‘Figural fulfilment’ at the 1857 Manchester Art Treasures exhibition

Abstract Scholarship addressing the nineteenth-century British reception of the Italian artist Giotto's (c.1267–1337) oeuvre tends to focus on his notable works in Italy. This article moves attention away from these to objects in British collections that were ascribed to Giotto in the nineteenth century and are now attributed to other artists. Through focusing on one of these so-called ‘Giottos’ that was prominently displayed to mark the beginning of the sequence of paintings at the Art Treasures exhibition in Manchester in 1857, The Coronation of the Virgin now attributed to Lorenzo Monaco (c.1370–c.1425), this contribution argues that its symbolic, dialogic function at the exhibition relied upon its misattribution to Giotto. By overturning the usual emphasis on authorial authenticity, this article demonstrates the importance of misattributions for observing aesthetic bias, evaluating art-historical knowledge, and understanding social and political ideologies.