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Simone_Martini_-_frontespizio_per_codice_Virgilio_-_Biblioteca_Ambrosiana_-_Milano

Diagnostics meets poetry

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Petrarch (Arezzo, 20 July 1304 – Arquà, 19 July 1374) was born into a Florentine family in exile (due to his father’s belonging to the white Guelphs). 

He had an adventurous life and had no respite in his wanderings, even after his death.

His tomb was in fact desecrated in 1630, probably to resell some bones of this famous poet, that remain unfound.

Diagnostic analyses on what was left, surprisingly, revealed that the skull was not his own, but that of a woman who lived in 1200.

The skeleton, on the other hand, seems authentic: in addition to a compatible dating, it reports some fractures in the ribs, which corresponds to the reported news that he was kicked by a horse.

In the illustration, the miniature by Simone Martini, for the cover of the “Ambrosian Virgil”, by Petrarch, now preserved at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan.

The work testifies to the friendship between the two artists and literates, who both attended the court of Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.

This illuminated page shows the Latin commentator Servius, pulling back a curtain to show the supreme poet lying down. He seems to draw inspiration by looking up at the sky, pen and book in hand.

The act of pulling the curtain aside is a clear metaphor for the commentator’s disclosure role.

A soldier, a shepherd and a farmer attend the scene, alluding to the epic, pastoral and bucolic themes sung in the poet’s work.

By Simone Martini Art–Test analysed the Polyptych of Santa Caterina. We will talk about it soon! Stay tuned!

(Anna Pelagotti)
(Anna Pelagotti)
b93d3113-c631-4493-8579-49e828fb42f2

Learning by doing

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Benvenuta Vera!

After having sadly but affectionately greeted Cintia, our Erasmus trainee from Tenerife, who with her Hispanic and sunny spirit made the days in the offices sparkling, we are ready to meet Vera, arriving from Moscow, and to welcome her.

Coming from an even different training curriculum, specializing in the history of art and restoration of canvases and tables, she has decided to deepen her diagnostic knowledge, an aspect that as a restorer you will have to often deal with.

Thanks to the collaboration that Art–Test has been undertaking for years with Palazzo Spinelli, the demand for internships in our laboratories from this Institute is always increasing. Regardless of the origin, however each trainee, although he or she may come from a different professional and geographical background, is offered to personally conduct the different analyzes foreseen by a diagnostic campaign -after a first but brief and concise theoretical approach.

It is certainly not immediate for an art historian and/or restorer to understand how to use diagnostics. For us artworks primarily have composite material side, and one must not be influenced by the apparent style and/or any attributions based solely on historical-artistic study.

As has already happened before, also in this case it will be a two-way exchange of notions that will be enriching for both parties over the next few months.

Let’s rock on!

Alice Fusco
susanna small

In Memoriam

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Susanna Bracci

Susanna Bracci, principal scientist of the Institute for the Conservation and Valorization of Cultural Heritage of the Italian National Research Council was a pillar of our sector.

Her contribution to science for conservation has been important and continuous, her presence has been a point of reference for more than thirty years.

She was open minded and curious, always smiling and positive.

Despite the fact that she had been struggling for some time with a terrible disease, she seemed invincible.

But she left, leaving a professional and human void that will be impossible to fill. We will never forget you.

With Love Your friends

Imprimir

A package for every occasion

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Vi state chiedendo quali analisi da richiedere? Ecco una guida

When you come across an artwork, perhaps in the attic or in grandparents’ cellar, you may wonder “Will it be original or is it a copy?” and above all, “Can it be worth anything?” and it is precisely to answer these questions that Art-Test decided to create the specific “Standard” test package.

It is especially recommended for artefacts for which previous scientific documentation is completely absent, and it gives concrete initial answers to the above questions and allows to reveal possible recent fakes.

In the specific case of a painting, for example, the package includes four different non-invasive diagnostic analyses:

  • UltraViolet fluorescence (UV): allows you to highlight any retouching present on the painted surface, it is also excellent for detecting previous restorations or additions not belonging to the original painting.
  • InfraRed reflectography (IR): allows you to observe, if present, the preparatory drawing, giving specific information about the technique of realization of the work.
  • Digital microscope: allows you to observe the surface of the work at various magnifications, allowing you to highlight the painting technique, state of conservation and inspect the craquelure.
  • XRF analysis: reveals the chemical nature of the pigments, allowing to differentiate the ancient pigments from the industrial ones.

