https://salvatormundirevisited.com Salvator Mundi Revisited Wed, 28 Aug 2019 03:14:03 +0000 https://salvatormundirevisited.com en https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Home Mon, 15 Jul 2019 14:29:52 +0000 Salvator Mundi Revisited https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Home <img src="https://files.cargocollective.com/c481516/SMR_Logo_Animation.gif" class="text-animation" data-scale="100"> Dianne Dwyer Modestini, an internationally renowned conservator of old master paintings, shares details of the restoration of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, and discusses the materials and techniques used in the creation of this late work by the artist. ︎ https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Introduction Thu, 18 Jul 2019 18:22:12 +0000 Salvator Mundi Revisited https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Introduction Introduction This website has been created as a vehicle for the dissemination of images and technical information related to the Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci for the benefit of the scholarly community and anyone who is interested in understanding more about this painting. With the exception of a brief period prior to the November 2017 auction at Christie’s, it has not been possible to view or study the Salvator Mundi since the National Gallery’s exhibition, Leonardo at the Court of Milan, closed in January 2012. Widespread dissemination of various images of the painting, all of which are flawed, has resulted in considerable misunderstanding. I believe that it is in the best interest of both the painting and the public to make as much information as possible available. I have published three essays about the technique and the restoration. The first and most complete is an overview I presented at a technical symposium at the National Gallery held in January 2012, at the close of the exhibition, which was published in 2014.1 I included a more personal account as the Epilogue to my book, Masterpieces.2 When the painting was sold at Christie’s in November 2017, I wrote a brief essay for the catalogue.3 I have given numerous lectures at universities and for scholarly groups. Under the circumstances, this material is insufficient. New technical material about other paintings by Leonardo has since come to light and has informed my own understanding of the Salvator Mundi. Footnotes Dianne Dwyer Modestini, “Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi Rediscovered,”Leonardo da Vinci’s Technical Practice: Paintings, Drawings and Influence, Hermann Éditeurs, Paris, 2014, pp. 139-152. As one among many conference papers, the published version of the essay (2014) was limited in length and in the number of illustrations. Dianne Dwyer Modestini, Masterpieces (Firenze, 2017), pp. 411-24 and Capolavori&nbsp; (Firenze, 2018), pp. 421-35 Dianne Dwyer Modestini, “The Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci in the context of Recent Research.” Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi, Christie’s (2017), pp. 59-88 var acc = document.getElementsByClassName("accordion"); var i; for (i = 0; i < acc.length; i++) { acc[i].addEventListener("click", function() { this.classList.toggle("active"); var panel = this.nextElementSibling; if (panel.style.display === "block") { panel.style.display = "none"; this.setAttribute("data-state", "closed"); } else { panel.style.display = "block"; this.setAttribute("data-state", "open"); } }); } Next Chapter History of the Salvator Mundi↓ .next-text, .next-arrow { display: block; padding: 0px 0 20px 0; } https://salvatormundirevisited.com/History-of-the-Salvator-Mundi Thu, 18 Jul 2019 01:51:17 +0000 Salvator Mundi Revisited https://salvatormundirevisited.com/History-of-the-Salvator-Mundi History of the salvador mundi Oil on Walnut panel Painted image dimensions: 64.5 x 44.7 cm (25 3/8” x 17 1⁄2”) Panel Top: 65.5 x 45.6 cm (25 13/16” x 17 15/16”) &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Bottom: 65.5 x 45.1 cm ( 25 13/15 x 17 ¾”) Although a painting of Christ as the Salvator Mundi was not recorded during Leonardo’s lifetime, he made two drawings for the subject, there is an 1650 etching by Wenceslaus Hollar, as well as numerous copies and variants by students and followers. In 1964, Ludwig Heydenreich, based on an analysis of the existing material, concluded that there was a lost prototype.4&nbsp; In 2005, Maria Teresa Fiorio suggested that the painting itself had never been executed by Leonardo and that the derivations came from drawings and cartoons.5 <img width="1417" height="2000" width_o="1417" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/46d09bc8ffc519ec28ae8d7b66f748ad6f5155488a3ba7a3d34aa0c9e0fae0fd/1-1.1-Before-Restoration-2005.jpg" data-mid="49985209" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/46d09bc8ffc519ec28ae8d7b66f748ad6f5155488a3ba7a3d34aa0c9e0fae0fd/1-1.1-Before-Restoration-2005.jpg" />Before cleaning, 2005 <img width="1104" height="1601" width_o="1104" height_o="1601" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/03bddc75fdc8e2e1ef695500ecfda5536893e41041fe19bdab6239d3b612e05f/1-1.2.-Cook-Collection--1913.jpg" data-mid="49985311" border="0" data-scale="97" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/03bddc75fdc8e2e1ef695500ecfda5536893e41041fe19bdab6239d3b612e05f/1-1.2.-Cook-Collection--1913.jpg" />Cook Collection, 1913 2005 PurchaseThe Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci, long thought to have been lost, or perhaps never even actually executed by the artist, was offered at an estate sale in New Orleans in April 2005 where it was purchased by Dr. Robert Simon, a dealer and art historian of Italian Renaissance painting, and his associate, Alexander Parish. The composition was known from two drawings in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, numerous copies, and an etching made by Wenceslaus Hollar in 1650. The painting that appeared in the small sale was on a cradled panel, measuring&nbsp; 26” x 18 1/2”, and was in a 19th-century gilded frame, which carried an inventory number, 106, in the lower left corner. After its arrival in New York, the same number and the inscription, CC, were revealed, painted in white on the back of the early 19th century cradle. <img width="490" height="422" width_o="490" height_o="422" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ea8916faa3806e83df2d5ce3447e7aacf0f615549c108bb40a2cef692dbda5b0/1-1.3.-Inscription-on-cradle-referring-to-the-Cook-inventory-number.jpg" data-mid="49986495" border="0" data-no-zoom="true" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/490/i/ea8916faa3806e83df2d5ce3447e7aacf0f615549c108bb40a2cef692dbda5b0/1-1.3.-Inscription-on-cradle-referring-to-the-Cook-inventory-number.jpg" /> Inscription on the cradle Cook CollectionDr. Simon’s initial research confirmed that “CC” referred to the Cook Collection, since the inventory number corresponded to a painting of the Salvator Mundi, described as a “Free copy after Boltraffio” in the 1913 catalogue of the Italian Paintings in the Cook Collection by Tancred Borenius and Herbert Cook. The painting had been purchased from Sir Charles Robinson in 1900 for 120 pounds as a work by Luini. There was no earlier provenance. It is described as having suffered from both over-cleaning and repainting and “appears to be a free copy after the Salvator Mundi by Boltraffio in the collection of the late Signor G. B. Vittadini at Arcore, near Monza.” Herbert Cook commented that “I prefer to say a parallel work by some contemporary painter of Leonardo’s school.”&nbsp;6 Despite its poor state, it was hung in the Long Gallery in Doughty House. Although the head and the curls on the proper right were grotesquely repainted, the blessing hand was perfectly preserved as were the curls on the left side of the head, which, on close examination, so closely resemble those of St. John the Baptist in the Louvre as to be practically a signature. However, the weird appearance of the repainted face, which Martin Kemp later described as resembling a “drug-crazed hippy,”&nbsp;7 evidently prevented the many connoisseurs who saw the painting over the years from recognizing in it the hand of Leonardo. On June 25, 1958, 136 paintings from the Cook Collection were offered for sale at Sotheby’s; among them was the Salvator Mundi, which sold for 45 pounds, about $120. The sale was attended by illustrious connoisseurs, including the art historians Kenneth Clark and Ellis Waterhouse and the Florentine dealer Gianni Salocchi. The post-sale list recorded that the buyer was “Kuntz,” but nothing more was known about the purchaser nor was there any particular interest in their identity until sixty years later. New Orleans Private Collection In September 2018, a team of investigative reporters from The Wall Street Journal discovered that the buyers were a couple from New Orleans, Warren and Minnie Kuntz. When Mrs. Kuntz died, she bequeathed her estate to her nephew, Basil Clovis Hendry, who hung it in the stairwell of his house in Baton Rouge. Mr. Hendry died in 2004. A preliminary appraisal of his estate described the painting as “Continental School (19th century) Portrait of the Head of Christ. Oil on panel. Framed. Poor Condition.” It was assigned a value of $750. On this list, as illustrated in the WSJ article, there is a red check next to it and a penciled question mark. Other items on that page included: a Holy Family with a 1945 Christie’s label that catalogued it as “Marcello Venusti,” a small panel of Bowlers attributed to the School of Teniers, and an Antiphonal page, among others, attesting to the Kuntz’s regular purchases of antiques during their European summer holidays. A selection of Hendry’s effects was sold in New York in a Christie’s auction, while, ironically in the light of later events, the Salvator Mundi was consigned to the St. Charles Gallery, a small auction house in New Orleans. The sale took place in April 2005. By that time the painting had been more precisely identified as “Lot 664. After Leonardo da Vinci. (Italian, 1452-1519) ‘Christ Salvador [sic] Mundi’, oil on cradled panel, 26” x 18 ½”. Presented in a fine antique gilt and gesso exhibition frame. [1200-1800] Illustrated. Color Plate X.”&nbsp;While in the possession of either the Kuntz’s or Mr. Hendry, the Cook restoration had been removed, the losses clumsily touched up, and a new varnish applied.<img width="1280" height="853" width_o="1280" height_o="853" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/332336a9ec3e52b33c11d13ff257a39fed61c32d7d4ee62ae3013b81504956a5/1-1.2.a.-Basil-Hendry_s-house-in-Baton-Rouge.jpg" data-mid="49986819" border="0" data-no-zoom src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/332336a9ec3e52b33c11d13ff257a39fed61c32d7d4ee62ae3013b81504956a5/1-1.2.a.-Basil-Hendry_s-house-in-Baton-Rouge.jpg" />Basil Hendry’s house in Baton Rouge, courtesy of the Wall Sreet Journal&nbsp; New York, 2005-2011 When the painting arrived in New York, Robert Simon brought it to my apartment. My husband was the great restorer and connoisseur of Italian paintings, Mario Modestini. He was ninety-eight years old, in failing health. At that time, I had an easel set up near the corner window of the living room and some basic conservation supplies: solvents, cotton, varnish, and a few tools. I removed the recent varnish and repaints in a matter of hours while Robert Simon watched. A number of passages, particularly the head, were damaged, and the background had been repainted brown. I was not immediately impressed. I knew nothing about Leonardo’s work of this period, nor that there was a lost composition of a Salvator Mundi, and I had a great deal on my mind taking care of my grievously ill husband. Later that afternoon, after Robert had left, I brought the painting to Mario. He held the panel and gazed at it for a long time in silence. And then he said: “This is by a very great artist,&nbsp; but I don’t&nbsp; know who it is. A generation after Leonardo. It’s slightly larger than life.” I was struck by this because Mario had not responded to my many attempts to interest him in paintings for some time. I reluctantly agreed to work on the painting but first it needed panel work. It was sent to a specialist. Mario and I went to our country house in Florence for the summer. On January 28th, 2006, Mario died at home in New York.&nbsp; <img width="2339" height="3367" width_o="2339" height_o="3367" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6aeaf047f33586d8e682969bc6f86ec11d4749c6fc771330ecc9dd59f905c49c/1-1.4-Cleaned-state.jpg" data-mid="49986887" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6aeaf047f33586d8e682969bc6f86ec11d4749c6fc771330ecc9dd59f905c49c/1-1.4-Cleaned-state.jpg" />Cleaned state, Photgraph by Joshua Nefsky. copyright Salvator Mundi LLCBy December 2007, the restoration was at an advanced stage. Robert and I had been studying it, each in our own way. Robert’s research focused on possible provenances, and tracking down information about the many copies. It was obvious that there were a few pentimenti, or changes in the composition. Robert was impressed by them but as far as I was concerned they were relatively minor shifts and not significant enough to base an attribution on. In the recent past, I had worked on a number of paintings by Leonardo followers and pupils: Cesare da Sesto, Luini, Giampietrino, the Master of the Pala Sforzesca, and from the close scrutiny of the materials and technique required to restore the damages, I excluded these artists as the author of this painting because each had a recognizable style and none of them were capable of achieving a work of this quality. Only Boltraffio possessed the sensitivity and skill to execute this painting, but he has a distinct personality and I didn’t think this painting was by him. One evening, I was trying, once again, to retouch a loss in the upper lip. I could not master the imperceptible transition to my satisfaction and had removed my retouch numerous times. I had a copy of a book the Louvre had recently published about the Mona Lisa, which was lavishly illustrated (Mona Lisa: Inside the Painting). I removed the page with the detail of the mouth and pinned it to my easel. At that moment I realized that the Salvator Mundi could not have been painted by anyone except Leonardo. I sent Robert a message. We were finally in agreement and discussed what to do next. Advancing an attribution to the most famous artist of the Renaissance, whose entire oeuvre consists of 16 or 17 paintings at most, is a daunting proposal to advance. Dr. Carmen Bambach, an expert on Leonardo’s drawings, is a curator in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Metropolitan Museum, which is just across the street. We invited her to come to my studio at the Conservation Center. The painting was on an easel. Carmen studied it for some time. She didn’t say anything and finally asked, “What do you think it is?” Robert was too embarassed to pronounce the name, but since I am only a restorer I spoke up and said, “We think that it’s by Leonardo.” She was silent again and then replied, “Well, it’s not by Boltraffio.” I took this as a good sign since it was also my reasoning. (Dr. Bambach has since attributed the painting to Boltraffio with “retouches” by Leonardo. Although she claims to have “followed the restoration”, that was the only time she saw the painting in my studio, or had heard anything about it.)&nbsp;8 Although I hadn’t completed the restoration, the painting was sufficiently pulled together that Robert took it back to his gallery for the moment, where he showed it to Dr. Nicholas Penny, soon to become the director of the National Gallery in London, who agreed with him that the painting could be by Leonardo. In January Robert took the panel to the museum where three infrared images of the head, the blessing hand, and the mantle, stole and orb were made with an InGaAs scanner. (At that time we had a vidicon scanner, an older technology with a sensitivity up to 1100 nm, whereas the InGaAs sensor’s range extends to 1700nm and has other advantages in terms of processing the images.) Apparently, although no formal statment was made, the curatorial and conservation staff generally agreed that the painting was by Leonardo, albeit severely damaged. The painting remained at the museum until May in a state of limbo. Nicolas Penny suggested that Robert bring it to the National Gallery in London and invited five leading Leonardo scholars to view the painting in the conservation studio. They were: Carmen Bambach (Curator, Department of Prints and Drawings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York); David Alan Brown (Curator of Italian Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.); Maria Teresa Fiorio (Professor, Università Statale, Milano); Martin Kemp (Emeritus Professor of the History of Art, Oxford University); and Pietro Marani (Professor of the History of Art, Politecnico, Milano). Robert had prepared a Study Disc with the historical and technical research. It is not clear if all five experts agreed that the painting was Leonardo’s lost Salvator Mundi. Martin Kemp and David Alan Brown did. Pietro Marani endorsed the attribution and later asked that the painting be loaned in an exhibition he was curating in Milan but by that time it had been sold and had disappeared. He has since expressed some reservations about the attribution.&nbsp; Maria Teresa Fiorio was intrigued by the well-preserved passages but felt that the ruinous condition of the head made it impossible to come to a firm conclusion. Carmen Bambach appeared to accept the attribution but later recanted. Luke Syson, Curator of Italian Paintings at the National Gallery, who was planning an exhibition, Leonardo at the Court of Milan, which would open in November 2011, was convinced that the painting was Leonardo’s lost composition of the Salvator Mundi. Because of its rarity and importance he&nbsp;decided to include it in the exhibition even though museums, as a rule, decline to show paintings that are on the market. Robert brought the painting back to New York. &nbsp;In preparation for the exhibition, London’s version of the Virgin of the Rocks was being cleaned and studied. I wanted to see it,&nbsp; primarily to study the passages painted in black. It was one of the few later works by Leonardo that was not camouflaged by discolored, oxidized coats of varnish. The background of the Salvator Mundi had been repainted a muddy brown color in the 19th century. Underneath this repaint, passages of rich deep black and some vestiges of a bright green color were visible. My visit confirmed for me that Leonardo’s black was sufficently different from the brown repaint that Robert gave me permission to remove it. It was clear that the original black background had been painted green at a later date, although this repaint had subsequently been removed. Unfortunately, very little of the original black background remained, having for the most part perished when the painting was brutally scraped down, probably in the early nineteenth century but perhaps earlier. The gouges had been covered with gesso fill and the entire area painted brown. I retouched the losses, matching the remains of the deep black original paint. I also suppressed a pentimento of the blessing thumb that had been exposed during the radical scraping of the background in consultation with Robert and the curator of the London exhibition, Luke Syson, did some further retouching of areas of loss in the embroidery of the stole, and added missing glazes to the abraded orb. The painting returned to London for the opening of the exhibition. Just before it closed, in January 2012, the National Gallery organized a technical symposium where I gave a presentation about the technique and the restoration and showed the cleaned state image, which until then had only been seen by the various experts with whom Robert corresponded. The condition of the head created a certain amount of consternation.The collected papers were published in 2014 but since then the cleaned state image has been available to anyone who cared to consult this volume. 9 Robert Simon and Alexander Parish entered into a partnership with Warren Adelson, a dealer of American paintings, in particular works by John Singer Sargent and the Wyeth family. He became in charge of selling the painting. After the exhibition was over, he offered it to the Dallas Museum of Art. I went to Dallas to unframe the painting. Luke Syson, who had recently become the Head of the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum, also came. We both spoke to a small group of trustees. I addressed the issue of the condition of the painting and left the technical information with the conservator, an old friend and colleague, Mark Leonard. It has been said that after protacted negotiations lasting nine months, the museum was unable to raise the necessary funds. From&nbsp;my brief visit, my impression was that money was available. Althugh there seemed to be some support for the acquisition, Ross Perot, for one, immediately expressed an active distaste for the picture. It was evident to me that the majority of the&nbsp;trustees simply did not wish to buy it and it would have been better for the painting to recall it long before December 2012. &nbsp;The documentary film, The Lost Leonardo, makes it clear that perhaps even before the exhibition in London, but certainly afterward, the Salvator Mundi had been shopped around in such a way that by 2013 it was effectively &nbsp;“burned”,&nbsp; art market slang for an unsaleable painting. &nbsp;Although it had become an untouchable as far as museums or serious private collectors were concerned, it was still tempting to&nbsp;buyers&nbsp; from the underworld of Freeports, shell companies, and money laundering. This is the great tragedy in the saga of this painting. In April 2013, Sotheby’s Private Sales approached the three owners on behalf of a client. With Sotheby’s as an intermediary, the Salvator Mundi was sold to a private collector, who wished to remain anonymous. In November 2014, Pietro Marani, the Milanese Leonardo expert, hoped to borrow the painting for his forthcoming exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci. Il disegno del mondo, and asked Alexander Bell, Chairman of the Old Master Paintings Department of Sotheby’s London, to try to persuade the owner to lend it. He declined.&nbsp; In early 2016 a story appeared in The New Yorker 10&nbsp; revealing that the owner was a Russian oligarch, Dmitry Rybolovlev. It was a tangled tale. Rybolovlev had purchased the painting, along with many other, primarily twentieth-century paintings, through a Swiss intermediary, Yves Bouvier, the owner of numerous Freeports. Rybolovlev believed that Bouvier was acting as his agent, taking a 2% commission. In reality, Bouvier was buying paintings directly from the owners and immediately flipping them to Rybolovlev for a huge markup. Within a few years, he had pocketed 1 billion dollars. Twelve of these sales were brokered by Sotheby’s. In the case of the Salvator Mundi, which was typical of these transactions, Bouvier bought the painting for $80 million and sold it to Rybolovlev the following day for $127.5 million. When the Russian discovered that he had been cheated, he became so angry and disillusioned that he decided to sell the entire collection. He sued Bouvier for fraud in various jurisdictions. The cases are ongoing. The first sales did not do well because he had paid more for the paintings than they were worth. <img width="664" height="995" width_o="664" height_o="995" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/10892e540b2ef0827a7536f0c307980a6cc4cca4b0622ff8ceca990f1a74e268/Rybolovlev.png" data-mid="110477844" border="0" data-scale="44" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/664/i/10892e540b2ef0827a7536f0c307980a6cc4cca4b0622ff8ceca990f1a74e268/Rybolovlev.png" />Dmitri Rybolovlev Rybolovlev turned for help to Sandy Heller, an agent who was based in New York and represented many important collectors. In mid-July 2017, I received a message that someone at the “Geller Group” had called me about a Leonardo. I often receive strange communications from people who think they have a Leonardo, which I normally avoid, but suddenly I put two and two together and realized it must be Sandy Heller, of whom I had read in the New Yorker story. He told me that the Salvator Mundi was arriving in New York within a few days and would be sent to my studio at the Conservation Center of New York University. The painting appeared to have been taken out of its frame at some point but had been reinstalled behind glass with the same Marvelseal enclosure: the Marvelseal was a bit torn and different screws had been used to attach the backing board. It emerged that Loic Gouzer, the brilliant head of Christie’s&nbsp; Post war and Contemporary Art Department, conceived the idea of including it his November sale. This was unprecedented. A publicity campaign, called “The Last Leonardo”, was launched, featuring a video that captured the reactions of visitors as they viewed the Salvator Mundi. I found it deeply moving. I knew the power of the image and the effect it could have on people from various visits to the exhibition in London and from many messages I had received.&nbsp; The evening of the auction, after 19 dramatic minutes, it fetched $450 million, including fees. The buyer was anonymous and the painting has not been exhibited since the sale.&nbsp;<img width="700" height="489" width_o="700" height_o="489" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/347fc7a0aaf4e9209d177a3b1039a31b133f975e67613a884c3c9f5504b3612b/Loic-at-Christies.png" data-mid="110477846" border="0" data-scale="71" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/700/i/347fc7a0aaf4e9209d177a3b1039a31b133f975e67613a884c3c9f5504b3612b/Loic-at-Christies.png" /> Loic Gouzer holding phone, being congratulated by Alex Rotter, right Before the sale, I unframed the painting, did some minor work on the folds of the shoulder because the black underpaint had asserted itself, corrected a retouch above the lip with which I was never satisfied, and applied the final varnish, as I had always intended once the painting had been sold but which I had not had a chance to do before its sale to Rybolovlev. Shan Kuang, my colleague at the Conservation Center, made some new technical images. We reframed the panel behind glass in a Mavelseal enclosure, as before, for the pre-sale tour, and then unframed when it returned to New York. The painting remained with Christie’s until May 2018. Before it left, we again reframed it behind museum acrylic with a new Marvelseal enclosure.In December, the New York Times journalist, David Kirkpatrick, revealed that the buyer was Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud, acting for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudi government initially denied the story but then said that the painting would be exhibited at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which Tweeted a confirmation. The painting never appeared in Abu Dhabi and the museum finally said that the loan had been cancelled. &nbsp; <img width="573" height="630" width_o="573" height_o="630" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f4f16190762ad25bab3df6ced58e849eec42debc5f53cebad5328beb4a8c5ec0/Louvre-Abu-Dhabi.jpg" data-mid="110477847" border="0" data-scale="56" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/573/i/f4f16190762ad25bab3df6ced58e849eec42debc5f53cebad5328beb4a8c5ec0/Louvre-Abu-Dhabi.jpg" /> Louvre Abu Dhabi In July 2018, I had visited the curator of Italian Paintings at the Louvre, Vincent Delieuvin, where the painting, Saint John as Bacchus, once thought to be partly by Leonardo, was being restored. I gave him a USB key with all the technical information and images of the Salvator Mundi that I had. In mid-September 2018, a Swiss conservator in Zurich contacted me. He had been asked by an insurance company to carry out a condition check on the Salvator Mundi, which was in a Freeport. He had been told that it was in transit to the Louvre in Paris. I relayed this information to Vincent, who professed to be mystified.