ALLA MANIERA:

TECHNICAL ART HISTORY

AND THE MEANING OF STYLE
IN 15th TO 17th CENTURY PAINTING
Papers presented at the
Twenty-Second Symposium for the Study
of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting

PEETERS
 ALLA MANIERA:
TECHNICAL ART HISTORY AND THE MEANING OF STYLE
IN 15th TO 17th CENTURY PAINTING
 UNDERDRAWING AND TECHNOLOGY IN PAINTING

SYMPOSIUM XXII

The Symposium XXII for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting has been organized by:
Musea Brugge – Flemish Research Centre for the Arts in the Burgundian Netherlands
Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve

in collaboration with
KIK-IRPA, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage
Illuminare - Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Art - KU Leuven - University of Leuven
 ALLA MANIERA:
TECHNICAL ART HISTORY
AND THE MEANING OF STYLE
IN 15 th TO 17 th CENTURY PAINTING

Papers presented at the Twenty-Second Symposium

for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting
held online, 28-30 March 2022

Edited by

Anne Dubois

with the collaboration of Guenevere Souffreau and Anne van Oosterwijk

PEETERS
PARIS – LEUVEN – BRISTOL, CT

2024
A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

© Peeters Leuven, Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Leuven

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or translated in any form or by any means, by print, photoprint,
microfilm, microfiche or any other means without written permission from the Publisher.

ISBN: 978-90-429-5216-4
eISBN: 978-90-429-5217-1
D/2024/0602/4

cover: Lancelot Blondeel, Saint Luke Painting the Virgin, 1545, oil on canvas, Bruges, Musea Brugge.
 Table of Contents

Editor’s Preface 1

1 KEYNOTE LECTURE – Hugo van der Goes’s Idiosyncrasies and Maniera in Visible and
in Infrared Light
Stephan Kemperdick 3

2 The Underdrawing of the Lamentation of Christ Revisited

Carol Pottasch, Kirsten Derks, Kathryn A. Dooley and John K. Delaney 15

3 The Phoebus Nativity: A Close Look into the Workshop of Memling

Sara Mateu 35

4 Rediscovering the Sao Paulo Museum of Art’s Memling by Technical Examination

Sofia Hennen, Pedro Campos, Valter Felix, Renato Freitas, Elizabeth Kajiya,
André Pimenta and Márcia Rizzutto 45

5 A Matter of Manner? Material Aspects of Style and Reconstructions as a Research Tool

Jan Bustin and Abbie Vandivere 57

6 From Da Vinci to Massys: New Insights into MASP ’s Unequal Marriage

Sofia Hennen, Pedro Campos, Valter Felix, Renato Freitas, Elizabeth Kajiya,
André Pimenta and Márcia Rizzutto 71

7 Alla maniera di Gerard David? Stylistic Irregularities in Ambrosius Benson’s Oeuvre

Joyce Klein Koerkamp 85

8 An Analytical Investigation into Two of Antonello da Messina’s Nephews’ Workshop

Practices: Insights into Antonio de Saliba and Salvo d’Antonio’s Paintings on Malta
Charlene Vella 97

9 Three Versions of Andrea del Sarto’s Sacrifice of Isaac: Technical Research and
Comparative Study
Marcia Steele 111

10 The Northern Way: Engraving Success in Catalan Painting around 1500

Elsa Espin 123

11 Under- and Overdrawing in the Pulkau Altarpiece: New Insights into a Stylistic Enigma
Björn Blauensteiner 135

12 Painted Sketch as the Underlayer of the Lusina Polyptych

Joanna Zwinczak 151
13 A ‘Nuremberg’ Workshop in Remote Transylvania? Investigations on Early Sixteenth-
Century Altarpieces Painted in Sighis‚ oara/Schässburg
Ciprian Firea and Cristina Serendan 163
14 The Drawing Hand of a Portuguese Mannerist Painter
Helena Pinheiro de Melo, António João Cruz, Sara Valadas and António Candeias 177
15 The Technique of Filippo Paladini: a Case Study of his Sixteenth-Century Wall Paintings
at Verdala Palace, Buskett, Malta
Sarah Yeomans Gafà 189
16 Elsheimer’s Creative Process: New Research on the Frankfurt Altarpiece of the True
Cross
Mareike Gerken, Christiane Weber and Almut Pollmer-Schmidt 201
17 Michele Desubleo’s Self-portrait as Saint Luke: Technique in Context and the Creation
of a Maniera
Stefania Girometti and Claudio Seccaroni 213
18 In the Manner of… Genoese Antoon Van Dyck: Technique, Design, Development
Michela Fasce 221
19 The Arbroath Sermon of Saint John the Baptist after Pieter Bruegel the Elder: A Rare
Pastiche
Christina Currie 235
20 Reconstructing Sweerts: Practical Insights into the Historical Dark Halo Technique
based on Paint Reconstructions
Kirsten Derks, Markha Youchaeva, Geert Van der Snickt, Katlijne Van der Stighelen and
Koen Janssens 259
21 The Versatile Style of Jan Steen: How he Varies the Preparations of his Composition
during his Career and according to the Subject
Sabrina Meloni and Marya Albrecht 273
22 Painting by Numbers: Evolution and Standardization of Colouring in the Seventeenth
Century
Lisa Wiersma 289
23 Palettes as Indicators of Technique and Style in Northern Self-Portraits
Céline Talon 301

Bibliography 313
Contributors 333
Photo Credits 337
 Editor’s Preface

This volume is dedicated to the proceedings of the XXIInd Symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and
Technology in Painting which was held on 28-30 March 2022. At first planned to take place in Bruges in
September 2020, this meeting had to be postponed two times due to the worldwide COVID-19 crisis. In
order to avoid many participants to travel, the organizing committee decided to hold the sesssions online.

The symposium was dedicated to ‘Alla maniera’: Technical Art History and the Meaning of Style in
15th to 17th Century Painting. Ever since fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century writers used the word
maniera to describe an artist’s personal style, the term has known very different meanings. Alla maniera
di … implied the deliberate and eclectic imitation of someone else’s style but also signaled that an artist
had possibly more than one maniera at his or her disposal. Such ambivalence presents a challenge for
stylistic analysis which has always been an important art historical tool for dating, localizing and attribut-
ing works of art. For painting, stylistic observations have traditionally been limited to the surface but
technical examination and scientific analysis now reveal additional layers of information that may offer
a better and even different understanding of style. The symposium focussed on how technical research can
provide additional insights or challenges concerning the style of an individual painter, a workshop or
a group of painters. Stylistic similarities might indicate cultural, social, regional, or chronological connec-
tions in paintings, drawings, prints, applied arts, etc. as well as across artistic media.
The authors of the papers in these proceedings were dealing with different periods and localizations,
going from Netherlandish to Italian, Maltese, Spanish or even Eastern European painting, extending the
borders of such a subject. Two keynote lectures were presented during the symposium. In one of them,
Rachel Billinge presented an interesting case of collaboration between Sandro Botticelli and Filippino
Lippi in an Adoration of the Kings preserved in the National Gallery of London (NG592). You will not find
this paper in these proceedings because it was published earlier in the National Gallery Technical Bulletin
(vol. 41).

This symposium, the XXIInd of a series of prestigious conferences initiated in 1975, is the result of a fruitful
collaboration between the Musea Brugge, its Flemish Research Centre for the Arts in the Burgundian
Netherlands and the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL, Louvain-la-Neuve). Since 2009, the sympo-
sium is alternately organized by the UCL and Musea Brugge, the Illuminare Centre (KU Leuven) and the
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) and its Centre for the Study of the Flemish Primitives,
who hosted the XXIst symposium dedicated to Bruegel in 2018.

The proceedings of this XXIInd symposium are composed of twenty-three papers. I hope you will enjoy
reading them!

