Emanuela

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Discovering Goya via Diagnostic Analyses

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Is diagnostics interesting only for specialists? Not at all!

The secrets hidden in the diagnostic images are fascinating to everyone. In addition to the Modigliani exhibition, the small town of Lille offers an innovative exhibition on Goya hosted by the Museum of Fine Arts. Not the classic exhibition of paintings gathered in the rooms of a museum, but a different show , that makes use of many of the most modern exhibition techniques.

 The first section is a huge white drum on which Goya’s artistic story unfolds, interspersed with the events that influenced his subjects and expression, but also about Goya’s influence on subsequent culture, up to Sergio Leone ‘s modern cinema.  This large white drum contains the artworks and at the same time gives the opportunity to enjoy an immersive experience, with giant murals of paintings, engravings, and 4 of his animated self-portraits that wink at us.

On the next floor an ad hoc environment has been created, divided into rooms, where artworks and videos are simultaneously displayed on giant monitors. In the videos there are excerpts from a movie about Goya’s life. The first room displays his Capricci compared with the homage to them realised by Dali. A large monitor, almost a background, shows a reconstruction of Goya’s atelier and the painter in the act of creating the engraving and printing.

There is also a section where the conservation status of two works is shown with photos in diffused and grazing light. From here you enter the most interesting room -to us- (to tell the truth it is difficult to make a ranking). This time it is the diagnostic analyses that are on display. A video of almost 10 minutes by CRMF2 shows how the study of the painting “The Times” takes place through scientific investigations: UV Fluorescence, IR Reflectography and X-Radiography. The latter reveals that the canvas hides another painting.

We were curious about the reaction of the visitors: everyone stopped and looked carefully, observing everything.

In conclusion, an exhibition that we would like to see, as a format, also in many more occasions.

There is a lot of diagnostics that could be used to intrigue, enrich the cultural background of a visitor and to invite them to study.

In our laboratory, customers often ask for being present during acquisitions, especially when our IR Reflectography scanner is used. Their curiosity and wonder are a further reason of reflection for us.

Diagnostics can and must leave the laboratories to show its results that can become subject of relevant discussions.

In our opinion, all art catalogs should always contain a technical section. An additional chapter that would add value to the historical-artistic files.

(Emanuela Massa)
(Emanuela Massa)
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“The scientist and the forger workshop”: we need a shared protocol to identify fakes

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How to authenticate a work of art? How to reveal forgeries?

On 2 and 3 December 2021, as a result of an excellent initiative of the Italian Group of the International Institute for Conservation, the workshop “The scientist and the forgery – Scientific methodologies to identify fakes in art”  was held in Lucca.

It is becoming increasingly clear that there is the need to tackle this issue in a structured way. During the conference, the many angles from which to address it were discussed: art market, authentication, attribution, dating, stylistic analyses.

At the center of the discussion is the false / falsified / misattributed / authentic object, studied by many, intersecting but not superimposable, professional disciplines that must be able to communicate in a constructive way, to the benefit of the whole community, not just the scientific one.

In fact a forgery, if not recognized as such, not only causes economic losses to those who are defrauded, but can also cause a broader, social damage: it modifies the course of things, the real history of art, providing a distorted version which impacts on all possible conclusions from it.

Art–Test presented the case study of a panel by Bruegel the Younger, wishing to contribute by bringing attention to what we now consider an urgency that can no longer be postponed. A shared protocol for a scientific study of artefacts, structured in a pyramidal manner that adds layers of in-depth analyses depending on previous results.

In addition, the minimum characteristics of the instrumentation to be used for the analises need to be defined, as well as which methodologies are useful and in which order they should be applied. This approach is essential to enable an accurate interpretation and a possible replicability of the measurements.

Furthermore, there is a lack of shared guidelines for the reports provided by the laboratories after carrying out the analyses. Often what is provided is only a generic description of the results, but the raw data obtained are not included, nor the description of the instrumentation and methodology used.

At the same time, we wanted to highlight that there are still too few public databases from which to draw scientific information.

By sharing data we should not be afraid of favoring counterfeiters, as although they may become increasingly aware of the techniques used by the great masters; it is equally true that science, as amply demonstrated, will always be one step ahead.

What we should be concerned of, once again, is the anti-scientific attitude that currently afflicts so many parts of our society, and the narrative that sees the self-declared connoisseurs capable of producing expertise only on the basis of their “eye”.

The workshop ended with the desire to create a technical workgroup to discuss, based on the different perspectives and experience, a base protocol to be applied for investigations and instruments.

The proceedings of the conference will soon be available.

(Emanuela Massa)
(Emanuela Massa)
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How much is an artwork worth?