&nbsp;Even before the Christie’s sale, the Louvre had requested the loan of the painting for their Leonardo exhibition, which was scheduled to open in October 2019. When the exhibition opened without the Salvator Mundi, critics of the attribution alleged that this was because the Louvre didn’t believe that the painting was by Leonardo. I knew this wasn’t true. In March 2020, by chance, I saw a catalogue about the Salvator Mundi, written by Vincent Delievin and two researchers from the Louvre’s scientific department, C2RMF, with a preface by the Director of the Louvre thanking the Ministry of Culture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the loan of the painting, affirming that the museum had concluded that it was entirely by Leonardo. Evidently, the painting did go to the Louvre for technical study in 2018. When I couldn’t find the book for sale anywhere, I wrote to Vincent. He replied that the book had been suppressed because curators at French museums were forbidden by law to discuss the attributation of a painting that was not on loan. A few months later, news of the existence of this catalogue had leaked out and was published in&nbsp;The Art Newspaper, although they had actually not seen it. Apparently there was more than one copy in circulation.&nbsp; In April 2021 a French documentary film, featuring two disguised figures who purport to be government officials, repeated the false rumor that Saudi Arabia had refused to loan the Salvator Mundi because the Louvre didn’t accept the attribution. David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times, still following the story, was able to obtain the suppressed catalogue. Faced with the evidence, French goverment officials&nbsp; revealed that negotiations for the loan had broken down because Saudi Arabia insisted that the&nbsp;Salvator Mundi be hung next to the Mona Lisa. As Kirkpatrick observed, “Far from a dispute about art scholarship, the withdrawal of the painting appears instead to have turned on questions of power and ego.”&nbsp; <img width="857" height="1219" width_o="857" height_o="1219" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/74b588ed8cfde04371945248dd2cafd011175645a2d2b7a1bfcf76bb9dd08268/2008-Nefsky.jpg" data-mid="50822567" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/857/i/74b588ed8cfde04371945248dd2cafd011175645a2d2b7a1bfcf76bb9dd08268/2008-Nefsky.jpg" /> Intermediate restoration, 2008, photograph Joshua Nefsky, copyright Salvator Mundi LLC. <img width="2782" height="3910" width_o="2782" height_o="3910" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/66b5aa77e969b65093852f73bc1a5ea291845d207688dab94ba5be3d97e374df/3-3.7-June-2010.jpg" data-mid="49986994" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/66b5aa77e969b65093852f73bc1a5ea291845d207688dab94ba5be3d97e374df/3-3.7-June-2010.jpg" />After restoration, June 2010. Photographer unknown. Copyright Salvator Mundi LLC Footnotes Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich, “Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi.” Raccolta Vinciana 20 (1964), pp. 83-109 Maria Teresa Fiorio, "Un Salvator Mundi ritrovato." Raccolta Vinciana 31 (2005), pp. 257-283 Tancred Borenius, Herbert Cook, Maurice Brockwell, A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, &amp; Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, Vol. I (London, 1913), p. 123 Martin J. Kemp, Living with Leonardo: fifty years of sanity and insanity in the art world and beyond (London 2018) Carmen Bambach, Leonardo da Vinci Revisited (New Haven, 2919), pp. 278-282 Leonardo da Vinci’s technical practice: paintings, drawings and influence. (Paris, 2014) Sam Knight, “The Bouvier Affair.” The New Yorker, February 8 &amp; 15, 2016 var acc = document.getElementsByClassName("accordion"); var i; for (i = 0; i < acc.length; i++) { acc[i].addEventListener("click", function() { this.classList.toggle("active"); var panel = this.nextElementSibling; if (panel.style.display === "block") { panel.style.display = "none"; this.setAttribute("data-state", "closed"); } else { panel.style.display = "block"; this.setAttribute("data-state", "open"); } }); } Next Chapter Historic Images ↓ .next-text, .next-arrow{ display:block; padding: 0 0 1rem 0; cursor: pointer; } https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Historic-Images Wed, 28 Aug 2019 02:55:45 +0000 Salvator Mundi Revisited https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Historic-Images Historic IMages Two studies by Leonardo for the Salvator Mundi survive, both red chalk on red prepared paper. There is also an etching of the composition by Wenceslaus Hollar, dated 1650 and inscribed “Leonardo da Vinci pinxit.” <img width="1239" height="1279" width_o="1239" height_o="1279" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/665ecb1ea5a23ab64c63c6113bdbd0a3c5a2e9046134c105779eb29d4991921f/2-2.2-Red-chalk-drawing-of-mantle.jpg" data-mid="49987158" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/665ecb1ea5a23ab64c63c6113bdbd0a3c5a2e9046134c105779eb29d4991921f/2-2.2-Red-chalk-drawing-of-mantle.jpg" />Red chalk drawing of mantleRoyal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019 <img width="1529" height="2250" width_o="1529" height_o="2250" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/aa148606cb35b961972608334046be88de8cffd8f89e8637ef513228fd89b58b/2-2.1-Red-chalk-drawing-of-sleeve.jpg" data-mid="49987160" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/aa148606cb35b961972608334046be88de8cffd8f89e8637ef513228fd89b58b/2-2.1-Red-chalk-drawing-of-sleeve.jpg" />Red chalk drawing of sleeveRoyal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019 <img width="1452" height="2000" width_o="1452" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dbc0d530d361a8fff8660710548f0be29b4cba5bf42f5701ff8ef78343aa351c/2-2.3-Etching-by-Wenceslaus-Hollar--1650.jpg" data-mid="49987223" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dbc0d530d361a8fff8660710548f0be29b4cba5bf42f5701ff8ef78343aa351c/2-2.3-Etching-by-Wenceslaus-Hollar--1650.jpg" />&nbsp;Etching by Wenceslaus Hollar, 1650The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto <img width="1104" height="1601" width_o="1104" height_o="1601" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e30e36d7c351d0f8111883b896a077b5e9f93602698adb9a2276ca524b938394/1-1.2.-Cook-Collection--1913.jpg" data-mid="49987236" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e30e36d7c351d0f8111883b896a077b5e9f93602698adb9a2276ca524b938394/1-1.2.-Cook-Collection--1913.jpg" />Cook Collection, 1913 Next Chapter Visible Light Images ↓ .next-text, .next-arrow{ display:block; padding: 0 0 2rem 0 !important; cursor: pointer; } https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Visible-Light-Images Wed, 28 Aug 2019 03:14:03 +0000 Salvator Mundi Revisited https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Visible-Light-Images Visible Light images There are fourteen images taken in visible light including the black and white print from the Cook Collection made after its acquisition in 1900. Robert Simon photographed the painting in 2005 with a small digital camera. Eight Ektachrome transparencies were shot by professional photographers, including 4 details, between 2006 and 2010, and four digital images were made between 2010 and 2017.&nbsp; Partly due to the different equipment and photographic processes used, these images vary greatly even when they represent the same state. It is exceptionally difficult to render the colors in an accurate and consistent manner. The shallow depth of field doesn’t accommodate the three dimensional aspect of the corrugated surface of the panel but the primary difficulty is due to the different color temperatures of the photographic halogen lamps and strobes and their excessively high light levels and which penetrate too deeply into the thin applications of preparation and paint. The resulting images are so mutable that even when the colors are balanced for consistency, they change depending on the monitor used to view them. <img width="1417" height="2000" width_o="1417" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/62d815eb2058144dfccf18bea072e3e0f6a6cf22c87f2ebe51397495f715a7a8/1-1.1-Before-Restoration-2005.jpg" data-mid="49987695" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/62d815eb2058144dfccf18bea072e3e0f6a6cf22c87f2ebe51397495f715a7a8/1-1.1-Before-Restoration-2005.jpg" /> Before Restoration, 2005 Photograph by Robert Simon Courtesy of Salvator Mundi LLC <img width="4572" height="6580" width_o="4572" height_o="6580" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8f71dad0ef8c0ee7b40fd1289fb3b50560127f6b8214147630e1f5a14a52e792/1.4-Cleaned-state.jpg" data-mid="49413692" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8f71dad0ef8c0ee7b40fd1289fb3b50560127f6b8214147630e1f5a14a52e792/1.4-Cleaned-state.jpg" />Cleaned State, 2006Drum scan of an 8 x 10 transparency made with Kodak EPY 64 Tungsten film, Dearforff camera with a polarizing filter, &nbsp;camera, 2 Lowel Tota lights with 750-Watt tungsten bulbs with polarizing gels. Photograph by Joshua Nefsky, Courtesy Salvator Mundi LLC <img width="2563" height="3229" width_o="2563" height_o="3229" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c0ffe588cdf9f7e7296b43e44033ff7548564353a95fca460e63fc0c084bc75e/3-3.3-Blessing-hand.jpg" data-mid="49987894" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c0ffe588cdf9f7e7296b43e44033ff7548564353a95fca460e63fc0c084bc75e/3-3.3-Blessing-hand.jpg" /> <img width="2402" height="3051" width_o="2402" height_o="3051" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ff8fff671bb247967e03f2a3ec89093e262fc7e461af1b26e91b9bbe72753721/3-3.5-Detail-of-curls.jpg" data-mid="49987904" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ff8fff671bb247967e03f2a3ec89093e262fc7e461af1b26e91b9bbe72753721/3-3.5-Detail-of-curls.jpg" /> <img width="2667" height="3376" width_o="2667" height_o="3376" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/84e749d79d246049c2fec2e3fee16adf9f87e4849407298db9a5396797b604f4/3-3.4-Wrist-and-cuff.jpg" data-mid="49987903" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/84e749d79d246049c2fec2e3fee16adf9f87e4849407298db9a5396797b604f4/3-3.4-Wrist-and-cuff.jpg" /> <img width="2274" height="2873" width_o="2274" height_o="2873" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0a24b05770c35ef4e4a00dcd5bcd5951f12d79cfc1315b1b55d82aa5a5863ac2/3-3.6-Blue-drapery.jpg" data-mid="49987905" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0a24b05770c35ef4e4a00dcd5bcd5951f12d79cfc1315b1b55d82aa5a5863ac2/3-3.6-Blue-drapery.jpg" /> Details, 2008Drum scans of 4x5 transparencies made with Kodak EPY 64 Tungsten film, a Horseman 4x5 camera, 2 Lowel Tota lights with 750-Watt tungsten bulbs with polarizing gels. Photographs by Joshua Nefsky, courtesy of Salvator Mundi, LLC <img width="857" height="1219" width_o="857" height_o="1219" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/219bba10355cd062cdf3cdea954efd99a80ab793eb4061a40447db731f3ff60d/2008-Nefsky.jpg" data-mid="50825363" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/857/i/219bba10355cd062cdf3cdea954efd99a80ab793eb4061a40447db731f3ff60d/2008-Nefsky.jpg" /> Mid Restoration, June 2008Drum scan of an 8 x 10 transparency made with Kodak EPY 64 Tungsten film, a Deardorff camera with a polarizing filter, 2 Lowel Tota lights with 750-Watt tungsten bulbs with polarizing gels. Photograph by Joshua Nefsky, courtesy of Salvator Mundi, LLC <img width="1386" height="2000" width_o="1386" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dee65d988acb8f3b6cd6cfaa9c564f14d2ef02ff57004a6537e0c43d5a4b5a61/1-1.5--Intermediate-restoration--2008.jpg" data-mid="49988152" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dee65d988acb8f3b6cd6cfaa9c564f14d2ef02ff57004a6537e0c43d5a4b5a61/1-1.5--Intermediate-restoration--2008.jpg" />Mid restoration, 2010 Drum scan of an Ektachrome by Joshua Nefsky, copyright Salvator Mundi LLC <img width="2782" height="3910" width_o="2782" height_o="3910" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/797e1638847a851f63e79cac676710156289c2fb6ddc930adbe585672b734dde/3-3.7-June-2010.jpg" data-mid="49988181" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/797e1638847a851f63e79cac676710156289c2fb6ddc930adbe585672b734dde/3-3.7-June-2010.jpg" /> Finished restoration, June 2010Drum scan of an 8x10 Ektachrome transparencyUnknown photographer, Courtesy of Salvator Mundi, LL <img width="3168" height="4000" width_o="3168" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b234c79c19065dad6096cacea7f5ac497771e97677a03a752544e7f3b15d7205/3-3.8-Salvatore-Mundi-Imaging-for-Art-1.jpg" data-mid="49988258" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b234c79c19065dad6096cacea7f5ac497771e97677a03a752544e7f3b15d7205/3-3.8-Salvatore-Mundi-Imaging-for-Art-1.jpg" />September 2010, First ShootTim Nighswander, Imaging4art, courtesy of Salvator Mundi, LLC <img width="3082" height="4000" width_o="3082" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2f48981af3ea30441c75cc7f9255b1df885e8e9f80f514708103dbd32896fccc/3-3.9-Salvatore-Mundi-Imaging-for-Art-2.jpg" data-mid="49988261" border="0" data-scale="98" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2f48981af3ea30441c75cc7f9255b1df885e8e9f80f514708103dbd32896fccc/3-3.9-Salvatore-Mundi-Imaging-for-Art-2.jpg" />September 2010, Second Shoot Tim Nighswander, Imaging4art, courtesy of Salvator Mundi, LLC Finished restoration, September 2010 Camera: Hasselblad H2D with a CF-39 MS back (39 million pixel -multi shot) used in the 4 shot modeLens: Hasselblad 80mm with polarizing filter. Settings: 1/60 second, f:8, ISO 50 Lighting: electronic strobes with polarizing filters Format: captured in the Hasselblad proprietary RAW (fff) software and exported as 16-bit TIFF Post processing: Adjustments made in Photoshop. Files printed on an Epson 3880 printer and compared to the original under daylight viewing lights. Further adjustments made to achieve a visual match to the original. Final image size: 6276x7923 pixels. 20.92x26.41 inches @300 dpi Tim Nighswander, Imaging4Art, Courtesy of Salvator Mundi, LLC <img width="1330" height="2000" width_o="1330" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b7da25f843b8143aa567080de2e15e89d9e6d10f9a1ed95bf5373e91979794cf/3-3.10-September-2017.jpg" data-mid="50565409" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b7da25f843b8143aa567080de2e15e89d9e6d10f9a1ed95bf5373e91979794cf/3-3.10-September-2017.jpg" /> September 2017Photograph by Shan Kuang, conservation Center, Instiute of fine Arts, NYU Nikon D-710, halogen photo lamps <img width="1413" height="2000" width_o="1413" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6336db9182728132eb7470825dedeb847ea53a22e5b7d447ec1480b521e9d137/3-3.11-Christie_s-October-2017.jpg" data-mid="50565415" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6336db9182728132eb7470825dedeb847ea53a22e5b7d447ec1480b521e9d137/3-3.11-Christie_s-October-2017.jpg" /> September 2017Digital image with strobe lights Courtesy of Christie's Next Chapter Technical Images↓ .next-text, .next-arrow{ display:block; padding: 0 0 16px 0 !important; cursor: pointer; } https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Technical-Images Mon, 15 Jul 2019 19:38:14 +0000 Salvator Mundi Revisited https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Technical-Images Technical Images Paintings can be imaged at various wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum. In addition to the visible light range, infrared, x-ray and ultraviolet frequencies reveal additional information. <img width="549" height="800" width_o="549" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/969da3412c1e42ffaa904018571126adc73626b6315e202121f1d6cc8dea2e9a/All_Images-1.png" data-mid="51546912" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/549/i/969da3412c1e42ffaa904018571126adc73626b6315e202121f1d6cc8dea2e9a/All_Images-1.png" /> <img width="549" height="800" width_o="549" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f3730f6df95b372d7e386d072faf442a997f6ea1b896746356a33d969fb7548/All_Images-2.png" data-mid="51546913" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/549/i/9f3730f6df95b372d7e386d072faf442a997f6ea1b896746356a33d969fb7548/All_Images-2.png" /> <img width="549" height="800" width_o="549" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a4e1e86cb902daafd1143c4269ec67ae159ac9721e9d450528a2ff22f19120cc/All_Images-4.png" data-mid="51546916" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/549/i/a4e1e86cb902daafd1143c4269ec67ae159ac9721e9d450528a2ff22f19120cc/All_Images-4.png" /> <img width="549" height="800" width_o="549" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6710e3e93679a978c7b7005bee7b9ea252275f292d0548456220dc8cba8eac59/All_Images-3.png" data-mid="51546914" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/549/i/6710e3e93679a978c7b7005bee7b9ea252275f292d0548456220dc8cba8eac59/All_Images-3.png" /> Infrared Refloctography The study of paintings with infrared wavelengths has a long history. Van Asperen de Boer first used infrared film at approximately 900 nm. 11 Infrared reflectography records a wider range of wavelengths and penetrates more deeply into the paint layers. Carbon black easily absorbs infrared light and the technique is therefore very effective for obtaining images of underdrawing or underpainting when these preparatory stages were executed on a white ground with pigments containing carbon black. <img width="1152" height="1692" width_o="1152" height_o="1692" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d09b0df3a4e44d8a1b1637618e70334f8d978b76349e1c6bb7b8c043efd70e95/IRR-composite-Sept.-2007-reduced.jpg" data-mid="58967541" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d09b0df3a4e44d8a1b1637618e70334f8d978b76349e1c6bb7b8c043efd70e95/IRR-composite-Sept.-2007-reduced.jpg" />IRR scan. September 2007. Composite of captures made with a video camera fitted with a Hamamatsu vidicon with a .9 - 1.6 nm range ___________________________________ courtesy of Salvator Mundi, LLC <img width="1587" height="2000" width_o="1587" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/90cfd3f2621d706772c616db7b8ffa4d751fbf0bcbcf9649daa314fbccdb3d64/4-4.1.a-IRR-head.jpg" data-mid="50728977" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/90cfd3f2621d706772c616db7b8ffa4d751fbf0bcbcf9649daa314fbccdb3d64/4-4.1.a-IRR-head.jpg" />Infrared Scan of Head Indigo Systems Merlin InGaAs near infrared digital camera sensitive to wavelengths from 900 to 1700 nm IRR by Charlotte Hale, MMA, Courtesy of Salvator Mundi, LLC <img width="956" height="1960" width_o="956" height_o="1960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0c353b0aabe97afc3f53c70723f8a27acae9265c6247a793b0899c02b4976f01/4-4.1.b-IRR-blessing-hand.jpg" data-mid="50728978" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/956/i/0c353b0aabe97afc3f53c70723f8a27acae9265c6247a793b0899c02b4976f01/4-4.1.b-IRR-blessing-hand.jpg" /> Infrared scan of blessing hand IRR by Charlotte Hale, MMA, Courtesy of Salvator Mundi, LLC <img width="2000" height="1344" width_o="2000" height_o="1344" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/51b5bccb4842d5146c2b0e21a4737d1dd792cf529ef93d6da1c48bfb4cd74c51/4-4.1.b-IRR-mantle-and-orb-copy.jpg" data-mid="50729246" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/51b5bccb4842d5146c2b0e21a4737d1dd792cf529ef93d6da1c48bfb4cd74c51/4-4.1.b-IRR-mantle-and-orb-copy.jpg" /> Infrared scan of the drapery with stole and orb IRR by Charlotte Hale, MMA, Courtesy of Salvator Mundi, LLC <img width="1440" height="2046" width_o="1440" height_o="2046" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/831a4f01ffdca9b87b3bc04d9205d9eb3bd3643f5ff6c013a401cf39f6cf86d0/IRR-whole.png" data-mid="50834850" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/831a4f01ffdca9b87b3bc04d9205d9eb3bd3643f5ff6c013a401cf39f6cf86d0/IRR-whole.png" /> Infrared scan FLIR SC2500-NIR InGaAs camera with 0.9 - 1.7 nm range and IR Vista softwareby Shan KuanG, Conservation Center Digital X-radiograph X-rays penetrate all the materials of a painting, including the support and are absorbed by layers containing such heavy elements as lead. The resulting image essentially records the distribution of these elements, primarily contained by the pigments lead white and lead tin yellow that were used in the preparatory layers and the paint itself. X-radiographs of paintings by Leonardo typically exhibit a spectral appearance due to the lead white preparation, the fluidity of medium, and the many layered build-up of the sfumato. A good comparison is the X-radiograph of Saint John. <img width="3516" height="5000" width_o="3516" height_o="5000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ce6b8126a59c8bd36fe0b1d753bd33a9b3f23f2c1edf3d2262cdc7dd108e6cc2/Xray_rawfile-2017_adjusted-2.jpg" data-mid="51553701" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ce6b8126a59c8bd36fe0b1d753bd33a9b3f23f2c1edf3d2262cdc7dd108e6cc2/Xray_rawfile-2017_adjusted-2.jpg" /> Digital X-radiographCarestream HPx-1 digital system&nbsp; by Shan KuanG, Conservation Center <img width="2290" height="3080" width_o="2290" height_o="3080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3744f530cd00b7fe1b61927445fd288a17d54a0e0c68eeb41a8ee2cc9c1ea299/St.-John-x-radiograph.jpg" data-mid="51547947" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3744f530cd00b7fe1b61927445fd288a17d54a0e0c68eeb41a8ee2cc9c1ea299/St.-John-x-radiograph.jpg" />X-radiograph of Saint JohnScala/art resource&nbsp; Ultraviolet Photograph Long wave UV examination reveals the presence of varnish, which fluoresces and appears as a yellow green haze over the surface. The drying oils of the binder for the original paint also fluoresce and some pigments have a natural fluorescence of their own such as lead white and certain lake pigments, particularly madder lake. Areas of retouching exhibit no fluorescence but reflect back the dark color of the lamp and appear dark or black. <img width="1029" height="1500" width_o="1029" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/54e7f9b7eb6b3740b7b2e204bba5dd9e86ee41eb9b590f63fa5398ffd0796636/4B-UV_CleanedState-Overlay.jpg" data-mid="51547111" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/54e7f9b7eb6b3740b7b2e204bba5dd9e86ee41eb9b590f63fa5398ffd0796636/4B-UV_CleanedState-Overlay.jpg" /> <img width="1029" height="1500" width_o="1029" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/657f841e5ce34aedb8f9fade80bb1bbb3a8b2d63d2db2d600470c5b4ab082311/4B-UV_CleanedState.jpg" data-mid="51547113" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/657f841e5ce34aedb8f9fade80bb1bbb3a8b2d63d2db2d600470c5b4ab082311/4B-UV_CleanedState.jpg" /> <img width="1029" height="1500" width_o="1029" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/54e7f9b7eb6b3740b7b2e204bba5dd9e86ee41eb9b590f63fa5398ffd0796636/4B-UV_CleanedState-Overlay.jpg" data-mid="51547111" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/54e7f9b7eb6b3740b7b2e204bba5dd9e86ee41eb9b590f63fa5398ffd0796636/4B-UV_CleanedState-Overlay.jpg" /> <img width="1029" height="1500" width_o="1029" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/657f841e5ce34aedb8f9fade80bb1bbb3a8b2d63d2db2d600470c5b4ab082311/4B-UV_CleanedState.jpg" data-mid="51547113" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/657f841e5ce34aedb8f9fade80bb1bbb3a8b2d63d2db2d600470c5b4ab082311/4B-UV_CleanedState.jpg" /> Ultraviolet Photograph&nbsp; by Shan KuanG, Conservation Center Footnotes J. R. J. van Asperen de Boer, "Infrared Reflectography: a method for the examination of paintings," Appl. Opt.7, 1711-1714 (1968) var acc = document.getElementsByClassName("accordion"); var i; for (i = 0; i < acc.length; i++) { acc[i].addEventListener("click", function() { this.classList.toggle("active"); var panel = this.nextElementSibling; if (panel.style.display === "block") { panel.style.display = "none"; this.setAttribute("data-state", "closed"); } else { panel.style.display = "block"; this.setAttribute("data-state", "open"); } }); } Next Chapter Scientific Analysis↓ .next-text, .next-arrow{ display:block; padding: 0 0 16px 0 !important; cursor: pointer; } https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Scientific-Analysis Thu, 18 Jul 2019 01:39:15 +0000 Salvator Mundi Revisited https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Scientific-Analysis Scientific analysis Nine samples were taken from the painting by Nica Gutman Rieppi. They were embedded in Bioplast® resin, cured, and polished as cross-sections. Ms. Rieppi sought assistance from two scientists at the Philadelphia museum of art, Dr. Beth Price and Dr. Kenneth Sutherland, who carried out scientific analyses on these cross-sections. At a later date another sample was taken for media analysis. Dr. Price and Dr. Sutherland enlisted several of their colleagues for specialized procedures: Dr. Thomas J. Tague jr. of Bruker Biospin Corporation, Billerica, MA, and Dr. Richard Newman of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Ms. Rieppi coordinated the research and made notes, from which she prepared a preliminary report as the work progressed. The information in this section is drawn from that report. The scientists will eventually publish the results of their findings in a peer-reviewed journal. Pigment Identification The cross-sections were examined in visible and ultraviolet (UV) light with a Leitz Laborlux S microscope at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A Leitz D filter cube was used (355-425 nm excitation, 460 nm suppression filter), and a 100 W mercury source. Fiber optic lights were used for visible light. Samples were photographed using a Nikon Digital Sight DS-5M camera with Nikon Eclipse Net image capture software. In addition to polarized light microscopy, the pigments were identified by further analyses including x-ray fluorescence (XRF); Raman spectroscopy; Fourier transform infrared micro spectroscopy (MFTIR); and attenuated total reflection (ATR-FTIR). Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) identified the blue mineral lazurite. The following pigments were found in the original paint layers: White lead Iron oxide (hematite) Vermilion Bone black Carbon black Lapis Lazuli (lazurite) Lead tin yellow Red Lake (possibly madder, judging from the fluoresence) From Nica Gutman Rieppi’s notes: Soda lime glass particles of varying sizes were identified in the preparatory layers and in some of the paint layers, particularly as an addition to the vermilion and carbon black of the reddish brown translucent underpaint. For Raman analyses, samples were examined as paint cross-sections using a Bruker Senterra Raman microscope equipped with a 785 nm laser and 50x objective. Data were collected using ~ 3 cm1 resolution between 70 and 3,500 cnr1 with a 20 second integration time and 2 accumulations per spectrum. The power on the samples was ~1 m to prevent transient heating. Area Raman images also were collected using an Infinity 1 digital video camera and relevant spectra extracted from the video images. All data were processed using Bruker OPUS 6.5 software. Fluorescence and polarized light illumination facilitated sample observation and characterization. Analyses were performed with the assistance of Peng Wang and Ting Wang, Applications Scientists, at Bruker Inc., Billerica, MA. For SEM-EDS analyses, paint cross-sections were mounted on carbon tape on an aluminum stub. One cross-section was carbon-coated using a Denton Desk II cold sputter coater with carbon rod evaporation accessory. Backscattered electron imaging and EDS analyses were performed using a JEOL 6460LV SEM with an Oxford Instruments INCA X-sight EDS detector and INCA Energy 200 software. An accelerating voltage of 20 kV was used. The carbon coated cross-section was run under high vacuum and the remaining cross-sections under low vacuum at 30 Pascal. For MFTIR analysis, the preparatory layers were isolated and representative portions flattened on a Spectra-Tech diamond window with a roller tool for analysis. Analyses were undertaken at the Philadelphia Museum of Art using a Thermo Nicolet Continuum microscope (MCT-A detector) attached to a Nexus 670 spectrometer. The data were collected in transmission mode between 4000 and 600 cm4 at 4 cnr1 resolution and 200 scans per spectrum. Omnic 6.0 software was used; spectra were processed using Happ-Genzel apodization. Lead white pigment, consisting of both neutral and basic lead carbonate, was identified by MFTIR and EDS. Diagnostic IR spectral bands included very strong carbonate stretches centered at 1421 cm1 with additional bands at 1050, 883 and 679 cnr1 for the neutral form and at 1045 and 650 cm1 for the basic form. Lead (Pb) was detected by EDS. Lead tin yellow type I pigment (PbzSnCU) was indicated by characteristic Raman spectral bands at 127,129, 196, 273, 292, 456, and 526 cm1 and the detection of lead (Pb) and tin (Sn) by EDS.IR spectral bands suggesting an oil-based medium were observed at 2929/2851,1739 and 1170 cm1. Iron oxide was indicated by the detection of iron (Fe) using EDS. Additional analysis by Raman produced spectra consistent with hematite, with bands located at 224, 292, and 409 cm1. Weak bands also were observed at 495 and 610 cm1. Lazurite (lapis lazuli) was identified with diagnostic Raman spectral bands were located at 1096 and 548 cm-1 and IR spectral bands at 1114 (994 shoulder) and 2340 cm1. The IR band at 2340 cm1 is considered distinctive and thought to derive only from lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. It has not been reported in spectra of lapis lazuli from other geographical regions or of synthetic ultramarine. No copper (Cu) was detected in the cross-sections by EDS to suggest azurite [Cu3(C03)2(OH)2] nor was this pigment detected by MFTIR or Raman. Carbon black was indicated by Raman spectra exhibiting bands at 1580 and 1325 cm1. Bone black was indicated at 961 cm1. The identification of bone black [mainly Ca(P0)4(0H)] was supported by the detection of both calcium (Ca) and phosphorous (P) by EDS. Vermilion: Mercury (Hg) and sulfur (S) indicative of vermilion (HgS) were detected by EDS. Raman analysis produced spectra with characteristic bands for vermilion at 255 and 344 cm1. Red Lake: Some pigment particles fluoresced an orange-pink color when excited with UV-violet (355-425 nm) light using FLM. Aluminum (Al), suggesting an alum derived substrate, was detected by EDS. The red colorant was not present in sufficient quantities to enable analysis by such supplemental techniques as high performance liquid chromatography or mass spectrometry. <img width="2322" height="3342" width_o="2322" height_o="3342" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2ae2be4b41897c7030213fbdb024ca77a7dd7a2eab7311ece7564163d7055f8c/5-5.-Sample-map.jpg" data-mid="50729963" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2ae2be4b41897c7030213fbdb024ca77a7dd7a2eab7311ece7564163d7055f8c/5-5.-Sample-map.jpg" /> Sample MapLocations of the 9 samples Cross Sections All images were made by Nica Gutman Rieppi. I have edited her original notations for consistency. Sample 1, Highlight of Flesh Tone Unpigmented layer with a slight orange fluorescence. Analysis with ATR-FTIR indicated a proteinaceous material, probably an animal glue size. White preparatory layer containing lead white particles with soda lime glass containing manganese. Slight fluorescence under UV light. Second preparatory layer containing finer particles of lead white and less soda-lime glass, the medium fluoresces brightly. Black layer comprised of fine, densely packed black pigment particles. The paint layer is very lean and exhibits no fluorescence. SEM analysis confirmed the presence of bone black. Thin light gray paint layer containing lead white and black pigment particles. The layer fluoresces under UV light Warm, bright pink paint layer containing white lead particles, black, large red pigment particles of vermilion and glass. Fluoresces under UV light. A slightly cooler layer containing the same pigments in slightly different proportions and tiny glass particles. Cool pink paint upper layers: 2 or 3 very thin layers (4-5 microns thick) visible at far right of sample. They contain fine particles of lead white, black and vermilion. <img width="738" height="499" width_o="738" height_o="499" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c3021ce1f3e28c43e1bd84f18e89cb82efb1a0bc4362cfb77c5fb5e901437994/5-5.1.a.-Sample-1-annotated.jpg" data-mid="50719246" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/738/i/c3021ce1f3e28c43e1bd84f18e89cb82efb1a0bc4362cfb77c5fb5e901437994/5-5.1.a.-Sample-1-annotated.jpg" />Sample 1 annotated <img width="746" height="506" width_o="746" height_o="506" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/326cfa5081f22626ebe3a075bae019ba649d7b9f24632f2a7a8c19f53940bd5b/5-5.1.b.-Sample-1-annotated-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719247" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/746/i/326cfa5081f22626ebe3a075bae019ba649d7b9f24632f2a7a8c19f53940bd5b/5-5.1.b.-Sample-1-annotated-UV.jpg" />Sample 1 annotated, UV <img width="2000" height="1501" width_o="2000" height_o="1501" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f71e0dfea66958b92d6ed0743f6dc084803cc8b70ea11b11fa75c089567a7f34/5-5.1.c.-Sample-1--10x_.jpg" data-mid="50719248" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f71e0dfea66958b92d6ed0743f6dc084803cc8b70ea11b11fa75c089567a7f34/5-5.1.c.-Sample-1--10x_.jpg" />Sample 1, 10x <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e71d67eea6dae1fd4f57c6cc799811bcd7030b90129d8b12a3a8573dba354dd1/5-5.1.d.-Sample-1--10x-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719249" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e71d67eea6dae1fd4f57c6cc799811bcd7030b90129d8b12a3a8573dba354dd1/5-5.1.d.-Sample-1--10x-UV.jpg" />Sample 1, 10x, UV <img width="2046" height="1464" width_o="2046" height_o="1464" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d2b81521d0103936903b09ab022b8e1e5981c0692e5ce742204aabf8017bd053/5-5.1.e.-Sample-1--40x.jpg" data-mid="50719250" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d2b81521d0103936903b09ab022b8e1e5981c0692e5ce742204aabf8017bd053/5-5.1.e.-Sample-1--40x.jpg" />Sample 1, 4ox <img width="750" height="563" width_o="750" height_o="563" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/874f3a643e96ae460f1d45853fb1fb242cb1423b3b818eed6587caab7b22ca27/25xUV-Right.jpg" data-mid="50835476" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/750/i/874f3a643e96ae460f1d45853fb1fb242cb1423b3b818eed6587caab7b22ca27/25xUV-Right.jpg" />Sample 1, 40x,&nbsp; <img width="750" height="563" width_o="750" height_o="563" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/49d0f23270f6c2665437e3bb2a7830adcb3a83e7987c07c4320904d88b5fada3/5-5.1.f.-Sample-1--25x.jpg" data-mid="50719251" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/750/i/49d0f23270f6c2665437e3bb2a7830adcb3a83e7987c07c4320904d88b5fada3/5-5.1.f.-Sample-1--25x.jpg" /> sample 1, 40X <img width="750" height="563" width_o="750" height_o="563" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e4b0659b916451cf5d2a3b5f6460b37ed3ae79d28d81a35fba1a260afdfc5eaa/5-5.1.g.-Sample-1--25x-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719252" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/750/i/e4b0659b916451cf5d2a3b5f6460b37ed3ae79d28d81a35fba1a260afdfc5eaa/5-5.1.g.-Sample-1--25x-UV.jpg" />sample1, 40x, UV Sample 2, Flesh Tone Shadow Layer with a slight organge fluorescence, probaby an animal glue size. White preparatory layer containing lead white and angular particles of soda -lime glass. Fluoresces brightly under UV light. White preparatory layer containing finer particles of lead white and soda-lime glass. Fluoresces brightly under UV light. Medium rich layer containing particles of vermilion and carbon black with pink fluorescence. Another layer of vermilion and carbon black with a higher pigment/medium ratio. Vermilion and a small amount of black with an overall pink fluorescence in UV light. Layer containing black and vermilion with a yellow/green fluorescence and similar to layer 5. <img width="797" height="511" width_o="797" height_o="511" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/98b414377fb08c5310739e7433bfc6e01a0c302ad6725b2547e58a8705d97a91/5-5.2.a.-Sample-2-annotated.jpg" data-mid="50719327" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/797/i/98b414377fb08c5310739e7433bfc6e01a0c302ad6725b2547e58a8705d97a91/5-5.2.a.-Sample-2-annotated.jpg" />Sample 2 annotated <img width="798" height="511" width_o="798" height_o="511" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/af81e78c865a2d75a85fbec3aab71c940dc191bae63650f5a0c79215254cf9b1/5-5.2.b.-Sample-2-annotated-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719329" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/798/i/af81e78c865a2d75a85fbec3aab71c940dc191bae63650f5a0c79215254cf9b1/5-5.2.b.-Sample-2-annotated-UV.jpg" />Sample 2 annotated, UV <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c94ffe95c23b84fd8a80695f88ba204e2e9b1748524db0aa31100a2391b35913/5-5.2.c.-Sample2--25x.jpg" data-mid="50719330" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c94ffe95c23b84fd8a80695f88ba204e2e9b1748524db0aa31100a2391b35913/5-5.2.c.-Sample2--25x.jpg" />Sample 2, 25x <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/86f19d3c3734dcbbb2236ca269ebdeee391d01feaf3b0705c047eaa0cdc9acc0/5-5.2.d.-Sample2--25x-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719331" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/86f19d3c3734dcbbb2236ca269ebdeee391d01feaf3b0705c047eaa0cdc9acc0/5-5.2.d.-Sample2--25x-UV.jpg" />Sample 2, 25x, UV <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c19e50b59817452846f14f0822a5867e44bb42f690f6aaf025ac8e3e946c0b4a/5-5.2.e.-Sample-2--40x.jpg" data-mid="50719332" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c19e50b59817452846f14f0822a5867e44bb42f690f6aaf025ac8e3e946c0b4a/5-5.2.e.-Sample-2--40x.jpg" />Sample 2, 40x <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/31844551c5318b53aecedf2b8f1af6045c99c94b0a3a9c048209af94eda666d5/5-5.2.f.-Sample-2--40x-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719333" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/31844551c5318b53aecedf2b8f1af6045c99c94b0a3a9c048209af94eda666d5/5-5.2.f.-Sample-2--40x-UV.jpg" />Sample 2, 4ox, UV Sample 3, Flesh Tone Shadow 2 Unpigmented layer with a slight orange fluorescence, probably an animal glue size. White preparatory layer containing lead white and angular particles of soda -lime glass. Fluoresces brightly under UV light.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; White preparatory layer containing finer particles of lead white and soda-lime glass. Fluoresces brightly under UV light.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Medium rich layer containing particles of vermilion and carbon black with pink fluorescence. Another layer of vermilion and carbon black with a higher pigment/medium ratio and pockets of a deep brown translucent layer that may contain a few particles of glass, no pigment and a strong yellowish green fluorescence. Very thin layer containing just a few particles of vermilion and black, only distinguishable in UV fluorescence. Pink fluorescence. Darker, reddish brown layer, similar to layer 5 with pockets of unpigmented medium. Thin warm brown layer with tiny black pigment particles and a strong pink fluorescence. <img width="913" height="531" width_o="913" height_o="531" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0db3f4116de967dd5c671e3403e1f372def981b0fe3057558386494b805d74f2/5-5.3.a.-Sample-3-annotated.jpg" data-mid="50719359" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/913/i/0db3f4116de967dd5c671e3403e1f372def981b0fe3057558386494b805d74f2/5-5.3.a.-Sample-3-annotated.jpg" />Sample 3, annotated <img width="918" height="530" width_o="918" height_o="530" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f653fb364f264dc1ef44f307eae1e19572d2a14be762a4682931ab96d230d8ac/5-5.3.b.-Sample-3-annotated-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719360" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/918/i/f653fb364f264dc1ef44f307eae1e19572d2a14be762a4682931ab96d230d8ac/5-5.3.b.-Sample-3-annotated-UV.jpg" />Sample 3 annotated, UV <img width="745" height="679" width_o="745" height_o="679" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/926d4cd1c8971e4509e7a7e27bbd6ee24e9c34ca908c255128a3e261f9e78e8d/5-5.3.c.-Sample-3--25x--annotated.jpg" data-mid="50719361" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/745/i/926d4cd1c8971e4509e7a7e27bbd6ee24e9c34ca908c255128a3e261f9e78e8d/5-5.3.c.-Sample-3--25x--annotated.jpg" />Sample 3, annotated, 4ox <img width="748" height="681" width_o="748" height_o="681" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/613e0f9fe7973bbf26dfee5e61c1477558e1692e8723be4bd462afe45de8c91d/5-5.3.d.-Sample-3--25x--annotated-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719362" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/748/i/613e0f9fe7973bbf26dfee5e61c1477558e1692e8723be4bd462afe45de8c91d/5-5.3.d.-Sample-3--25x--annotated-UV.jpg" /> Sample 3, 4o annotated, UV Sample 4, Blue RobeWhite preparatory layer of lead white and angular particles of soda -lime glass. Fluoresces brightly under UV light. White preparatory layer containing finer particles of lead white and soda-lime glass. Fluoresces brightly under UV light. A layer comprised of carbon black, vermilion and glass. Fluoresces under UV light. Thin, uneven dark paint layer containing densely packed, tiny pigment particles in a mixture similar to the gray paint seen in a sample taken from the white sleeve and another from the barbe. Fluoresces under UV light. Lapis lazuli pigment with particles of quartz. The layer has a slight pink fluorescence indicating the possible addition of red lake. <img width="1057" height="495" width_o="1057" height_o="495" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4bc7eb84f44c591dde50abda9a74c27a6ca284964185ee9b17d3b544906f2b38/5-5.4.a.-Sample-4-annotated.jpg" data-mid="50719388" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4bc7eb84f44c591dde50abda9a74c27a6ca284964185ee9b17d3b544906f2b38/5-5.4.a.-Sample-4-annotated.jpg" /> Sample 4, annotated <img width="1053" height="502" width_o="1053" height_o="502" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ae9656d2b7cbd80571a8ab575fe94f8619e32d9b61e869ad91e9d3b6d99cb237/5-5.4.b.-Sample-4-annotated-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719389" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ae9656d2b7cbd80571a8ab575fe94f8619e32d9b61e869ad91e9d3b6d99cb237/5-5.4.b.-Sample-4-annotated-UV.jpg" /> sample 4, annotated, UV <img width="1851" height="576" width_o="1851" height_o="576" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ffd1910452847755c6ef70bba2fb9ba0f997f9385ab7551680a8e72f681537a3/5-5.4.c.-Sample-4--25x--bright-light-and-UV--annotated.jpg" data-mid="51546245" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ffd1910452847755c6ef70bba2fb9ba0f997f9385ab7551680a8e72f681537a3/5-5.4.c.-Sample-4--25x--bright-light-and-UV--annotated.jpg" />Sample 4, 25x, annotated <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9514bb40b60c3836401d81ea7f06d0089897bac94e993e2020fc9db564a3a777/5-5.4.-d.-Sample-4--40x.jpg" data-mid="50719387" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9514bb40b60c3836401d81ea7f06d0089897bac94e993e2020fc9db564a3a777/5-5.4.-d.-Sample-4--40x.jpg" />Sample 4, 4o x <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5b9ff86e290263fc2d89ec58717743258e27cc1244900be6afcc72e82596f170/5-5.4.e.-Sample-4--40x-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719391" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5b9ff86e290263fc2d89ec58717743258e27cc1244900be6afcc72e82596f170/5-5.4.e.-Sample-4--40x-UV.jpg" />sample 4, 4o x UV Sample 5, Knotwork White paint layer. Lead white pigment particles very finely dispersed in fluorescent medium. Probably the upper ground. Warm gray paint layer. Lead white pigments with tiny black pigment particles and small amount of vermillion. Slight fluorescence under UV light. Pale yellow paint (first knot work).Lead tin yellow particles in oil medium with bright fluorescence in UV light. Grey paint layer. Lead white pigment with tiny black pigment particles. Fluoresces under UV light. Reddish brown paint layer. Densely packed vermilion, black and yellow pigment particles with very little medium. There is no fluorescence under UV light, which suggests that the binder might be proteinaceous. Extremely thin, discontinuous unpigmented layer that fluoresces under UV light. Reddish paint layer. Primarily vermilion with some scattered black pigment particles. Slight fluorescence under UV light. Discontinuous unpigmented layer of substantial thickness on the far left and right ends of the sample with strong yellow-green fluorescence. Perhaps pockets of medium. A few remnants of a final paint layer, similar to layer 5. The sample was taken from an area of abrasion so little of this layer is left. <img width="882" height="520" width_o="882" height_o="520" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d29351e53a4569797900d4e5017956b849ac9b91bb43f64bd0a2dac742594cfc/5-5.5.a.-Sample-5-annotated.jpg" data-mid="50719794" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/882/i/d29351e53a4569797900d4e5017956b849ac9b91bb43f64bd0a2dac742594cfc/5-5.5.a.-Sample-5-annotated.jpg" />Sample 5 annotated <img width="883" height="509" width_o="883" height_o="509" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f83c0f494bcdfc439cf745f7e62375f7a3841cc9540f4a9265fffdc0291472d1/5-5.5.b.-Sample-5-annotated-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719795" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/883/i/f83c0f494bcdfc439cf745f7e62375f7a3841cc9540f4a9265fffdc0291472d1/5-5.5.b.-Sample-5-annotated-UV.jpg" />Sample 5 annotated, UV <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/803e59216ab0d43391438c7bff22bf959d76e71266d93eb6e89e6c0c62aa1631/5-5.5.c.-Sample-5--25x.jpg" data-mid="50719796" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/803e59216ab0d43391438c7bff22bf959d76e71266d93eb6e89e6c0c62aa1631/5-5.5.c.-Sample-5--25x.jpg" />Sample 5, 25x <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cef231c21e3e1bb34e9786fa0f345eb0526a93fc0dd841cb67d57a732892f91e/5-5.5.d.-Sample-5--25x-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719797" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cef231c21e3e1bb34e9786fa0f345eb0526a93fc0dd841cb67d57a732892f91e/5-5.5.d.-Sample-5--25x-UV.jpg" />Sample 5, 25x, UV <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/87c4c98337460fb814a0c90dd9e22e05e6e9018db19e899bfe92cf096cc18fa1/5-5.5.e.-Sample-5--25x.jpg" data-mid="50719798" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/87c4c98337460fb814a0c90dd9e22e05e6e9018db19e899bfe92cf096cc18fa1/5-5.5.e.-Sample-5--25x.jpg" />Sample 5, 25x <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0d4528461266e4d3169f0dfdc1d0408b25807dd41b13199a63ab707c016a8716/5-5.5.f.-Sample-5--25x-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719799" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0d4528461266e4d3169f0dfdc1d0408b25807dd41b13199a63ab707c016a8716/5-5.5.f.-Sample-5--25x-UV.jpg" />Sample 5, 25x, UV Sample 6, White Sleeve Preparatory layer containing lead white and particles of glass with bright fluorescence. Probably the upper ground. Reddish brown layer with vermilion and black particles. The medium fluoresces yellow/green.&nbsp; &nbsp; Black layer comprised of fine, densely packed black pigment particles. The paint layer is very lean and exhibits no fluorescence. SEM analysis confirmed the presence of bone black. This corresponds to the black wash of the initial abozzo layer seen in Samples 1, 7, and 8. Gray paint layer containing lead white and black pigment particles.&nbsp; &nbsp; Light gray paint containing lead white and tiny black pigment particles. Fluoresces brightly under UV light. White lead paint layer with negligible fine scattered black pigment particles. Fluoresces brightly. <img width="887" height="536" width_o="887" height_o="536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/47bdc4a1eb1eb54ea71af6caed021c78a41bb11ef57e8399f5d7187418653972/5-5.6.a.-Sample-6-annotated.jpg" data-mid="50719981" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/887/i/47bdc4a1eb1eb54ea71af6caed021c78a41bb11ef57e8399f5d7187418653972/5-5.6.a.-Sample-6-annotated.jpg" />Sample 6, annotated <img width="890" height="542" width_o="890" height_o="542" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a1cbee697a654b519a589fb6e4ca228e4a054e7ab661ebf12a04cb0f6e862f4f/5-5.6.b.-Sample-6-annotated-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719982" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/890/i/a1cbee697a654b519a589fb6e4ca228e4a054e7ab661ebf12a04cb0f6e862f4f/5-5.6.b.-Sample-6-annotated-UV.jpg" />Sample 6, annotated, UV <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5d30e928a0e520772916d220487f8d617c52dbbf04ff84667675757e9018842e/5-5.6.c.-Sample-6--25x.jpg" data-mid="50719983" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5d30e928a0e520772916d220487f8d617c52dbbf04ff84667675757e9018842e/5-5.6.c.-Sample-6--25x.jpg" />Sample 6, 25x <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d9848295d66165d42325cb5914dc6fe4ab974b6cb243e6f913bab8fc414466ac/5-5.6.d.-Sample-6--25x-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719984" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d9848295d66165d42325cb5914dc6fe4ab974b6cb243e6f913bab8fc414466ac/5-5.6.d.-Sample-6--25x-UV.jpg" />Sample 6, 25x, UV <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/260b670a609ae5c7d158b9ac02da09d64ae93e6da75d64ad9434d5f08fc8d4a8/5-5.6.e.-Sample-6--25x.jpg" data-mid="50719985" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/260b670a609ae5c7d158b9ac02da09d64ae93e6da75d64ad9434d5f08fc8d4a8/5-5.6.e.-Sample-6--25x.jpg" />Sample 6, 25x&nbsp; <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a3672a2e1231981f9ab7dc48aaae2830cbf9e6cea04f5ff5099c6fd35edbbfcb/5-5.6.f.-Sample-6--25x-UV.jpg" data-mid="50719986" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a3672a2e1231981f9ab7dc48aaae2830cbf9e6cea04f5ff5099c6fd35edbbfcb/5-5.6.f.-Sample-6--25x-UV.jpg" />Sample 6, 25x, UV Sample 7, Background Under Green Repaint 1 White preparatory layer containing lead white and angular particles of soda -lime glass. Fluoresces brightly under UV light. Reddish brown layer with vermilion and black particles. The medium fluoresces yellow/green.&nbsp; &nbsp; Second white preparatory layer containing finer particles of lead white and less soda-lime glass. Fluoresces brightly under UV light. Reddish brown layer composed of carbon black, vermilion and possibly a lake pigment (suggested by the pink fluorescence under UV light.) A thin layer of tiny black pigment particles with no fluorescence. Mixtures of carbon and bone black with some fluorescence. Thin layer of black pigment.&nbsp; &nbsp; Unpigmented fluorescent layer.&nbsp; &nbsp; Green layer containing verdigris, yellow and a few particles of white. <img width="1111" height="526" width_o="1111" height_o="526" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/082cc412e21f36401ac6efb3430158dd2f1f06f9b965553cff67c20c0b4d04d7/5-5.7.a.-Sample-7-annotated.jpg" data-mid="50720109" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/082cc412e21f36401ac6efb3430158dd2f1f06f9b965553cff67c20c0b4d04d7/5-5.7.a.-Sample-7-annotated.jpg" />Sample 7 annotated <img width="1099" height="463" width_o="1099" height_o="463" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f870d787e2ad2000ae69c91b6f50326e7500cbc47aee99ce223e0b899508a80e/5-5.7.b.-Sample-7-annotated-UV.jpg" data-mid="50720110" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f870d787e2ad2000ae69c91b6f50326e7500cbc47aee99ce223e0b899508a80e/5-5.7.b.-Sample-7-annotated-UV.jpg" /> Sample 7 annotated, UV <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a4a2d2b6c7f431acabed8ba716cf12ee1da4e5492c20b75f61d55ce8285491ad/5-5.7.c.-Sample-7--25x.jpg" data-mid="50720111" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a4a2d2b6c7f431acabed8ba716cf12ee1da4e5492c20b75f61d55ce8285491ad/5-5.7.c.-Sample-7--25x.jpg" />Sample 7, 40x <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/62733d10a1d3ac8ae09b0d0737638f281a7db07173e4cbdf54b9b6c12a165c42/5-5.7.d.-Sample-7--25x-UV.jpg" data-mid="50720112" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/62733d10a1d3ac8ae09b0d0737638f281a7db07173e4cbdf54b9b6c12a165c42/5-5.7.d.-Sample-7--25x-UV.jpg" />Sample 7, 40x, UV <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/06c62b2c7f1e6a685a2093676c1419f9e1b1ea54e54a8b22223c0bbe38e67ae7/5-5.7.e.-Sample-7--40x.jpg" data-mid="50720113" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/06c62b2c7f1e6a685a2093676c1419f9e1b1ea54e54a8b22223c0bbe38e67ae7/5-5.7.e.-Sample-7--40x.jpg" />Sample 7, 25x <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c65cfc08e0e606d17313afca823b1b52e4d4b1fd5405d171e76cb962feb95dfe/5-5.7.f.-Sample-7--40x-UV.jpg" data-mid="50720114" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c65cfc08e0e606d17313afca823b1b52e4d4b1fd5405d171e76cb962feb95dfe/5-5.7.f.-Sample-7--40x-UV.jpg" />Sample 7, 25x, UV Sample 8, Background Under Green Repaint 2 White preparatory layer with lead white and angular particles of soda-lime glass. Bright fluorescence under UV.&nbsp; &nbsp; Second white preparatory layer Upper ground containing more finely ground particles of lead white and soda lime glass. Fluoresces brightly under UV light. Black layer comprised of fine, densely packed black pigment particles. The paint layer is very lean and exhibits no fluorescence. Reddish brown layer containing vermilion and black pigment particles. Fluoresces under UV. A thin layer of tiny black pigment particles with no fluorescence. Mixtures of carbon and bone black with some fluorescence. Thin layer of black pigment particles with no fluorescence. Unpigmented layer with bright yellow/green fluorescence under UV light. Green paint layer. Thick layer composed of green (verdigris), yellow and white pigment particles. There is a remnant of dark material on top of the left side of the sample. Thin layer with slight fluorescence and no particles.&nbsp; &nbsp; Dark, discontinuous paint layer with no fluorescence. <img width="1085" height="413" width_o="1085" height_o="413" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0e637d3ea129309e47c03ccd442dcd3cbafbc58ac52760456938e6786cf58c52/5-5.8.1-Sample-8-annotated.jpg" data-mid="50720184" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0e637d3ea129309e47c03ccd442dcd3cbafbc58ac52760456938e6786cf58c52/5-5.8.1-Sample-8-annotated.jpg" />Sample 8, annotated <img width="1109" height="406" width_o="1109" height_o="406" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/59a519d2b445d17f962a8f635fc5afbdee6a10e48f0eea59fcba5eae8c720f04/5-5.8.b.-Sample-8-annotated-UV.jpg" data-mid="50720185" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/59a519d2b445d17f962a8f635fc5afbdee6a10e48f0eea59fcba5eae8c720f04/5-5.8.b.-Sample-8-annotated-UV.jpg" />Sample 8 annotated, UV <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0e09d73a3c67291f2d4b08b1f2c5c7740f7e13ebf1e68fb8520e175b5ee0f528/5-5.8.c.-Sample-8--25x.jpg" data-mid="50720186" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0e09d73a3c67291f2d4b08b1f2c5c7740f7e13ebf1e68fb8520e175b5ee0f528/5-5.8.c.-Sample-8--25x.jpg" />Sample 8, 4ox <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7cac2ed632db2c1f55a21372fcb58bd3372085a87ed3b3ef5a6d10f2c7f072d6/5-5.8.d.-Sample-8--25x-UV.jpg" data-mid="50720187" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7cac2ed632db2c1f55a21372fcb58bd3372085a87ed3b3ef5a6d10f2c7f072d6/5-5.8.d.-Sample-8--25x-UV.jpg" />Sample 8 40x, UV Sample 9, Barbe, Bottom Left Edge White preparatory layer containing lead white and soda lime glass. Fluoresces brightly under UV light. Reddish brown paint layer containing a high proportion of medium with some suspended particles of vermilion and black. Black layer comprised of fine, densely packed black pigment particles. The paint layer is very lean and exhibits no fluorescence. Gray paint layer, very thick as it is an accumulation along the barbe. It is marbleized with medium with bright yellow/green fluorescence under UV light. Blue paint with large particles of lapis lazuli in a medium that fluoresces yellow green. There are also some particles with strong pink fluorescence characteristic of a red lake. <img width="735" height="552" width_o="735" height_o="552" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d14d763feca177ecf3f8fee3bbf1defce832e62ceec6c5940a59eef5f72bfc8c/5-5.9.a.