Anne Dubois
Ill. 1.1. Hugo van der Goes, Monforte Altarpiece, c. 1470-1475, oil on panel, 147.5 x 239 cm, Berlin, Staatliche Museen,
Gemäldegalerie
 1
Keynote Lecture
Hugo van der Goes’s Idiosyncrasies
and Maniera in Visible and in Infrared Light
Stephan Kemperdick
ABSTRACT: Hugo van der Goes is known for his innovative
compositions and his unprecedented colorism. However,
he also paid great attention to small, sometimes even
inconspicuous detail. Such details demand an extremely
attentive, close-up view of the paintings, and open up
new contexts of meaning. This interest in small details
and in their logic within the picture as a whole is a per-
sonal maniera of Hugo van der Goes, which is missing
with his successors, or was even ‘corrected’ by them.
Not all such details are visible to the naked eye; some of
them can only be revealed with the help of technically
generated images. They show the painter as an inventor
of unconventional formulations of traditional subjects.
—o—
Hugo van der Goes is an artist with a distinctive
style. His powerful, often monumental figures and
his subtle use of color clearly stand out from earlier
Netherlandish painting. A new emotionality char-
acterizes his figures, which seem to act as if alive
before us – which has even led to the assumption
that the artist was inspired by spiritual plays on the
stage. The shepherds in the central panel of the
Portinari Altarpiece (Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi,
inv. 3191, 3192, 3193) (ill. 1.5) are rough guys with
expressions that appear deeply moved; the shep-
herds in the Berlin Nativity (Staatliche Museen,
Gemäldegalerie, Kat.Nr. 1622A) (ill. 1.3) rush in
with naive enthusiasm and throw themselves on
their knees, as it were, while still running. In the
Bruges Death of the Virgin (Groeningemuseum,
inv. 0000.GRO0204.I), the apostles seem paralyzed
in their grief; they are so stunned that they cannot
communicate with each other. Each of them
remains for himself – but precisely in this way
they open up to the viewer the possibility of
participation.
At the same time, Hugo van der Goes was an
inventor of new figure motifs and memorable com-
positions. The numerous variants after his Monforte
Altarpiece (Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie,
Kat.Nr. 1718) (ill. 1.1), for example, from the
Master of Frankfurt and Hans Holbein the Elder to
Jan Gossart, testify that contemporaries also per-
ceived the altarpiece as something new and exem-
plary. Again and again, unusual motifs are found in
Hugo’s paintings. Famous are the two prophets
who pull aside curtains at the sides of the Berlin
Nativity, and although they have hardly found a
succession in the art of the period – perhaps they
were even too special – recent art historical research
has repeatedly felt challenged by them.1
Less well known, however, is that Hugo van der
Goes often paid great attention to small, sometimes
even inconspicuous details. Such details are not
mere enrichment or decoration, but often follow
a logic that is hardly ever found in the art of the
fifteenth century. To discover them requires an
4 stephan kemperdick
Ill. 1.2. Hugo van der Goes, Monforte Altarpiece (ill. 1.1),
detail: lower right corner of the panel
extremely attentive, often very close observation of
the paintings – significantly, the examples of such
details that will be discussed below have almost
never been mentioned in the literature. Neverthe-
less, they seem to have been important to the
painter. It is difficult to say whether he inserted
them merely out of his own idea of his pictures, as
necessary components for his concept of a com-
pleted picture, or whether he quite consciously
had his potential audience in mind. If he should
have had a more precise idea of the recipients of his
works, he seems to have imagined them as perse-
vering, intelligent beholders.
Among the motifs Hugo van der Goes payed
astonishing attention to are thresholds, bounda-
ries, and shoes. In the Monforte Altarpiece (ill. 1.1),
the smooth, screed-like ground forms a boundary
around the central group of the Virgin and Child
and the eldest king dressed in fiery red.2 But the tip
of the foot of the middle king protrudes into the
area of the main group and touches the train of
the red cloak. In this way, the painter not only
creates an interlocking of the pictorial elements in
the picture plane, but also indicates movement
toward the Mother of God and her Son. The
conspicuous left poulaine shoe of the youngest king
functions in a similar way, seeming to move its tip
almost independently and thus representing an
almost funny moment. Far less conspicuous are the
pointed shoes of the page behind the youngest
king; at the bottom, at the very right edge of the
picture, only the heel with spurs of the left shoe can
be seen, of the other the tip (ill. 1.2). If one directs
the attention, however, to these few square centi-
meters of the large panel, one sees there a rough
threshold hewn from gray stone, which demarcates
the place of the main action – to be understood as
a chamber in the former palace of King David –
from the outside area. But that is not all: from this
threshold rises a stone wall that ends above the
head of the page. It, in turn, has its meaning in the
narrative sequence of the picture: the procession of
the three Magi has approached from the left in the
background, moves behind the board fence in the
 hugo van der goes’s idiosyncrasies and
middle ground to the right, and from there swings
back to the left into the foreground. Two men on
the right edge of the panel are just coming out from
behind the wall. The one in the back, wearing a
conspicuous blue cap, is looking straight ahead
because he is still behind the wall that rises to the
upper edge of the picture, and therefore he cannot
see the group around the Blessed Mother. The man
in front of him, dressed in black, is also still walking
straight ahead – we can see his shoulders from the
front – but he turns his head in the direction of
the Adoration, because he has already arrived
behind the half-height piece of the wall and can
now look unhindered to the left. The stone thresh-
old on the floor, however, makes clear, if one has
discovered it, that even this man is not yet within
the actual area of the holy persons. Possibly the two
men portrayed are contemporaries of the painter
who are subtly set apart from the biblical events by
their spatial position. The little page, on the other
hand, is certainly not a role portrait, and he,
like the Magi and another anonymous servant, is
located in the district of the sacred event.
In the vicinity of the little page’s feet, however,
another curious detail can be spotted, a tiny section
of a metal blade, roughly where the youngest king’s
gold brocade gown and his green cloak meet. This
barely perceptible blade turns the wooden staff in
the page’s hands into a lance. This is a curious item
Ill. 1.3. Hugo van der Goes, Nativity, c. 1480, oil on panel, 99.2 x 249 cm, Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie
MANIERA in visible and in infrared light 5
in an Adoration, especially since no lances are
visible at all among the Magi’s attendants in the
background on the left. Moreover, the lance is too
small for a weapon, looking much more like an
attribute. Who or what this is supposed to mark,
however, remains mysterious.
More conspicuous borders than the ones just
described exist in the other large panel of Hugo van
der Goes in Berlin, the Nativity (ill. 1.3).3 To the
front, small walls on the right and left and a sheath
of wheat in the center visually delimit the altar table
that once was in front of the panel. More remark-
able, however, is the boundary between the inner
precinct of the stable with the holy persons and the
entrance on the left. The approaching shepherds
seem to run down over a kind of ramp, the material-
ity of which remains completely mysterious and
which separates the area of the saints from the out-
side world with a sharp line. Similar to the middle
king in the Monforte Altarpiece, the shepherd in front
crosses this boundary on the ground with his right
foot. Infrared reflectography (ill. 1.4) shows that the
painter gave importance to this spot and reworked it.
Initially, the shepherd’s foot was positioned a bit fur-
ther to the left, in front of the boundary line that
seems to have already existed, but then the artist
moved it further forward. This makes the composi-
tion more dynamic, and it also makes clear that the
shepherds will actually reach the Saviour.
6 stephan kemperdick
Ill. 1.4. Hugo van der Goes, Nativity (ill. 1.3), IRR, detail: left
foot of the foremost shepherd
Shoes also form highly interesting motifs in
Hugo’s huge Portinari Altarpiece (ill. 1.5), and they
are sophiticatedly used in a narrative context.4
Joseph’s wooden patten at the front left of the cen-
tral panel is striking, not least because it represents
an astonishing masterpiece of the art of painting
Ill. 1.5. Hugo van der Goes, Portinari Altarpiece, c. 1476/77-1480, oil on panel, c. 290 x 650 cm including frames, Florence,
Galleria degli Uffizi
(ill. 1.6a).5 Hugo has rendered the patten, glued
together from two pieces of wood, and its worn
underside with a tremendous, palpable presence
that is unparalleled in early Netherlandish paint-
ing. According to a schematic interpretation
devised by Erwin Panofsky, Joseph took off his
shoes because the Nativity took place on ‘holy
ground’.6 However, this interpretation is wrong.
Joseph has indeed taken off the left wooden shoe,
but still wears the right one, clearly visible on his
foot which protrudes from under the robe.7 Hugo
van der Goes has by no means worked here with an
alleged ‘disguised symbolism’, but has thought in an
astonishingly logical way about the visualization of
the depicted process: Joseph kneels before the
divine Child, with his left knee on the ground and
his right foot planted. In doing so, he has to bend
his left foot strongly and support himself on his
toes, which would of course be impossible with a
rigid patten. Quite rationally, then, the physical
realities of the posture of the figure are taken into
account in the depiction.
Joseph’s magnificently painted patten in the left
corner of the central panel has a far less obvious
counterpart on the right wing of the triptych,
which shows the donor, Maria Portinari, with her
daughter Margherita and the monumental figures
 hugo van der goes’s idiosyncrasies and MANIERA in visible and in infrared light 7

A B

Ill. 1.6. Hugo van der Goes, Portinari Altarpiece (ill. 1.5), details, A: central panel, Joseph’s left patten. B: right wing, mouth
of the dragon