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an idea to stop illicit artwork traffic

The artistic and cultural heritage cannot be valued per kilo as any other product. Different parameters necessarily come into play in estimating the value of a work of art. It is its existence, even more its possible absence, that increases its value. Its existence is a source, a document, a link with the past. It illustrates it, it passes it on. If the artefact no longer existed, if it had not been adequately protected, we would have an unbridgeable gap in what is the historical discourse, before economic damage. The question: “how much is a work of art worth?” it is difficult to answer.
However, as highlighted in the article by Giuseppe Miceli, an expert in anti-money laundering, entitled “A passport for cultural heritage”, which appeared a few weeks ago in the Journal of Cultural Heritage, the lack of shared rules for the evaluation of works, a the art market, totally unregulated, benefits, with its volatility, with random quotations and subsequent sales at amazing prices, the laundering of illicit proceeds, albeit with totally legal sales.
The analysis conducted by the FBI on the illicit trafficking of works of art estimates it to be between 9-12% of the entire turnover in the sector. Analysis also confirmed by national bodies such as the Italian Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate or the Italian Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission.
To counter this phenomenon, of which Italy is one of the major victims, Giuseppe Miceli has decided to develop a project for the traceability of Cultural Heritage, or the creation of a Register of the Owners of works of art, like what happens for other product categories. In this way it would be possible to monitor every change of ownership of any artefact, as is done now for cars, for example. This register would be used as a deterrent to the use of sums of dubious origin because the purchase value would also be recorded.
The works would be provided with a mark “elaborated and applied by the State Polygraphic Institute”, the data entered on the mark would refer to a database in which all the information on the artefact will be present. Of course, the counterfeiting of this or the tampering would be the subject of criminal proceedings.
Artefacts that do not bear the mark would be deemed to be inauthentic.
But the question we ask ourselves is:

  • How would authenticity be verified, and would this also include determining the certainty of the autograph when affixing the first stamp?
  • How would this instrument take into account the variations in value due to new attributions, to scientific discoveries?
  • Would diagnostic data be accessible, which certainly could be a support for the conservation of the work itself and also proof of authenticity?

We found the proposal really interesting but its feasibility requires resources and skills. An important investment.

In any case, regulation of a market where it is currently possible to exchange many millions without any rules is increasingly necessary.

(Emanuela Massa)
(Emanuela Massa)
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A Panorama beyond the horizon

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Crises as any difficult moments have always highlighted intelligences, whether they are individual or expressions of a community.

Several times in our “articles” you have been able to read a personal analysis of this private time, suspended, in some cases overloaded with communication to stay alive. There are those who have used this time to build, to create a network that would serve to promote beauty and culture present on the Italian territory.

This is what the Italics consortium has done.

In great crises, in difficult moments, the possible reactions are various. The best is to group together and face “The Enemy” together.

So in a situation completely unknown to everyone, 60 galleries treating ancient, modern and contemporary art have become a consortium and have begun to propose themselves with online events to the world of collectors and culture in general.

The artists represented by them, judging it was the right moment to look to the future together, have put together forces and ideas.

All this led to the birth of a collective and in person public event.

Fifty gallery owners have chosen to dedicate a Panorama of the art proposed by them in a place defined by Minister Franceschini as “the place of restart”. Procida, Italian Capital of Culture 2022. A small place but with a 360 ° panorama that shows beautiful horizons.

On these horizons a dialogue between works of art and territory, in a dialogue between art and people.

For this widespread exhibition their network also involved the Capodimonte Museum which granted for 4 days the work “Adoration of the shepherds” by Matthias Stomer (1600, Amersfoort, Netherlands – 1650, Sicily) kept in a deconsecrated chapel and which was exhibited in front of a work by Lucio Fontana from the La Fine di Dio series, in a dialogue between the ancient and the contemporary.

The exhibition was curated by Vincenzo De Bellis, who thus dedicated more time to Italy after the Florentine exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi.

Art-Test had the pleasure of being able to interview him in the “Tra l’Arte” series last July.

(Emanuela Massa)
(Emanuela Massa)
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Yellow Summer Fever

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We had promised to talk  more about Yellow pigments, since PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminating, has been elected ‘Pantone Colour of the Year’ for this 2021.

The colour Yellow has accompanied mankind since the dawn of time with alternating fate.

In the beginning it was the Yellow Ochre, a stable and strong colour, among the first to be discovered and still used by artists around the globe.

Then Orpiment arrived.  A bright yellow. So much appreciated that it was found in the tomb of Tutankamon.

Indeed, when we think of a “happy” colour we think of yellow. The sun, in children’s drawings, and not only, is yellow. Yellow is the colour of light. Of summer.

Orpiment was used to simulate gold in Pompeian paintings.

But in the Middle Ages this colour began to take on another meaning.

It was Gold that conveyed all positive values, while yellow was employed for robes of harlots or monks in the smell of witchcraft.

The Flemish used this colour for debtors and swindlers. But also Giotto used it for the garments of Judas.