-Sample-9-annotated.jpg" data-mid="50720223" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/735/i/d14d763feca177ecf3f8fee3bbf1defce832e62ceec6c5940a59eef5f72bfc8c/5-5.9.a.-Sample-9-annotated.jpg" />Sample 9 annotated <img width="732" height="552" width_o="732" height_o="552" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fd7aee3f6ec334bb5df0219883882647eaaa84cb150d09c653c4934c1597915c/5-5.9.b.-Sample-9-annotated-UV.jpg" data-mid="50720224" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/732/i/fd7aee3f6ec334bb5df0219883882647eaaa84cb150d09c653c4934c1597915c/5-5.9.b.-Sample-9-annotated-UV.jpg" />Sample 9 annotated, UV <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/74c7bc901063710b83ac98537a37e3ed9e9719e37b072e1b96101d2b7881a803/5-5.9.c.-Sample-9--25x.jpg" data-mid="50720225" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/74c7bc901063710b83ac98537a37e3ed9e9719e37b072e1b96101d2b7881a803/5-5.9.c.-Sample-9--25x.jpg" />Sample 9, 25x <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/909bfe6bc4f25ac00ff97c2c1f3713b3b740220d1b9bd35ad3390f4d6fb997d3/5-5.9.d.-Sample-9--25x-UV.jpg" data-mid="50720226" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/909bfe6bc4f25ac00ff97c2c1f3713b3b740220d1b9bd35ad3390f4d6fb997d3/5-5.9.d.-Sample-9--25x-UV.jpg" />Sample 1, 25x, UV Media Analysis Walnut oil was identified in a sample taken from the lower right quadrant of the painting near the Py-GCMS analysis was carried out at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as follows: the sample (c. 10 ug) was placed in a Frontier Lab stainless steel sample cup, and 2uL of a 25% solution of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) in methanol added prior to insertion into a Frontier PY-2020iD vertical micro furnace pyrolyzer, attached to an Agilent 6890N GC - 5973N MS. The pyrolyzer furnace temperature was 550°C. The GC was equipped with J&amp;W DB5MS column (30 m, 0.25 mm i.d., 0.25 um film); oven temperature programmed from 40°C, with a 2 minute hold, then increased at 20°C/minute to 140°C, at 15°C/minute to 320°C, and held isothermally for 11 minutes; total run time 30 minutes. The inlet was operated with a split ratio of 1:10, with helium carrier gas at a flow rate of 1 mL/minute. The MS was run in scan mode (m/z 35-600) with the source at 230°C and quad at 150°C. Data were collected and processed using Agilent Chemstation software. Next Chapter Materials &amp; Techniques↓ .next-text, .next-arrow{ display:block; padding: 0 0 16px 0 !important; cursor: pointer; } https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Materials-Techniques Thu, 18 Jul 2019 01:45:41 +0000 Salvator Mundi Revisited https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Materials-Techniques Materials and Techniques The study and identification of the materials in a painting and the manner in which they are employed, in comparison with other securely documented works that have been the subject of similar analyses, help to understand the artist’s process and establish the school and period to which a painting belongs. Technical studies cannot, however, “authenticate” a painting; they cannot prove, in other words, that is by a particular master. The Artist’s Studio In Leonardo’s notebooks he describes the ideal studio conditions and light for painting. 12&nbsp;Small rooms or dwellings discipine the mind, large ones distract it . . .The painter who works from nature should have a window which he can raise and lower . . . A broad light high up and not too strong will render the details of objects very agreeable. The light for drawing from nature should come from the north in order that it may not vary. And if you have it from the south, keep the window screened with cloth, so that with the sun shining the whole day the light may not vary . The height of the light should be so arranged that every object shall cast a shadow on the ground of the same length as itself.An object will display the greatest difference of light and shade when it is seen in the strongest light, as by sunlight, or at night, by the light of a fire. But this should not be much used in painting because the works remain crude and ungraceful. An object seen in a moderate light displays little difference in the light and shade; and this is the case towards evening or when the day is cloudy, and works then painted are tender and every kind of face becomes graceful. Thus, in everything, extremes are to be avoided: too much light gives crudeness; too little prevents our seeing. The medium is best.&nbsp; If you should have a courtyard that you can at pleasure cover with a linen awning that light will be good. Or when you want to take a portrait, do it in dull weather, or as evening falls. Note in the streets, as evening falls, the faces of the mean and women, and when the weather is dull, what softness and delicacy you may perceive in them. Hence, O Painter! have a court arranged with the walls tinted black and a narrow roof projecting within the walls. It should be 10 braccia wide and 20 braccia long and 10 braccia high and covered with a linen awning when the sun is shining; or else paint a work towards evening or when it is cloudy or misty, and this is a perfect light.&nbsp; This is useful advice for lighting paintings in general, not only works by Leonardo. During the hundred of hours I spent with the Salvator Mundi on an easel in my north light studio, I observed that when the light began to fall towards the end of the day, the head assumed a powerful, three-dimensional character, the flesh tones began to glow from within and the figure came to life in an extraordinary way. It was a great privilege to experience this painting as Leonardo himself would have done. I have found this is true of other artists. Titian’s paintings, for example, are transformed in a similarly marvelous and unexpected way when the light is lowered. The high light levels we are accustomed to&nbsp; flatten images and we cannot appreciate them as the artist meant us to do. This also speaks to reproductions and to the distortions produced by photo lamps of different color temperatures referred to in the section of this website with the various images that have been made of the Salvator Mundi. &nbsp; The PanelThe Salvator Mundi is painted on a walnut panel measuring 65.5&nbsp; cm. in height and 45.6 cm in width along the top edge and 45.1 cm along the bottom edge. This discrepancy in the dimensions is due to uneven trimming of the reserve along the left side of the panel. The wood identification was made in 2011 by George Bisacca, Conservator of Panel Paintings, Department of Paintings Conservation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, based on visual inspection. In 2018 a group of wood scientists from the University of Florence (Professor Luca Uzielli; Dr. Lorenzo Riparbelli; Dr. Giovanni Signorini) confirmed that the support was walnut based on a study of the features of the grain as seen in the x-radiograph. The panel was thinned when it was marouflaged and cradled and today its thickness ranges from 4.5-5 mm. Other autograph works on walnut panels vary in thickness from 5 to 8mm. Leonardo frequently used single planks of walnut as supports for paintings that he began in Milan. These include: Portrait of a Musician, the Belle Ferronière, Lady with an Ermine and Saint John. The unfinished St. Jerome, although generally considered to have been painted in Florence around 1480, is also on a walnut support. With one exception, paintings believed to have been painted by Leonardo in Florence are on poplar. These are: The Annunciation, Ginevra de’ Benci, TheAdoration of the Magi, the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, and the Mona Lisa (a thin single plank). The Virgin of the Rocks in the Louvre was presumably on poplar but was transferred from its original support and is now on canvas. The Virgin of the Rocks in London, although perhaps begun in Milan, is on a panel composed of poplar planks. Walnut, because of its cost and weight, would not have been suitable for such a large work.&nbsp; Dendrochronology, or tree ring dating, is not applicable to either poplar or walnut because the annual growth rings are eratic, unlike oak, for which both the date the tree was felled as well as the geographic region can be identified with accuracy. In any event, dendrochronology provides only a terminus post quem.&nbsp; The walnut panel adopted for the Salvator Mundi was an inferior plain sawn plank,&nbsp; with both tangential and radial grain. Although the panel specialist who worked on the painting characterized the damage in the lower part of the composition along the central axis as resulting from a knot, this is unlikely since the cut came from close to center of the trunk and may include some heartwood. It is in this, the weakest part of the panel, that the damage occurred. This flaw in the the walnut makes it a substandard cut.&nbsp; Dr. Lorenzo Riparbelli, a Florentine wood scientist, described it is essentially a discard and Leonardo cannot have failed to recognize this. When planning the composition he oriented the panel so that the flaw along the central axis would not coincide with the forehead, as it would had he used it in the other direction. Why and under what circumstances would Leonardo have resorted to such a manifestly defective piece of wood for an important painting? It might be worthwhile to consider this when deciding when and where this painting was begun. Leonardo’s other paintings are on proper wood panels, with the exception of the early Adoration of the Magiwhose support is somewhat clumsily constructed. Although he often experimented with methods to achieve the painterly effects he desired, and sometimes this went drastically wrong, he was careful about choosing his materials, especially for a project on which he was to lavish so much time and care over a period of many years.&nbsp; <img width="1652" height="1028" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/500/q/75/i/f5189ae942970734ddfa9d9dacd4281f5c451d81d28b65609ab90d4c074870c5/6-6.1--Diagram-of-a-tangential-cut-.jpg" style="width: 401.17677307128906px; height: 249.64268929617745px;"> DIAGRAM OF A TANGENTIAL CUT<img width="2000" height="1423" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/500/q/75/i/8d09cca46ad8028b80196ac9c9a3d32d647ee1bd1134fb93573a9fdd3e82034e/6-6.2--Detail-of-the-knot-in-the-central-part-of-part-of-the-composition-where-the-embroidered-stole-is-secured-by-a-cabochon-brooch.jpg" style="width: 401.171875px; height: 285.4337890625px;">DETAIL OF THE DAMAGE IN THE LOWER PART OF THE PANEL WHERE THE EMBROIDERED STOLE IS SECURED WITH A CABOCHON-SET BROOCH.<img width="1969" height="2799" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/700/q/75/i/f1316d2b01c7ba032ca2c099f2bb9d59f33b00e2882243988b6f068337d0eaaa/LdV_SM_Xray_growth-rings.jpg" style="width: 401.171875px; height: 570.2793692864399px;">The grain of the wood traced in the X-radiograph. The damage occurs in the most tangentially cut part of the plank and may even include some heartwood. It was thus the most vulnerable and least structurally stable area. There is no evidence of a knot. Tracing and observations by Kristin Holder, Fellow in panel conservation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.&nbsp;There is a reserve of unpainted wood on three sides of the painting with a slight crest of white ground along the edges of the paint layers. As noted above, the left side has been trimmed slightly but a sliver of the reserve remains along the top left edge. This demonstrates that the composition has not been cut down, although a tiny fraction may be missing along the lower left. The composition is closely cropped: both the blessing hand and the crystal orb were painted right up to the edges of the panel. The wood reserve and the barbe were created by Leonardo’s practice of inserting the panel into a slotted working frame before the preparatory layers were applied. He did not invent this method. Northern European paintings on oak panel have similar slotted frames. A working frame was described and illustrated by the painter in his notebooks. Although most of Leonardo’s mature works on a smaller scale are painted on a single plank of wood, in the drawing the panel is made up of two planks, glued together, the join reinforced with butterfly inserts. <img width="1355" height="2000" width_o="1355" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/97b349213b1ce056bbe532aa948f0b04e560c114d6346d902d502c1211b65254/6-6.3.-Manuscript-A.jpg" data-mid="50721929" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/97b349213b1ce056bbe532aa948f0b04e560c114d6346d902d502c1211b65254/6-6.3.-Manuscript-A.jpg" />Page with an illustration of a working frame from Paris MSA <img width="2000" height="1088" width_o="2000" height_o="1088" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/285ddf71e7f270d3be9cab6b983ec0c0796bd9aba8627a346820d8e4b8d4e16d/6-6.3.a-working-frame-from-Richter.jpg" data-mid="50721930" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/285ddf71e7f270d3be9cab6b983ec0c0796bd9aba8627a346820d8e4b8d4e16d/6-6.3.a-working-frame-from-Richter.jpg" />The same page as illustrated and translated by Jean Paul Richter On the same page the artist describes the following procedure for preparing a panel: The panel should be pear or service-tree or walnut. You must coat it with mastic and twice-distilled turpentine with some white lead or, if you prefer, chalk, and put it in a frame so it may expand and shrink according to its moisture and dryness. (Il legno sarà d’arcipresso o pero o sorbo o noce, il quale salderai cō mastico e tremētina secōda destillato e biacca o vuoi calcina, e metti ī telaio ī modo possa cresciere e discresciere secō l’umido o secco)&nbsp; <img width="6860" height="5120" width_o="6860" height_o="5120" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c6990a5753a84fba7159d5c541c7325f0e60143d03c2eb55b411376fefd9365b/lower-left-corner.jpg" data-mid="52274021" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c6990a5753a84fba7159d5c541c7325f0e60143d03c2eb55b411376fefd9365b/lower-left-corner.jpg" /> Detail of the barbe along the lower left edge Although Leonardo was aware that wood expanded and shrank across the grain with changes in relative humidity, his working frames ultimately did not allow for the convex warp that panels can develop over time. After the recent removal of the cradle, once it was no longer constrained, the exceptionally reactive nature of the walnut support of the Salvator Mundi became apparent: the warp increases and decreases notably and rapidly with even the slightest change in relative humidity. Early Flemish paintings were painted in similar slotted frames, but the panels tend to be quarter sawn Baltic oak, which is stronger and more stable than the tangential cuts of poplar and walnut used by Leonardo. As the warp developed, the central part of the wood plank would be forced against the upper and lower edges of the slots of the working frame, constricting the movement of the wood across the grain and eventually the panel will split. In the case of the Salvator Mundi, a check opened near the center of the panel where the grain of the wood is most distorted. The resulting split eventually traversed the full height of the panel following the curve of the grain. A hypothesis of this sort has been advanced for the The Mona Lisa, which has been extensively studied by wood scientists. It is painted on a single plank of thin poplar with a 6mm reserve of wood on all sides, demarkated by a crest of white preparation, this time of gesso and an imprimitura layer, created while the panel was in a working frame. 13&nbsp; Any number of Lombard panel paintings of this period have retained a wood reserve and crests of preparatory material, or barbe. The authors of the Mona Lisa study note the the fine quality of the plank, which, although it is a tangential rather than a radial cut, comes from the center of the tree trunk and is characterized by a notably straight grain. The reverse was thinned at some point in the past. According to Élizabeth Ravaud, a split in the panel in the upper left, which extends down to the top of the sitter’s head was provoked by the constriction imposed by the slotted frame. She does not specify whether or not she believes this to be the sort of working frame illustrated in the notebooks. 14&nbsp; <img width="1419" height="2000" width_o="1419" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/09ae0d01a3bc54fde3b4acf484b9648060d9f79e4a9a5ced6652ece08394fdc7/6-6.4.-Panel-with-cradle.jpg" data-mid="50721824" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/09ae0d01a3bc54fde3b4acf484b9648060d9f79e4a9a5ced6652ece08394fdc7/6-6.4.-Panel-with-cradle.jpg" />Early 19th century cradle on the reverse of the Salvator Mundi <img width="1500" height="2000" width_o="1500" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/624d4f06b4d915a7be1f101b0097702b8379b266b976b40d944edc43645b4f99/6-6.4.a.-Panel-restored-with-perimeter-strainer.jpg" data-mid="50720653" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/624d4f06b4d915a7be1f101b0097702b8379b266b976b40d944edc43645b4f99/6-6.4.a.-Panel-restored-with-perimeter-strainer.jpg" />perimeter strainer (since removed.) FramesThe presumed use of a working frame such as Leonardo describes begs the question of whether its members were composed of decorative moldings, like Flemish frames and when they were replaced by more elaborate frames, suitable for a royal collection.&nbsp; It is documented that Leonardo had three paintings with him in Clos Lucé when he was visited by Cardinal Luigi d’Aragona and his secretary, Antonio de Beatis on October 10, 1517. De Beatis records in his travel diary that they were shown a portrait of a Florentine lady, probably the Mona Lisa, the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, and a&nbsp;Saint John the Baptist.&nbsp; He does not mention whether or not they were framed. All three paintings were acquired by the French crown in 1518 and were presumably fitted into a traditional frame with a rabbet, rather than a slotted frame. In 1625, when Cassiano dal Pozzo saw the Mona Lisa on a visit to Fontainebleau, he noted that it was in a walnut frame. This would have been appropriate for sixteenth-century taste. The frame historian, Timothy Newbery, informs me that walnut and gold parcel gilt frames derive from Renaissance studioli and were often used for portraits because the warm color of the wood was felt to harmonize with the middle tones and, according to humanist thought, brought the viewer closer to the subject. Walnut frames were used to frame a set of maps in Palazzo Vecchio as late as 1563&nbsp; but by 1625 would have been out of fashion. &nbsp;&nbsp;In 1635, a gift from Cardinal Francesco Barberini was presented to Queen Henrietta Maria, a painting, considered to be by Leonardo (now recognized as a portrait, perhaps of Girolamo Casio, by Boltraffio at Chatsworth House). The precious frame of ebony, inlaid with silver and semi-precious stones is described. 15 Timothy Newbery suggests that this was probably a contemporary frame whose design may have been based on earlier walnut models but enriched. The question remains: when were the original slotted frames removed and what damage had they already caused? The Louvre believes that the split in the upper left quadrant of the&nbsp;Mona Lisa was caused by the compression exerted by the slotted frame, which it retained for a long time because, it is further suggested, the oblique craquelure patterns located in the four corners and along the perimeter were also provoked by the restrictions imposed by the slotted frame. This is rather difficult to reconcile. As opposed to splits in the wood, which can occur within a few years, cracqulure occurs in the paint and ground layers, which lose flexibility over a longer period of time, perhaps fifty to one hundred years. The rigid layers then shatter, producing a variety of cracks as the support, whether canvas or wood, expands and contracts with changes in relative humity. It is difficult to imagine a scenario in which Leonardo’s paintings retained the utilitarian slotted working frames after they became part of&nbsp; the Royal Collection in 1518. Could they have been&nbsp; incorporated into a decorative frame by applying carved molding over the existing elements? Among the frames in the Kress Collection at the National Gallery in Washington there is a an early 16c Lombard parcel gilt walnut frame that still has the strainer and the edges of the original canvas incorporated into it. There are other examples of sixteenth-century frames applied onto a strainer with a stretched canvas. A panel in a slotted working frame would not have been so easy to adapt in his way but it is theoretically possible. I have never seen an example.&nbsp;It is is also worth considering what sort of damage to the panel might have been provoked when the original slotted frame was removed. <img width="1842" height="2000" width_o="1842" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5060285a21958fe40b9c089845f8af36b4b2c25f7979e894b6b28798dfcb66ef/6-6.4.b.-17th-c.-frame.jpg" data-mid="50554545" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5060285a21958fe40b9c089845f8af36b4b2c25f7979e894b6b28798dfcb66ef/6-6.4.b.-17th-c.-frame.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1272" width_o="2000" height_o="1272" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f520495ca177984a5185400f2e5400cbb7aab3e9cac9b7d8d9ddbc32f2f26422/6-6.4.c.-17th-c.-frame-corner-with-tacking-edge.jpg" data-mid="50554553" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f520495ca177984a5185400f2e5400cbb7aab3e9cac9b7d8d9ddbc32f2f26422/6-6.4.c.-17th-c.-frame-corner-with-tacking-edge.jpg" /> 17th century walnut frame applied over a strainer with the edges of the painting incorporated. There is another explanation of what provoked the split in the Salvator Mundi. Kristin Holder, a paintings conservator and panel specialist, noticed that there is evidence in the X-radiograph that the panel may have been restrained by pieces of wood nailed into the end grain. Along the top and bottom edges a series of short diagonal splits can be seen at relatively regular intervals and there are some voids where nails would once have been. It is possible that after the check developed, which given the poor quality of the plank might have happened rather quickly, pieces of wood were added to stablize it. This would have had just the opposite effect: by constraining the movement of the wood across the grain the split became worse.&nbsp; <img width="13458" height="3193" width_o="13458" height_o="3193" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6ba0f5dcd386bd1bb78141710ecf7eb828cdd60a8a9e36289fe30aa1d63e0ae1/Xray-upper-rgb-annotated.jpg" data-mid="52196296" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6ba0f5dcd386bd1bb78141710ecf7eb828cdd60a8a9e36289fe30aa1d63e0ae1/Xray-upper-rgb-annotated.jpg" /><img width="13458" height="3274" width_o="13458" height_o="3274" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/76ce0657e4010ef54581978baa14a070552c1c8ec81861c3e1d1033ba2ddfa9a/x-ray-lower-edge-rgb.jpg" data-mid="52198515" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/76ce0657e4010ef54581978baa14a070552c1c8ec81861c3e1d1033ba2ddfa9a/x-ray-lower-edge-rgb.jpg" /> X-ray of Upper edge with nail holes and associated splits X-ray of lower edge with nail holes and splits<img width="480" height="640" width_o="480" height_o="640" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bad6d069beac1cf27ce348425e1e6e29ceccc1319df7ff97c3df591a497a57d2/6-6.5.-Left-half-of-panel-during-structural-treatment.jpg" data-mid="50554713" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/480/i/bad6d069beac1cf27ce348425e1e6e29ceccc1319df7ff97c3df591a497a57d2/6-6.5.-Left-half-of-panel-during-structural-treatment.jpg" />Reverse of the panel during restoration showing extensive worm tunneling.The split in the Salvator Mundi skirts the proper right side of the face as it traverses the curls. Along this check, the panel divided into two parts, which sprung away from each other so that they were no longer in the same plane. At some point in its history, to realign the two halves, the panel was crudely planed down from the front, removing a wide swath of original preparation and paint from the area of the curls and the proper right cheek along with the wood. As an historical note, Tudor portraits on oak panels from English country house collections were not infrequently subjected to this rough method of obtaining a level surface.&nbsp; <img width="1048" height="1353" width_o="1048" height_o="1353" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/114b7f929eb60b01a51ef1834a7e0361e9365006af816f05fa69dae6bd434e5b/6-6.7-Surface-of-the-panel.jpg" data-mid="50554742" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/114b7f929eb60b01a51ef1834a7e0361e9365006af816f05fa69dae6bd434e5b/6-6.7-Surface-of-the-panel.jpg" /> <img width="1469" height="2643" width_o="1469" height_o="2643" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cf2a0022fc15d06150fb73248bf0e8a200fbef64a11ed0cc24c73df917de2d8e/6-6.6-Surface-of-the-panel.jpg" data-mid="50554728" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cf2a0022fc15d06150fb73248bf0e8a200fbef64a11ed0cc24c73df917de2d8e/6-6.6-Surface-of-the-panel.jpg" /> Surface of the Panel. Note the curve of the wood grain. By 1900 when it was sold to Sir Francis Cook, the panel had been thinned, glued to a pine board, and a cradle had been added. Cradles were invented in France in the late eighteenth century by Hacquin and continued to be used throughout the twentieth century. The cradle on the Salvator Mundi has characteristics of both English and French/low-countries cradles. The members that are glued to the panel in the direction of the grain are a softwood, which are less common in English cradles where they are more often of mahogany or cedar. The sliding members are oak, which would be unusual for a French cradle. The design of the cradle, with the glued members stepped in from the left and right hand side, is also unusual and suggests that it is quite old, perhaps early to mid-nineteenth century. From a structural point of view, the cradle was, in any case, merely window dressing since the panel had first been mounted to a pine board. The two interventions may not have been simultaneous, but there is no way to determine this. The panel is also extensively worm tunneled by wood boring insects, which further undermines its structural integrity. Two images with raking light give some sense of the corrugated surface of the panel and the many areas of repair in the background. This three-dimensional aspect of the surface is not reflected in any of the images and contributes to the difficulty of photographing the painting. Originally the surface would have been flat and smooth. As the panel reacted to fluctuations in relative humidity the grain of the wood became more prominent. The BinderAnalysis of a single sample from the blue robe by Dr. Kenneth Sutherland indicated that the binder was walnut oil for all layers including the preparation. 