title: Mysteries of the Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, and the Forging of History
author:  Kenneth D. S. Lapatin 
description: In <i>Mysteries of the Snake Goddess</i>, Kenneth Lapatin traces the murky origins (and seriously debunks the authenticity of) "the most refined and precious" surviving object of Minoan art. The gold-and-ivory figure, now residing in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, was discovered in the early 20th century by renowned archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans. Other, related figures (of equally dubious origin) retain pride of place in several North American and European museums. They are almost certainly forgeries, according to Lapatin, or at best, "neither entirely genuine nor fully fake." This is not a crime story but rather a tale of well-meaning overextrapolation. Evans, and others, took kernels of evidence to bake a large loaf of an idealized, matriarchal Cretan civilization. In short, Evans's desire to believe clouded his scientific caution. As well, Lapatin gently points out that very often our re-creations of the past are influenced by the ideas, mores, and, even, inadequacies of our present. His book is one of calm, inviting erudition that, mercifully, avoids the mean wrangling so common in academia. <i>--H. O'Billovich</i>
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  # A Landscape Painter
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Henry James
  
  
  This page copyright © 2002 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  Do you remember how, a dozen years ago, a number of our friends were
  
  
  startled by the report of the rupture of young Locksley's engagement
  
  
  with Miss Leary? This event made some noise in its day. Both parties
  
  
  possessed certain claims to distinction: Locksley in his wealth, which
  
  
  was believed to be enormous, and the young lady in her beauty, which
  
  
  was in truth very great. I used to hear that her lover was fond of
  
  
  comparing her to the Venus of Milo; and, indeed, if you can imagine the
  
  
  mutilated goddess with her full complement of limbs, dressed out by
  
  
  Madame de Crinoline, and engaged in small talk beneath the drawing-room
  
  
  chandelier, you may obtain a vague notion of Miss Josephine Leary.
  
  
  Locksley, you remember, was rather a short man, dark, and not
  
  
  particularly good-looking; and when he walked about with