of their two patron saints. In red there is Saint
Margaret, who, according to legend, was devoured
by a dragon, but when she made the sign of the
cross, came out of it again. A pictorial tradition
going back to the High Middle Ages therefore
presents the saint standing in or on the burst back
of the monster, while an end of her cloak hanging
out of its mouth indicates that the dragon had
devoured her before. In the fifteenth century this
tradition continued unbroken, and so the motif can
be found in Rogier van der Weyden as well as in
Lieven van Lathem, for example.8 Hugo’s idea and
ambition, however, was obviously to invent a new
iconography. To this end, he once again resorted to
shoes: instead of a piece of the saint’s garment, one
sees one of her leather overshoes in the throat of
his monster (ill. 1.6b), namely the left one, as the
position of the buckle reveals. Again, the physical
process of devouring is made logically vivid:
Margaret has disappeared headfirst into the maw,
in prone position, as would be likely. The left shoe
lost in the process therefore lies in the right side of
the jaw. The saint standing triumphantly on the
dragon quite consistently lets the remaining shoe
on her right foot peek out from under her robe. The
play with footwear, obviously fascinating to Hugo
van der Goes, has been rationally thought through
and has become a pictorial innovation. In fact, this
innovation itself is even more plausible than the
traditional motif, because Saint Margaret would
have to wear an incredibly long robe that still
protrudes from the dragon’s mouth while the saint
is already standing full size on its back.
In the oeuvre of Hugo van der Goes, however,
there are also details that are less to be understood
from a logic of pictorial narrative. Sometimes they
are quite peculiar, such as the cushion on which
Saint Genevieve is standing from the outside of
the Vienna Diptych (Kunsthistorisches Museum,
inv. GG 5822a).9 She is given, along with the
cushion, as a fictitious sculpture in a niche. But
why should Genevieve, who is not involved in any
narrative context, stand on a cushion? I assume
that the idea for the cushion, which is placed
obliquely and apparently protrudes beyond the pic-
ture surface, thus casting a shadow on the wall of
the niche, is inspired by Martin Schongauer’s early
copperplate engraving of the Virgin and Child with
the Parrot.10 This was made in the early 1470s,
perhaps six to eight years before the Vienna Diptych.
8 stephan kemperdick
The illusionistic motif does not appear in any
earlier Netherlandish work, as far as I can see, and
so it can hardly be a coincidence that it reappears
in Hugo’s – moreover, in a visually astonishingly
similar manner. In Schongauer’s work, the cushion
fits easily into the context of the picture, serving as
a soft seat for the Infant Jesus. Hugo van der Goes
seems to have liked the motif and was inspired to
use it in a completely different, almost whimsical
way as the plinth of a sculpture.
A comparably strange little detail is found in a
depiction of Hugo that has survived only in copies,
and it is a happy coincidence that we also come
across the reaction of a contemporary artist to this
detail. The so-called Adoration in front of the Stable in
the Hill probably was a late work of the painter. The
original is lost, but a copy preserved in Berlin
(Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, Kat.Nr. 546)
(ill. 1.7) gives an exact idea of it, even if it seems to
be somewhat reduced in scale. The square painting
in Berlin must have been made shortly after 1500
and has recently been convincingly linked by N. de
Vries to the painter Aert van den Bossche, who was
active first in Brussels, then in Bruges.11 The Virgin
with Child and Joseph are at the entrance of a ruin
built into a cave, the stable of Bethlehem. In front
of it the Magi have arrived with their entourage.
The oldest king kneels immediately in front of the
Virgin, whose area is delimited by a threshold. As
in the Monforte Altarpiece and the Berlin Nativity,
a boundary plays an important role here, and as in
those, it is crossed a bit by the king’s hat on one side,
and by the tail of Mary’s robe on the other. On the
other hand, the demarcation is strengthened by the
fact that a black band, which belongs to the clothing
of the oldest king, visually merges in a confusing way
with the dark bar of the threshold. In a quite com-
parable way, Hugo van der Goes also used a black
band in the donors’ wing of the Hippolytus Triptych
in Bruges (Sint-Salvatorskerk), begun by Dieric
Bouts. There it belongs to the hat of the donor,
Hippolyte de Berthoz, and marks, as it were, a space
around the donor couple to separate it from the ‘his-
torical’ scene on the adjoining panel on the right.12
Ill. 1.7. Copy after Hugo van der Goes
(Aert van den Bossche?), Nativity before the Stable in the Hill,
c. 1505-1515, oil on panel, 98 x 97 cm, Berlin,
Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie
In the Berlin copy of the Adoration in Front of
the Stable in the Hill, the eldest king has, comme il
faut, removed his hat in the presence of the
Madonna and placed it on the ground in front of
him. But it seems very strange that he also has
placed his gift, a gold goblet, on top of this hat.
This has again a slightly bizarre note. After the
same lost work of Hugo, a second painted copy has
survived which is by the hand of the Bruges painter
Gerard David and dates from around 1500 (Munich,
Alte Pinakothek, inv. 715) (ill. 1.8).13 In it, the
composition is stretched into a wider format. In
the individual motifs as well as in the colors, how-
ever, it is quite faithful, as the comparison with the
Berlin panel shows. In fact, David used tracings
that he had probably taken from the original, and
transferred them to his panel by pouncing, the so-
called spolvero technique. Infrared reflectography
shows dots indicating outlines throughout. If one
compares, for example, the mocking shepherd behind
the Magi in David’s underdrawing (ill. 1.9a-b) and
the Berlin copy, it becomes clear how accurately
the model must have been reproduced. David’s
depiction is considerably larger than the painting
 hugo van der goes’s idiosyncrasies and
Ill. 1.8. Gerard David, after Hugo van der Goes, Nativity before the Stable in the Hill, c. 1495-1505, oil on panel, 123.7 x 166 cm,
Munich, Alte Pinakothek
in Berlin, and since cartoons with tracings were
used, it probably reflects the original figure size. In
the case of the oldest king, however, David also
made a few changes, for example in the head which
he replaced with one of his own types. Remarkably,
the king’s gift is no longer placed on top of his
hat but next to it. In the pounced underdrawing
(ill. 1.10), however, the composition still looks the
same as in the Berlin copy: the goblet is placed on
top of the hat. David has thus quite deliberately
‘corrected’ here and transformed the unusual ele-
ment, which he obviously found disturbing, back
into something conventional. He has also moved
the black band from the king’s clothing so that it
now no longer runs into the dark threshold on the
floor. Hugo’s little idiosyncrasies were too unusual
for his follower.
MANIERA in visible and in infrared light 9
One last example of Hugo van der Goes’ unusual
inventions could only be determined with the help
of technically generated images, and it by no means
concerns a small detail. The panel with Saint Luke
Drawing the Virgin (Lisbon, Museu Nacional de
Arte Antiga, inv. 1459) (ill. 1.11) once formed the
left wing of a diptych whose counterpart with the
Madonna has not survived. The panel in Lisbon
has been repeatedly doubted as the work of the
famous painter and is often considered only a faith-
ful copy after a lost original.14 That this is not the
case is shown by various changes between under-
drawing and execution, which mainly concern the
position of the easel on the left in the background
and minor shifts in the folds of Saint Luke’s robe.
The panel also displays a very high painterly
quality and extremely refined coloration, such as in
10 stephan kemperdick

A B

Ill. 1.9. A: Gerard David, after Hugo van der Goes, Nativity before the Stable in the Hill (ill. 1.8), IRR, detail, shepherd.
B: Copy after Hugo van der Goes (Aert van den Bossche?), Nativity before the Stable in the Hill (ill. 1.7), detail, shepherd

the subtle differentiation of the various shades of

brown and gray in the furniture. Above all, how-
ever, the window in the background, located to the
left of the easel – which makes much sense from an
ergonomic point of view – has undergone a funda-
mental change. Where there is now a window
frame with leaded glass, there was originally an
open window. Both in infrared reflectography and
in radiography, we recognize the bust of a man
looking into the saintly painter’s studio from out-
side (ill. 1.12a-b). This bust is thus both under-
drawn and executed in paint, although it is not
possible to tell whether the figure was finished – at
least the painting stage must have been quite
advanced, since the radiography shows the model-
ing of the face and the light falling on the neck and
shoulders of the figure from behind, while in the
infrared reflectography the haircut is visible. The
man’s features are difficult to discern. He has a
Ill. 1.10. Gerard David, after Hugo van der Goes, Nativity
rather full, somewhat chubby face, but does not before the Stable in the Hill (ill. 1.8), IRR, detail: the eldest
appear to be an old man. It remains unclear whether king’s hat and gift
hugo van der goes’s idiosyncrasies and MANIERA in visible and in infrared light 11

Ill. 1.11. Hugo van der Goes, Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin, c. 1475, oil on panel, 104.5 x 62.8 cm,
Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga
12 stephan kemperdick

A B

Ill. 1.12. Hugo van der Goes, Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin (ill. 1.11), detail, window, A: IRR. B: X-radiograph