16&nbsp;This cannot in itself lead to the conclusion that Leonardo used walnut oil throughout the painting, or in general, although he is reputed to have favored its use and discusses its preparation in his notebooks. It is more fluid than linseed oil and dries more slowly, characteristics favorable for extending the paint mixtures in thin layers. It discolors less than linseed oil. Media analysis has been undertaken for two other works by Leonardo: the London version of the Virgin of the Rocks17 and the Madonna of the Carnation in Munich.18&nbsp; In both instances the poplar support was prepared with a conventional gesso ground. In the London painting, the two layers of imprimitura consist of lead white mixed with a bit of carbon black bound with a non-heat bodied walnut oil; a second layer, unevenly applied, contained lead white and some lead-tin yellow. Some paint layers were bound with both heat-bodied walnut oil while linseed oil was identified in other mixtures. For the Munich painting the painter applied only one layer of imprimitura containing lead white, linseed oil, and perhaps some fine particles of glass over a gesso ground. The paint layers were bound with mixtures of walnut oil. It is notable that the Salvator Mundi does not suffer from the drying defects that afflict many of Leonardo’s works, whether from wrinkling (the Munich painting) or contraction cracks. Saint John the Baptist in the Louvre, a work often considered to have been painted in the same period and stylistically related to he Salvator Mundi, is marred by severely contracted paint in all of the dark passages: the hair, fur and background. Only the head is spared, and perhaps the arm with the pointing hand, although the latter was completely repainted by the seventeenth century, so it is difficult to state that with certainty. The Belle Ferronière and the Paris version of the Virgin of the Rocks are also afflicted by this defect, among other works. There are paintings with fewer film defects such as the Lady with an Ermine and the Mona Lisa, which however exhibits an extensive network of age cracks, perhaps due to the presence of a traditional gesso ground whose aqueous binder would be more reactive to changes in relative humidity. <img width="958" height="1252" width_o="958" height_o="1252" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f606ec24f14ce2680030ca49a7187d5954782947128b1230a328ca9517a4c958/6-6.8--Detail-of-the-Madonna-of-the-Carnation.jpg" data-mid="50554799" border="0" data-scale="81" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/958/i/f606ec24f14ce2680030ca49a7187d5954782947128b1230a328ca9517a4c958/6-6.8--Detail-of-the-Madonna-of-the-Carnation.jpg" />Detail of the Madonna of the Carnation, AltePinakothek, Munich(Wikimedia Commons) <img width="1108" height="1056" width_o="1108" height_o="1056" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2e1a413f1096c6428237c57986cc28e6d9b3b523d9f4c7f6832246f0a04db4b1/Image-9-23-19-at-5.46-PM.jpg" data-mid="51216280" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2e1a413f1096c6428237c57986cc28e6d9b3b523d9f4c7f6832246f0a04db4b1/Image-9-23-19-at-5.46-PM.jpg" /> detail of drying cracks in Ginevra de’ Benci, National gallery of art, Washington, D.C. <img width="1052" height="1024" width_o="1052" height_o="1024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c7d7e0bcee597ef8d43234ec68129c0a4f4e40aeaf043c5a59c3450262f6daab/Image-9-23-19-at-5.47-PM.jpg" data-mid="51216287" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c7d7e0bcee597ef8d43234ec68129c0a4f4e40aeaf043c5a59c3450262f6daab/Image-9-23-19-at-5.47-PM.jpg" /> detail of drying cracks in Ginevra de’ Benci In the Salvator Mundi there are some scattered, clearly defined areas of craquelure resembling drying cracks and I described them as such in my 2014 publication. What was perplexing was that they also appear in the X-radiograph, meaning that they affect not only the paint but also the preparatory layers. Usually drying cracks are confined to one or more paint layers. These areas of craquelure are random and do not correspond to particular painted passages. Dr. Lorenzo Riparbelli, who examined the x-radiograph, recognized that they are associated with a certain feature of the grain of the wood support which expands and contracts more than and independently of other areas of wood grain, which explains why they appear in the x-radiograph. 19 The lack of true drying cracks suggests that Leonardo took particular care with this painting, perhaps choosing a binder that he knew dried properly, using just the right proportion of binder to pigment, and making sure that the under layers were thoroughly dry before applying a successive layer of paint. Could this unusually careful technique be related to his experiments with a “varnish” with which he is said to have been engaged in Rome between 1513-1515, for which he was admonished by Leo X? It is unlikely that the pontiff would have made a distinction between medium and varnish. The preparatory layersLeonardo’s instructions regarding the&nbsp; preparation of the panel continue on the same manuscript page as his drawing of the working frame, Paris Ms A: Then go over it 2 or 3 times with alcohol in which you have dissolved arsenic or sublimate. Then give it a coat of boiled linseed oil that completely penetrates [the wood] and before it cools rub it [the surface] well with a cloth until it appears&nbsp; dry. Over this spread&nbsp; [a layer of] white lead in liquid varnish with a flat stick, then, when it is dry, wash it with urine. Then [transfer] your design with pouncing and outline it finely, and apply an imprimitura over it [composed] of thirty parts of copper green and one [part of] of copper green [mixed with] two parts of yellow. (Author’s notes in brackets)(dipoi li dà con acquavite, che via sia dentro disoluto arsenico o solimato 2 o 3 volte, di poi dà olio di lino bolito in modo penitri per tutto, e inanzi si freddi fregalo bene con ū panno in modo parrà ascivtto, e dalli di sopra vernice liquida e biacca colla stecca, poi laua con orina, quādo è ascivtta; e poi spoluerezza e proffila il tuo disegnio sottilmēte e dà di sopra l’imprimitura di 30 parti di uerderame e vna di uerderame e 2 di giallo.) The precise instructions given by Leonardo have not been confirmed by scientific analysis of any autograph works and they are difficult to interpret. Washing down the white lead preparation with corrosive agents might have been a method for driving it deep into the cellular structure of the wood. Something seems to have been left out of this recipe. Other paintings by Leonardo and his followers on walnut panels that have been analyzed have preparations of lead white bound in oil without an underlying layer of the traditional gesso. 20 In the case of the Salvator Mundi, a proteinaceous medium was first applied to the panel, probably an animal glue, which was commonly used for this purpose, rather than the boiled linseed oil described by Leonardo. 21 Similar to Leonardo’s recipe, over this is a first ground containing lead white, a drying oil, and particles of glass. Over this a second layer was applied, that can be described as a second ground, or, less precisely, an imprimitura, 22 composed of finer particles of drying oil, white lead and glass, and a bit of lead tin yellow. Both layers are slightly translucent. 23 The particles of glass vary in size from less than one micron up to 30 microns long. Their composition is consistent with manganese-containing soda-lime glass. The lower ground layer contains a higher proportion of glass than the thinner upper layer. (This same soda-lime glass was also identified as an addition to some of the paint mixtures.) The addition of glass is not a singular innovation: glass particles have been noted in the preparatory and paint layers of many other Italian paintings of the fifteenth and sixteenth-centuries. The glass particles functioned as a siccative to aid in drying and would have enhanced the translucency of the paint. 24 In a study of Leonardesque works in the National Gallery London preparations containing lead white applied directly to walnut panels include: Portrait of a Man Aged 20 (the Archinto Portrait) dated 1494, attributed to Marco d’Oggiono, and the Virgin and Child (c. 1500) by a Follower of Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio. 25 A similar preparation has also been verified in the Portrait of Bernardino di Salla (c. 1504 - 1509) by Giovanni Francesco Carota in the Louvre. The Lady with an Ermine also has a preparation of lead white in an oil binder. 27 Preparations containing a small amount of lead tin yellow have been identified in a number of Milanese paintings on walnut from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries as well as in the preparations of the London version of the Virgin of the Rocks and the Adoration of the Magi. In addition to glass particles and lead white, the ground layer contains lead fatty acid soaps (lead carboxylates), formed over time from a reaction between the lead white pigment and the oil medium, contributing to the translucency of the ground layer. 28 <img width="944" height="1515" width_o="944" height_o="1515" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3bf07cfe49dbe1069f1ae673c64e97ac634eaae6afc80e4b7b27536e05867104/6-6.9.a.-Ginevra-de-Benci.-fingerprints.jpg" data-mid="50555379" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/944/i/3bf07cfe49dbe1069f1ae673c64e97ac634eaae6afc80e4b7b27536e05867104/6-6.9.a.-Ginevra-de-Benci.-fingerprints.jpg" />Detail of the juniper, Ginevra de’ Benci, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. <img width="1500" height="2000" width_o="1500" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/722812dc2b947b7a3498724ab79a55bba6b1f739af98cd2e566d95164bed8b38/6-6.9.c.-St.-Jerome.jpg" data-mid="50555494" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/722812dc2b947b7a3498724ab79a55bba6b1f739af98cd2e566d95164bed8b38/6-6.9.c.-St.-Jerome.jpg" />Upper left corner, St. Jerome <img width="872" height="608" width_o="872" height_o="608" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cb4a7ec21d2dcf5e050c77547a2208688cedc8722f4206edbbdd0fbbcf538b1d/6-6.9.-b.-Giovanni-Bellini--Madonna-and-Child--Detail--National-Gallery-of-Art--Washington--D.C..jpg" data-mid="50555594" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/872/i/cb4a7ec21d2dcf5e050c77547a2208688cedc8722f4206edbbdd0fbbcf538b1d/6-6.9.-b.-Giovanni-Bellini--Madonna-and-Child--Detail--National-Gallery-of-Art--Washington--D.C..jpg" />Detail of Giovanni Bellini, Madonna and Child, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Handprints made by the thumb or palm are sometimes visible in Leonardo’s paintings. It is tempting to think of them as Leonardo’s, and they are often described as such, accompanied by the suggestion that the painter used a blotting technique to soften the transitions, but with the exception of one early work, Ginevra de’ Benci, where they are confined to passages where the sky is framed by the spiny leaves of juniper,&nbsp; they have been shown to be actually in the preparatory layers, which were typically smoothed out with the palm of the hand, something that might have been done by a studio assistant. 29 This was a common practice, described by Vasari,&nbsp; and can be observed without the aid of scientific imaging in many paintings of the period, for example, on the surface of paintings by Giovanni Bellini and other artists. Another instance are the two fingerprints visible in the upper right corner of St. Jerome, which have also been described as a deliberate softening of the sky. Since this layer is part of the underpainted sketch, and the two prints occur only in that area, it seems more likely that they were caused accidentally when Leonardo, or someone in his studio, carelessly picked up the panel by the corner while the paint was still soft. There is also an adjacent gouge in the fresh paint. DesignIt is possible to see some indication of spolvero in the infrared reflectogram of the Salvator Mundi, indicating that at least parts of the design were transferred to the preparatory layers from a cartoon. Since the 2008 scans were made, instruments capable of producing images of higher resolution and improved clarity have come into use that might reveal clearer images of this pouncing. It also should be noted that the apparent absence in IR images of such pouncing marks need not exclude their presence: Leonardo’s abundant use of black in his paint mixtures, especially in his later paintings, makes the detection of underdrawing difficult. In the 2008 scans there are indistinct impressions of dots of spolvero in the following passages: the eyes, the lips, and, I believe, underlying the knotwork pattern. In Leonardo’s earlier paintings, the progression from drawing to painting follows more traditional procedures. Pouncing and drawing are evident in IR scans of Ginevra, and some other early works. The evolution of his technique seems to preclude such clear evidence of the transfer or the initial underdrawing. The IR scan of the Salvator Mundi can be compared with that of Saint John in which faint indications of spolvero can be discerned around the eyes. Underpainted Sketch or AbbozzoLeonardo describes how to begin painting by laying down the general modelling of the lights and darks: First, give a general shadow to the whole of that extended part which is away from the light. then put in the half-shadows and the strong shadows, comparing them with each other and, in the same way, give the extended light in half tint, afterwards adding the half-lights and the high lights, likewise comparing them together.&nbsp; (Dà prima una ōbra vniversale per tutta la parte cōtenēte che nō uede il lume, poi li dà ōbre mezzane e le principali a paragone l’una dell’altra, e così dà il lume cōtēnete di mezzano lume, dādoli poi i mezzi e prīcipali similmēte a paragone.) There are wash-like black and translucent brown underpainted layers in the Salvator Mundi, analogous to the abbozzo layers visible in his two unfinished paintings of Saint Jerome and the Adoration of the Magi. The black wash is evident in Sample 1, taken from the upper part of the blessing hand. It consists of fine, densely packed black particles of bone black, which do not exhibit any fluorescence in UV light, suggesting an aqueous medium, a carbon based ink, or thin paint with a proteinaceous binder that does not contain oil or resin. In other samples, particularly beneath the shadows of the flesh tone, the initial paint layer is a medium-rich, translucent reddish-brown mixture containing tiny particles of vermilion, black and glass. The layer fluoresces in UV, indicating that the binder is oil or resin. Similar warm brown underlayers containing red and black pigments have been noted in the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist. 31 Brown underlayers, possibly with different pigment compositions, have been observed in the Mona Lisa, Lady with an Ermine, and La Scapigliata. 32 <img width="1050" height="788" width_o="1050" height_o="788" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/559ad79fb7cecb4a474933cfcee72d426bbac5117e0df4220d8cb30ca9dfb2ac/Sample-4.jpg" data-mid="50837917" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/559ad79fb7cecb4a474933cfcee72d426bbac5117e0df4220d8cb30ca9dfb2ac/Sample-4.jpg" /> <img width="2539" height="1870" width_o="2539" height_o="1870" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f864020b7bc1e04a97e57e19f1e1d12aef3332f0ec9524bb0f858ebe2a6d9297/sample-4-UV.jpg" data-mid="50837940" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f864020b7bc1e04a97e57e19f1e1d12aef3332f0ec9524bb0f858ebe2a6d9297/sample-4-UV.jpg" /> Section from background (sample 4) showing the finely divided bone black particles of the initial wash <img width="1164" height="872" width_o="1164" height_o="872" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3753f1ec159a855f2ad20d83dc7579838b49f6a3f6feff4283ffc7320a1ff703/6.10.d.-Black-wash-1-from-Adoration.jpg" data-mid="50557021" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3753f1ec159a855f2ad20d83dc7579838b49f6a3f6feff4283ffc7320a1ff703/6.10.d.-Black-wash-1-from-Adoration.jpg" /> <img width="1158" height="868" width_o="1158" height_o="868" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/55ca4d59f20f093901237b495d3d3aec999739a01d0d533e38e5f1bfde03540a/6.10.e.-Black-wash-UV-from-Adoration.jpg" data-mid="50557022" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/55ca4d59f20f093901237b495d3d3aec999739a01d0d533e38e5f1bfde03540a/6.10.e.-Black-wash-UV-from-Adoration.jpg" /> sample from Adoration of the Magi with black wash having characteristics similar to the corresponding layer in the Salvator Mundi. the sample also shows the underawing under the thin lead white imprimitura.&nbsp; <img width="1958" height="2000" width_o="1958" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ed84ce1722f3174be6fbce401f8028b33a6a68911546b830c80a87e58f669d22/6.10.a-Adoration-of-the-Magi--Galleria-Nazionale-degli-Uffizi--Florence.jpg" data-mid="50556834" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ed84ce1722f3174be6fbce401f8028b33a6a68911546b830c80a87e58f669d22/6.10.a-Adoration-of-the-Magi--Galleria-Nazionale-degli-Uffizi--Florence.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1348" width_o="2000" height_o="1348" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a5bba50139393355d7b7242f2cd758f4e4630734e57ae44b405b87b72d2b1053/6.10.b.-Adoration-of-the-Magi--detail.jpg" data-mid="50556851" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a5bba50139393355d7b7242f2cd758f4e4630734e57ae44b405b87b72d2b1053/6.10.b.-Adoration-of-the-Magi--detail.jpg" /> <img width="1024" height="764" width_o="1024" height_o="764" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fa37d1a7a15e055db37edcace61bacf9874e2ed535aedef3f04c46f73c13f23b/6.10.c.-Adoration-of-the-Magi--detail.jpg" data-mid="50556861" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fa37d1a7a15e055db37edcace61bacf9874e2ed535aedef3f04c46f73c13f23b/6.10.c.-Adoration-of-the-Magi--detail.jpg" /> The Adoration of the Magi with details of abbozzo in black wash and translucent brown paint <img width="4233" height="5959" width_o="4233" height_o="5959" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6dcee509ecabbfa9aef0303907a28e015686edfeb147842ced25c13732dc0e4a/St.-jerome.jpg" data-mid="51046042" border="0" data-scale="58" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6dcee509ecabbfa9aef0303907a28e015686edfeb147842ced25c13732dc0e4a/St.-jerome.jpg" /> St. Jerome, Musei Vaticani IanDagnall Computing / Alamy Stock Photo Painted Passages Flesh Tones The light passages and the mid-tones were underpainted in a brightly saturated, opaque light red color. To create the highlights, this base color was scumbled with progressively cooler and paler layers. In a sample from the blessing hand (see cross-section 1) a mixture containing lead white, vermilion, glass particles, and a small amount of carbon black was followed by a second, slightly cooler pink paint with the same pigments but in different proportions. 30 This preparatory modelling was finished with several thin layers of pale pink, each application approximately 4-5 microns thick. These final layers do not contain any glass particles and were thinly and smoothly applied, resulting in an enamel-like final surface. The wide range of mid-tones were created by interlayering semi-opaque mixtures and dark transparent glazes over the brightly saturated pink base color. The application of these layers was varied to create fine gradations in the shadows. The skillful manipulation of mixtures containing slightly varying proportions of pigment, rendering them more or less opaque, rather than simply blending the transitions between shadow and highlight, creates the sfumato, or smoke, as Leonardo described it: <img width="1946" height="2000" width_o="1946" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/06f8cbef36976efced354a633a080946a3e6a59f83bad23a67271f7a0c4b1b97/6-6.12.b.-Detail-of-flesh-tone--proper-right-cheek.jpg" data-mid="50557182" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/06f8cbef36976efced354a633a080946a3e6a59f83bad23a67271f7a0c4b1b97/6-6.12.b.-Detail-of-flesh-tone--proper-right-cheek.jpg" />Detail of check If as a draughtsman you wish to study well and profitably, accustom yourself when you are drawing to work slowly, and to determine between the various lights, which possess the highest degree and measure of brightness, and similarly as to the shadows, which are those that are darker than the rest, and in what manner they mingle together, and to compare their dimensions one with another; and so with the contours to observe which way they are tending, and as to the lines what part of each is curved in one way or another, and where they are more or less conspicuous and consequently thick or fine; and lastly to see that your shadows and lights may blend without strokes or lines in the manner of smoke. 33 In fact, in the Salvator Mundi the brush strokes are indistinguishable even under examination with a microscope. The shadows of the flesh tones are built up with translucent glazes directly over the off-white preparation. The mixtures range in thickness from approximately 3 to 6 microns and vary in tone and in the proportion of pigment to medium. The following sequence is seen in a cross-section of paint from the deep shadow of Christ's raised hand: a lower medium-rich, brown-red layer containing vermilion and a small quantity of carbon black followed by four darker layers containing, in varying proportions, carbon and bone black with a few particles of vermilion. Slight fluorescence under UV could indicate that the final layers might contain a bit of red lake, but this was not confirmed by analysis. However, in the overall image of the painting in UV light, the flesh tones of the face fluoresce a bright pink, suggesting the presence of a madder lake.&nbsp; <img width="2563" height="3229" width_o="2563" height_o="3229" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dee7a408ff2135246673a14c0dd953b14ef7db69b9410422446f9eae44c3b22c/3-3.3-Blessing-hand.jpg" data-mid="50557109" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dee7a408ff2135246673a14c0dd953b14ef7db69b9410422446f9eae44c3b22c/3-3.3-Blessing-hand.jpg" />Detail of the blessing hand <img width="2667" height="3376" width_o="2667" height_o="3376" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/84cc447598f92d1b1e28a79a67477e93a00bb6f32d75e314ba8728054156c53d/3-3.4-Wrist-and-cuff.jpg" data-mid="50557155" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/84cc447598f92d1b1e28a79a67477e93a00bb6f32d75e314ba8728054156c53d/3-3.4-Wrist-and-cuff.jpg" />Detail of wrist and palm Chin and beard <img width="1800" height="2479" width_o="1800" height_o="2479" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cdfd842163fe10cb03992f4e630ac965623b27c2156ca864ce9afddd08abd826/2.3-Etching-by-Wenceslaus-Hollar--1650.jpg" data-mid="50557264" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cdfd842163fe10cb03992f4e630ac965623b27c2156ca864ce9afddd08abd826/2.3-Etching-by-Wenceslaus-Hollar--1650.jpg" />Etching by Wenceslaus Hollar, 1650The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto <img width="453" height="580" width_o="453" height_o="580" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9cc76f44e1fb6d11145ad373d4697acee028f03fbd3c89f9d452e30e40425e9d/ART185738.jpg" data-mid="50839188" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/453/i/9cc76f44e1fb6d11145ad373d4697acee028f03fbd3c89f9d452e30e40425e9d/ART185738.jpg" />Head of Christ. Drawing for the Last Supper by a contemporary of Leonardo, possible after the original cartoon. Scala / Art Resource, NY From medieval times, the appearance of the mature Christ was clearly described: His hair is wavy and curled with a bluish and bright sheen, flowing over his shoulders. It is parted in two on the top of his head, in the mode of the Nazarenes . . .His beard is abundant, of the colour of his hair, not long but divided at the chin. In the Salvator Mundi the corkscrew curls of the hair conform with the canonical medieval description. Although Christ has a beard in the Hollar etching, there is no physical evidence of the remains of a beard in the area of the chin. Even though the area has losses and is somewhat abraded, there is enough undamaged original that had there been facial hair, at least some of it would have survived. There is also no moustache, as in the etching. In late antiquity there were variations in how Christ was depicted and there are numerous images of a beardless Christ, including a 4th century sarcophagus that was conserved under the pulpit of Sant’Ambrogio in Milan. (insert footnote: Adam Levine, The Image of Christ in Late Antiquity: A Case Study in Religious Interaction. D. Phil. thesis, Corpus Christi College, 2012.) In the arresting image of Christ in Majesty from the Gospel of Charlemagne there are tiny redish brush strokes on the chin that discreetly suggest some facial hair, like the Naples copy, if not a full beard.<img width="1024" height="1479" width_o="1024" height_o="1479" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f3347f23c2bc0f735342489fce13bcb0338cadc988e31faf466f766b80afbd17/Milano_-_Sant-Ambrogio_-_Sarcofago_di_Stilicone_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall-Orto_25-Apr-2007.jpg" data-mid="51091209" border="0" data-scale="41" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f3347f23c2bc0f735342489fce13bcb0338cadc988e31faf466f766b80afbd17/Milano_-_Sant-Ambrogio_-_Sarcofago_di_Stilicone_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall-Orto_25-Apr-2007.jpg" /><img width="3800" height="5622" width_o="3800" height_o="5622" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d7854429472eda744ca0de6656be4cca37049a375efd8a828aff382864acb6f1/Attachment-1.jpg" data-mid="51091208" border="0" data-scale="40" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d7854429472eda744ca0de6656be4cca37049a375efd8a828aff382864acb6f1/Attachment-1.jpg" /> Sarcophagus of Stilicone, 4th c., Sant’Ambrogio, Milan and&nbsp;Christ in Majesty, 8th c., from the Gospel of Charlemagne, BNF. Wikimedia commons Like the Hollar etching, most of the versions and variants of the Salvator Mundi are bearded, although the copy in Naples, which is probably by one of Leonardo’s close followers, the beard is rather tentative, consisting of tufts of curls on the lower part of the chin so small and pale in color that they only can be discerned by looking closely at the passage in a strong light. In the drawing in the Brera of the head of Christ, once thought to be a cartoon for the Last Supper, is beardless. Although the areas of the upper lip and lower jaw of the Salvator Mundi are badly damaged, there are no original remants of a moustache or beard. In the area of the chin, where there are several large losses and which has also suffered from abrasion, there are some old, darkened repaints that I did not remove. They may be coeval with the green repainting of the background. Also, the damage around the top of the head where only a few passages of later hair survive has the shape of a halo, perhaps an indication that one may have been removed when the background was scraped. (This halo shaped damage above the head is also present&nbsp; in the Ganay copy.)&nbsp; It is possible that the explanation for the beard in the Hollar etching is that when the original black background was repainted with thick green verdigris, a halo and beard were added to make Leonardo’s disquieting, somewhat androgynous image more conventionally pious and masculine. On an undated sheet, now incorporated in the Codex Atlanticus (680r) the artist wrote an enigmatic note: When I made a Christ Child you put me in prison, and now if I show him grown up you will do worse to me.&nbsp; (Quando feci Domene Dio putto, voi mi metteste in prigione; ora, s’io lo fo grande, voi mi farete peggio.) Leonardo’s interpretation of Christ is still disturbing to some believers. 34 <img width="2000" height="1331" width_o="2000" height_o="1331" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b90ea5741a5c70200898c3dc9a3bf4245ef1a8f017e753fcc0ddf5317d31b54d/6-6.13.a.-Detail-of-chin.jpg" data-mid="50557296" border="0" data-scale="44" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b90ea5741a5c70200898c3dc9a3bf4245ef1a8f017e753fcc0ddf5317d31b54d/6-6.13.a.-Detail-of-chin.jpg" /><img width="1904" height="1204" width_o="1904" height_o="1204" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/beb7637fdabef394f117c4a0a691caee7772767ee8135cdc52bc9109abb71b59/Naples-SM-cropped-beard-2.jpg" data-mid="51094354" border="0" data-scale="46" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/beb7637fdabef394f117c4a0a691caee7772767ee8135cdc52bc9109abb71b59/Naples-SM-cropped-beard-2.jpg" /> Detail of chin of the Salvator Mundi and the same passage in the copy from San Domenico Maggiore, Naples Eyes <img width="1219" height="520" width_o="1219" height_o="520" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/30d6797332d70777facf385afb65110fbf734d35548bedbd265cf4e7d3e1f6a4/7-e-ii.