These analyses can be performed both in the company’s laboratories and at the customer’s premises, as the instruments included in the standard are all portable, thus allowing the tests to be performed directly on site when required.

The package comprises a Scientific Report, a document in which all the information regarding the work is reported, including a detailed Condition Report drawn up according to the Object ID scheme, the description of purpose of the campaign diagnostics, the methods of analysis and the instrumentation used, the results and their critical reading.

This is just one of the five packages that the company offers, in fact, thanks to the vast experience gained over the years, Art-Test is able to advise and think in every situation which is the most appropriate package for you;  we always treats each new work as unique and different from all the previous ones, which is why each new diagnostic campaign will be designed and will follow an ad hoc plan.

It should also be noted that all the investigation techniques available are applicable to any type of product, of any invoice, size, material, technique and execution period.

Are you curious to know what the other four packages consist of?

Then visit our website: Services – Art-Test • Art & Technology

Pannello 2

Why an internship at Art-Test?

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here are those who talk about doing something for young people and those who do it!

Forget about making photocopies!

Coming from two different path – restoration and diagnostics-, and two distant countries (Tenerife, through an Erasmus, and Sesto Fiorentino), we found at Art-Test an efficient but helpful tutor, who between a coffee and an anecdote about past works, she confronted us with the environment of diagnostics by presenting it to us in all its infinite facets.

Never working as an individual but always as a team, combining our knowledge and skills where one filled the gaps of the other, we were able to gain experience on multiple works, during months in which the company put its resources at our complete disposal, allowing us to learn and perform the different analyses, accompanying and supporting us, always ready to help us but at the same time also to be silent observers who from a distance made sure that we would fix any hitches independently.

Furthermore, it was possible to see and understand the internal management of the company and how professionalism and complete dedication are indispensable factors.

Undoubtedly an internship that allows you to improve your training and learn a new one and therefore useful both for those who have studied diagnostics and for those who meet it for the first time.

Cintia Gonzales
Alice Fusco

 

CONOSCIMI INSTAGRAM

The lost Zaffera technique

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Very precious majolica with relief decorations and a fascinating history

Cintia Gonzales
Alice Fusco

“Those who want to do great things must pay particular attention to details”, as the poet Paul Valéry writes, is what the Tuscan potters did by inventing “zaffera” majolica.

These are ceramics conceived and produced only in some specific areas of the Italian peninsula and in a very short period of time but with such an elegant and particular manufacture, that it determined immediate success. In a short time they replaced the previous majolica on the tables of the richest mansions of the fifteenth century.
Characterized by a two-tone decoration: the pearly white background based on stanniferous glaze and the deep blue decoration, pasty and with glassy reflections, in relief compared to the rest, they were immediately received positively by customers, probably thanks to the completely new decoration patterns, compared to the ornaments of the other majolicas on the market at the time. In fact, it can be said that, although today they are nowadays almost completely unknown and not very present on the market, they have high prices, as they have had historically an important impact, in fact, their presence is not rare, for example in paintings of the period: Beato Angelico who inserts them inside of his great works and undertakes to paint them with great care and attention in the convivial scenes as in “San Domenico and his companions“. But Angelico is not the only one: Bicci di Lorenzo also includes these particular majolica in his tables as in the case of the “Miracle of San Nicola“.


Beato Angelico “San Domenico and his companions” predella of “Coronation of the Virgin” 1430-1432

Bicci di Lorenzo “Miracle of San Nicola” 1433-1435


La Zaffera, which initially established itself in the Florentine and Sienese area, later extended to northern Lazio, Faenza and Umbria. Among all, the ones from Viterbo are the most prestigious ones.
Generally the images depicted are characterized by a complete two-dimensionality, where the shades are completely absent, and a main figure placed in the center, is surrounded by elegant decorations. Rarely the main subject is anthropomorphic, the most popular are dogs and birds, more rarely fish.

Instead, the variety of decorations of the frame is wider: plant and floral inserts, plant shoots, labellum, wolf teeth, droplets and oak leaves with acorns and berries.
In Tuscany, majolicas were mainly made with a completely decorated surface; in Faenza, instead, the decorations were confined within circles made of brown manganese or blue enamel; the Viterbo decoration is always characterized by patterns that develop over the entire surface but thinner and less dense.


