Discoveries

el greco caen

The discreet charm … of small artworks

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If the History of Art was a big puzzle, there would be many pieces known and exhibited in museums, but just as many kept in private collections … and these are all to be studied and attributed! Each new discovery is a great thrill!
In this case we report about a small piece, but only in its size! It is a painting depicting a “Jesus Christ with the crown of thorns and the cross” owned by a private Catalan collector, previously attributed to El Greco’s workshop or to one of his pupils. The study conducted over two years by the Study Center of Modern Art (Caem) at the University of Lleida allowed for the work to be attributed to the hand of the master El Greco.
We couldn’t help but think of a “piece” that Art–Test had the honor of studying: the “San Giovanni Evangelista and San Francesco d’Assisi” in the Uffizi! The non-invasive, but in any case “in-depth” analyzes, also in this case allowed us to attribute the work to Master El Greco, as we describe here!

 

 

(Federica Fani)

blu

Tell me what blue you are and I’ll tell you when you were born (more or less)

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The recent discovery of YInMn Blue, even if the pigment is extremely expensive (€ 148.52 for 40ml), is a joy for artists – always among the first to welcome the new discoveries-, but also for art scientists!
In fact, the analysis of the type of pigment used has always been very useful for establishing the dating and provenance of a painting.
Lapis Lazuli, for example, is a medieval invention. Theophilus who wrote his treaty in 1120, does not mention it: his blue is azurite. While Cennino Cennini knows it well.
But the Lapis loses its purity in oil painting. Therefore it also loses part of its charm and its use reduced over time, as the new medium imposed itself.
However, outside Italy it was already very uncommon. Few, in fact, could afford it. One was Dürer, who however complained a lot about its price (100 times that of the other pigments)!
For centuries, the Azzurri remained luxury items. Smalt and Verditer blue were not expensive, but the only, mild, alternative to the shade of Lapis was Indigo.
The situation changed around 1705, when Prussian Blue was discovered. It had a great success, but it could still not really replace Lapis.
Although Cobalt Blue had been discovered in 1802, it was Goethe, incredibly, who suggested that as blue deposits were found in the Italian lime kilns, and perhaps some similar procedure could be studied to synthesize an artificial Lapis Lazuli.
In 1842, the Société d’Encouragement per l’Industrie Nationale offered a prize of 6,000 francs to whoever produced it first. Once a stable formulation was found, around, 1870 it became the standard blue color. Nevertheless, even if 1935 brought with it two new pigments: Monastral Blue and Manganese Blue, the perfect blue had not yet been invented.
The painter Yves Klein between 1945 and 1955 turned to a producer, convinced that they could do better. He thus patented the International Klein Blue, where, however, the real novelty is the binder. We now have the new YInMn Blue.

And the history of art continues to go hand in hand with that of technology.

(Anna  Pelagotti)
jodaens

The essential… is hanging in a dusty corner!

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“One sees clearly only with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eye “, said the fox to the Little Prince according to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
But the “essential” protagonist of our story is visible and is visible above all to diagnostic investigations such as reflectography, radiography, x-ray fluorescence and dendrochronology. We are talking about The Holy Family created by Jacob Jordaens which was exhibited for about sixty years in the offices of the city planning councilor of Saint Gilles (one of the 19 municipalities that make up Brussels) and considered a copy.
When, as part of the recent inventory campaign promoted by the Brussels Region, the painting was detached from the wall, it was possible to appreciated what was never seen before, first of all the presence of the trademarks of the panel. It was therefore decided to subject the work to in-depth scientific investigations, with the result of being able to attribute the work to the hand of Jordaens and to set the year 1615 as the date of realization. The same composition was replicated by Master in three more paintings, currently exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Alte Pinakotek in Munich.
The Brussels’ work will be restored and then exhibited in the Old Masters section of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels.
Who knows how many other unrecognized treasures adorn the waiting rooms of offices and buildings? What a teasing question!

(Federica Fani)

WhatsApp Image 2020-11-19 at 23.59.11

1630 plague bacteria still around

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The papers presented at Florence Heritech, a scientific conference on restoration and diagnostics of cultural heritage, have been published in the IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering journal.

A great opportunity for those who missed the event, to still browse through them.

Art-Test  contributed with a work that paves the way for the scientific testing not only of artworks, but also of the diagnostic images that are used in the attribution process (See publication, and  video).

Of the many contributions presented, we highlight the work of Pier Giorgio RIGHETTI – honorary professor of the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, of the Politecnico di Milano: “What Sherlock Sorely missed: The EVA Technology for Cultural Heritage Exploration“, which presents the results of a new investigative method. It is a functionalized film that can be used to capture all materials present on a surface without damaging it in any way.

With this new non invasive diagnostic method, iconic items were analised: Bulgakov’s manuscript of Master and Margarita, where traces of morphine have been found, and the shirt worn by Anton Chekhov at the time of his death, where tuberculosis bacteria were found.