the subsequent overpainting with a closed glass
window was done while the work was still in pro-
gress or whether it was done later, possibly with a
greater time lag. At first glance, the window visible
today fits in well with the painting. However, while
the execution appears accurate, it is by no means
as subtle as the rest of the painting: the whitish
reflections that suggest the irregularities of the
lozange-shaped glass panes seem somewhat arbi-
trary, and the lead rods between the panes make an
insubstantial impression. It is therefore possible
that we are dealing with an overpainting executed
later by another hand. The fact that such an impor-
tant change exists at all once again refutes the
assumption that the panel is merely a copy. At the
same time, the motif of the man looking into the
room is unique. Such an invention is perfectly
suited to an artist who, in the Berlin Nativity, has
two prophets pull curtains aside and, in the Porti-
nari Altarpiece, transforms the traditional iconogra-
phy of Saint Margaret into a new variant.
At the same time the question is raised whom
the man formerly in the window should represent.
Since he is looking over the shoulder of Saint Luke,
the patron and model of all Christian painters, it
seems natural to see in him a painter as well – a
contemporary painter, since he remains outside of
Luke’s studio and thus outside the space where
the saint and Our Lady with her Son are dwelling.
As in other paintings by Hugo van der Goes, a
boundary is marked here: Similar to the two men
on the right edge of the Monforte Altarpiece, who
 hugo van der goes’s idiosyncrasies and
are in front of the threshold to the realm of Our
Lady, the figure in the window can only look into
the room of the saints.
Sometimes, a self-portrait of Hugo van der Goes
is suspected in the figure of the Lisbon Saint Luke,
but this can be excluded. He has the features of the
same saint in the Saint Luke panel by Rogier van
der Weyden, painted around 1440, from whose
composition Hugo was inspired for the entire paint-
ing. Instead, the man looking through windows,
thus placing himself as it were in the succession of
Saint Luke, is well conceivable as a self-portrait of
the artist. Subsequent works that would have taken
up this pictorial invention and could thus provide
information about its meaning are not known. Per-
haps the innovation was too unusual, and perhaps
that is why the bust was painted over. I know of
only two, considerably later examples of Saint Luke
paintings, unrelated to the Lisbon panel, that can
remotely be compared. One, painted long after
Raphael’s death and to be understood as a tribute
to the revered master, shows Luke at the easel in
the foreground, capturing an apparition of the Vir-
gin in a painting (Rome, Accademia Nazionale di
San Luca). Behind him, easily recognizable, stands
Raphael, watching the saint over his shoulder.15
Around 1556, Frans Floris painted a Saint Luke in
the Studio (Antwerp, KMSKA, inv. 114), to which,
according to Karel van Mander, he gave the fea-
tures of the old painter Rijckart Aertsz; in the
background, Floris apparently portrayed himself as
a journeyman just grinding paint.16
Hugo van der Goes served as dean of the paint-
ers’ guild in Ghent from July 1474 until at least
August 1475.17 A relatively large depiction of Saint
Luke undoubtedly fits very well in the context of a
guild of Saint Luke, and the Ghent guild had its
own chapel dedicated to the saintly painter at the
Dominican Church. It is possible that Hugo van
der Goes painted his Saint Luke for the guild chapel
not long before he retired to the Roode Klooster
near Brussels around 1476. A self-portrait on the
panel would be conceivable, especially if the
painter himself should have been the donor.
MANIERA in visible and in infrared light 13
Admittedly, these considerations must remain
hypothesis for lack of written evidence.
With his compositions and figures, Hugo van
der Goes inspired painters well into the sixteenth
century, and his coloristic refinements were later
echoed by Gerard David and Quentin Massys as
well as by Jan Gossart. The situation is different,
however, with his small, idiosyncratic motifs,
which were not only not taken up by later painters,
but in some cases even made to disappear. Hugo
himself, however, clearly paid some attention to
them. They can certainly be seen as part of the
painter’s highly personal maniera, not in the least
because of the fact that an artist like Gerard David
quite deliberately ‘corrected’ one of these motifs.
By means of technical investigations we learn far
more about this ideosyncrasies of Hugo van der
Goes than from the mere surface of his paintings.
They reveal Gerard David’s handling of a curious
motif of Hugo’s, and they show us that the Saint
Luke of the Ghent master was originally one of the
most unusual representations of the patron saint of
painters that have survived from the Netherlands.
NOTES
1 Panofsky 1953, 1, pp. 337-340; Lane 1975; Moffit 1986;
Dhanens 1998, pp. 140-143; Ridderbos 2007, pp. 7-9; Buskirk 2014,
pp. 5-6.
2 C. 1470-1475. See: Berlin 2023, nr. 2.
3 C. 1480. See: Berlin 2023, nr. 27.
4 See: Dhanens 1998, pp. 250-301; Capron 2023.
5 I am extremely grateful to Emma Capron, London, for provid-
ing me with detail photos.
6 Panofsky 1953, 1, p. 333. The reference is to Moses in front of
the burning bush whom God ordered to take off his shoes.
7 Leaving aside the fact that Joseph is still wearing his leather
shoes on both his feet!
8 Rogier van der Weyden, Saints Apolonia and Margaret, c. 1460,
Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, Kat.Nr. 534C. See: Berlin
2008, nr. 36. Lieven van Lathem, Saint Margaret, in Prayerbook
of Charles the Bold, 1469, Los Angeles, Getty Museum, Ms. 37 (89.
ML.35), fol. 49v.
9 See: Berlin 2023, nr. 15.
10 Kemperdick 2004, pp. 41-44.
11 De Vries 2017, pp. 33-50; Berlin 2023, nr. 24.
12 See: Berlin 2023, nr. 17.
13 C. 1500-1510. See: Ainsworth 1998, pp. 47-52.
14 For example: Winkler 1964, pp. 221-226; Lievens-De Waegh
1991, pp. 144-166; Dhanens 1998, pp. 121-125; Brussels 2013, nr. 27,
the latter with some reservations.
15 Waźbiński 1985.
16 De Klerck 2011.
17 Dhanens 1998, pp. 388-389.
A