 Examples of Faenza majolica (a), Viterbo majolica (b) and Tuscan majolica (c)


The most requested objects, from what can be seen from the various finds, were mostly trunk-shaped cups and mugs with ovoid body and trilobate mouth; the production of plates and trays is less intense, this is probably due to the fact that the relief of the decorations is more appreciable if made on concave surfaces rather than on flat or convex surfaces.
The short production period is attributable to two factors: the high cost of cobalt blue necessary for production and the difficult construction technique that resulted in the production of numerous wastes characterized by little relief and poorly defined decorations.
The blue pigment was laid mixed with a particular loose clay called “barbottina” on the surface previously glazed and cooked, the majolica was then subjected to a second cooking phase in which the decoration would swell while maintaining the basic design.

This last complex phase of production had to be carried out in environments where temperatures of more than about 1000°C would not be reached in order to compensate for the melting and the consequent inevitable casting of cobalt oxide.

However, since they did not have such precise control of the internal temperatures of the furnaces, it often happened to obtain unsaleable products and soon the production costs exceeded the revenues.
This is probably the main reason why it was abandoned after only thirty years and was replaced by the Italian-Moorish majolica, always characterized by a white-blue bichromy but of more immediate and certainly less expensive realization.

Maiolica italo-moresca


Being so few objects available, today even what was then considered waste, has great value.
The characteristics mentioned above such as the cobalt blue decorations with a heightened relief on a white background, the short production time and the difficult execution technique, are safe elements on which to base a diagnostic investigation.
Although it is usual to think of diagnostics mostly linked to the study of paintings, it is certainly extendable to other numerous types of objects and also in the case of ceramics, it allows to distinguish originals from fakes and to date majolica using different techniques of a non-invasive, invasive, micro-destructive or elemental kind.
In the specific case of majolicas, ceramics, porcelains, there are mainly five techniques to which it is advisable to employ to obtain information about their manufacture, history and composition, as illustrated in the posts below: element analysis, microscope, thermoluminescence, XRF, UV fluorescence.

 

Tentazioni di Sant'Antonio

Primitives, plagues and other current issues

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Not too long ago, the so-called “primitives” were the highest aspiration. Billionaires did everything (even buying fakes) to have an artwork of the Italian Middle Ages, to feel and appear cultured and refined.

Then the decline.

But is it true that they have nothing more to say nowadays?

To try to subvert this perception, the Frick Collection took the opportunity of the temporary transfer of their headquarters to Madison Avenue, in New York, to redesign the setting and encourage visitors to see with new eyes. Not only the paintings, furniture, enamels, bronzes, porcelain and carpets that previously coexisted with each other in sumptuous environments, are now exhibited in a linear and almost Spartan place, but have also been reduced to little more half, and grouped for the first time by origin, type and chronology.

After all, there are many artworks, many images, that we have available online 24/7. What can museums add, what food for thought and interest can they offer, apart from being the physical container of a collection?

Frick Museum’s idea is the opposite to that of returning the works to the places for which they were created. Rather, they choose to isolate them to allow visitors to focus their attention on each one.

To illustrate this approach and its advantages, for example, the case of the panel depicting the Temptation of Christ on the mountain, from the Gospel of Matthew, by Duccio di Buoninsegna, has been perfectly described here.

If instead of moving on, overwhelmed by too many stimuli offered by overcrowded settings or by the thousands of images on Instagram, we are invited to stop and look, and a world of knowledge opens up, beyond the appreciation of the narrative pleasantness of the composition.

In fact, one can learn that the painting was part of the predella on the back of the Majesty of the Cathedral of Siena, dismembered and sold almost 5 centuries after its creation, in 1771. We can discover that it illustrated the always-current dialogue between good and evil, personified by Christ and a devil. Devil who has bat wings, because these, nocturnal animals, half mammals and half birds, represented the loss of clarity, which is an attribute of the good side.

Once a key is offered to the viewer, all the painter’s choices in rendering a subject so full of symbolism become clearer. Choices that reflect the novelty of Italian art, which frees itself from the Byzantine one, for example in the realism of the face of Christ and also in representing these turreted cities, in pastel tones, on steep mountains and almost devoid of vegetation.