-detail-of-eyes.jpg" data-mid="50840533" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/30d6797332d70777facf385afb65110fbf734d35548bedbd265cf4e7d3e1f6a4/7-e-ii.-detail-of-eyes.jpg" /> Detail of eyes of the Salvator Mundi, cleand state <img width="4000" height="1970" width_o="4000" height_o="1970" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fe3f0f58f2dc38663ed6e6b7c02d617c3788874f0ddabb69ab01891feaae17f6/6-6.14-a-Detail--eyes.jpg" data-mid="50557337" border="0" data-scale="89" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fe3f0f58f2dc38663ed6e6b7c02d617c3788874f0ddabb69ab01891feaae17f6/6-6.14-a-Detail--eyes.jpg" /> Detail of the eyes after restoration The eyes are painted with a minimal amount of body color for the cornea, just a thin layer of gray paint, essentially a scumble.&nbsp; The eyes of Saint John and the Mona Lisa are are treated in a similar fashion; they are, however, better preserved. The irises, of a translucent brown, appear to have been painted directly over the preparation. The apparent reflections are not added highlights, but the effect of the nearly white, underlying layer. Both eyes have suffered damage, both mechanical and from abrasion by solvents of the exceptionally thin paint. Stole <img width="3048" height="1997" width_o="3048" height_o="1997" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8ffe60e204b087b983faa88a35b48f7ed61883fb6b18a7aadaf476650571184b/detail-stole.jpg" data-mid="50840950" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8ffe60e204b087b983faa88a35b48f7ed61883fb6b18a7aadaf476650571184b/detail-stole.jpg" />detail of the stole <img width="15404" height="10092" width_o="15404" height_o="10092" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/052e0d3f97779abeb0a7ac74567741e19ac7bc0aea08654fa640be5f02893297/stole-design.jpg" data-mid="50840917" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/052e0d3f97779abeb0a7ac74567741e19ac7bc0aea08654fa640be5f02893297/stole-design.jpg" />Design of the knotwork pattern of the stoleCheryl RossumThe position of the stole was adjusted at a late stage in the evolution of the painting. The initial position, slightly higher and with a minor variation in the angle, can be seen in visible light and is clearer in the infrared reflectogram. Pleats of blue drapery which bordered the earlier design can be seen under the delicate strokes of the embroidered threads, especially on the lower part of the stole on the proper right side. Adjacent to these pleats is a lay-in of thin, pale greenish blue paint, nearly grey, that is quite distinct from the strong blue of the lapis. From evidence elsewhere in the painting, it is clear that the blue drapery was among the last passages to be added. The slight shift in its placement indicates a similarly late stage for the execution of the knotwork design. Fine incisions scored into already dry paint layers record the final adjustment for the lower contour on the proper right side. The band along the top of the bodice was originally a bit lower, at least in the initial underpainted sketch, but the variation is less significant. <img width="2000" height="749" width_o="2000" height_o="749" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/78905799491445a32ab4595c6dcf151967c1d451bccccbad1965ed74f8ba17df/6-6.16.a.-First-pattern-of-knot-for-stole.jpg" data-mid="50557455" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/78905799491445a32ab4595c6dcf151967c1d451bccccbad1965ed74f8ba17df/6-6.16.a.-First-pattern-of-knot-for-stole.jpg" /> An early idea for the design of the knotworkGraphic, Shan Kuang <img width="2000" height="1122" width_o="2000" height_o="1122" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/21b2bd533daed43c8426daefa6602ec29b94feff9b3a28156995e989a5346336/6-6.16.b.-Mona-Lisa--detail-of-knotwork.jpg" data-mid="50557456" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/21b2bd533daed43c8426daefa6602ec29b94feff9b3a28156995e989a5346336/6-6.16.b.-Mona-Lisa--detail-of-knotwork.jpg" />Mona Lisa, detail of embroideryBefore settling on the final position of the stole and the elaborate knotwork design, Leonardo sketched a simpler knot-work design. It was never fully completed. One element of it can be clearly seen under the final pattern where the paint has become translucent due to natural ageing as well as cleaning. It is similar to examples found in his notebooks and to the knots that decorate the bodice of the Mona Lisa. Using a stiff, narrow brush and pastose pale-yellow paint consisting primarily of lead tin yellow, this initial design is freely sketched, in conception and execution considerably simpler than the final knotwork pattern. The pattern of groppi, or vinci, that Leonardo devised for the Salvator Mundi is considerably more complex than in any other of his paintings. It is likely that there was a cartoon for the pattern; traces of spolvero can be just barely discerned in the IR scan and the creation of patterns for such elaborate designs conforms with his practice. 35 The threads are not simply a single color, as is, for example, the pattern in the portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, but are described in their three dimensional volume, the effect of the light as it falls over them on the proper right side carefully described. On the proper left, where they are partly in shadow, there a fewer layers, but not just one as in the knotwork of his others works. The entire pattern was first underpainted in grisaille. For the highlighted passages, this was followed by warm red underpaint, a layer of light colored pigment, possibly lead tin yellow, which was then glazed with a warm tone, and a thin dark line of shadow complete. <img width="1748" height="1319" width_o="1748" height_o="1319" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/20ee28c276a077336d9f7d0022f2777f3e0fddc0bb87319b5042df8d587a22a0/6.17.-Lady-with-an-Ermine--knot-work.png" data-mid="50841163" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/20ee28c276a077336d9f7d0022f2777f3e0fddc0bb87319b5042df8d587a22a0/6.17.-Lady-with-an-Ermine--knot-work.png" /> detail of knotwork pattern of the Lady with an Ermine<img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/84e7724a01f5cd19f58ec45cc82c663a28e626646e1d3a95ddf56beebdb1ea9a/6-6.18.a-Detail-of-the-knot-work.jpg" data-mid="50557473" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/84e7724a01f5cd19f58ec45cc82c663a28e626646e1d3a95ddf56beebdb1ea9a/6-6.18.a-Detail-of-the-knot-work.jpg" />Microphotograph of the embroidery <img width="1354" height="1536" width_o="1354" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/714d2916b690c6693d0a2a336be7bfa13c14abe0e3b03609dfb691fb7d5bfde6/6-6.18.b--Detail-of-the-knot-work.jpg" data-mid="50557474" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/714d2916b690c6693d0a2a336be7bfa13c14abe0e3b03609dfb691fb7d5bfde6/6-6.18.b--Detail-of-the-knot-work.jpg" />Microphotograph of the embroideryIt has often been observed that the Golden Ratio, the Divina Proportione, can be recognized in every passage of the Salvator Mundi, and in particular in the knotwork pattern. 36 Blue Robe <img width="3228" height="3395" width_o="3228" height_o="3395" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5d865733b2f75ad66ed12edd9521230ad574e4520088d17d1f1c8ac8694bf23c/6-6.19-Detail-of-omega-fold.jpg" data-mid="50558014" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5d865733b2f75ad66ed12edd9521230ad574e4520088d17d1f1c8ac8694bf23c/6-6.19-Detail-of-omega-fold.jpg" />Detail of degraded blue in the area of the omega fold. Abraded traces of original blue that covered the knotwork pattern in that area are noted.The blue draperies were underpainted with a translucent warm brown paint containing vermilion, carbon black, and particles of glass. Analysis by MFTIR, Raman and EDS showed the blue pigment it to be natural ultramarine, or lazurite, a mineral derived from lapis lazuli that was imported into Venice from modern-day northeast Afghanistan. It was then, as now, a semi-precious stone used in the manufacture of luxury goods such as jewelry and other decorative arts, and converted into ultramarine pigment of varying qualities. It was often difficult to obtain and by far the most expensive pigment in the Renaissance painter’s palette.The ultramarine that Leonardo used for the Salvator Mundi contains exceptionally large particles of quartz, an impurity in the mineral. Its presence suggests that the pigment may have been made by simply grinding up the semi-precious stone, or that these impurities failed to be removed during the complex process of extracting the color with lye. Samples of blue from the London Virgin of the Rocks also contain quartz particles but they are considerably smaller. While the pigment is stable in other media, such as egg tempera, when it is bound in an oil medium it alters. This can be seen in innumerable oil paintings, including many works by Leonardo. The degradation is&nbsp; known as ‘ultramarine sickness,’ and is characterized by severe blanching, rendering the modelling of the lights and darks illegible. 37&nbsp; In the Salvator Mundi, the dark underpaint has asserted itself in patches throughout the drapery. Details such as the sharp pleats beneath the embroidered band along the top of the bodice and the omega-shaped drapery fold that bunches over the lower left band of the stole, clearly articulated in Leonardo’s preparatory drawing as well as in many copies of the painting, have become difficult to decipher. Recent studies of ‘ultramarine sickness’ have pinpointed its cause and confirmed that saturation of the paint can partially, if only temporarily, restore the earlier appearance of an affected area, a phenomenon already reported in the nineteenth century. As already noted, the robe is painted up to the contours of the sleeve, the white cuff of the blessing hand, and the hand holding the orb. A small area located below the point at which the diagonal bands intersect, and the lower part of the sleeve was left black and might be considered unfinished. These opaque brownish black passages were not sampled so it is not possible to know if their composition is the same as the underpaint seen in several cross-sections, although additional layers must have been added since they are not translucent. It has been suggested that they are simply the underpainted abbozzo but their opacity makes this unlikely.&nbsp; Curls <img width="1834" height="3664" width_o="1834" height_o="3664" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4b463fb4e81e1761e2b22a892054a930a029eb2cc315767487b8e9fe5675c9e2/6-6.20.a.-Detail-of-curls.jpg" data-mid="50558312" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4b463fb4e81e1761e2b22a892054a930a029eb2cc315767487b8e9fe5675c9e2/6-6.20.a.-Detail-of-curls.jpg" />Detail of curls <img width="1078" height="2000" width_o="1078" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b4bcb6243a8e5acc0e777aea3ab2c0aa403f1e59de61337a53b0d29f62d136c3/6-6.20.c.-St.-John--detail-of-curls.jpg" data-mid="50558314" border="0" data-scale="76" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b4bcb6243a8e5acc0e777aea3ab2c0aa403f1e59de61337a53b0d29f62d136c3/6-6.20.c.-St.-John--detail-of-curls.jpg" /><img width="2000" height="1802" width_o="2000" height_o="1802" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8eaaea12b17a9fd0ee04661c0864f9931d27c7cdfa11bff5e2a56c6c259f781b/6-6.20.b.-Saint-John--detail-of-curls.jpg" data-mid="50558313" border="0" data-scale="77" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8eaaea12b17a9fd0ee04661c0864f9931d27c7cdfa11bff5e2a56c6c259f781b/6-6.20.b.-Saint-John--detail-of-curls.jpg" />Details of curls, St. John <img width="2434" height="3772" width_o="2434" height_o="3772" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9aab7cb058eaa3b7922e807243cd9ca740f9d5e057d7499d65dbd60e1def7b4b/6-6.20.d.-Detail-of-the-curls.jpg" data-mid="50558315" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9aab7cb058eaa3b7922e807243cd9ca740f9d5e057d7499d65dbd60e1def7b4b/6-6.20.d.-Detail-of-the-curls.jpg" />Detail of curls, proper right <img width="1500" height="2000" width_o="1500" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e659545c3904e85af6287602b7d1964ddaf63a5f4312f01286556316c579b77f/6-6.20.e.-Detail-of-curls-on-proper-left.jpg" data-mid="50558316" border="0" data-scale="58" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e659545c3904e85af6287602b7d1964ddaf63a5f4312f01286556316c579b77f/6-6.20.e.-Detail-of-curls-on-proper-left.jpg" />Microphotograph of curls on proper rightNica Gutman Rieppi<img width="1491" height="1986" width_o="1491" height_o="1986" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/615167a0357474b7dad5b4a5f06c52658c103e3d4d2905b7c3ecc0783e20e1c1/6-6.20.f.-Detail-of-curls-on-proper-right-with-grisaille-underpaint-exposed.jpg" data-mid="50558317" border="0" data-scale="56" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/615167a0357474b7dad5b4a5f06c52658c103e3d4d2905b7c3ecc0783e20e1c1/6-6.20.f.-Detail-of-curls-on-proper-right-with-grisaille-underpaint-exposed.jpg" /> Microphotograph of curls on proper left with grisaille underpainting exposedNica Gutman Rieppi Elaborate underpainting also underlies the locks of hair. An early indication of tresses was scored into the still wet paint of the adjacent flesh tone and lightly sketched in reddish paint. This initial sketch may have been more extensive but this is not possible to determine. The final curls, like the embroidered threads, were first executed in grisaille over a warm brown underpaint. They closely resemble the unruly locks of Saint John the Baptist in the Louvre, but, as noted above, do not have the pronounced traction craquelure of Saint John’s curls. Orb <img width="2048" height="1536" width_o="2048" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/256792958ec670b5ef3b20a641b11faab105660e8cd16ee4756f6cb8b21765e6/6-6.21.a.-Orb-10X-measured.jpg" data-mid="50558318" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/256792958ec670b5ef3b20a641b11faab105660e8cd16ee4756f6cb8b21765e6/6-6.21.a.-Orb-10X-measured.jpg" /> <img width="648" height="486" width_o="648" height_o="486" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6b27bbe51229a5fe6ce7d58fc4bd6a27988d8473555afa5f909d9f9b42d656b3/6-6.21.b.-orb-20x.jpg" data-mid="50558319" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/648/i/6b27bbe51229a5fe6ce7d58fc4bd6a27988d8473555afa5f909d9f9b42d656b3/6-6.21.b.-orb-20x.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c2903fb73cad451abbbc6fc7630f2ac27f07e786272f12802a1081a68d70e4ff/6-6.21.c.-orb-40X.jpg" data-mid="50558320" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c2903fb73cad451abbbc6fc7630f2ac27f07e786272f12802a1081a68d70e4ff/6-6.21.c.-orb-40X.jpg" /> Microphotographs of inclusionsNica Gutman Rieppi The orb is one of the most carefully studied passages of the painting. The effect of the quartz crystal and the way in which the hand and drapery seen through it were slightly distorted and magnified must have originally been realistically rendered and appeared breathtaking. Unfortunately much of this illusion is now compromised by the loss of the thin layers of glazes and scumbles with which this illusion was created, removed during harsh cleaning in the past. Of the carefully described inclusions. Martin Kemp noted: “These are not the spherical bubbles found in glass but are the kind of cavity inclusions (small gaps) that appear in some specimens of rock crystal and calcite. Leonardo, we know, was considered an expert in such semi-precious materials.” Kemp further observed a “double refraction produced by calcite. The heel of Christ's hand exhibits two distinct contours, not in this case due to a change of mind.” 38 Although objects seen through a crystal sphere are refracted so that they appear upside down, an effect described by Leonardo in his studies of the mechanics of vision, this only occurs when there is a certain distance between the sphere and the object. In the Salvator Mundi the sphere is held close to the body. A misunderstanding of this phenomenon was reported by the media as a mistake made by the artist, but the reversion of the image is not relevant in this case and was never intended. In its actual position, the heel of the palm part of the hand, seen through the transparent crystal, is magnified and there appears to be the double refraction to which Dr. Kemp refers. Although this passage is abraded, enough remains to understand that this effect is deliberate and not a pentimento. The drapery folds behind the orb may also have originally appeared as slightly magnified, although the effect is no longer apparent due to the abrasion of the final glazes. It is interesting to compare Leonardo’s approach to this passage with Durer’s nearly contemporary, unfinished painting of the Salvator Mundi where there is a clear reserve for the entire passage and the hand clutches the sphere from the front rather than balancing it so that the double refraction of the palm seen through the sphere did not have to be taken into account because of the different position of the hand. (While the original position of the hand in Leonardo’s painting was originally somewhat higher, it was not as high as it is in Durer’s version.) The three white highlights that are now isolated may have formed a reflection on the surface, as one sees in some of the copies of the painting but not all. I am not absolutely certain that are original because they do not appear in the x-radiograph, but this is presumably because the white lead preparation overwhelms these three thinly painted specks of paint. Again, the abrasion of the final scumbles and glazes interferes with this reflection. An Austrian scholar, Dr. Stefaan Missinne, has suggested that their orientation of the three dots describes the orthogonal triangle of the Southern Cross, which had only recently been discovered in the Southern hemisphere by Portughese explorers and was described in a 1503 letter from Amerigo Vespucci to Pierfrancesco de’ Medici. 39<img width="2508" height="2522" width_o="2508" height_o="2522" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4d1f39a25f3030b18f71f900e8829575bf00d4c352016ee7ee37b0a7a7776bcf/7-e-vii.-detail-of-orb.jpg" data-mid="51552965" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4d1f39a25f3030b18f71f900e8829575bf00d4c352016ee7ee37b0a7a7776bcf/7-e-vii.-detail-of-orb.jpg" /> Detail of the orb and hand<img width="4000" height="4140" width_o="4000" height_o="4140" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6e4e264e4d4924af602d2e9b985e4659ea260c1bf992b2310c3b33b1a4ada3cc/Durer-s-orb.jpg" data-mid="51552860" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6e4e264e4d4924af602d2e9b985e4659ea260c1bf992b2310c3b33b1a4ada3cc/Durer-s-orb.jpg" /> Albrrecht Durer, Salvator Mundi, the magnification of the folds seen through the crystal sphere is apparent and must have been a feature of Leonardo’s orb before the passage was damaged BackgroundThe background was originally a rich, deep black, an effect created by 4 or 5 layers, some of which are mixtures, and others of different black pigments. (See cross-sections 7 and 8.) The use of black backgrounds derives from early fifteenth-century Flemish painters, especially Jan Van Eyck but the immediate source may be Antonello da Messina who is documented in Venice in 1475-76. Antonello’s Salvator Mundi in the National Gallery in London has a cartellino with an inscription that can be variously interpreted as 1460, 1465 or 1475, but is thought to date from the 1470’s. Leonardo’s unfinished 1485 portrait of a musician in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana has a black background and is much influenced by Antonello. <img width="1396" height="2000" width_o="1396" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/963904ffcb3f8f075382b5987a295a695c776ac4e5ab14b6eedbfe2e02ba62e5/6-6.22.a.-Background-blessing-hand-annotated.jpg" data-mid="50559062" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/963904ffcb3f8f075382b5987a295a695c776ac4e5ab14b6eedbfe2e02ba62e5/6-6.22.a.-Background-blessing-hand-annotated.jpg" />Original black background around blessing hand <img width="302" height="392" width_o="302" height_o="392" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b46e535efc1ba92783727d9b230abdf11d9b4178be96451c2cdbe4b735e7a034/6-6.22.b.-Background-near-curls-annotated.jpg" data-mid="50559063" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/302/i/b46e535efc1ba92783727d9b230abdf11d9b4178be96451c2cdbe4b735e7a034/6-6.22.b.-Background-near-curls-annotated.jpg" />Original black background near curls on right<img width="432" height="576" width_o="432" height_o="576" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/149aadbb9f6a62d0d510e7d2da95fa410b42bd4e032ac0d2447aed4a2a02cd69/6-6.22.c.-cleaned-background-detail.jpg" data-mid="50559064" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/432/i/149aadbb9f6a62d0d510e7d2da95fa410b42bd4e032ac0d2447aed4a2a02cd69/6-6.22.c.-cleaned-background-detail.jpg" />Photomicrograph of original black background during removal of overpaintAt some point the background was repainted with a thick layer of granular verdigris. This green pigment was often used for backgrounds of portraits during the 16th century, particularly in France, but also by Italian and German painters. It fell out of use after around 1600. At a later date this green color was scraped off, along with much of the original background. Traces of the green, with intact original background color underneath, survived around the contours of the blessing hand and the proper right shoulder. Under the verdigris was intact original background. Order of PaintingPreparation of panel with a layer of animal glue and two layers of white lead, mixed with glass with a tiny amount of lead tin yellow added to the second layer. Underdrawing. There are some indications of spolvero. Abbozzo (underpainted sketch) with a thin wash of bone black in an aqueous medium in some areas and a warm mixture of black, vermilion, and possibly red earth bound in an oil or resin medium in others. Probably the head and the first position of the blessing hand The black background The revision of the blessing hand (this could also have been done at a later stage.) The stole The curlsThe blue draperyThe orb and hand &nbsp; Footnotes Jean Paul Richter, The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci. Volume 1. (New York, 1970), pp. 313-317]. Mona Lisa: inside the painting. (New York, 2006), pp. 18-19, 40-42 Ibid., p. 19 Margaret Dalivalle, A Salvator Mundi Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci in the Collections of King Charles I &amp;II. Unpublished paper. That painting, a portrait of a young man, is possibly the portrait of Girolamo Casio, now in the collections of the Duke of Devonshire. Analysis of the binding medium by Py-GCMS revealed a fatty acid composition characteristic of walnut oil, including a high level of azelaic acid and a ratio of palmitic to stearic acid of 2.7. The ratios of the dicarboxylic acids, which can sometimes provide evidence for heat bodying of a drying oil, did not provide convincing information in this case (ratio of suberic:azelaic acid was 0.23, an intermediate value). Diagnostic values for the fatty acid ratios are drawn from the analysis of reference materials and from published studies. See, for example, John S. Mills and Raymond White, The Organic Chemistry of Museum Objects, (London: Butterworths, London, 1987), pp. 141-143. The single sample analyzed included the blue paint and black wash and warm brown underlayers in addition to a small amount of the white preparatory layers; the layers could not be separated for individual analysis. Further sampling and analysis would be necessary to determine if walnut oil was used in other parts of the composition. Py-GCMS analysis was carried out at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as follows: the sample (c. 10 ug) was placed in a Frontier Lab stainless steel sample cup, and 2uL of a 25% solution of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) in methanol added prior to insertion into a Frontier PY-2020iD vertical microfurnace pyrolyzer, attached to an Agilent 6890N GC - 5973N MS. The pyrolyzer furnace temperature was 550°C. The GC was equipped with J&amp;W DB5MS column (30 m, 0.25 mm i.d., 0.25 um film); oven temperature programmed from 40°C, with a 2 minute hold, then increased at 20°C/minute to 140°C, at 15°C/minute to 320°C, and held isothermally for 11 minutes; total run time 30 minutes. The inlet was operated with a split ratio of 1:10, with helium carrier gas at a flow rate of 1 mL/minute. The MS was run in scan mode (m/z 35-600) with the source at 230°C and quad at 150°C. Data were collected and processed using Agilent Chemstation software. [From Nica Gutman Rieppi’s notes.] Larry Keith, Ashok Roy et.al., “Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Virgin of the Rocks.’ Treatment, Technique and Display.”National Gallery Technical Bulletin. National Gallery Company (London) 2011&nbsp; Jan Schmidt et. al., “The Madonna with a Carnation: Technical studies of an early painting by Leonardo da Vinci.” Leonardo da Vinci’s technical practice. paintings, drawings and influence. (Paris, 2014) Verbal communication from Dr. Lorenzo Riparbelli, University of Florence. Traditional gesso grounds are thick and, since the binder is aqueous, can be honed to provide a smooth surface. This is necessary for certain relatively soft wood panels, such as poplar, whose surfaces are rough and need to be filled in. The surfaces of hard woods, such as walnut or oak, are already dressed smooth before the ground is applied.&nbsp; This medium was observed in the cross-sections as a discrete layer below the ground layer. Analysis by ATR-FTIR of this layer in a cross-section of the shadow of the flesh tone of the small finger of the blessing hand, suggested a proteinaceous medium (spectra with an NH stretch at 3295 cm1 and amide bands at 1647 and 1533 cm-1). The data were collected using a Bruker Hyperion 3000 FTIR microscope, equipped with MCT detector and a 20x attenuated total reflectance (ATR) objective with germanium (Ge) crystal. The microscope was attached to a Vertex 70 FTIR spectrometer equipped with a mid-IR Globar source. Data were collected from 4000 to 650 cm1 at 4 cm1 resolution, 512 scans per spectrum using Blackman-Harris apodization and Mertz phase correction. Data were analyzed using Bruker OPUS software, version 6.5. Peng Wang, Applications Scientist, performed the ATR analysis at Bruker Inc., Billerica, MA. [From Nica Gutman Rieppi’s notes.]&nbsp; An imprimitura,strictly defined, is a&nbsp; priming that isolates a porous underlayer so that it doesn’t absorb medium from the paint. Thus, the layer of white lead in oil on the unfinished Adoration of the Magi in the Uffizi is over a gesso ground, as is a similar layer in the London Virgin of the Rocks.&nbsp; The presence of both lead white and oil in the preparatory layers was determined by combined MFTIR and Py-GCMS analysis of a microscopic 4taken from the blue robe, which gave results indicative of walnut oil. Lead white, consisting of both neutral and basic lead carbonate, was identified by MFTIR and EDS. Diagnostic IR spectral bands included very strong carbonate stretches centered at 1421 cm1 with additional bands at 1050, 883 and 679 cnr1 for the neutral form and at 1045 and 650 cm1 for the basic form. Lead (Pb) was detected by EDS. Lead tin yellow type I pigment (PbzSnCU) was indicated by characteristic Raman spectral bands at 127,129, 196, 273, 292, 456, and 526 cm1 and the detection of lead (Pb) and tin (Sn) by EDS.IR spectral bands suggesting an oil-based medium were observed at 2929/2851,1739 and 1170 cm1. For MFTIR analyses, the preparatory layers were isolated and representative portions flattened on a Spectra-Tech diamond window with a roller tool for analysis. Analyses were undertaken at the Philadelphia Museum of Art using a Thermo Nicolet Continuum microscope (MCT-A detector) attached to a Nexus 670 spectrometer. The data were collected in transmission mode between 4000 and 600 cm4 at 4 cnr1 resolution and 200 scans per spectrum. Omnic 6.0 software was used; spectra were processed using Happ-Genzel apodization. [From Nica Gutman Rieppi’s notes.] The siccative properties of this type of glass have been attributed to the presence of manganese, an active drier. IR spectral bands indicating the lead soaps were observed at 1513 and 1401 cm-1. Alterations in translucency brought about by lead soaps in paintings have been discussed widely in the literature. Marika Spring, Antonio Mazzota, et al., op.cit Elisabeth Martin in Jean-Pierre Mohen, Michel Menu and Bruno Mottin, "The Preparation of the Panel", Mona Lisa: Inside the Painting. (New York, 2006), p. 58.