But more spectacularly than that, the surviving documents of the plague of 1630, preserved in the historical archive of Milan, were also analyzed. And even centuries later, Yersinia pestis bacteria were still detected.

Another example presented is George Orwell‘s letter discovered in the Russian state archive, on which, although it was typewritten, the bacteria of the tuberculosis he contracted weeks before in Barcelona, were still present.

A fascinating studio that will surely lead to more exciting surprises!

(AP)
blu

Blue Moon

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Raphael's new pigment

It could be the soundtrack to this news, or, maybe, “Blue eyes, baby’s got blue eyes, like a deep blue see on a blue, blue day!” as Elton John sang in the early 1980s and again in the Premium subscription of many of us

You probably thought you knew him well. He was the subject of your studies in high school and later at university too, perhaps in a nice monographic course. It is the kind of artist who you look for in exhibitions and museums, that excites everyone and puts everyone in agreement. Can we, then, say that we know him well? No!

   Art never ceases to amaze us and, if we often have to thank the archives and their finds, just as often we have to do so with the diagnostic investigations that today reveal Raphael as the “inventor” of the first artificial pigment in history!

This is how things went: in the midst of the “Roman period”, between one commission for Pope Gulius II and the other, Raphael works for Agostino Chigi in what will later be known as Villa Farnesina. Let us stop on the ground floor, in front of the fresco that represents the nymph of the sea, Galatea, triumphant, driving a chariot in the shape of a scallop and surrounded by a procession of marine deities and lovebirds. Well, the analyses on the work tell us that Raphael’s immersion in mythology and ancient art, which he loved and knew deeply, not only inspired him in the conception of the scene, but also in experimenting with the pictorial technique. Raphael recreates the so-called “Egyptian blue”, a pigment that had disappeared at the end of the Roman Empire because it was supplanted by the lapislazzuli. He then uses it everywhere: we find it in the sky, in the sea and in the dreamy eyes of the nymph.

   Five hundred years after his death, he seems to have still much to say… and scientists to investigate…… the search continues!

(Federica Fani)

biaf

60 years of dreams

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Next 21st September, the BIAF, the Biennial International Antiques Fair of Florence, will open its doors in Palazzo Corsini. It will be sixty years after the first edition, noticeably in a very different context, compared with when one in whitch the Bellini brothers commenced the adventure.

For two weeks the city will attract, also relying on its charm, as the past,  art dealers and collectors from all over the world. Although the antiquarian sector, and Florence, are no longer those in which, for example, Bernard Berenson lived (and died, unfortunately, the same year of the BIAF first edition).

The seventy-seven galleries participating this year are for example specialized in various sectors, including contemporary art. Unthinkable in the days when “Italian Renaissance painters” of the Lithuanian connoisseur became an international bestseller.

The peculiarity of BIAF remains, however, the promotion of Italian art in the market. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, and all other artworks on display, are made by Italian Masters or by foreign artists who worked in Italy.

Sixty years ago connoisseurs like Berenson, who contributed to raise interest in the Italian old master, were unchallenged authorities in attributions. This too has changed today. In the most prestigious international fairs, artworks are admitted to the sale only after having passed a careful scrutiny, done also by scientific means. It is the so-called “vetting”. The BIAF also has a Vetting committee. Divided into 3 commissions: Painting and Drawings, Sculpture and Furniture and Decorative Arts. They are formed by art historians, and restorers, of international renown, with an undoubted knowledge and an authoritative preparation.
However, scientific diagnostics seems to be still absent from this procedure, which is essential to guarantee buyers.

Notwithstanding, diagnostics offers more than this. As Maurizio Salomon, an art historian and gallery owner, explains in one of the commercials (#amolarteperche) created to promote the fair. The desire to make a discovery is often the drive for the collector. Finding a “pentimento”, a preparatory drawing, or details that are not visible to the naked eye, makes you fall in love. Few occasions allow you to have this kind of feeling, hopes, dreams. And this is still the same as sixty years ago.

biaf
diagnosticanoncosta

The costs of not doing it!

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The costs for a diagnostic campaign to authenticate a painting may seem high, but they are always a good investment.
Without a painting having positively passed a series of tests to determine the compatibility of methods and materials with the period or the envisaged author, there is the risk of running into a fraud, which can be millionaire and deceive also auction houses of the calibre of Sotheby’s.

In this case, the possible scam that led to the arrest of both the painter and the antiquarian involved, covers a total of over 200 million euros and well-known and much-studied authors, from El Greco to Frans Hals.
Naturally it is neither the first nor it will  be the last scam we read about; the chronicles report more and more frequently of similar cases. The market is full of fakes for sale. Counterfeiting of artworks can however be uncovered and indeed, for example, produced other arrests recently in Bologna

How to avoid risking the unwary purchase? Invest in serious scientific analyses, and at a qualified laboratory, not involved in the market.

It is an investment, not a cost. The cost is not the diagnostics, it cost is not to do it!

diagnosticanoncosta
caravaggio perduto

Have we found the Lost Caravaggio?