To such clues, more layers are added, like those that are the result of having gone through so many centuries and so many fashions. The two angels on the right, for example, were painted later by another hand, profoundly changing the balance of the composition.

Now that you’ve seen it up close, aren’t you in love with it?

Duccio di Buoninsegna is one of the masters that Art-Test had the pleasure and honor to study and therefore who has become part of “Sotto l’oro”, a database that includes 100 paintings from the Pinacoteca of Siena. The first collection of diagnostic and scholar data on such artworks.

During this work, we also investigated the panel on the cover, by Sassetta, the displays other devils, so impressive that they have been disfigured by some faithful soul in the past, to try to annihilate their powers (if you look carefully you can decipher the inscription). And where gold leaves the background and the pretence of imitating the goldsmith to become a true pigment.

The struggle between good and evil is always fascinating. But Duccio’s tavoletta could also tell the story of the pandemic of the fourteenth century, of the plague that annihilated Siena, of the changing landscape, of art in Dante’s time, of collecting and art trafficking at the beginning of the twentieth century, of the change of taste, of the idea of ​​protecting the Cultural Heritage, of a technique that has allowed the works to reach us almost intact.

Not bad for an old, out-of-date primitive.

(Federica Fani)
(Federica Fani)

 

 

 

 

“Sotto l’oro” Il primo database di dati diagnostici
agnelli

Poor Lamb

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The Polyptych of the Mystical Lamb by Van Eyck is again open to the public, with new lighting but above all with a new, very expensive, case, necessary for a better conservation of the artwork.

To tell the truth, they should worry about other aspects.

We are still convinced of what we wrote a little over a year ago in our newsletter

 

The astonishing silence of the Lamb not the Optical Revolution

It is an image that has gone viral, perhaps to promote an expensive exhibition, the umpteenth “made in Belgium” restoration of the Van Eyck brothers’ Mystical Lamb Polyptych (N.B.”The Ghent altar revealed” only closed in 2017).

The realistic eyes of the Lamb as we had known them, have been removed to reveal the first version of the painting, where the Lamb has a less ovine and more “human” appearance.

Let’s read what the restorer told the New York Times: “at some point in the 1500s another painter, or perhaps a group of painters, decided that it needed a reworking. They may have wanted to change the painting for theological reasons — this was, after all, the middle of the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Church was rewriting its doctrines at the Council of Trent — or because painting styles had changed“.

The whole painting was redone, she said, “not only the lamb but all the draperies, the top part of the landscape, the sky and the city view, and on the reverse of the wings, about 70 percent was overpainted.”

She added: “What is peculiar about this one is that it was extremely carefully done so that all the contours of the figures were respected and most of the colors were reproduced with very high-quality pigments. It was not a botched job.”

But luckily, restorers discovered that there was also a very thick layer of varnish between the original painting and the newer version, which made it relatively easy for them to remove that layer to get back to van Eyck’s work, Ms. Dubois said. The original head of the lamb, for example, was “in very good condition,” she said. “We only had to do a tiny restoration of tiny paint losses.”

Let’s read it again.

They removed a “repaint” not only historicized, but almost coeval, made with similar pigments and techniques.

Already since 1972 the Italian Restoration Charter (Art 6) absolutely forbids such practices, and for good reasons.

Especially since the first version of the lamb was clearly visible in reflectography  and it could have been documented even better with our Multilayer Method, and maybe illustrated in a display panel.

So why this crazy and “criminal” decision?

We are left speechless. And it is a pity that the leaders of Italian restoration arena seem to be speechless too.

We would have preferred to discuss van Eyck’s true Optical Revolution, the one described by David Hockney and Charles Falco but also by Roberta Lapucci. The one that made it possible, through the use of mirrors and lenses, perhaps not to Hubert, but certainly to Jan, to obtain such a photographic rendering of faces and objects. And lambs.

(Anna Pelagotti)
(Anna Pelagotti)
Leonardo_da_Vinci_or_Boltraffio_(attrib)_Salvator_Mundi_circa_1500

Leonardo and the magic world of auctions

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The renewed controversy over the attribution of Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi calls for a reflection on how it has become all-important not so much to choose which painting to buy but which attribution.

We have seen several times how the purchase of some artworks was later refused because of a disputed attribution. Indeed, the painting does not change, but the attribution does, and it makes all the difference.