Centuries had to pass for the yellow to be reconsidered, even if not completely rehabilitated. We have to wait for the Impressionists.

Gold slowly lost its strength because it was seen as “inelegant” and yellow slowly began its rise again.

Of course, not all negative meanings vanished, but new interpretations began to be added, including associating yellow with rebirth,

Bright yellow symbolises cheerfulness that shines with liveliness, a warm shade imbued with the power of sun

In the coming days we will present on our social channels many aspects of this colour, in relation to the diagnostics of artworks.

We will discuss the behaviour of the various pigments detected with different sensors and different light sources.

Another way of seeing what is invisible!

(Emanuela Massa)
(Emanuela Massa)
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How much is it?

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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 answer is: “the value of a #diagnostic campaign lies in the ability to answer the questions posed”.

And therefore more than the “cost” of a single #investigation or a complete and complex diagnostic campaign, it is the “value” that should be inquired for.

For example, if the purpose of an analysis is the #authenticity of an #artwork (which is independent of the #attribution and/or wants to give certainty about consistency with a given historical period), this cannot be obtained using the cost of the survey as a choice factor.

The costs of the investigations are linked to a variety of parameters, including the time and equipment required.

We have experienced various types of customers, with some attempts to downgrading our work, and others for whom it seems that the cost measures the value, so they only trust those laboratories who perform diagnostic analyzes at exorbitant prices. But then get burned and come to us.

The survey type to choose is the one that is able to answer the Question you have.

Each artifact is a “unicum” and therefore even if the same question is asked for two or more artworks, it is not always answered by the same analyses.

Conversely, investigations and their correct interpretation can give answers to different questions.

Furthermore, the result of an analysis must always be contextualized.

The documents accompanying an object, whether they are administrative documents or scholar research, previous diagnostic campaigns, expertise, etc. must be objectively evaluated, bearing in mind that, like the #counterfeiting of works of art, the counterfeiting of accompanying documents is not rare either. 

Furthermore, scientific data must be considered reliable only when they are documented throughout their acquisition process and interpreted without preconceptions.

The value of a diagnostic campaign is not in its cost, but in the scientific “sincerity” and in the fairness towards those who commission it.

And now ask how much does it costs, please, and compare our services with those of our competitors, and the value we offer.

We are ready to offer you personalized advice.

(Emanuela Massa)
(Emanuela Massa)
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See you in New York

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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 an extraordinary woman: Laura Battiferri. She was an intellectual and literate woman, of whom we have already spoken here.

In this difficult year, the diagnostic, reflectographic and radiographic campaign on this painting represented a precious gift. The restoration and investigations were carried out in a special laboratory, Palazzo Vecchio.

This time, even the transport of our equipment alone was enchanting, because it allowed us to enjoy the journey between the rooms of Palazzo Vecchio in total solitude. In retracing the road that separated us from the painting we stopped many time to appreciate the details that often remain invisible, when we are distracted by the crowd.

At the end of the road there was her, standing still in time. A figure so authoritative that it seemed a pity to interrupt her thoughts even with the noise caused by the assembling our devices.

Laura has been “reflectographed” several times. Thanks to the several diaphragms at our disposal, we found the one which was right for her. It is always like this, the Art–Test Scanner adapts to the painting, follows the inclinations and allows for different transparencies of the pigments. A unique gift, which allows us to obtain the best results, where others fail and “see nothing”.

Two days in Palazzo Vecchio, in which these investigations were also the moment in which together with the restorers, Lucia and Andrea Dori from “l’Officina del Restauro” and Dr. Pini for the Municipality of Florence, we talked about her as a very precious object to take care of. And it must be said that it is thanks to Friends of Florence that much of our Florentine heritage actually finds a “cure”.

The only painting by  the hand of Bronzino of a figure in a profile pose, reminiscent of numismatic works but also of cameos of the classical age, which inspired him, flies to the United States, to the MET. It will be one of the spearheads of the exhibition “The Medici. Portrait & Politics, 1512-1570 “. 

We just wish a good trip to “Laura Battiferri”, certainly the longest in her life. Who knows what she will think.

She, who married in 1550 with Bartolomeo Ammannati, who frequented Michelangelo assiduously, and the other Florentine intellectuals, and was in correspondence with other poetesses, whose fame crosses borders and is known from Madrid to Prague, but who probably did not expect to become a New York star.

(Emanuela Massa)
(Emanuela Massa)
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We shall overcome CRIME

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782 archaeological finds, for an estimated value of 11 million euros, all stolen or coming from clandestine excavations, probably Italian, Apulian to be exact, illegally imported and currently in the possession of a collector, have recently been recovered in Belgium.

It was an international operation that involved all the relevant institutions. After an initial technical analysis, carried out onsite by an archaeologist expert, the transfer to Italy of the finds was requested and obtained so that they may be subjected to further in- depth scientific investigations.

