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HIGHLIGHTS
Man or Woman?
A painting by the genius Leonardo da Vinci unexpectedly provides us with an interesting reflection on the notion of “gender identity”, never as much debated as in recent times. What distinguishes and separates being a woman from being a man? Where is the borderline? We premise that the panel with the Head of Christ now […]
An original without copies or Caravaggio’s zigzag
From how they all got on the bandwagon (“I discovered it!” “No, I discovered it first!”) there would seem to be no doubts that the painting at auction in Madrid is the real “Ecce Homo” made by Caravaggio as result of a competition between painters arranged by Monsignor Massimi, as documented in old biographies. About […]
OPINIONS
When do you need an InfraRed reflectography?
The emotion one feels when analysing a painting with infrared reflectography and discovering the preparatory drawing is terrificEach time it is a unique experience, discovering a secret kept under the layers of painting, a moment that the artist never thought would be revealed.This is not needed only when the painting … is not finished! Only […]
Who decides if it is a Caravaggio?
Tomorrow is Caravaggio’s 450th birthday. There will not be celebrations, except for something almost improvised. Nothing to do with what had been organized for the 400 years since his death. In that occasion, Art-Test analysed several paintings of undisputed autography, including the Bacchus of the Uffizi, the 7 works of mercy of Naples, the Resurrection […]
DISCOVERIES
A great cleaning (and scalpel work), which Cesare Brandi would be proud of
“Commonly we mean by restoration any intervention aimed at putting a product of human activity back into efficiency”. So writes Cesare Brandi in his famous essay where he exposes what he considers the mission of the restorer and explains how everything must be done with the utmost respect for the work and time passed. The […]
Unkown Origin
Often, to authenticate a work of art, its “provenance” is used, or the succession of the various owners, to try and trace the purchase contracts till the first, with the author’s signature on it.But “provenance” data are not at all easy to verify. On the contrary, it is a very treacherous terrain, because even these […]
CONSERVATION
How much is it?
How not to fall in a trap A recurring question we are asked is, of course, “How much do your tests cost?” Less often it is asked “what value do these tests have?” We want to share with you a reflection that for some time we have been discussing during our days at work. The […]
Never again
The Lebanese art historian Gregory Buckhakjian is convinced that the artworks recovered were created by the hand of Artemisia Gentileschi. And Buckhakjian knows very well the history of the Sursock Palace collection, the building where the paintings were located – and which was heavily damaged during the attack -, as in 1993, he discussed his […]
See you in New York
In silence in front of Her Our work is made up of many silences, those due to the concentration while we work and those due to the beauty of an artwork and the reflectographic image that we see while our scanner acquires the necessary data. This is the thought we dedicate to Bronzino’s portrait of […]