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Man or Woman?

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Gender fluid ante litteram

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 in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan is not unanimously accepted as by Leonardo’s hand, despite the undoubted quality of the painting, the presence of a textbook “sfumato” and the convincing comparison of scientific data (to which Art -Test contributed).

However, we are absolutely convinced of this attribution, enraptured by the power of this image and also a by what we are about to tell you.

We carried out the IR reflectography of this panel, to discover the preparatory drawing, and we realized with immense amazement that the preparatory drawing for this image of Christ, depicts a woman.

The face in reflectography has no beard; the hair is less thick, in line with what were the beauty canons of the time, even if in an official portrait a woman would probably have demanded her hair gathered. But Leonardo had already produced the Scapigliata.

The shoulders are small and round, like those considered desirable by the canons of beauty of the time.

But above all, the folds of her dress widen for the unmistakable presence of a female breast.

The multilayer images show how the artist had modified these characteristics with a few brush strokes to change the folds of the garment, and make them become vertical, to raise the shoulder line and to add beard and lengthen the hair.

A few touches, no changes to the very intense gaze, and a woman becomes a man. The symbols of the trinity are added and here is the head of a Christ. Who is born a woman, metaphorically.

A very strong message, a secret that had to remain so until the analyses literally brought it back to light.

Who if not Leonardo could dare so much?

PS. If you want to see more, reflectographic images have been published in Leonardo in France (SKIRA), and in “Leonardo Da Vinci and Gian Giacomo Caprotti Called Salai’ : The Enigma of a Painting”, by Maurizio Zecchini, ed. Marsilio

(Anna Pelagotti)
(Anna Pelagotti)
masotti pompei small

In Memoriam

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Leonardo Masotti

Leonardo Masotti, university professor, pioneer of electronics (or electrical engineering “of weak currents”, as it was still called when he graduated), has left us. He was a very important figure for the Florentine and Italian industry, a true innovator who was able to give impetus to many now well-established realities, in the world of industrial lasers as well as in the medical sector.

Perhaps not everyone knows that he was a great supporter of the application of technology to the study of art, too, to the point of accepting the position of President of the Regional Technological District for Cultural Heritage. It is thanks to his vision that, for example, we have many lasers for restoration.

But above all it was the professor who had remained a constant point of reference through the years.

His genuinely kind manners and curiosity for each new idea will remain to guide us in the future as well.

(Anna Pelagotti)
(Anna Pelagotti)
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

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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

postazione_Caravaggio_Montepulciano_sito

Let’s get physical

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Covid19 has accelerated digitalization, for which we believed we were not yet ready. Did we know how to treasure it? Or has the push towards the digital world marked the end of interest in physical works and therefore in exhibitions and museums?

Pandemic closures have devastated the income of museums everywhere. Some institutions may never recover. We need a quick turnaround.

This year marked also a surge in the digital activity: online exhibitions, digital tours, talks with curators and art experts, all what we are now used to.

Digitization has been essential to keep the exchange between institutions and communities alive. This opening up to technology, both on the part of institutions and users, has made it possible to explore another vision, breaking away from habits, entering a little known but intriguing dimension.

The pandemic has shown that an evolution of language and means, previously considered futuristic, is possible. It has been seen that new opportunities can be explored to create synergies between traditional art forms and new technologies.

The signs of recovery appear to be encouraging. There are many planned activities, exhibitions and events. Cultural institutions are betting on the desire to return to see art, artists and collections in person.

We will see if this is really the case. If the need to see a work of art in “flesh and blood” has returned. And if we managed to take advantage of digital channels to increase interest, to cultivate curiosity.

In many of the in-depth studies proposed online, reference was made to the results of the diagnostic investigations and to how much more knowledge of the works and artists they could bring. So why not make use of these insights also “on site”?

By now accustomed to learning more about each artwork, visitors may be disappointed by a tag with title and author alone. It is time for the studies made to be made available to everyone. We all can only benefit from it!

(Chiara Martine Menchetti)
(Chiara Martine Menchetti)
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

 

isabella

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)

 

Caravaggesco_Empoli_vis del fotografo mano

An original without copies or Caravaggio’s zigzag

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Spunti diagnostici di riflessione sull'attribuzione

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 the painting that had been indicated so far as the Massimi’s painting, now in Genoa, many are quick to say that after all no one had ever believed in it, it is clearly not by “him”. Sic transeat gloria mundi.

As diagnosticians, it is of course super interesting for us to go and see why this attribution is so eagerly, and almost unanimously, supported. A fate that did not touch the many other “Caravaggio” that have been proclaimed (even by the same who are pronouncing now) and disowned over the years.

Much has been written about the difference between originals and copies by Caravaggio. As on the possibility that Caravaggio produced “doubles”.

And here we notice the first anomaly, perhaps only temporary. Of all the Caravaggio, or presumed such, that we have investigated, there were always copies. Generally very similar versions, on which to make comparisons on technique and materials used. Also of the “Ecce Homo” Genoese version. Actually we probably know only copies of some of Caravaggio’s inventions.

Mario Minniti – Malta

No other versions of this painting appear to have emerged. Although it is true that the canvas had been in Spain for almost four centuries, and it has the very same subject as a painting documented to have arrived in Madrid in 1659, it seems anomalous that no one has made copies. Among similar composition that come to mind, there is a painting in Malta, with a similar subject, by Mario Minniti.

There are several versions, one of which in Vienna, attributed to Minniti too, of another “Ecce Homo” with an analogous composition, considered by some to be Caravaggesque, but of which the three protagonists do not resemble those of the Madrid canvas.

We diagnosticians would have loved to have been able to make comparisons with a copy or a version.

But the most interesting contribution for us was the commentary by Rossella Vodret, who, together with others, edited two volumes full of observations on the Lombard painter’s technique for Silvana Editoriale.

We quote from an interview on the subject: “Then there are further observations relating to the executive technique, made visible thanks to an HD photo that was sent to me. I am referring to a series of specific executive features of Caravaggio, such as the full-bodied zig-zag white lead sketches that the artist uses mainly starting from 1605 and which are found in various works, such as the San Girolamo Borghese, the San Girolamo di Montserrat, the Flagellation of Capodimonte. They are very particular sketches through which the painter fixes the points in which to position the highlights on the dark preparation of the canvas. It is a feature that, up to now, I have not found in other painters. In the “Ecce Homo” there are zigzag sketches on the chest, shoulder and arm of Christ, all in full light. The incisions are also typical, although we now know that all the artists of the period made the incisions, but these are perfectly compatible with those found on Caravaggio’s autographed paintings “.

We would like to give some news: we have not found them on many Caravaggio that we have investigated, but the famous zigzags traces can also be found in the “San Giovannino” in Empoli, which we studied (unfortunately the allocated budget did not allow a complete diagnostic campaign). We talked about it in the essay we wrote on the occasion of the presentation of the restoration intervention, and in the video that you can see (in Italian) on our YouTube channel.

We look forward to learning more. Hoping that it doesn’t disappear into thin air.

(Anna Pelagotti)
(Anna Pelagotti)
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.

 

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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