"Once again, A.I. and human experts are butting heads over the authenticity of a world-famous painting. A Belgian art historian has refuted claims made by Swiss company Art Recognition that two paintings have been falsely attributed to the Northern Renaissance master Jan van Eyck. The paintings in question are versions of Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata (ca. 1428-32) belonging to the Royal Museums of Turin and the Philadelphia Museum of Art."
"According to Art Recognition, its A.I. model ruled that these works were not by the hand of Van Eyck with 91 percent certainty in the case of the Philadelphia picture. For the Turin version, this figure was 86 percent. Speaking to the , Carina Popovici, the company's CEO suggested that the museums "wont be happy," with the finding. Neither the Royal Museums of Turin and the Philadelphia Museum of Art responded to a request for comment."
"The legitimacy of Art Recognitions claims has, however, been called into question by Maximiliaan Martens, a Van Eyck expert from Ghent University. For one thing, he questioned the feasibility of training an A.I. model to detect and recognize Van Eyck's distinctive brushstroke, which Art Recognition claims to have done. "Even when one studies Van Eyck's paintings on a microscopic level, his brushstrokes are barely visible," Martens said by email. "That is one of the most prominent characteristics of his work!""
Art Recognition's A.I. model concluded that two versions of Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata in Turin and Philadelphia were unlikely to be by Jan van Eyck, assigning 91% certainty for Philadelphia and 86% for Turin. The company's CEO predicted the finding would upset the museums; neither institution commented. Ghent University expert Maximiliaan Martens challenged the results, arguing that Van Eyck's brushwork is scarcely visible even microscopically and questioning the feasibility and training of the A.I. model. The dispute highlights limits of machine-based attribution and renews debate over authorship and art-historical oversight in Old Master authentication.
Read at Artnet News
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