It is now well established that the world of organized crime that mortifies our heritage is an increasingly painful scourge, and it is for this reason that specific training, which takes into account all aspects, is one of the weapons to be wielded to protect our history and our heritage.

LOGO CSCWith the aim of training experts dealing with these issues, the Biennial School of Higher Education in Judicial Archeology and Crimes against Cultural Heritage opened on Saturday 28 May 2021, activated by the Center for Criminological Studies (CSC), for the fourth year. consecutive, but for the first time as a two-year school.

Art-Test will be part of the teaching staff. We are entrusted with the theme of “authentication and dating in the field of cultural heritage”. We address this issue not only by illustrating with theory and examples the methodologies and technologies useful for this purpose, but also by giving a broader overview including also the possible obstacles to be taken into account, the time to obtain the results and the costs.

In this way, future experts, in drafting the requests for the investigation of the cases, will be aware not only of which diagnostic investigation to foreseee but also the economic commitment to be faced and the necessary time, which in the case of judicial proceedings are essential information.

The inauguration ceremony saw the faculty, the students and the member of the Italian Superintendeces present. They made themselves available to welcome the students also for training internships, as will Art-Test Firenze, which this time too will try to contribute to the training of new recruits.

(Emanuela Massa)

(Emanuela Massa)
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Stealing Art

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Art-Test offers you a review of recently publications such as books, TV series, interviews, etc.

‘This Is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist’. TV series.

Art thefts have their charm and are always particularly interesting because they shed light on the entire sector.

On March 18, 1990, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston was looted by a gang of thieves. In the series now on air, period footage is mostly used, with interviews to those who were then the Boston police and to FBI agents who dealt with it. In 1990 we did not have the scientific means we have today, but in particular in the United States it was not clear what the turnover was regarding illicit acts in the world of art, so much so that the FBI did not have a specially dedicated division. But the constant increase in the value of works of art had not escaped the “underworld”. And the 4 episodes of the series not only tell about the theft but place it within the world of organized crime, the world of drug dealing, assuming that perhaps some of the paintings, even if unsaleable on the legal market, could have been used as a “guarantee” for the trade in cocaine. Somehow, the criminal world was ahead of the legal one.

To date, no work has been recovered; there is still a prize of 10 million dollars for information leading to the recovery of the works.

A fate common to many works of art, not least the Nativity of Caravaggio, whose theft in 1969 convinced the Italian Carabinieri to equip themselves with a special unit, a pioneering activity, given that they were the first in the world and that remains still a point of reference today.

Stolen art is difficult to trace, since it is relatively easy to move and can remain hidden for decades before being resold. To counter this trade, databases of stolen artworks have been created, both public, such as that of the Carabinieri, and private ones where, however, each search is against payment.

Of course, as with all databases, their usefulness depends on the content, on the accuracy of the information in it. We recommend that you draw up a file as complete as possible for each work of art you own. This will make it easier to recover in the, hopefully unlikely, event of a theft. Art-Test is of course also at your disposal in this. A small investment you won’t regret!

(Emanuela Massa)
(Emanuela Massa)

 

copertina articolo SALERNO

Is a citation not enough?

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It is recent news the publication of a call promoted by the Province of Salerno, in which professional conservatories were invited to apply to lend their work for the restoration of the institution’s heritage, totally for free. In exchange for it , the call just mentioned some promotion.
It is upsetting, but it didn’t surprise us. In fact, what was written in a public call in Italy, a country where restoration should be a serious affair, is not far from what we have been seeing for years now.
The truth is that we are a country that restores its works almost exclusively thanks to philanthropists or associations, who engage in constant fundraising.
The perpetuation of our beauty is now entrusted to the availability of enthusiasts, often foreigners, who donate money, even considerable amounts (often to be able to deduct them from taxes) to fill needs that should instead find support from our Public Administration.
All this could be less bad if the lack of funds to allocate to this sector did not also have the consequence of degrading the professionalism of those who carry out the works, and minimizing  the restorations budgets, where even diagnostics, therefore the deep knowledge of the work and its conservative problems, is made redundant or carried out with non-scientific methodologies and technologies,  becoming therefore fundamentally useless.
The value of the restorer’s work cannot be relegated to a mention on the plaque that flanks the restored work.
You cannot repay the professionalism acquired in years of study and practice with a citation in the newspaper.
The expression ‘there is not enough money’ is not justified. The money must be found.


The restoration carried out with minimal budget will totally be to the detriment of the work and society as a whole, because, the most suitable care for its preservation for future generations will not be carried out.


A disaster that has been announced for far too long, which none of the public institutions really seem to want to tackle.
Perhaps it is time not to ask for unilateral sacrifices and really recognise the importance of this sector for the preservation of our heritage. Not just words (and citations).

(Emanuela Massa)
(Emanuela Massa)

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