Ill. 2.1. Rogier van der Weyden, The Lamentation of Christ, c. 1460-1464, oil on panel, 80.6 x 130.1 cm, The Hague, Mauritshuis.
A: Photography. B: IRR-IRC912
 2
The Underdrawing of the Lamentation of Christ
Revisited
Carol Pottasch, Kirsten Derks, Kathryn A. Dooley and John K. Delaney
A BSTRACT : The Lamentation of Christ, attributed to Rogier
van der Weyden and studio, was recently subjected to
extensive technical research, which included making
new infrared reflectograms made with the Osiris camera
and the multispectral IRC912 camera with a bandpass
filter. The reflectograms made with these state-of-
the-art infrared systems allowed for the identification
of three different stages of underdrawing and provided
us with new insights into the working practices of
Rogier van der Weyden’s studio. The underdrawing of
the Lamentation of Christ is compared to those of five
paintings by Rogier van der Weyden in other collections.
This showed that in most paintings in the Van der
Weyden group, at least two, but sometimes even three
stages of underdrawing could be identified as well as
the participation of multiple hands. This suggests that
assistants and students were taught a type of studio or
workshop style of drawing. Examination of underdraw-
ings in the Van der Weyden group also showed that,
while each painting is an entirely new composition,
certain motifs recur several times.
—o—
Introduction
The Lamentation of Christ (ill. 2.1a) in the collec-
tion of the Mauritshuis in The Hague was recently
subjected to extensive technical research to study
the materials and techniques used by the artist.
This was carried out in the conservation studio of
the Mauritshuis between 2016 and 2018 preceding
a conservation and restoration treatment.1 The
technical research included new infrared reflecto-
grams (IRR) (ill. 2.1b) made using the Osiris infra-
red camera2 as well as a shortwave infrared multi-
spectral IRC912 camera with spectral bandpass
(1500 to 1800 nm) filter.3 The painting, neither
signed nor dated, is attributed to Rogier van der
Weyden (c. 1399/1400-1464) and his studio and
is often dated to c. 1460-1464.
The first researcher that examined the under-
drawing of the Lamentation of Christ with IRR was
J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer. In the context of his
Ph. Diss. thesis, Van Asperen de Boer had studied
the underdrawing of the Lamentation of Christ with
various IR-cameras he adapted for this purpose.4
Later, using his Hamamatsu vidicon and with a
NWO grant he systematically studied the painting
technique and underdrawings of works of art by the
Master of Flémalle5 and Rogier van der Weyden.6
Recognizing similarities with the underdrawings of
the Descent from the Cross (Madrid, Museo del
Prado, inv. P002825), the Crucifixion in Philadel-
phia (Philadelphia Museum of Art, John G. John-
son Collection, acc. nr. 334-335) and the Entomb-
ment in Florence (Galleria degli Uffizi, inv.
00285820), he attributed that of the Mauritshuis
Lamentation to Rogier van der Weyden.
This paper, building forth on Van Asperen de
Boer’s groundbreaking research into the under-
drawings in paintings attributed to Rogier van der
Weyden,7 deals with the following:
– With the Osiris camera and, even more so, the
multispectral IRC912 camera with a bandpass
16 carol pottasch, kirsten derks, kathryn a. dooley and john k. delaney
filter, we could visualize the underdrawing with
a higher resolution and more uniform lighting.
This allowed for the identification of three
different stages of underdrawing. Combining
our perceptions with the examination of cross-
sections made it possible to recognize the differ-
ent materials used to make the underdrawing.
This provides us with information about work-
shop practices, but more importantly it raises
the question whether different hands might
have been at work.
– The infrared images and the findings about the
different stages will be compared to those from
five paintings by Rogier van der Weyden in
other collections. This will further clarify work-
ing methods in the studio of Rogier van der
Weyden and it will help with the question
regarding attribution of the Lamentation of Christ.
– Lastly, we will demonstrate the reuse of several
motifs, including the face of a female figure that
appears in several works by Rogier van der Wey-
den and his studio. These recurring motifs shed
more light on the working practice in Rogier’s
studio. This may also help answer questions
regarding dating the paintings attributed to
Rogier, as a development in those recurring
motifs can be seen.
This paper deals with the question whether study-
ing the underdrawing can provide more informa-
tion on the attribution of the Lamentation of Christ.
Subject and attribution
The scene of the Lamentation of Christ is set in a
Flemish landscape. Christ has been taken from the
cross and is supported by Joseph of Arimathea on
the left and Nicodemus on the right side. In the
heart of the composition, the desolate Mary kneels
beside Christ, supported by Saint John. On the
left side, three grieving Marys let their tears flow.
On the right side, the donor (who presumably com-
missioned the painting) kneels near Christ’s feet
while Saints Peter and Paul stand behind him.
There has been much debate about the attribu-
tion of the Lamentation of Christ. In the early nine-
teenth century, the painting had been attributed
first to Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441) and then to
Hans Memling (c. 1430-1494). It was G. Waagen
who first attributed it to Rogier van der Weyden.8
After him, M.J. Friedländer and B. Broos came to
the same conclusion.9 Other scholars believed it to
be a lesser product from the workshop or followers
of Rogier.10 For dating the painting authors resorted
to the identification of the donor, which – depend-
ing on the bishop – could vary from 1440 to 1509.11
However, Van Asperen de Boer’s attribution of the
underdrawing to Rogier van der Weyden dates the
work firmly in his lifetime. This was tentatively
accepted by both D. de Vos and H. Mund.12 Pres-
ently, based on technical research, it has been pro-
posed by the Mauritshuis that the painting (both
underdrawing and paint layers) can be attributed to
Rogier van der Weyden and his studio.13
Infrared research and works by Rogier van der
Weyden
Infrared photography (IR) and traditional reflec-
tography (IRR) have been used extensively to
examine the underdrawing in works of early Neth-
erlandish artists,14 who often applied their under-
drawing in a black material (such as black chalk or
charcoal) on a white ground. Both techniques visu-
alize the absorption and reflection of infrared radi-
ation invisible to the human eye. An underdrawing
is usually not visible to the naked eye. IR and IRR
can visualize the underdrawing, making use of
infrared radiation that penetrates the paint layers
and is absorbed by the black lines of the under-
drawing or reflected by the white ground layer.
IR and IRR are not able to visualize an underdraw-
ing done in white or red chalk. An underdrawing
can be executed in a dry or wet material. Although
it is hard to distinguish between the methods of
application, sometimes the difference is visible in
the thickness of lines, dark parts of lines where the
brush was full at the beginning, or by the thinness
of dry lines that were partly brushed away during
the application of the paint. It should be noted that
the pigments present in the paint layers, as well as
 the underdrawing of the LAMENTATION OF CHRIST
the thickness of those paint layers, may affect the
penetration of the infrared radiation. For example,
dark paint absorbs the infrared before it can pene-
trate the paint layers, and therefore may mask
the underdrawing. Paint containing dark pigment
thus affects the appearance of the lines of the
underdrawing.
In traditional infrared reflectography a spectral
filter is used to block visible light and the infrared
spectral region collected is determined by the cam-
era and lens alone. Research conducted by several
groups has found that narrowing the spectral range
to approximately 1500 to 2000 nm can provide the
optimal contrast between the underdrawings and
ground when covered by pigmented paint layers.15
The collection of infrared reflectograms in narrow
spectral bands (about 50 nm to a few 100 nm) is
often referred to as multispectral infrared reflecto-
graphy. In this study both traditional IRR with an
Osiris camera and multispectral IRR with an
IRC912 camera and three spectral bandpass filters
(1100 to 1400 nm, 1500 to 1800 nm and 2100 to
2400 nm) were used. This resulted in a clearer
image of the Lamentation of Christ underdrawing
which facilitated identification of the lines.
Starting in the 1960s, Van Asperen de Boer car-
ried out extensive research into the underdrawing
of the Lamentation of Christ16 and other paintings in
the Rogier van der Weyden group. This culminated
in the 1992 edition of the Nederlands Kunst-
historisch Jaarboek, which was completely devoted
to the underdrawings in paintings from the Rogier
van der Weyden and Master of Flémalle groups. In
this publication, Van Asperen de Boer showed that
‘the stylistic distance between the Master of Flémalle
group and the Rogier van der Weyden group seem[ed]
great enough for a clear distinction to be drawn’.17
However, he also concluded that ‘it is difficult to
align the underdrawings of the Rogier van der Weyden
group stylistically’ with each other, as could be
expected given the existence of a workshop.18
Based on their underdrawing, Van Asperen de
Boer came to important conclusions regarding the
attribution of paintings in the Van der Weyden
revisited 17
group. These conclusions were based on images
produced with state-of-the-art IRR equipment
back then, yet it should be noted that this equip-
ment had some drawbacks. Namely, it was impos-
sible to capture the entirety of a painting at once:
only small parts of a painting could be recorded at
a time, resulting in compositions of small images
with varying lighting conditions. Van Asperen de
Boer’s continuing research led to the improvement
of IRR systems that continues until today.19 The
main improvement of the new systems, such as the
Osiris camera, is that they can capture underdraw-
ings in a much higher spatial resolution and with a
larger field of view, while the software can auto-
matically merge up to 64 images with homogene-
ous lighting conditions. The IRC912 camera sys-
tem with its optimized lens also provides high
spatial resolution (up to 50 micrometers per pixel
at the painting surface) but allows the capture of
IR images further out in the infrared compared to
the Osiris (2500 nm versus 1700 nm) and can
accommodate spectral filters noted above.
In the current IRR study of the Lamentation of
Christ, approximately 12 images were collected with
the Osiris camera and merged to make the com-
plete reflectogram. For the multispectral IRC912
camera 130 IR images were collected with each filter
and the reflectograms constructed using custom
image registration software.20 All of the reflecto-
grams acquired with the two camera systems show
the underdrawing more clearly than prior studies
thus allowing for more in-depth understanding of
their role in the artistic process. The reflectogram
made with the images from the IRC912 camera
with the 1500 to 1800 nm spectral band pass filter
were the clearest and used for the image examples
in this paper.
Three stages of underdrawing
Already in 1966, when the underdrawing of the
Lamentation of Christ was first visualized by Van
Asperen de Boer, it was noted that the painting is
extensively underdrawn.21 Van Asperen de Boer
mentioned that two ‘systems of underdrawn lines’ are
18 carol pottasch, kirsten derks, kathryn a. dooley and john k. delaney
present.22 Both ‘systems’ were applied in a wet
medium. The underdrawing is clearly a sketch done
freehand: no tracings or pouncing were found.
Moreover, throughout the creative process, several
changes to the composition have been made. These
changes did not only occur during the underdraw-
ing stage, but also in the first painting stage.23 In
2016 and 2019, before and after conservation treat-
ment, new infrared reflectograms of the Lamenta-
tion of Christ were made using the Osiris infrared
camera. These reflectograms revealed that not only
two, but even a third stage of underdrawing is
present. The different stages of the underdrawing
can be distinguished by material, but also in style
and function.
Stage 1
Van Asperen de Boer already noted that his detailed
reflectograms taken in 1979 showed that there are
two stages of underdrawing.24 The first stage was
described by Van Asperen de Boer as ‘probably the
first design of the composition, which was later rein-
forced and modified’.25 As part of the recent techni-
cal examination, the lines that we attribute to stage
1 were digitally overlaid onto the infrared image
(ill. 2.2a). This shows that all figures were already
present and drawn to some extent in this stage:
they were all planned from the beginning, and it
shows that no figure was added during the under-
drawing stage. This stage of the underdrawing is
most visible where the lines deviate in the next
stage, and is no longer visible everywhere because
it was worked up and thus partially covered, or
erased, at later stages in the creative process.
A characteristic of the first stage of underdraw-
ing is the sketchy appearance of the lines. The artist
applied these lines in a loose manner, as if search-
ing for the right placement and shape of the figures.
He also applied long and rapid, slightly irregular
hatching for shadows. Another characteristic of
stage 1 is the use of construction lines: for example,
in the chest of Christ (ill. 2.2b), where a couple of
lines act as guides for the correct shape and model-
ling of the chest. Similar lines can also be seen on
Mary Magdalene’s chest and drapery and in the
shoulder of the seated Mary. This seated Mary was
originally drawn with long curly hair. Later, during
a different stage of the underdrawing, this long hair
was omitted in favor of a scarf draped as a turban
(ill. 2.2c).
The lines in the first stage of underdrawing
were executed in what appears to be a dry medium.
This is a divergent interpretation of the drawing
material of the lines: Van Asperen de Boer had
noted that the lines ‘look thinner and greyer […]
seem to have been made with a thinner brush’. In our
new reflectograms they have a faint, grey color and
show an irregularity characteristic for a dry
medium, such as black chalk or charcoal. Addi-
tionally, the lines of this stage are very thin and
even in color: no reloading of the brush is visible.
Moreover, in several of the paint cross-sections
from the Lamentation of Christ, small black parti-
cles were identified that may indicate the use of
a dry medium for the underdrawing. One paint
sample was taken in Mary Magdalene’s mantle,
where this first stage of underdrawing was detected.
In the cross-section, fine black particles are pre-
sent on top of the intermediary or isolating layer,
suggesting a dry material like black chalk (ill. 2.2e-
f). A similar way of working was found in the
Ghent Altarpiece where the initial sketches were
also made with a dry material.26
Stage 2
In the second stage of underdrawing, the artist
accentuated the placement of most figures and
included some of the details of the composition,
such as the faces of the figures, the fold lines in the
clothing and the jar of ointment in the foreground
(ill. 2.3a). The appearance in IR of this stage of
underdrawing can be characterized by long flowing
lines in a wet medium. They freely expand on the
clothing, faces and hair and sometimes carefully
trace the clothing. Examples of these long flowing
lines are visible in the clothing of Mary Magdalene
and Saint John (ill. 2.3b-c). Noteworthy is
the repositioning of Christ’s left foot to a flatter
 the underdrawing of the
position. Additionally, some details in the clothing
were also added in this stage: the artist drew the
frills of the cloak of Nicodemus and made new folds
for Mary’s dress behind her.
Moreover, stage 2 is also the underdrawing stage
in which the artist continues to prepare modelling:
by adding several kinds of hatching, the artist pre-
pared light and shadows. The hatching of stage 2 is
a loose kind of hatching. The artist used long, fluid
lines, which he carefully placed next to each other.
Shadows in the clothing can be indicated with
saw-tooth hatching (visible in the clothing of
Nicodemus and Mary Magdalene) and short
curved hatching in hands (ill. 2.3b-c). The hatch-
ing is rather curved, as opposed to the hatching
of stage 3, which is discussed below. The second
stage is also the stage in which the artist added
the background landscape. With loose lines, he
added bushes and hills, as well as some buildings.
In one of the samples mounted as a cross-section
(taken from the mantle of Saint John), underdraw-
ing from stage 2 is present. Black particles are
dispersed in an otherwise unpigmented layer
(approximately 10μm thick) that fluoresces in UV
(ill. 2.3d-e).
Van Asperen de Boer did not make a distinction
between the second and the third stage. He wrote
that ‘the clothing shows an extensive use of fold lines
ending in hooks, double hooks, harins, T-shaped
nail-head and almost closed loops’, and described the
various sorts of hatching.27 He also observed that
the lines ‘were not always rendered with a single
stroke, and sometimes quaver’. In our perception,
these quavering lines appear to belong to a third
stage.
Stage 3
The third and final stage of underdrawing can be
characterized as a stage in which the artist brought
more clarity to the composition. Using thick and
angular lines, applied in a wet medium, the artist
clarified the underdrawing from stage 1 and 2.
Often, the lines of stage 3 are very straight and end
in angular hooks. The hatching from the third
LAMENTATION OF CHRIST revisited 19
stage is more rigid in character than that of stage 2.
Hatching is applied perpendicular to the contour
lines to indicate shadow areas. The third stage of
underdrawing is visualized in red in ill. 2.4a.
Lines of the third stage appear quite dark in the
reflectograms. Sometimes the lines of stage 3 trace
jaunty lines of stage 2. Sometimes they appear to
amplify the rigidity of the fabrics, such as in the
heavy brocade garment of Nicodemus, or the
fur-lined skirt of the standing Mary (ill. 2.4b-c).
These corrections are not always followed in the
later painting stage, as can be seen in the skirt of
the standing Mary. Here, thick and angular lines of
stage 3 indicate a complicated system of folds in the
skirt; however, in the painting stage, these folds
were never realized. The overlay shows that stage 3
was only a correcting and clarifying (such as
emphasizing the rigid fabric of Nicodemus’ cloak)
stage: no elements in the composition have been
added during this stage. Instead, the artist made
some changes to the already existing composition
for the sake of clarity. Examples are the white
collar in Paul’s garment which is also painted, and
the neckline of Peter’s drapery that was left in its
original higher position. Stage 3 can thus also be
described as a tracing stage.
A paint sample taken from the red brocade robe
of the donor included the underdrawing of stage 3
(ill. 2.4e-f), apparently on top of stage 2 under-
drawing. In the ultraviolet image, it can be seen
that the fine black particles are dispersed in a fluo-
rescing medium. Comparing stage 2 and 3 in the
cross-sections, it appears that the black layer of
stage 3 is much thicker (c. 25-30 μm) than that of
stage 2. Additionally, the particles are dispersed in
a larger amount of binding medium than in stage 2.
The cross-sections show that each stage of
underdrawing can be differentiated. The first stage
of underdrawing is most likely executed in a dry
material, as pigment particles but no binding
medium can be seen in the cross-section. The two
other cross-sections show that the second and third
stages of underdrawing show a pigment dispersed in
a binding medium, indicating that a wet material
20 carol pottasch, kirsten derks, kathryn a. dooley and john k. delaney

