Focus on this artwork and discuss the Attribution.
On its acquisition by the NGV in 1922 it was held to be an autograph work by van Eyck. However, laboratory tests in 1958 by P. Coremans, A. Philippot and R.V. Sneyers at the IRPA in Belgium, an infrared spectroscopy study in 2003 and other features have all contributed to its de-attribution. For example, the spatial relationship between the two figures and the surrounding furniture is only vaguely hinted at and the work's grasp of perspective and depth is not as developed as in the autograph Lucca Madonna and Rolin Madonna. The letter formation in the signature does not correspond to the confirmed signatures on the Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele or the Dresden Triptych. The signature also appears in the scene itself, rather than van Eyck's more usual practice of signing on the frame - some art historians argue that the work was originally in just such a signed frame but that after that frame was lost it was added to the work itself by an unknown hand.
Dresden Triptych infrared spectroscopy P. Coremans Lucca Madonna Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele IRPA R.V. Sneyers Rolin Madonna A. Philippot