&nbsp; Kazimierz Kwiatkowski, "‘La Dame a L'Hermine’ de Leonardo da Vinci”, Etude Technologique, tr. Zygmunt Glinka, Musee National de Varsovie. (Warsaw, 1955) pp. 19-20.&nbsp; IR spectral bands indicating the lead soaps were observed at 1513 and 1401 cm-1. Alterations in translucency brought about by lead soaps in paintings have been discussed widely described in the literature.&nbsp; See, for example, Jan Schmidt et. al., op. cit., p. 47&nbsp; Mercury (Hg) and sulfur (S) indicative of vermilion (HgS) were detected by EDS. Raman analysis produced spectra with characteristic bands for vermilion at 255 and 344 cm1. The red lake pigment particles fluoresced an orange-pink color when excited with UV-violet (355-425 nm) light using FLM. Aluminum (Al), suggesting an alum derived substrate, was detected by EDS. The red colorant was not present in sufficient quantities to enable analysis by such supplemental techniques as high performance liquid chromatography or mass spectrometry.&nbsp; Bruno Mottin, "Leonardo da Vinci's The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (Museè du Louvre, Paris): new infrared reflectography," Studying Old Master Paintings- Technology and Practice, The National Gallery Technical Bulletin 30thAnniversary Conference Postprints, ed. Marika Spring, (Lon 2011) p. 69-70.&nbsp; Elisabeth Martin, Regina da Costa, Pinto Dias Moreira and Jean-Paul Rioux, "The Painter's Palette", in Jean-Pierre Mohen, Michel Menu and Bruno Mottin, Mona Lisa; Inside the Painting, (New York, 2006) p. 70; David Bull, "Two Portraits by Leonardo: Ginevra de’ Benci and the Lady with an Ermine," Artibus et Historiae, vol. 13, No. 25 (1992), p. 78; David Bull "Analisi scientifiche", Leonardo La dama con L’ermellino. (Milano, 1998) p. 83.&nbsp; Edward MacCurdy, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, (New York, 1955), p. 887 When I accompanied to painting to the Dallas Museum of Art and it was shown to Ross Perot, he was shocked by it, saying that it looked like a woman and he didn’t know of any Jesus that looked like that. This is one of the reasons, I believe, that the director was unable to persuade his board to buy the painting. Carmen Bambach, Leonardo, Tagliente, and Dürer: “La scienza del far di groppi.” (Firenze, 1991), p. 79ff. Gary Meisner has applied a graphic software system of his invention to the Salvator Mundi. His analysis can be viewed at his website: www.goldennumber.net&nbsp; By Max von Pettenkofer in 1870, as reported in J. Klaas, ‘Die “Ultramarinkrankheit”; Studien der Veränderungen in ultramarinhaltigen Farbschichten an Gemälden,’ unpub. Ph.D diss. (Technical University of Munich 2011), cited by E. René de la Rie, Anne Michelin, Manuela Ngako, Eleonora Del Federico, and Chelsey Del Grosso, “Photo-catalytic degradation of binding media of ultramarine blue containing paint layers: A new perspective on the phenomenon of ‘ultramarine disease’ in paintings,” Polymer Degradation and Stability 144 (2017) 43-52. De la Rie et. al. establishes the primary cause of “ultramarine sickness” as “photo-oxidation of the binding medium of ultramarine blue paint layers” in the presence of ultra-violet radiation, leading to “light scattering and the observed changes in reflectance. This also explains why the color can be restored by the application of oil or resin to the surface.” Such “restoration” of the color, when successful, is temporary. For further information about the degradation of lapis see: For the mechanism of ultramarine discoloration, see E., Del Federico, W., Schoefberger, J., Schelvis, S., Kapetanaki, L., Tyne, A., Jerschow, “Insight into framework destruction in ultramarine pigments.” Inorganic Chemistry, 45, 2006,pp.1270-1276; and Eleonora Del Federico, Jacob Newman, Lindsey Tyne, Cyndi O'Hern, Licio Isolani, and Alexej Jerschow, "Solid-State NMR Studies of Ultramarine Pigments Discoloration", Materials Research Society Symposium proceedings, Vol. 984, 2007. For the fading of red lake, see David Saunders and Jo Kirby, "Light-induced colour changes in red and yellow lake pigments," National Gallery Technical Bulletin 15 (1994) pp. 79-97.&nbsp; Martin Kemp, “Art History: Sight and Salvation.” Nature, November 10, 2011.&nbsp; Email communication from Dr. Missinne &nbsp; &nbsp; var acc = document.getElementsByClassName("accordion"); var i; for (i = 0; i < acc.length; i++) { acc[i].addEventListener("click", function() { this.classList.toggle("active"); var panel = this.nextElementSibling; if (panel.style.display === "block") { panel.style.display = "none"; this.setAttribute("data-state", "closed"); } else { panel.style.display = "block"; this.setAttribute("data-state", "open"); } }); } Next Chapter Pentimenti↓ .next-text, .next-arrow{ display:block; padding: 0 0 16px 0 !important; cursor: pointer; } https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Pentimenti Thu, 18 Jul 2019 01:46:24 +0000 Salvator Mundi Revisited https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Pentimenti Pentimenti A pentimento means a change of mind. It refers to corrections and alterations of the position of a particular part of a composition made by the artist as part of the process of creation. When making these changes, the painter cancels his previous idea by covering it over with new paint to effect the revision. After this was done, the underlying paint, which expressed his earlier idea, was invisible to the viewer. Over time, due to alterations in the refractive index of the binding medium in relation to that of the pigments, rendering the paint layer more translucent, the underlying passages often become visible. In general, the existence of &nbsp;pentimenti indicate that a painting is autograph and that, in the case of paintings of which there are several versions, that it is the first and prime example. In the Salvator Mundi, several changes were made in the course of painting. They are significant revisions and not the slight adjustments a copyist would make. The blessing hand The most obvious pentimento is of the thumb of the blessing hand, which had been exposed during the radical scraping away of the original black background in the past and was immediately visible when the painting was first cleaned. Although somewhat damaged, it is clear that the passage had already been fully modelled. The second, final position of the thumb may have been painted on top of the opaque black background color, not just the thin initial wash. There is evidence that not only was the position of the thumb changed, but the entire hand was shifted slightly lower and towards the edge of the painting: in the crevice between the thumb and forefinger part of the first position of the palm is visible. It is only a small adjustment, but it was evidently of great importance for the painter to make a major change at such a late state in the development of the final composition. <img width="4230" height="8002" width_o="4230" height_o="8002" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8c1672886c07e925d1156b2ce0f95564d7d045d43f4d8a188d4471b9e7c3b222/Blessing-hand-cs.jpg" data-mid="50842545" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8c1672886c07e925d1156b2ce0f95564d7d045d43f4d8a188d4471b9e7c3b222/Blessing-hand-cs.jpg" /> Detail of the cleaned state with the pentimento of the thumb exposed.The new outside contour of the third finger was incised into already dry paint (a similar incision defines the final position of the stole) and delicate black lines, just barely covered by final scumbles, can be seen along the inside contour not only of that finger, but of also of the bent fourth finger. Some of these black lines appear to have been done with a liquid medium while others in a dry one such as black chalk. They can be seen in the infrared scan and also in visible light. <img width="866" height="2000" width_o="866" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e6cf5a0a73eafe5002c8742c4c49bff9d7759a4e65c60f29080d534350c81c02/7-7.1.c.-blessing-hand-fingers-incision.jpg" data-mid="50559553" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/866/i/e6cf5a0a73eafe5002c8742c4c49bff9d7759a4e65c60f29080d534350c81c02/7-7.1.c.-blessing-hand-fingers-incision.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="2000" width_o="1500" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f8d96f40e8059c4058c3a1139b3b17144aed4431023d29ca05d63577df7f4e25/7-7.1.d.-Fingers-blessing-hand-drawing.jpg" data-mid="50559554" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f8d96f40e8059c4058c3a1139b3b17144aed4431023d29ca05d63577df7f4e25/7-7.1.d.-Fingers-blessing-hand-drawing.jpg" /> Lower position of the blessing hand The question as to whether or not the blessing hand was originally conceived in a lower position has often been raised. Another interpretation of the Salvator Mundi in a less hieratical pose exists in a number of paintings by Leonardo’s followers, for example, the painting by Marco d’Oggiono in the Galleria Borghese, and another interpretation in the Pushkin Museum by Giampietrino. Both show a young, beardless Christ. In Marco D’Oggiono’s work, the hand is in the lower position and seen at an angle similar that that of the Salvator Mundi while in the Moscow painting the hand faces the viewer and is more open. <img width="1511" height="2000" width_o="1511" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3222f8ad1f3c94fd2a3a7fbdd012485d7dec37e48eb1f525b56f2d05b07a36d4/7-7.2.a.-Marco-d_Oggiono-Salvator-Mundi.jpg" data-mid="50559555" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3222f8ad1f3c94fd2a3a7fbdd012485d7dec37e48eb1f525b56f2d05b07a36d4/7-7.2.a.-Marco-d_Oggiono-Salvator-Mundi.jpg" />Marco D’Oggiono, Salvator Mundi, Galleria Borghese, RomeAlinari / Art Resource, NY <img width="1526" height="2000" width_o="1526" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9e3d0da9034352b6590d5bbac981456abc65245fd101e4e5c24c812bf534d000/7-7.2.b-Giampietrino-Salvator-Mundi.jpg" data-mid="50559556" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9e3d0da9034352b6590d5bbac981456abc65245fd101e4e5c24c812bf534d000/7-7.2.b-Giampietrino-Salvator-Mundi.jpg" /> Giampietrino, Salvator Mundi, The Pushkin Museum, MoscowThe Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo The layer structure of sample 1, together with the infrared scan, confirms that the upper part of the blessing hand, above the shoulder, was painted over an initial black wash, whereas below the shoulder the area is held in reserve. This lends credibility to the idea that in Leonardo’s initial conception of the composition the position of the hand was lower. There are many examples of the image of the Salvator Mundi, particularly in Northern Europe based on a lost prototype by Jan van Eyck, in which the blessing hand is below the shoulder. However, for this hierarchical image of Christ as the Salvator Mundi Leonardo could also have remembered Giotto’s Blessing Christ in the Peruzzi chapel of Santa Croce in which the raised hand transects the shoulder at the same point. The upright position of the arm in the red chalk drawing in Windsor associated with the Salvator Mundi might suggest that the hand was always in a higher position. <img width="2000" height="1986" width_o="2000" height_o="1986" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5fd8e6e9fcdaaf242f078c00a5fc315d5e08bc1cfe98e0effe50ef06441f5753/7-7.2.c.-Memling-Salvator-Mundi.jpg" data-mid="50559557" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5fd8e6e9fcdaaf242f078c00a5fc315d5e08bc1cfe98e0effe50ef06441f5753/7-7.2.c.-Memling-Salvator-Mundi.jpg" />Hans Memling, Salvator Mundi, The Metropolitan Museum of Art<img width="744" height="1024" width_o="744" height_o="1024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/11ac5a460bd459164f599ddc8d61f3fb0681c5985f9eb30bf776a2c01307a3d4/7-7.2.d.-Giotto-Christ-Blessing.jpg" data-mid="50559559" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/744/i/11ac5a460bd459164f599ddc8d61f3fb0681c5985f9eb30bf776a2c01307a3d4/7-7.2.d.-Giotto-Christ-Blessing.jpg" /> Giotto, Blessing Christ, North Carolina Museum of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection In Leonardo’s painting there is a clear reserve for the portion of the hand below the shoulder. The underlying black wash under the upper part is so thin and translucent that in even in a strong light it is completely invisible. This preliminary wash may have been laid in simply to define the most general outlines of the composition. But if indeed Leonardo’s first idea was to place the hand below the shoulder, he must have abandoned it early on since there is no other technical evidence in the painting to document the existence of such an important pentimento. However, Leonardo’s abundant use of black in his mixtures, the lead white preparation, and his technique of building up volume with exceptionally thin layers of paint make it impossible to study a putative change in the position of the blessing hand with X-ray and infrared wavelengths. Were the painting now accessible, new imaging techniques such as hyperspectral and, in particular, macro XRF scanning, which, in addition to lead, maps other elements contained in pigments and is sensitive to tiny traces of random components such as zinc and titanium, might reveal additional information about the development of the composition. The London version of the Virgin of the Rocks, examined recently with XRF mapping, revealed an in initial sketch for a different angel behind the Christ child, executed in a medium that contained zinc.&nbsp; <img width="750" height="563" width_o="750" height_o="563" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/93b24af6590feaf1c7f6c8ae5af0bfd232446087acb5d582fd40d237c8aeccfc/7-7.2.e.-Cross-section-of-black-wash-under-hand.jpg" data-mid="50559560" border="0" data-scale="89" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/750/i/93b24af6590feaf1c7f6c8ae5af0bfd232446087acb5d582fd40d237c8aeccfc/7-7.2.e.-Cross-section-of-black-wash-under-hand.jpg" />Sample from the upper part of the blessing hand, painted over the initial black wash <img width="956" height="1960" width_o="956" height_o="1960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dc6bb1da2d4b0ae829ee3df23a8bd3c64357df5199f7e5dd4e310de0ce481f27/7-7.2.f.-IRR-blessing-hand-sample-location.jpg" data-mid="50559561" border="0" data-scale="81" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/956/i/dc6bb1da2d4b0ae829ee3df23a8bd3c64357df5199f7e5dd4e310de0ce481f27/7-7.2.f.-IRR-blessing-hand-sample-location.jpg" />Infrared scan of the blessing hand. the black wash is under the upper part of the hand, above the line of the shoulder The Stole <img width="1000" height="655" width_o="1000" height_o="655" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/739bdb9c8772d156bca6d661304601b3cc783134fb86931e2d55a33a3eef63c0/xdetail-stole.jpg" data-mid="51552663" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/739bdb9c8772d156bca6d661304601b3cc783134fb86931e2d55a33a3eef63c0/xdetail-stole.jpg" />detail of the stole <img width="1000" height="655" width_o="1000" height_o="655" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/327c3b4004b494396b78570547d1ec298cd33d287524ef19110e30544b317511/xstole-design.jpg" data-mid="51552664" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/327c3b4004b494396b78570547d1ec298cd33d287524ef19110e30544b317511/xstole-design.jpg" />design of the knotwork pattern of the stole Cheryl Rossum The position of the stole was adjusted at a late stage in the evolution of the painting. The initial position, slightly higher and with a minor variation in the angle, can be seen in visible light and is clearer in the infrared reflectogram. Pleats of blue drapery which bordered the earlier design can be seen under the delicate strokes of the embroidered threads, especially on the lower part of the stole on the proper right side. Adjacent to these pleats is a lay-in of thin, pale greenish blue paint, nearly grey, that is quite distinct from the strong blue of the lapis. From evidence elsewhere in the painting, it is clear that the lapis drapery was among the last passages to be added. The slight shift in its placement indicates a similarly late stage for the execution of the knotwork design. Fine incisions scored into already dry paint layers record the final adjustment. The band along the top of the bodice was originally a bit lower, at least in the initial underpainted sketch, but the variation is less significant. <img width="1000" height="375" width_o="1000" height_o="375" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b008b380073f5c7758744a543950cdbdf584a8766609c194fe4effac8bd4c465/x6-6.16.a.-First-pattern-of-knot-for-stole.jpg" data-mid="51552661" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b008b380073f5c7758744a543950cdbdf584a8766609c194fe4effac8bd4c465/x6-6.16.a.-First-pattern-of-knot-for-stole.jpg" />An early idea for the design of the knotworkGraphic, Shan Kuang <img width="1000" height="561" width_o="1000" height_o="561" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dab2d8191d56c0021c7d082f69f59982b2bd1478837230eaa1c0b828d5c5d0d2/x6-6.16.b.-Mona-Lisa--detail-of-knotwork.jpg" data-mid="51552662" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dab2d8191d56c0021c7d082f69f59982b2bd1478837230eaa1c0b828d5c5d0d2/x6-6.16.b.-Mona-Lisa--detail-of-knotwork.jpg" /> Mona Lisa, detail of embroidery Before settling on the final position of the stole and the elaborate knotwork design, Leonardo sketched a simpler knot-work design. It was never fully completed. One element of it can be clearly seen under the final pattern where the paint has become translucent due to natural ageing as well as cleaning. It is similar to examples found in his notebooks and to the knots that decorate the bodice of the Mona Lisa. Using a stiff, narrow brush and pastose pale-yellow paint consisting primarily of lead tin yellow, this initial design is freely sketched, in conception and execution considerably simpler than the final knotwork pattern. The Orb Just as there is a reserve for the head and the blessing hand, the hand holding the orb was also left in reserve up to a late stage in the process of painting when the blue drapery under the orb was laid in. Since the blue drapery is visible through the translucent orb, the fourth and little finger were necessarily painted over it, making it the last passage to be completed.&nbsp; <img width="2000" height="1344" width_o="2000" height_o="1344" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fc832f606aac8e37ba335f49ed5111587d2528c8e4665674f9a501e2738e1b6e/7-7.3.a.-Salvator-Mundi-IRR-mantle-and-orb-annotated.jpg" data-mid="50559562" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fc832f606aac8e37ba335f49ed5111587d2528c8e4665674f9a501e2738e1b6e/7-7.3.a.-Salvator-Mundi-IRR-mantle-and-orb-annotated.jpg" />Infrared scan with brightness and contrast enhanced and the original position of the fingers outlined in red<img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c2cd2e760d5e219443cb09626cf2c669a961c0cd817f37ab9aa7bedb472c3e10/7-7.3.b.-detail-of-finger-of-hand-holding-the-orb.jpg" data-mid="50559563" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c2cd2e760d5e219443cb09626cf2c669a961c0cd817f37ab9aa7bedb472c3e10/7-7.3.b.-detail-of-finger-of-hand-holding-the-orb.jpg" />The first finger with pink paint of original position visible through the brown color of the orb and a black line establishing the final position with the final contourThere is a shift in the position of the hand, which was originally slightly higher and further from the right edge of the composition. In the infrared reflectogram a stroke of dark paint can be seen in the underlayer around the orb in this passage. Its broad nature suggests that it is not a pentimento, as such, but rather a freely brushed sketch made by the artist at the abbozzo stage as he began to search for the position of this element of the composition. Once defined, he may have used a partial cartoon to transfer the design of the hand, subsequently making a slight shift in its position. As already discussed, spolvero or underdrawing for this transfer are not visible in infrared scans because the paint mixtures contain black. In the center of the orb there is a pin hole made in dry paint, probably left by the compass used to circumscribe the final contours of the sphere. As in the blessing hand, the new position of the fingertips was outlined with black inside the final contour and then scumbled with a light pink color but there is no accompanying incision in dry pain. Next ChapterCondition &amp; Restoration ↓ https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Condition-and-Restoration Thu, 18 Jul 2019 01:48:12 +0000 Salvator Mundi Revisited https://salvatormundirevisited.com/Condition-and-Restoration Condition and Restoration The restoration of a badly damaged painting, particularly one by a supreme artist, can never be satisfactory. To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, 40 who was acutely aware of the contradictory nature of creative endeavor, if one possesses intelligence and humility, essential traits of any decent restorer, you always hold in balance the sense of the futility of your efforts and the necessity and determination to succeed as best you can to render the image legible while trying not to pollute the traces of the great mind that produced it. One is required to juxtapose with the original whatever feeble imitation can be mustered. It is an impossible task and failure is inevitable.In This is Not Just a Painting, Bernard Lahire, writing about the convoluted authentication of a Poussin, describes how the transformation of an ordinary picture, which once hung on the wall in an ordinary house as a copy, into a treasure captures the public imagination like the fairy tale in which a frog turns into a Prince. 41&nbsp;The painting becomes a magical object, not unlike the relic in medieval times, and its discovery a public event, which inevitably gives rise to a multitude of issues: dominance and the establishment of hierarchies among experts, “the connoisseur as demiurge,” in the words of Michel Laclotte; national pride; the price of art and the transparency, or lack thereof, of the art market; legal quagmires; even politics and conspiracy theories; and, not least of all, the critical act of restoration. In the case of the Salvator Mundi, all these elements have captivated the media.&nbsp; &nbsp; Condition As described, at some point a flaw in the panel and restriction of the natural expansion and contraction of the wood across the grain caused a severe check to develop. In consequence, a series of events associated with heavy-handed attempts to correct the alignment of the two halves of the painting resulted in severe damage to the curls on the proper right side of the head and adjoining passages of the flesh tones of the cheek. Other losses, probably associated with worm tunneling, are present in the forehead, the end of the nose, and passages of the proper left eye and cheek. These losses are clearly visible in the infrared scan. The eyes, particularly the proper right eye, are abraded. The area of the chin, neck and breast were harshly cleaned with strong solvents resulting in abrasion of the original paint layers. The thinly painted upper part of the orb, the upper area of the palm, and the fingers have also suffered from abrasion due to harsh cleaning. Much of the original background was scraped off, including the upper part of the hair. The knot itself, which coincides with the center of the stole with the cabochon jewels, fragmented into five pieces of wood. These were reattached to the two main sections of the panel but little of the original design survived; the knotwork pattern in this area is largely later repaint. Areas of old repaint here and elsewhere are mapped on the diagram. <img width="2339" height="3367" width_o="2339" height_o="3367" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/490d6b9a5838b5fee668b20dc5d8af86a71eafec7de6fc450ab25bd308703fd5/1-1.4-Cleaned-state.jpg" data-mid="50561724" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/490d6b9a5838b5fee668b20dc5d8af86a71eafec7de6fc450ab25bd308703fd5/1-1.4-Cleaned-state.jpg" /> Cleaned state <img width="2438" height="3510" width_o="2438" height_o="3510" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dddd004fc2dacbff8de78781b73f4d1001dc55a7bd89105570281c4564674c8a/old-repaint.jpg" data-mid="51089612" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dddd004fc2dacbff8de78781b73f4d1001dc55a7bd89105570281c4564674c8a/old-repaint.jpg" /> Areas of older repaint that were not removed outlined in blue Cleaning When I received the painting in April 2005, the Cook repainting along with most of whatever older varnish was present had already been removed. There was a relatively recent varnish, sticky and uneven, and some crude touch ups, which may have been done by the owner or a local amateur. The more recent resins and paints came off very easily with an acetone/mineral spirits mixture, while remnants of some of the older retouches were removed with acetone, heptane, and a touch of ammonia. Some of the damages had been carefully retouched with a medium that had become hard and translucent, perhaps predating the late 19thcentury Cook restoration, and I retained these because their enamel-like surface was a useful base for further reintegration of the losses. Although the color no longer matched the original, it could be easily adjusted and did not appear to cover original paint. Despite the many damages due to scraping, worm tunneling, and abrasion, some passages of the face, especially the proper right check, parts of the forehead and the nose were well-preserved and retained all the modelling layers. As seen in greenish fluorescence of the ultraviolet image, there are remains of an older varnish over much of the blessing hand, with the exception of the thumb, the on the proper left side of the head, the drapery passages and much of the orb. This layer was thin and not discolored. It was not an original coating because it is over areas, such as the orb, which had been overcleaned in the past. There was no reason to remove this varnish and I left it. After cleaning, a large sloping fill in the area of the check composed of a traditional gilder’s whiting and animal glue mixture was exposed. This putty was relatively modern and could be softened easily with saliva and removed mechanically. Although a bit of original paint was recovered, when this filling material was removed the check in the panel was visible and the nature of and reason for the worst damages became clear. There was still a considerable step between the two sides of the check which had been somewhat disguised by the generous fill. <img width="1417" height="2000" width_o="1417" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/91f75b940d195b2d12d745b94b7577b259011ec1dcbd8a696898017a38f2fc6b/1-1.1-Before-Restoration-2005.jpg" data-mid="50561753" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/91f75b940d195b2d12d745b94b7577b259011ec1dcbd8a696898017a38f2fc6b/1-1.1-Before-Restoration-2005.jpg" /> Before cleaning Panel Restoration <img width="2000" height="1423" width_o="2000" height_o="1423" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bcf5219bccce8f4819cba7db44142c4ab31603b3dcbfeacd4fa500827ec4412d/6-6.2--Detail-of-the-knot-in-the-central-part-of-part-of-the-composition-where-the-embroidered-stole-is-secured-by-a-cabochon-brooch.jpg" data-mid="50561769" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bcf5219bccce8f4819cba7db44142c4ab31603b3dcbfeacd4fa500827ec4412d/6-6.2--Detail-of-the-knot-in-the-central-part-of-part-of-the-composition-where-the-embroidered-stole-is-secured-by-a-cabochon-brooch.jpg" /> <img width="480" height="640" width_o="480" height_o="640" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2fbbb0bb189d99d6ce72ce0808890c08d0f0f57275b25049ba37fe89f920f9f4/Fills-removed.jpg" data-mid="51048877" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/480/i/2fbbb0bb189d99d6ce72ce0808890c08d0f0f57275b25049ba37fe89f920f9f4/Fills-removed.jpg" /> <img width="1829" height="2577" width_o="1829" height_o="2577" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/69549bfc22226ab2805145f949027306dea6527752411f4fb18c6a82425d0958/7-a-panel-with-cradle.jpg" data-mid="51049082" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/69549bfc22226ab2805145f949027306dea6527752411f4fb18c6a82425d0958/7-a-panel-with-cradle.jpg" /> <img width="480" height="640" width_o="480" height_o="640" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3c5d7fb783348970abc74d474d7e467a6913a8354dd5450d69a42d7d33bb5d7e/6-6.5.