B C D

E F

Ill. 2.2. Rogier van der Weyden, The Lamentation of Christ (ill. 2.1a). A: IRR-Osiris with underdrawing of stage 1 in green.
B: IRR-IRC912, detail, Christ. C: IRR-IRC912, detail, seating woman. D: IRR-IRC912, detail, Virgin (green arrows indicating
underdrawing of stage 1). E: cross-section of the blue robe of Saint Peter (400x), layer 2 corresponding with the underdrawing
of stage 1. F: cross-section of the red robe of Mary Magdalen (200x), layer 2 corresponding with the underdrawing of stage 1
 the underdrawing of the LAMENTATION OF CHRIST revisited 21

B C D

E F

Ill. 2.3. Rogier van der Weyden, The Lamentation of Christ (ill. 2.1a). A: IRR-Osiris with underdrawing of stage 2 in blue.
B: IRR-IRC912, detail, Mary Magdalen. C: IRR-IRC912, detail, Saint Peter. D: IRR-IRC912, detail, Virgin and Saint John
the Evangelist (blue arrows indicating underdrawing of stage 2). E: cross-section of the red mantle of Saint John
(200x), layer 2 corresponding with the underdrawing of stage 2. F: same cross-section under UV light (200x)
22 carol pottasch, kirsten derks, kathryn a. dooley and john k. delaney

B C D

E F

Ill. 2.4. Rogier van der Weyden, The Lamentation of Christ (ill. 2.1a). A: IRR-Osiris with underdrawing of stage 3 in red.
B: IRR-IRC912, detail, holy woman. C: IRR-IRC912, detail, Virgin. D: IRR-IRC912, detail, Saint Paul (red arrows indicating
underdrawing of stage 3). E: cross-section of the red brocade robe of the donor (200x), layer 1 corresponding with
the underdrawing of stage 3. F: same cross-section under UV light (200x)
 the underdrawing of the
was used. Taking cross-sections thus may help in
the identification of the material used for the
underdrawing. Although it should be noted that it
is quite difficult to take a paint sample that includes
the underdrawing and that the thickness of a
specific paint layer may vary.
Underdrawing and workshop practice
The three stages of underdrawing each have a
different character and serve a different purpose.
They appear to have been executed by different
hands. It is hard to imagine that the hand drawing
with flowing and curved lines analogue to those of
the first and second stage, is the same hand drawing
the straight, thick lines ending in hooks of the
third stage. Rogier van der Weyden had a large
studio, in which multiple assistants were active. It
is conceivable that several hands were involved in
the underdrawing stage of his work, perhaps with
specific people specialized in faces or garments.
The three stages and their specific function
can best be grasped when looking at the seated
Mary. In this detail, the first stage of underdraw-
ing was applied as the first sketch of the figure
(ill. 2.5). The artist used thin, flowing lines to
draw the outlines of the figure and the most
important lines of her clothing. Curly hair, hang-
ing from the shoulder of Mary was also included,
as were the folds in her garment behind her. The
lines have a sketchy character, with the artist
going over the same line several times. The second
stage of underdrawing was applied to clarify the
main contours of the woman and her clothing.
These lines are slightly thicker than those of the
first stage. They are long and flowing, and the
artist applied these with confidence. Sometimes,
they trace the first stage for emphasis. These two
stages, one in a dry material, the other in a wet
material, seem to follow each other in a logical
way; the first method lays out the composition,
the second makes it more definite. The third stage
was then applied in even thicker, bold lines. These
lines trace the second stage, to make the outline
LAMENTATION OF CHRIST revisited 23
of the figure clear but also introduce changes.
Examples of this are the diamond shaped shadow
underneath the seated Mary’s proper right arm
and the many folds drawn in the proper left sleeve.
The application of these lines is much more
restrained. The lines are composed out of several
lines, they are often very rigid and are not flowing.
They often end in hooks and have a more rigid
character than the loose L-shaped lines of stage 2.
This appears to indicate that they were drawn by
a different hand.
Similar stages and stylistic discrepancies in the
underdrawing of the Lamentation of Christ can also
be found in other works of the Van der Weyden
group, as Van Asperen de Boer already indicated
with respect to Descent from the Cross (Madrid,
Museo del Prado).28 However, multiple stages of
underdrawing can be distinguished in virtually all
paintings attributed to the master. This suggests
that collaboration between the master and his
assistants and students in all stages of the creative
process was standard practice. In the following, the
underdrawings of several paintings attributed to
Rogier van der Weyden will be discussed. These
will set out a framework against which the Lamen-
tation of Christ can be compared in order to gain a
better understanding of the attribution and date of
the Mauritshuis panel.
Comparisons between the underdrawing of
the Lamentation of Christ and other paintings
attributed to Rogier van der Weyden
Due to the limited space in this paper, we will
discuss a selection of works generally attributed to
Rogier van der Weyden. These are the Descent from
the Cross (Madrid, Museo del Prado), the Miraflores
Altarpiece, the Middelburg Altarpiece (both Berlin,
Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, respectively
Kat. nr. 534 and 535), the Entombment (Florence,
Galleria degli Uffizi) and the Pietà (Brussels, Royal
Museums of Fine Arts, inv. 3515). These paintings
were chosen because they are generally accepted in
the oeuvre by the master (and his studio), but (in
24 carol pottasch, kirsten derks, kathryn a. dooley and john k. delaney

