 1534. It was the book of the famous surgeon Andreas Vesalius "On the structure of the human body." Earlier authors had a good idea of the human skeleton. But the location of the muscles was not well known. This was due to religious prohibitions. It was impossible to make skeletons and do autopsies on the dead. The use of dead human bodies to study the structure of a person became possible only from the sixteenth century. This was achieved by the anatomists of the Renaissance. They even got permission to conduct public autopsies. For this, the first anatomical theaters were created. It is believed that the originator of this was Leonardo da Vinci. At first, he became interested in anatomy as an artist, but later became interested in it as a scientist and was one of the first to dissect human corpses to study the human body. It is believed that it was the work of Leonardo that influenced the works of Andreas Vesalius. Consequently, it was not until the sixteenth century that painters and sculptors were given the opportunity to study muscle anatomy. And only after understanding how they are located under the skin began to depict the human body really realistically. It is not surprising that in the old images of the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, human figures are shown without drawing the muscles, that is, quite conditionally. Now let's take a look at the so-called antique sculptures.
Here is this statue called "discobolus", allegedly made in the fifth century BC.
How diligently ancient sculptors conveyed all the details of the structure of the human body. Obviously, they already knew the location of the muscles perfectly. Another example is the famous marble sarcophagus from Sedona, the so-called sarcophagus of Alexander the Great.
Historians claim that this work was created at the end of the fourth century before our faith. The longitudinal sides of the sarcophagus are decorated with reliefs depicting the battle between the troops of Alexander the Great and the Persians. The large composition consists of the full movement of the figures very convincingly conveying the height of the fight. The figures depicted on the sarcophagus are very well preserved. Only parts made of metal and some parts of the soldiers' weapons have been lost. And here we can see that the human figures are made in exact accordance with the anatomy. When you look at these figures, the question involuntarily arises, if even in the fifteenth century artists did not know the location of the muscles, then how was this known in an earlier era. Perhaps antiquity was the heyday of not only art, but also medicine,therefore, the ancient sculptors could easily study the anatomy of the structure of the human body, but why then later all this knowledge was lost. Most likely, all these supposedly ancient monuments were made not before our era, but in the era of the Reformation, when the Scaligerian version of history was actively introduced. Moreover, they were made in only a few European workshops. At this time, the publication of new history textbooks began, which needed to be provided with visual aids about the beautiful antiquity. It seems difficult only at first glance, because the number of really outstanding antique works is not that great. They could well have been done in several decades. During the Renaissance there were sculptors who literally specialized in this kind of forgeries. One of them even earned the nickname antigot, that is, antique. Even the great Michelangelo became famous for the forgery. A young unknown Michelangelo made a statuette of a Cupid. He was offered to sell it as an antique script. The deal was a success and the statuette gained great popularity. The forgery was soon revealed, but Michelangelo arrived in Rome as a celebrity, a sculptor who had risen to the skill of supposedly ancient sculptors. It was during this period that the young man received his first large orders. In 1864, antiques collector Tede Nalivo brought from Florence an ancient bust of the poet Girolamo Benivieni. The bust was sold at auction for big money and ended up in the Louvre. But in 1867 it turned out that the sculptor Giovanni Bastiniani was the author of the bust. The deal was a success and the statuette gained great popularity. The forgery was soon revealed, but Michelangelo arrived in Rome as a celebrity, a sculptor who had risen to the skill of supposedly ancient sculptors. It was during this period that the young man received his first large orders. In 1864, antiques collector Tede Nalivo brought from Florence an ancient bust of the poet Girolamo Benivieni. The bust was sold at auction for big money and ended up in the Louvre. But in 1867 it turned out that the sculptor Giovanni Bastiniani was the author of the bust. The deal was a success and the statuette gained great popularity. The forgery was soon revealed, but Michelangelo arrived in Rome as a celebrity, a sculptor who had risen to the skill of supposedly ancient sculptors. It was during this period that the young man received his first large orders. In 1864, antiques collector Tede Nalivo brought from Florence an ancient bust of the poet Girolamo Benivieni. The bust was sold at auction for big money and ended up in the Louvre. But in 1867 it turned out that the sculptor Giovanni Bastiniani was the author of the bust. The bust was sold at auction for big money and ended up in the Louvre. But in 1867 it turned out that the sculptor Giovanni Bastiniani was the author of the bust. The bust was sold at auction for big money and ended up in the Louvre. But in 1867 it turned out that the sculptor Giovanni Bastiniani was the author of the bust.
A huge scandal broke out. The professionals were especially indignant. As a result, the sculpture was moved to the Museum of Decorative Arts. The author of a whole series of antiques, the so-called products of the antiquity era, was the sculptor Yuri Rohumovsky. But world fame was brought to him by the so-called saitferna tiara, which in 1895 he sold to the Louvre as an original of Greek art dating back to the third century BC. For this forgery, the French paid Rakhumovsky 200,000 francs. When it turned out that the figures on the tiara were copied from drawings from the atlas on the history of culture, Rakhumovsky declared his authorship. However, they did not believe him. Then he presented his series of antiques. After this scandal, the Louvre administration ordered to place the crown in the hall of applied arts. This, unfortunately, was not the only forgery acquired by the Louvre.
The article used material from a series of popular science films: History, Science or Fiction?
- Falsification of history. Part two. Falsification of historical architectural monuments -
- Falsification of history. Part three. Falsification of archaeological finds. Antiquities forgeries -