A large miniature of a Medieval jousting tournament completed in tempura on avoriolina by the infamous Spanish Forger, (c. 144 x 132 mm).
 
The scene shows two jousting Knights in the foreground. The red Knight appears to pierce the Knight in blue, who lance has snapped in the joust as two crowds of soldiers watch from the side. A group of noble women and men sit in a viewing tent and watch the scene unfold, many with their hands raised to their chests in anticipation or are waving to the Knights. The background shows a Castle up on a hill, and a copse of trees.
 
The avoriolina has been reinforced to the back with nineteenth century paper and pieces of an eighteenth century brown calf binding with gilt decoration pasted to the back. A very good example of the Spanish Forger’s work. The pigment has held well in most places, with some chipping and rubbing, particularly to the application of gold. There is a long split to the upper right side. The paper and binding reinforcement to the rear is crudely done.
 
The Spanish Forger is one of the most prolific and successful forgers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They have a large oeuvre of work, which was brought together for the first time by Belle Da Costa Greene of the Morgan Library in 1930.
However, there were suspicions of fraudulent activity with these artworks before this point in time. Greene titled the allusive artist ‘The Spanish Forger’ because of the painting ‘Betrothal of Ursula’ which was initially attributed to Maestro Jorge Ingles who was active in Spain in the fifteenth century. However, the location of the workshop of The Spanish Forger is contested, with William Voelkle suggesting Paris [Voelkle, p.10]. The oeuvre of work does suggest that the Forger was active in the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth.
The Spanish Forger is unique in that they had their own distinctive style, rather than reproducing works of a particular illuminator of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Janet Backhouse surmises these to ‘usually feature ladies and gentlemen entertaining or being entertained, often with a ‘Disneyland’ castle as a background,’ [Backhouse, p.65]. Another notable characteristic, as pointed out by Voelkle, is the ‘daring decolletage of the ladies’ [Voelkle, p.11]. Our example is a prime demonstration of these characteristics.
 
Synthetic and late pigments are a further tell of this Forger, alongside the damaging and repair of works to make them appear aged. Our example has a notable crack and pasted paper and binding waste to the rear to reinforce it. It is very plausible that this was done by the Forger, as this would be characteristic of them.
 
The Spanish Forger usually painted on wood panels and on parchment. However, this piece has been completed on avoriolina, which closely mimics ivory. Voelkle notes that the Forger was familiar with forgery workshops for ivory as they painted on the wings of a fake ivory tabernacle before 1908 [Voelkle, p.15].
 
The Spanish Forger’s work was intended to deceive and pass as genuine art from the late medieval world. However, they were clearly a talented artist in their own merits, thus making their work highly collectable and the feature of many museums and libraries world wide. This Medieval jousting scene does not appear in Voelkle’s and Roger Wieck’s presentation of works from 1978, making this a fantastic addition to the great oeuvre of work identified as The Spanish Forger.
 
On the Spanish Forger see: J. Backhouse, 'The "Spanish Forger,"' British Museum Quarterly 33 (1968), pp.65-71.
W. Voelkle and R.S. Wieck, The Spanish Forger, New York, 1978.