A typical path is that of the so-called dormant attributions, or works initially proposed in generalist auctions, which after a few years acquire credit , with new more prestigious attributions, and become among the objects of most interest of important circuits. The carousel often does not end there. Because the prestigious attributions are then challenged and questioned. And again the economic value changes.

Logically, one would think that the more important the proposed name is, the more thorough the testing, and, therefore, more certain and definitive the attribution.

Moreover, since the auction is governed by a sales contract, one could imagine that among the documents available to the buyer there must be also the results of a standardized scientific diagnostic campaign – not limited at mere photographic snapshots or involving the use of other not appropriate instrumentation, but following a specific protocol.

But in reality these cases are still rare.

In the magical world of auctions, unlike in other fields, the buyer is not allowed, for example, to appoint own consultants to check the documents exhibited or perform new tests.

Take the Salvator Mundi: it was initially a “Boltraffio” at a lesser auction, then it was later proposed as a “Leonardo” with great fanfare. And only today the controversy focuses on the effectiveness of the analyses used and questions whether all  possibilities have been examined.

We wonder, for example, if the recently discovered Salvator Mundi, owned by the Museum of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, has already been studied with a correct scientific perspective or if it will also be taken for a merrygoround.

We know that during the loan for the “Leonardo in Rome” exhibition in 2019, it underwent a restoration and was proposed with an uncertain attribution Girolamo Alibrandi or the beloved Caprotti. But what about a serious diagnostic campaign?

Of course it is not (yet) proposed as a work by Leonardo but nevertheless a complete diagnostic campaign could help to better clarify the genesis of the copies of this subject by the Leonardesque circle. And to record how it is scientifically possible to distinguish an Alibrandi from a Leonardo. And stop the carousel.

(Emanuela Massa)

(Emanuela Massa)

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The Third Way for Museums survival

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How to double your income during pandemic

This past year was a fatal year. A year of closures or openings in fits and starts, of crises and layoffs; in short, a disaster for the state of health of art, increasingly overwhelmed by events. The bitter truth is that there is still no end in sight to the pandemic.

The average decline in visitors to European museums in 2020 compared to 2019 was 75%,  as published by the Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO), surveying 600 museums in 48 countries.

But it is not the demand for art that declined. During the long lockdown period, it was often art that we called to comfort us. Many institutions remained “open” online, offering each public a different experience, in order to keep interest alive and active.

Some performed better than others. It is evident that not everyone has been able to face this chaos in the same way, some for lack of staff, some for lack of equipment, or even worse for the absence of a strategy for programming, design and creation of contents. But It is evident that there is a great potential for digital.

At this point, as the pandemic continues, museums will all need to be able to work in a structured way with this new means. As budgets are not forecast to increase, what could be the new business model?

To face the challenge that this change imposes, not only should institutions evolve, but also the general thinking should do so. It is fundamental to relaunch the very idea of ​​a museum. In fact, one of the fundamental investments should be the recruitment of trained and qualified figures and not (only) of trainees who improvise as social media managers, fundraisers, supervisory assistants, secretaries or press officers.

Moreover, and above all, it is necessary to get rid of the association museum = a closed and mouldy place, which lives in the imagination of many. It should be replaced by the concept of the new museum that intertwines with the community, and is a place of local identity where people can recognize themselves and actively participate to events, not just a place where masterpieces can be admired in a passive fashion.

But of course this involves a semi-revolution, and it certainly comes at a cost. How to deal with it?

Museums are not doing well as we have seen. For example, there was a strong controversy, followed by a petition, for the auctioning of works of art by the MET. The New York Times reported that the Met, facing a $ 150 million deficit, has contacted auction houses about potential art sales. The New York museum is not the first, but given the weight of the institution, it could definitively clear this practice, prompting other museums to follow suit, in America, but also in the rest of the world.

Less art to keep museums alive?

At MArTA in Taranto they found an alternative, new and advanced model that we really like and that has allowed them to double their turnover by offering a full virtual 3D experience of the whole collection, attracting donations, and, mostly creating a modern FabLab inside the museum, offering a variety of workshops for modern craftsmanship. 

Wonderful!

We hope that in the New (!) Italian Minister of Culture it will take a cue!

 

(Chiara Martine Menchetti)
(Chiara Martine Menchetti)
(Anna Pelagotti)
(Anna Pelagotti)

 

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