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In 2006 “Il Caravaggio perduto”, by J. Harr, was published. The volume describes the discovery of a painting by the Italian Master that had been lost for centuries. The protagonists are a great art historian and a PhD graduate, who discovers, in the inaccessible and forgotten archive of the Mattei family, in Recanati, the proof that an original by Caravaggio (the Capture of Christ: Jesus surrounded by soldiers and kissed by Judas) had been sold in 1802, with an incorrect attribution, to a Scottish gentleman. It is not a fiction; it is more or less the chronicle of what happened a few decades ago.

As a consequence, the version now in Dublin became the original Caravaggio, after having entered the collection as Gerrit van Honthorst. A splendid subject of which there are many versions.

One is now exhibited at Palazzo Pitti, and a new volume, The Capture of Christ by Caravaggio – A recovery for the Uffizi Galleries , edited by Sillabe, (for now unfortunately only in Italian) summarises the historical, artistic and scientific studies carried out on the canvas previously in storage at the Baldissera Carabinieri Station in Florence.
Thanks to the accurate provenence research that constitutes the heart of the volume, it was possible to ascertain the origin of the canvas from the Lorraine castle of Commercy, not far from the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Nancy where an Annunciation by Caravaggio is kept, probably commissioned by the Duke of Lorraine.
The same castle from which also other works destined for the Florentine grand-ducal collections arrived in Florence in 1737, when the Habsburg-Lorraine took over the regency of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

Scientific analyses on the painting were performed by Art-Test and generated many interesting surprises, starting with a previous, hidden different version of a soldier, as revealed by the X-ray images.

One thing is certain, we will hear about this painting again. Stay tuned!
caravaggio perduto
Art-Test seeking Michelangelo

Art-Test seeking Michelangelo

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Is it Michelangelo? Are we on the verge of a new discovery?

Art-Test has been called to shed light on the matter in a small church near Florence

Who painted the “Pietà di Marcialla”? The issue has been debated for many years, but only on last 9th of May the first analyses were carried out on the wall painting in Santa Maria a Marcialla, a small church on the Florentine countryside.
Despite its remote location, the painting is of remarkable quality and some scholars believe it to be the work of Michelangelo Buonarroti. So finally the Municipality of Barberino Val d’Elsa decided to investigate the claim, by promoting objective studies conducted with scientific devices.
Art-Test Florence, in charge of the investigations, during the first survey could confirm the presence of many incisions to be connected with  the transferring of the preparatory drawing onto the wall and, moreover, the existence of some “pentimenti” concerning e.g.  the lower arm and the left leg of Christ. Furthermore, new details emerged from a first careful examination of the painting, e.g. the depiction of a city walled with towers, located between the Good Thief and Our Lady.
Much more needs investigation. It is not yet clear, e.g., which pictorial technique was used to perform the work, i.e. whether it is a real “fresco” or not. Moreover, based on the analyses made so far, it is not certain whether it was painted only by one hand or more painters contributed. This first diagnostic campaign was only the first act of the full scientific campaign that awaits this painting. The town of Barberino Val d’Elsa,  by the will of its Mayor Trentanovi, shall support the next studies meant to fully understand the genesis of the work, the adopted art techniques , the material composition of the painting and the possible overlay of more versions. Eager to find out more? So are we! We will keep you up to date!

Lost and found 

Lost and found 

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Under three of the paintings decorating the altars designed between 1565 and 1570 by Giorgio Vasari for Santa Maria Novella, a series of mural paintings were discovered – dating from the end of ‘200 to the beginning of’ 500. The altars were meant to beautify and modernize the Dominican church of Florence, however they only covered pre-existing frescos, belonging to the earliest phase of the church’s history, as it has been discovered on the occasion of a restoration campaign.
Last February 11, the results of the studies on this sensational discovery were presented together with the book “Research in Santa Maria Novella. The fresco of Bruno, Stefano and the others “, edited by Anna Bisceglia, superintendent of the Florentine cultural heritage and published by Mandragora.
Art-Test has been working on one of the three paintings uncovered on the walls of the church, i.e. the one attributed to Bruno di Giovanni, brother of Buffalmacco, depicting San Maurizio captain of the Theban Legion, along with the other martyrs, in a frenzied scene of deep intensity. The martyrs expressions reveal that they know that they are going to die, since they refuse to kill their Christian brethren.
Multispectral images have been acquired in the visible range, in IR reflectography and in UV fluorescence. Such results with XRF investigations, and photomicrographs, determined that the paint is for the largest part, not applied using the frescos technique, but it is a dry painting, that in IR shows an underdrawing. Moreover, on the surface, residues of adhesives have been found, intended for the application of a metallic sheet, especially on the helmets and the armours. The scene on the wall vibrated with the church lighting, with an illusionistic effect that today we can only imagine. (Or a virtual reconstruction could be produced and visualized on the website of Opera Santa Maria Novella, what do you think?)

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