Ill. 2.5. Rogier van der Weyden, The Lamentation of Christ (ill. 2.1a). IRR-IRC912, detail: green arrows indicating underdrawn
lines belonging to stage 1, blue arrows for stage 2 and red arrows for stage 3
 the underdrawing of the LAMENTATION OF CHRIST
some cases) there has been some debate. Compar-
ing these underdrawings to that of the Lamentation
of Christ shows that they exhibit a comparable
approach, as all underdrawings show several stages
and/or hands. This might help clarify stylistic differ-
ences in the paintings. The relation with Rogier’s
workshop practices is described in the following
section.
The Descent from the Cross29 is perhaps Rogier van
der Weyden’s best-known work and is accepted
as an authentic work (ill. 2.6a). Its history and
provenance are well documented.30 The infrared
reflectogram of the Descent from the Cross shows
a seemingly spontaneously and rapidly executed
underdrawing (ill. 2.6b).31 Different types of lines
can be identified. Some are thin and flowing,
curvy or long, while others are bolder and more
strained. Closer examination of the reflectogram
allowed us to distinguish three stages of under-
drawing. First, Rogier used sketchy and thin lines
to indicate the position and outlines of (some of)
the figures, such as to determine the general out-
line of the figure of Christ. The lines of this first
stage are thin and rapidly applied, creating a sum-
mary line drawing. It is possible that this first stage
was applied using a dry medium, as was previously
suggested by A.G. Mozo.32 In the face of Joseph of
Arimathea, the second stage of underdrawing is
visible. This stage, executed in a liquid medium,
can be characterized by its flowing and curving
lines. The lines were applied to reinforce the first
stage and redefine the initial composition. The
third stage is visible in the thick lines defining the
contours and shadows in the soldier’s sleeve. These
different lines are indicated by respectively green,
blue and red arrows in ill. 2.6b. The different
stages of underdrawing and their style are compa-
rable to the Mauritshuis Lamentation of Christ. The
first stage of underdrawing in a dry material was
used to establish the first sketch of the composi-
tion, which was corrected and clarified in the sec-
ond and third stage of underdrawing using a wet
medium.
revisited 25
The Miraflores Altarpiece33 is considered one of
the finest works by Rogier (ill. 2.6c). Publications
by R. Grosshans, K. Dyballa and S. Kemperdick,
which included infrared reflectograms of the
Miraflores Altarpiece, demonstrated that the paint-
ing contains many creative changes.34 On the
three panels of the Miraflores Altarpiece, several
stages of underdrawing can be distinguished. On
the right panel showing Christ Appearing to his
Mother Mary (ill. 2.6d), thin and sketchy lines were
found in the face of Christ. These lines represent
a first, preliminary sketch of the figures. They
are visually reminiscent of the first stage of under-
drawing in the Mauritshuis Lamentation of Christ,
as visible in the seated Mary. At the same time,
lines with a different character can also be detected
in the same panel of the Miraflores Altarpiece. For
example, thicker lines applied in a liquid medium
in Christ’s drapery. They appear to have been
applied on top of thinner lines of a first stage
(ill. 2.6e-f). Moreover, different hands can also
be distinguished. In the center panel, representing
the Lamentation of Christ, insecurely applied
lines can be seen in the drapery of Saint John.
We see that this draughtsman tried to mimic the
style of the underdrawing in other parts of the
Miraflores Altarpiece, resulting in quavering lines.35
The Middelburg or Bladelin Altarpiece,36 hereafter
called the Middelburg Altarpiece, is accepted as by
Rogier van der Weyden, although some scholars
have doubted its authenticity (ill. 2.7a).37 The
reflectogram shows that the composition is under-
drawn extensively, and the artist made some
changes to it during the creative process (ill. 2.7b).
Again, several stages or hands of underdrawing
can be distinguished that are likely all executed in
a liquid medium. Lines comparable to those of
second stage in the Mauritshuis Lamentation of
Christ can be found in the center panel. These long
and flowing lines in Mary’s drapery are comparable
to those in the Virgin Mary’s dress and Mary
Magdalene’s dress of the Lamentation of Christ. Not
only are these long flowing lines present in the
26 carol pottasch, kirsten derks, kathryn a. dooley and john k. delaney

A B

D E F

Ill. 2.6. A: Rogier van der Weyden, Descent from the Cross, before 1443, oil on panel, 204 x 261 cm, Madrid, Museo del Prado.
A: red rectangle indicating the area shown in B. B: IRR, green arrows indicating underdrawing lines belonging to stage 1,
blue arrow for stage 2 and red arrow for stage 3. C: Rogier van der Weyden, Miraflores Altarpiece, c. 1440, oil on panel,
71 x 129 cm, Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie. D: Rogier van der Weyden, Christ Appearing to His Mother,
right panel of Rogier van der Weyden Miraflores Altarpiece (ill. 2.6c), red rectangles indicating the details shown in E and F.
E: Rogier van der Weyden, Christ Appearing to His Mother (ill. 2.6d), IRR, detail, green and blue arrows indicating first and
second underdrawing stage. F: IRR, detail, blue and red arrows indicating second and third underdrawing stage
 the underdrawing of the LAMENTATION OF CHRIST
Middelburg Altarpiece. There is a second system of
underdrawn lines present, which seems to have
been applied to correct and clarify these long lines.
With thick brushstrokes in a liquid medium, a
draughtsman goes over the already mentioned thin
and flowing lines. The later system of underdraw-
ing has a more rigid character, with the lines being
straight and harsh, which is most pronounced in
the mantle of the Virgin behind her.
The Entombment38 is generally attributed to Rogier
van der Weyden (ill. 2.7c). Due to the obvious
Italian influence in the composition, it is associ-
ated with Rogier’s journey to Italy in 1450.39 In the
art (technological) literature, the underdrawing of
the Uffizi Entombment has often been compared to
that of the Lamentation of Christ. Van Asperen de
Boer saw many similarities between the two under-
drawings and believed the two to be drawn by the
same workshop.40 In the IRR of the Uffizi Entomb-
ment, several different stages of underdrawing can
be detected (ill. 2.7d-e). In the body of Christ,
thin and wavy lines from a first stage can be seen,
applied in short brushstrokes and indicating the
desired shape and details. With similar thin lines,
preliminary hatching was applied too, intended to
indicate shading. A second stage of underdrawn
lines is also present. In some areas, thick lines
applied in a liquid medium are applied to correct
and/or clarify the first system. This can be seen in
the dress of Mary, where thick lines were applied
next to thinner lines of the first system, clarifying
the exact folds of the drapery. Similar clarifica-
tions can be seen in the dress of Mary Magdalene.
Moreover, different hands can be distinguished in
the Entombment underdrawing. In the drapery of
Mary Magdalene, the artist went over the same
lines multiple times, resulting in a very sketchy
underdrawing. While in other areas, the lines were
applied more resolutely. It is hard to imagine that
the entire underdrawing was made by the same
draughtsman, when such stylistic differences are
visible. However, even though the lines seem
similar to the lines found in the Lamentation of
revisited 27
Christ, the style and character of the Entombment’s
underdrawing appears to be different.
The Brussels Pietà41 is considered to be a copy after
a Rogerian prototype (ill. 2.7f). Several other
versions of this Pietà composition exist (London,
Berlin and Madrid), all of which are considered to
be copies after the same prototype.42 J. Dijkstra
compared the underdrawings of all versions and
concluded that the Brussels version represents a
shift to a new variant of the Rogerian Pietà-type,
based on the older Pietà-type visible in the Madrid
and Berlin panels.43 According to Dijkstra, the
underdrawing of the Brussels Pietà is stylistically
close to the Mauritshuis Lamentation of Christ, the
Uffizi Deposition, and the Prado Descent from the
Cross. She considered the underdrawing to be auto-
graph Rogier van der Weyden, showing at least
three stages, and the fold lines of the drapery that
end in L-shaped hooks or hairpin hooks.44 However,
even if the difference in size is taken into considera-
tion, we also see a considerable difference in the
handling of the brush in the second stage under-
drawing. The lines appear more uncertain in the
tracing of the sketch, and have a much wavier
appearance. Additionally, the underdrawing is more
elaborate than the usual restraint appearance visible
in the previously discussed paintings (ill. 2.7g-h).
We believe that the underdrawing of the Brussels
Pietà is executed by different draughtsmen than that
of the Mauritshuis Lamentation and other paintings,
based on its style. However, the IRR shows that the
artist of the Brussels painting was trained to work
in a style close to that of other works by Rogier,
as the characteristic L-shaped hooks are present.
This shows that it is likely that assistants were
taught to draw in a certain workshop style.
Workshop procedure
In all the paintings described above, underdrawings
detected using infrared reflectography allow for
some general conclusions to be drawn regarding
the workshop methods of Rogier van der Weyden.
In virtually all paintings attributed to Rogier and
28 carol pottasch, kirsten derks, kathryn a. dooley and john k. delaney

