The Rospigliosi Cup, (so called from the noble

Rospigliosi family The House of Rospigliosi () is an ancient noble Italian family from Pistoia. Attested since the Middle Ages, it became wealthy through agriculture, trade and industry, reaching the apogee of its power and the high nobility status in Rome thanks t ...

) sometimes referred to as the Cellini Cup, is a decorative ornament in

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

and enamel, previously attributed to

Benvenuto Cellini Benvenuto Cellini (, ; 3 November 150013 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the ''Cellini Salt Cellar'', the sculpture of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', and his autobiography ...

(1500–1571), but now known to be an

art forgery Art forgery is the creation and sale of works of art which are intentionally falsely credited to other, usually more famous artists. Art forgery can be extremely lucrative, but modern dating and analysis techniques have made the identification of ...

, of nineteenth-century manufacture. The Cup is believed to have been created by Reinhold Vasters, a German

goldsmith A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Modern goldsmiths mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, they have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), plat ...

who worked in

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

from 1853 to 1890. Vasters is now believed to be the sole author of many pieces that had previously been attributed as masterpieces of

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

jewellery Jewellery (or jewelry in American English) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment such as brooches, ring (jewellery), rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the ...

. So closely did Vasters' Rospigliosi Cup resemble Cellini's style, it is unlikely that the truth about the forgery would ever have been known, if Vasters' preliminary sketches had not been found. Vasters was a highly skilled

artisan An artisan (from , ) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art, sculpture, clothing, food ite ...

, as well as a master of replicating another artist's style precisely. It was not until the Rospigliosi Cup was taken apart that it became clear that the cup had been assembled in ways that were not available until Vasters' own time. The Cup is now housed at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, in New York.

References

*Russell, John (February 12, 1984)
"As long as men make art, the artful fake will be with us"
''New York Times''. Retrieved on September 3, 2012.

External links

A photograph of the Rospigliosi Cup
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art forgeries Artworks in metal {{art-stub