"Where did it come from?"
or Provenance
From the perspective of art history, or of wanting to understand a painting better, this is an important question to ask. Before the 20th century few, if any, paintings were created to be hung in a public art gallery.
Consider this astonishing artwork.
Imagine you saw it in the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, London.
Beautiful. Impressive. Inspiring. For some, even spiritual. The panels were painted by Giovanni Bellini in 1488.
But the artist never imagined that it would be gazed at by crowds of people in an art gallery
Here's how Bellini expected it to be presented, and how worshippers still find it today in the Sacristy of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Friari in Venice.
Bellini painted it for one purpose: to lift the hearts and minds of people as they gazed at the Blessed Sacrament during Mass. It is an altarpiece. In 15th century Italy, church altars were westward-facing and flush against the east wall of the church. The altarpiece sat on the altar, providing a backdrop to the drama of the Mass.
But it was far more than a piece of decoration. It reminded the priest and worshipper of a present reality: that at that very moment they were joined around the altar by saints in glory.
How does that compare with your passing admiration on a wet Wednesday in Trafalgar Square?
Thinking about the original context of a painting can deepen our understanding of it.
But the issue of provenance also raises some discomforting questions.
You might know about the ongoing dispute between the United Kingdom and the Government of Greece over the so-called Elgin Marbles. Greece demands that they should be returned to their country; the British Museum insists that they probably would have fallen apart had they been left in situ in the Parthenon.
This is part of the post-colonial legacy which the United Kingdom has only just begun to work through.
More widespread is the issue of crime; in particular, war crime. Most acquisitions by galleries have either been given or loaned to them, or the galleries have simply bought them. However, even those perfectly legitimate purchases on the art market can be controversial.
During World War II tens of thousands of artworks were stolen from Jewish and Freemason households by Adolf Hitler's agents. Hundreds of these appeared furtively in auction houses after the war. Thousands have never been recovered, and there are still (sometimes large) art institutions with works whose provenance has an ominous gap between 1933 to 1945.