-Left-half-of-panel-during-structural-treatment.jpg" data-mid="50561771" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/480/i/3c5d7fb783348970abc74d474d7e467a6913a8354dd5450d69a42d7d33bb5d7e/6-6.5.-Left-half-of-panel-during-structural-treatment.jpg" /> <img width="480" height="640" width_o="480" height_o="640" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/12039c2ed1d53d87d13cb41a78e323becb3b67ee9bd79daf22507ae7a6fa3e8d/reverse-of-panel-without-stretcher.jpg" data-mid="51048954" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/480/i/12039c2ed1d53d87d13cb41a78e323becb3b67ee9bd79daf22507ae7a6fa3e8d/reverse-of-panel-without-stretcher.jpg" /> <img width="2304" height="3072" width_o="2304" height_o="3072" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d11f90c0b3fc5e291fedec50e3b058936424daf551dcdfa4af61a4df46e37b45/7-a--panel-restored-with-perimeter-strainer.jpg" data-mid="51049080" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d11f90c0b3fc5e291fedec50e3b058936424daf551dcdfa4af61a4df46e37b45/7-a--panel-restored-with-perimeter-strainer.jpg" /> Restoration of the SupportAfter cleaning, the panel was restored by Monica Griesbach between December 2005 and September 2006. Ms. Griesbach’s treatment report: Condition: The panel was in generally poor condition, mostly as a result of unfortunate restoration treatments in its past. Because the panel had been laminated to a board, the extent of the damage of the original support was initially unclear. The original panel must have been thinned significantly as the overall combined thickness of the secondary pine board plus the original panel was only approximately 7mm. By studying the painting’s surface, the following damages were recorded: the original panel had numerous fractures that ran along the curvature of the wood grain. It was unclear if the splits resulted from the thinning of the panel however they were already there when the panel was marouflaged. No attention had been paid to aligning the pieces correctly when the pieces were glued to the board. The uneven level was most notable along the longest split that traverses the entire length of the panel in a long curve and where large fills had been applied to compensate for the uneven surface. Along this split, in the area surrounding the proper right side of the figure’s head, the wood support was visible where the paint layers had been unfortunately planed down from the front in order to align the two sides of the panel. Along another split in the upper left quadrant there was a second area that was also planed down on one side from the front. Fortunately, this split is in a background area of the image. Further down along the central split, near the lower edge, there was an area of complex multiple fractures associated with a large knot. The proper right corner was missing in a area approximately 3 cm in length and 5 cm in heightreconstruct. This was reconstructed with a fill.&nbsp; The overall level was flat with no warping. Most members of the cradle were fairly moveable suggesting that none of the cracks were caused by stress due to locking of the cradle cross members. Although the largest fills had been removed during the recent cleaning, there was still remaining material inside the splits Treatment: Areas of lifting paint were consolidated with isinglass glue. A protective layer of varnish (Laropal K80) was applied to the surface. Several of the remaining fills where removed where it was determined necessary for proper re-alignment of the panel surface. The cradle and auxiliary panel were removed mechanically with hand tools in slow stages, revealing a badly damaged and worm-eaten panel made of a single board of walnut. Some small repairs were made as the panel was freed from the marouflage. Once the removal was complete, the panel separated into seven pieces: two large pieces on either side of the check and five small fragments just above the lower edge at the center. The sizes ranged from a 3mm wide sliver to one measuring approximately 5 cm in length. The smaller pieces were in a very damaged state, with uneven edges and deformed surfaces. The fragments were were slowly assembled into one piece. Methods of repair included re-gluing of splits as well as the insertion of hand fitted wedges and blocks of a like-kind wood (old salvaged walnut dating from the 16th century). Adhesives used for the repair of splits and breaks were fish glue, araldite 1253 structural adhesive, and Epotech Epoxy. Once the painting was whole, with the release of the stress caused by the cradle and the marouflage, the painting acquired a more natural overall curvature. The back of the painting was coated with B-72 acrylic resin to mitigate movement of the panel due to changes in humidity. A secondary support system was designed as follows: After monitoring the movement of the panel in slight changes of relative humidity, it was observed that the painting presented only limited movement. Also, although the panel was considerably damaged, it is strong and can hold its own weight without much support. An Italian support system developed at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence was chosen.With this system, the panel is held against a custom built solid German oak strainer that is shaped to match the curvature of the panel. The panel is attached to the strainer by 37 custom sized spring mechanisms. The system permits the panel to safely flex in response to slight variations in temperature and humidity while providing a solid support that allows the painting to be safely handled. In choosing this system, consideration was given to the fact that the painting is not in a frame and is likely to travel quite a bit and will be handled often. Access to the painting’s recto and verso is also essential as the painting will be closely studied. An advantage to this type of support is that the painting can be safely handled without a frame. The downside however is that the range of flexibility is limited by the established curvature of the strainer and the limits of the spring system. The system was chosen as the benefits outweighed the risks. When the painting has a permanent frame and is kept in a consistently stable environment in which the handling will be limited, consideration might be given to substituting the curved strainer with a more flexible support system as this would be appropriate if the painting is in a framed and secure environment (usually these systems, such as that developed by Ray Marchant rely on the framing elements to provide the safe handling of the painting.) Date of treatment completion: September 5, 2006 Note: The secondary support proved to be excessively restrictive and was removed in November 2011 by George Bisacca and Alan Miller. It was replaced with layers of Featherboard and the package was isolated behind glass in a Marvelseal enclosure. Retouching After the repairs to the panel had been completed, the restoration was undertaken. A brush coat of Talens Rembrandt Retouching Varnish (15% polycyclohexanone in white spirit) was applied. Some losses were filled with putty composed of 12% rabbit skin glue, calcium sulphate and china clay. The losses in the head were underpainted with a light red color similar to the first layer of underpaint using dry pigments bound with poly vinyl acetate in alcohol (Mowilith 20). These were subsequently built up with scumbles and glazes, primarily using the same medium but also with watercolor, until the retouches matched the surrounding original paint. The modelling layers of the original paint were intact and it was therefore possible to reestablish the form where it was missing by carefully modulating the transitions within the areas of loss. The minute craquelure patterns were also retouched because they created anomalous shapes, which did not correspond to features in the composition but rather to parts of the structure of the grain of the wood. (See Materials and Techniques for a more detailed discussion of the craquelure.) <img width="2309" height="3627" width_o="2309" height_o="3627" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/16fb11c2ae3eb7fd54f9bd3fe7a4eca9dd3557d93b809792d1d83328dce13023/10-10.1.-CS-detail-of-cheek.jpg" data-mid="50562033" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/16fb11c2ae3eb7fd54f9bd3fe7a4eca9dd3557d93b809792d1d83328dce13023/10-10.1.-CS-detail-of-cheek.jpg" /><img width="2260" height="3464" width_o="2260" height_o="3464" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/15d602ab80f9dfba94c11aaab43f92cd3de393d009b3044c814976c0cc6b6f2c/10-10.1.a.-Detail-of-cheek-after-restoration.jpg" data-mid="50562034" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/15d602ab80f9dfba94c11aaab43f92cd3de393d009b3044c814976c0cc6b6f2c/10-10.1.a.-Detail-of-cheek-after-restoration.jpg" /><img width="837" height="1299" width_o="837" height_o="1299" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8aba1ad3ada7b8906c8d7b3edb7e45ae11d5fd72d765ce33a311f4412e8086ef/10-10.1.b.-Ultraviolet_photo-detail-cheek.jpg" data-mid="50562035" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/837/i/8aba1ad3ada7b8906c8d7b3edb7e45ae11d5fd72d765ce33a311f4412e8086ef/10-10.1.b.-Ultraviolet_photo-detail-cheek.jpg" />The abrasions to the eyes were especially difficult because of the unusual way in which they were rendered with thin glazes applied directly to the white preparation and very little body color, more akin to the way water color is handled than oil paint. This technique, which appears to be similar to that of the Mona Lisa and Saint John (as far as one can tell through the many layers of discolored varnish) creates the trance-like effect of the gaze, which doesn’t engage the viewer, and is an essential element of the power of the image. One misplaced dot of paint from a treble 0 brush and it would shift the gaze so that the eyes appeared either crossed or blind. After many attempts over a period of several months I reached a reasonably satisfactory result by doing as little as possible. <img width="4000" height="1782" width_o="4000" height_o="1782" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/89d28d276309b216aca9a6e9397c0a77c48e7dc972d26ffbcb64eb32688f5a5b/10-10.5-CS-detail-of-eyes.jpg" data-mid="50562028" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/89d28d276309b216aca9a6e9397c0a77c48e7dc972d26ffbcb64eb32688f5a5b/10-10.5-CS-detail-of-eyes.jpg" /><img width="4000" height="1970" width_o="4000" height_o="1970" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6ba03ad90087534e020e79759e36f3984b3d0af252e73395fc66fb6f80fc0b39/10-10.5.a.-Detail-of-eyes-after-restoration.jpg" data-mid="50562029" border="0" data-scale="97" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6ba03ad90087534e020e79759e36f3984b3d0af252e73395fc66fb6f80fc0b39/10-10.5.a.-Detail-of-eyes-after-restoration.jpg" /><img width="1382" height="699" width_o="1382" height_o="699" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3c58becb65c4092b4c6cc7aafaa7dafac7f300ad8d942ff20a6d915d83d06b2a/10-10.5.b.-Detail-of-eyes-UV.jpg" data-mid="50562030" border="0" data-scale="98" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3c58becb65c4092b4c6cc7aafaa7dafac7f300ad8d942ff20a6d915d83d06b2a/10-10.5.b.-Detail-of-eyes-UV.jpg" />The exposed grisaille underpainting of the curls on the proper right side of the head was glazed to match the well preserved color of the curls on the left. The remnants of green overpaint in the background were retouched to match the brown (repainted) background color. The hair on the left and on the crown of the head, with the exception of a couple of small passages, had been scraped off. In the missing section on the proper right side, a few generic undulations were added to give some life to the made-up passages and to make the top of the head recede convincingly. A bit of original paint at the very top of the head survived which contained the beginning of the hairline. <img width="3923" height="2301" width_o="3923" height_o="2301" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a4b9e055d231e48d919a33217566e53b957b594460c802d5c7771455f2568d0a/10-10.2--CS-detail-of-forehead.jpg" data-mid="50562151" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a4b9e055d231e48d919a33217566e53b957b594460c802d5c7771455f2568d0a/10-10.2--CS-detail-of-forehead.jpg" /><img width="4000" height="2547" width_o="4000" height_o="2547" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5aa41b7972ab55faf0759eed7b737274c15ce9d26d5161d9c5a247f8e8f0f246/10-10.2.a.--Detail-of-forehead-after-restoration.jpg" data-mid="50562152" border="0" data-scale="94" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5aa41b7972ab55faf0759eed7b737274c15ce9d26d5161d9c5a247f8e8f0f246/10-10.2.a.--Detail-of-forehead-after-restoration.jpg" /><img width="1810" height="1011" width_o="1810" height_o="1011" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/02d8714c9950afc984d0e251b7e48a5cee0ff5a9639d0e45ccfa991b03f3f08f/10.2.b.-Ultraviolet-photo-forehead.jpg" data-mid="51050659" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/02d8714c9950afc984d0e251b7e48a5cee0ff5a9639d0e45ccfa991b03f3f08f/10.2.b.-Ultraviolet-photo-forehead.jpg" />Around the losses in the forehead there was also well-preserved original paint, although less than that which remained in the cheeks. I corrected the old retouching so that, again, the losses were integrated with the transitions of the surrounding original. The hair on the top of the head had been almost entirely scraped away with only a few islands of extant original and some remants of older repaint, which had themselves been largely scraped off. The most substantial patch of old repaint went beyond the boundaries of the original contour of the head, which could be inferred from the remnants of original black background that persisted here and there along its border and a still visible original incision of the contour that pentrated through the preparation. I used this incision to establish the shape of the head. <img width="3337" height="2469" width_o="3337" height_o="2469" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d1fe7267e31fda3caba5b9ac09103f93b3c32a08f5134b17cbf16187f86640e2/10-10.3-CS-detail-of-chest.jpg" data-mid="50562194" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d1fe7267e31fda3caba5b9ac09103f93b3c32a08f5134b17cbf16187f86640e2/10-10.3-CS-detail-of-chest.jpg" /><img width="3471" height="2731" width_o="3471" height_o="2731" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/222b4cea201377b013683d0c3d1e49c3aaf981c8bba944ab0287a95693f2e3ea/10-10.3.a.-Detail-of-chest-after-restoration.jpg" data-mid="50562195" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/222b4cea201377b013683d0c3d1e49c3aaf981c8bba944ab0287a95693f2e3ea/10-10.3.a.-Detail-of-chest-after-restoration.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1617" width_o="2000" height_o="1617" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f19b39d18cf5f89b2bee56e9d88dd178f5aa26502d2eaa9e3790566b07077fe6/10-10.3.b.-Detail-of-chest-UV.jpg" data-mid="50562200" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f19b39d18cf5f89b2bee56e9d88dd178f5aa26502d2eaa9e3790566b07077fe6/10-10.3.b.-Detail-of-chest-UV.jpg" />The damage to the chin and chest involved not only losses due to scraping and worm tunneling, but also abrasion of the final modelling layers so that the warm reddish underpaint was exposed in some areas. I thinly scumbled these original passages with translucent glazes (optical scumble) to replace the missing final layers and then matched the areas of loss to the reintegrated original. <img width="3100" height="3385" width_o="3100" height_o="3385" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2372309ec24d63e647dd849133391a26c4d81bce3f9b26cad1162c3ca3fc2446/10-10.4-CS-detail-of-orb.jpg" data-mid="50562303" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2372309ec24d63e647dd849133391a26c4d81bce3f9b26cad1162c3ca3fc2446/10-10.4-CS-detail-of-orb.jpg" /><img width="3007" height="3293" width_o="3007" height_o="3293" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/15c82cfce22a8b04a1ef471aac0d43d9c246bb522a2da1bcb366cf2f6d893ac3/10-10.4.a.-Detail-of-orb-after-restoration.jpg" data-mid="50562304" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/15c82cfce22a8b04a1ef471aac0d43d9c246bb522a2da1bcb366cf2f6d893ac3/10-10.4.a.-Detail-of-orb-after-restoration.jpg" /><img width="1752" height="1876" width_o="1752" height_o="1876" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/315d2a0e836c5bede77f6ad7beb74674158375439f2e9a56173f79953b6b275e/10-10.4.b.-Detail-of-orb-UV.jpg" data-mid="50562305" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/315d2a0e836c5bede77f6ad7beb74674158375439f2e9a56173f79953b6b275e/10-10.4.b.-Detail-of-orb-UV.jpg" />The hand holding the orb was abraded in certain passages, particularly the upper palm as seen through the crystal orb. As Martin Kemp has pointed out, the upper part of the palm is refracted so that it is distorted and magnified. Although the position of the hand was shifted, this is clearly intended as a refraction and not a pentimento. The entire hand was originally held in reserve and even though parts of this passage are badly abraded there is no trace of blue drapery color underneath. The circumference of the orb was never clearly defined but depended on thin sfumato scumbles and glazes. Although some of these had been effaced by earlier cleaning, traces remained, as well as a general dark tone, nearly black, within the sphere. In the center there is a pinpoint made by the compass used to inscribe the circle. This center point, vestiges of original paint, and the position of the fingers holding the sphere dictated the general shape of the original. Within this circular outline, the lighter areas where the final dark glaze had been removed by past cleaning, were toned back with a translucent water color glaze to create the illusion of a sphere. Nothing was done to the three highlights.The restoration was not complete when the painting went to London in 2008 and was attributed to Leonardo. (Visible light image, 2008) In 2010 the painting was returned to me because, not only was the restoration incomplete, but I was dissatisfied with the muddy, modern background, so close in hue and tone to the hair that it locked the head into the same plane as the background, diminishing its plastic values and powerful three dimensionality. As noted elsewhere, the original black background was visible in several places around the contour of the blessing hand the proper left shoulder and resembled Leonardo’s rich, warm blacks,&nbsp; confirmed for me by the several hours I spent studying the Virgin of the Rocks in the conservation studio of the National Gallery in London. After this examination, it was clear that the muddy brown color of the repainted background of the Salvator Mundi was far from Leonardo’s original intent and I suggested to the owners that an attempt to uncover more of the original would be worthwhile. They agreed and I began to remove the overpaint by mechanical means, working under the binocular microscope. The remnants of green verdigris were not original, as I already knew, but the result of an early embellishment of the picture. This was confirmed during the cleaning process:where there were patches of the thick, granular green pigment the beautiful black original background color was perfectly preserved. Unfortunately, when the verdigris repaint had been had been scraped off, much of the original black background was torn away as well, leaving only patchy remants surrounded by original preparation, modern gesso fills, or the wood itself.&nbsp; It was, however, enough to confirm that the entire background had been originally black. An advantage to removing the overpaint was that the uneven surface had been generously smeared with filling material after it had been scraped and gouged before the application of a uniform brown color so that the repaint was considerably thicker than the exceptionally thin original. With its removal, the background could be retouched so that it was at the same level as the adjacent original. I chose not to photograph the painting with the background stripped because what was missing was only solid black, the chewed up appearance was deeply distracting, and I decided that it was not fair to the painting, nor particularly useful, to record it in that state. This is not the usual practice when documenting restorations and I take full responsibility for that decision. The missing areas were retouched with numerous passes of a particularly finely ground, rich and deeply colored, ivory black pigment, inherited from my husband who recommended that I keep it in reserve since ivory black of that quality could no longer be obtained. A bit of vermilion was added to some of the passes to match the surviving islands of original paint. The retouches were burnished and mechanically distressed so that they resembled, to the extent possibly, old paint. This made a great difference in the way the picture read, allowing the warm brown of the hair to separate from the black background. For this final phase of the restoration, to be sure that I had was not covering original paint nor imposing my own interpretation on the image, especially in the damaged flesh tones of the head, I referred to a one to one print made from a drum scan of the cleaned state transparency. Closely checking my work, I frequently removed or edited my retouches with a scalpel so that they were as thin as possible and I was sure they did not cover any original paint.&nbsp; Some&nbsp;pentimenti and areas of abrasion remained visually disturbingly because they interupted the final form, particularly in two imporant passages. Some of the abraded knotwork revealed underlying light underpaint and this background color was glazed to match areas that had not been abraded. A few of the abraded or missing threads of knotwork were bridged. This was done&nbsp; in order to make the spatial relationship of the stole to the passages of blue drapery more coherent. The decision over how to deal with the exposed pentimento of the thumb was problematic. Robert Simon had always been in favor of allowing the pentiment to show. I made various attempts using different strategies to partially suppress the first thumb but found that all were unsatisfactory as the pentiment continued to interfere with the reading of the final thumb and to assert itself as an incomprehensible sixth digit. Dissatisfied with the results of these halfway measures, I was in favor of suppressing it entirely, as it had never been intended to be seen. Finally, Luke Syson weighed in, deciding that it was a pity to sacrifice the beautifully preserved hand to a pentiment, and I masked the thumb with the background color. The negative shape between the thumb and index finger, where the original background color had been scraped away, was also adjusted. All the retouching was done using double and treble “0” brushes, applied with tiny vertical strokes or thin passes, to avoid covering original paint and inducing misinterpretation. I found that to successfully imitate the original passages of flesh tones, it was imperative to more or less mimic the original technique, layering thin glazes and scumbles over a bright pink opaque underpaint. A variety of media were employed: mainly dry pigments bound with PVA AYAB; water color; minimal use of Maimeri restoration colors in a few of the darkest passages as a final or intermediate glaze. The retouches were locally varnished with AYAB in alcohol, followed by Talens Retouching Varnish. (Polycyclohexanone resin Laropal K-80, 15% w/v in white spirit.) A final (and temporary) varnish consisted of several sprays of Mowilith 20, 5% in ethyl alcohol.&nbsp; In July 2017, when the painting was sent to New York by the then owner, it came to me at the Conservation Center. Shortly before it went to Christie’s, I was permitted to unframe the painting and to correct a retouch above the lip with which I was never satisfied. In the area of the proper left shoulder the dark underpaint had become visible because the regenerating effect on the degraded lapis lazuli of the solvents used in the cleaning was only temporary.&nbsp; I resaturated the passage locally with AYAB in alcohol and the area again reformed. The surface was given a final brush varnish of&nbsp; 7% mastic resin in triple distilled turpentine stabilized with Tinuvin 292. Some new technical images were made, using the equipment that we had available. While the painting was at Christie’s, I asked if I might ask a specialist to scan the painting with advanced imaging equipment, specifically hyperspectral and macro xrf, but neither the auction house nor the owner gave permission for this. (This takes some time during which the painting would have had to be taken off view and everything had been tightly scheduled. This technology was quite new then and less easy to access than it is now.)&nbsp;The ultraviolet fluorescence photograph illustrates the exact extent of my retouching and demonstrates that my retouches do not cover any original paint. This can be verified in the overlay of the cleaned state and the UV fluorescence images on this website.&nbsp; <img width="1029" height="1500" width_o="1029" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1d81cfadcd65b31f77d919c9546d914739623080ba0626203bda5929180b7749/4B-UV_CleanedState.jpg" data-mid="52481738" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1d81cfadcd65b31f77d919c9546d914739623080ba0626203bda5929180b7749/4B-UV_CleanedState.jpg" /> <img width="1029" height="1500" width_o="1029" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6a7b65e33100190adc8ec09b9a02a0074700772df85c8597b5cee1fcc42f9050/4B-UV_CleanedState-Overlay.jpg" data-mid="52481741" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6a7b65e33100190adc8ec09b9a02a0074700772df85c8597b5cee1fcc42f9050/4B-UV_CleanedState-Overlay.jpg" /> Ultraviolet Photograph by Shan KuanG, Conservation Center Footnotes Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Edmund Wilson. 2009. The crack-up: with other miscellaneous pieces, excerpts from note-books and letters by F. Scott Fitzgerald together with letters to Fitzgerald from Gertrude Stein, Edith Wharton, T.S. Eliot, Thomas Wolfe, and John Dos Passos, and essays and poems by Paul Rosenfeld, Glenway Wescott, John Dos Passos, John Peale Bishop, and Edmond Wilson. https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=154D10E1-79F4-4A7E-8E68-1DF8DB0CC27F. location 906Bernard Lahire. 2019.This is not just a painting: an inquiry into art, domination, magic and the sacred. var acc = document.getElementsByClassName("accordion"); var i; for (i = 0; i < acc.length; i++) { acc[i].addEventListener("click", function() { this.classList.toggle("active"); var panel = this.nextElementSibling; if (panel.style.display === "block") { panel.style.display = "none"; this.setAttribute("data-state", "closed"); } else { panel.style.display = "block"; this.setAttribute("data-state", "open"); } }); } Next Chapter Copies↓ .next-text, .next-arrow{ display:block; padding: 0 0 16px 0 !important; cursor: pointer; }