A B

C D E

F G H

Ill. 2.7. A: Rogier van der Weyden, Middelburg Altarpiece, c. 1445, oil on panel, 91 x 144 cm, Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Gemälde-
galerie, detail, central panel. B: IRR, detail, Virgin, blue arrow indicating stage 1, red arrow stage 2. C: Rogier van der Weyden,
Entombment, c. 1460, oil on panel, 96 x 110 cm, Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi. D-E: IRR, details, green arrow indicating stage 1,
blue arrows stage 2, red arrow stage 3. F: Rogier van der Weyden, Pietà, c. 1450-1460, oil on panel, 32 x 47 cm, Brussels,
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. G-H: IRR, details, blue arrow indicating stage 1, red arrows stage 2
 the underdrawing of the
his workshop, several stages and/or hands can be
distinguished in the underdrawing. At least two,
but in some instances even three, stages of under-
drawn lines can be found in paintings from the
Rogier van der Weyden group.
Moreover, there are clear stylistic similarities
between the underdrawings of paintings in the Van
der Weyden group: certain types of lines can be
found in all works attributed to Rogier. These
characteristics have been mentioned in the litera-
ture and have been used to attribute works to the
Van der Weyden group and describe Rogier’s style
of underdrawing.45 Examples are the L-shaped
lines, ending in hooks or loops. However, we also
see several hands in the underdrawings of the
Van der Weyden group, even within the same
painting. Therefore, we would like to propose that
assistants were taught a type of studio or workshop
style of drawing.
The best example of such a workshop-style
underdrawing would be the Brussels Pietà, where all
the characteristics of a Rogerian underdrawing are
present, yet its underdrawing seems completely
different in drawing style from other works in the
Rogier van der Weyden group. We believe that this
underdrawing was executed by a different hand
than the other underdrawings discussed above.
This, together with the presence of different
hands within several underdrawings in the Van der
Weyden group, suggests that assistants may have
been taught to draw in a studio or workshop style.
From the examination of the underdrawings
mentioned above, it becomes clear that within the
workshop of Rogier van der Weyden, each stage
of underdrawing had its own, specific function.
The first stage was intended as an initial sketch, a
lay-in of all the figures in the composition. The
subsequent stages of underdrawing were intended
to correct and clarify the first stage. Due to the
differences in style of drawing, it seems likely that
not only different stages, but also different hands
were responsible for the underdrawing stage. The
composition was thus a product of close collabora-
tion between all members of the workshop.
LAMENTATION OF CHRIST revisited 29
In each painting the underdrawing was applied
freehand, probably based on studio drawings. No
evidence of tracing, pouncing or other copying
techniques has been found. Although each paint-
ing shows a new composition – no exact copies of
compositions or certain elements of compositions
seem to have been made – different (small) motifs
do seem to recur several times. This suggests that
Rogier and assistants relied on the use of studio
drawings. One example of such recurring motifs is
the hands of the figures. A similar, detailed way of
drawing hands was found throughout the paintings
attributed to Rogier. For drawing the hands, the
artist not only used contour lines, but also drew
details such as grooves, knuckles and joints. This
can also be seen in the Lamentation of Christ, where
all hands were drawn in this detailed manner.
Although this mode of drawing is present in all
paintings of the Van der Weyden group, it is not
omnipresent in early Netherlandish painting. In
the works by Jan van Eyck, for example, such
detailed depiction of hands is not visible in the
underdrawings.46 Jan van Eyck seemed to have only
used contour lines to indicate the placement and
shape of hands in his underdrawings. Besides the
detail with which hands were drawn in the oeuvre
of Rogier van der Weyden, the shapes of hands also
show great similarities. Rogier seemed to prefer
elegant hands, with slightly bent fingers. He often
left a small space between the ring finger and the
pinky. This type of hand can be found in many
paintings of the Van der Weyden group, including
the Mauritshuis Lamentation of Christ.
Another recurring motif is the female figure
which represents Mary Magdalene in the Maurits-
huis Lamentation. A similar figure can be found
in several works of the Van der Weyden group,
including the right wing of the Columba Altarpiece
(Munich, Alte Pinakothek, WAF 1189-1191),47
the Prado Descent from the Cross and the Braque
Triptych (Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. RF2063).48
We believe that in these details of a female figure,
a development in the motif of the woman’s head
can be seen. The earliest painting in which this
30 carol pottasch, kirsten derks, kathryn a. dooley and john k. delaney
motif of Mary Magdalene occurs is the Prado
Descent from the Cross. Here, Mary Magdalene has
been drawn in profile (ill. 2.8c, 2.8g), with her
face downwards. In the underdrawing of her face,
construction lines can be seen. They are followed
by firmer, yet still sketchy lines. One can sense by
looking at the underdrawing that the artist is still
looking for the right shape of the face and position
of the facial features. Something similar can be
seen in Mary Magdalene of the Lamentation of
Christ. In the first stage of underdrawing, the artist
applied sketchy lines of a face in profile, while
looking for the right shape and placement of its fea-
tures (ill. 2.8d, 2.8h).49 Later, the artist went over
this first stage of underdrawing to clarify the con-
tours of Mary Magdalene’s face; however, in the
paint layer the face was changed to a slightly less in
profile position. On the right wing of the Braque
Triptych, Mary Magdalene is depicted in half length,
with her jar of ointment in her hands (ill. 2.8a).
Interestingly her face is underdrawn in a position
even less in profile than the Lamentation’s face
of Mary Magdalene in an even freer application/
adaptation of the original example (ill. 2.8f, 2.8j).
The final painting in which the motif of Mary
Magdalene appears is in the Columba Altarpiece.
The same woman reappears, now as a woman
holding a basket with pigeons in the right panel
representing the presentation at the temple (ill. 2.8b,
2.8e, 2.8j). Although the final painting shows
this figure in a more accomplished pose in which
she is looking over her right shoulder at the viewer,
the infrared reflectogram shows that initially her
face was drawn in profile (ill. 2.8i). The under-
drawing of the woman with pigeons shows a lot of
similarities with those of Mary Magdalene of the
Descent from the Cross and of the Lamentation of
Christ. We see a similar round chin, and the corner
of the mouth is drawn in the same way in both
underdrawings. Moreover, in the chest of the
woman with pigeons, we can see that her body
was initially turned towards the viewer, similar
to Mary Magdalene’s pose in the Lamentation of
Christ.
Discussion and conclusion
New infrared reflectograms of the Lamentation of
Christ, made in 2016 and 2019 with the Osiris
infrared camera and the MS-IRR camera system,
allowed for closer examination of its under-
drawing.50 They revealed that not two, but three
stages of underdrawn lines are present. The first
stage of underdrawing was likely executed in a dry
medium in a sketchy or scribbly style. The lines
indicate an initial outline of the composition, using
construction lines. The second stage, executed in a
liquid medium, was applied to reinforce and correct
the lines of the first stage. The third stage, also in a
liquid medium, was a clarifying and correction
stage. The underdrawing of the Lamentation of
Christ was compared to other underdrawings of the
Van der Weyden group. We can conclude that most
paintings that originate from the studio of Rogier
van der Weyden show several stages of underdraw-
ing: at least two, but often even three stages. Addi-
tionally, the underdrawings of most paintings also
show the participation of multiple hands.
The similarities between the underdrawings in
the Van der Weyden group suggest that assistants
and students were taught a type of studio or work-
shop style of drawing. Characteristics – such as the
lines ending in L-shaped hooks and the use of an
initial sketchy first stage of underdrawing – can be
found in all Van der Weyden paintings, including
the Lamentation of Christ. Yet in some works, for
example the Brussels Pietà, we see that the draughts-
man might have had some issues drawing in this
style, and the underdrawing thus seems a bit forced
and exhibits a slightly different drawing style.
Each painting in the Van der Weyden group is
an entirely new composition, in which the under-
drawing was made freehand; however, it does seem
that (parts of) the underdrawing may have been
based on separate studio drawings, as different
motifs recur several times. These motifs, especially
that of the female which represents Mary Magda-
lene in the Lamentation of Christ, show a develop-
ment. This, together with more research on the
development of figures and additional (technical)
 the underdrawing of the LAMENTATION OF CHRIST revisited 31

A B

C D E F

G H I J

Ill. 2.8. A: Rogier van der Weyden, Braque Altarpiece, c. 1452-1453, oil on panel, 41 x 137 cm, Paris, Musée du Louvre, detail,
right wing. B: Rogier van der Weyden, Columba Altarpiece, c. 1455-1465, oil on panel, 138 x 70 cm, Munich, Alte Pinakothek.
C: Rogier van der Weyden, Descent from the Cross (ill. 2.6a), detail of Mary Magdalen mirrored. D: Rogier van der Weyden,
The Lamentation of Christ (ill. 2.1a), detail: Mary Magdalen. E: Rogier van der Weyden, Columba Altarpiece (ill. 2.8b),
detail. F: Rogier van der Weyden, Braque Altarpiece (ill. 2.8a), detail mirrored. G: IRR of C. H: IRR-IRC912 of D. I: IRR of E.
J: IRR of F
32 carol pottasch, kirsten derks, kathryn a. dooley and john k. delaney
information, could provide an additional method
for dating the Lamentation of Christ and other paint-
ings in the Van der Weyden group.
Close examination of the underdrawing of the
Lamentation of Christ and other paintings from the
Van der Weyden group gave us more insight into
the working practices of Rogier van der Weyden’s
studio. A comparison of the IRR images showed
that the underdrawing of the Lamentation of Christ
displays many similarities with those of other paint-
ings in the Van der Weyden group, including the
Descent from the Cross. Based on this, it may be
clear that the Lamentation of Christ was created in
Rogier’s studio.
NOTES
The authors would like to thank the following people for their invalu-
able help in our research: Margreet Wolters (RKD-Netherlands Institute
for Art History) for making all the IRR assemblies by Van Asperen de
Boer available to us; Stephan Kemperdick (Berlin, Staatliche Museen,
Gemäldegalerie) for the IRR images of the Miraflores Altarpiece and the
Middelburg Altarpiece; Enrique Quintana Calamita (Madrid, Museo
del Prado) for the IRR of the Descent from the Cross; Cecilia Frosinini
(Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi) for the IRR of the Entombment;
Véronique Bücken (Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium)
for the IRR of the Pietà; Maryan Ainsworth for the fruitful discussions
and her invaluable insights; Abbie Vandivere for reading and comment-
ing on an earlier draft of this paper; and Edwin Buijsen for his support.
1 Vandivere, Pottasch 2021.
2 Osiris infrared camera made by Opus Instruments. This cam-
era, with an InGaAs line array sensor, has an operation wavelength of
900 to 1700 nm. The image size of the infrared reflectograms is up to
4096 × 4096 pixels (16 megapixels). For more information, see: www.
opusinstruments.com/cameras/osiris-camera.
3 The shortwave infrared IRC912 camera is made by IRCam-
eras and consists of an InSb area array sensor having 1280 by 1024
pixels. The camera has an operational wavelength range of 1000 to
2500 nm and is used with a 50 mm focal length lens (StingRay Optics)
and is configured to be multispectral in that one of three spectral band-
pass filters (1100 to 1400 nm, 1500 to 1800 nm, 2100 to 2400 nm) can
be used to create single spectral band images or false-color images using
the three bandpass filters.
4 Van Asperen de Boer 1969; Van Asperen de Boer 1970.
5 The Master of Flémalle is often identified as Robert Campin
(c. 1375-1444).
6 Van Asperen de Boer, Dijkstra, Van Schoute 1992, pp. 171-180.
7 Van Asperen de Boer, Dijkstra, Van Schoute 1992.
8 Waagen 1847, pp. 177-179.
9 Friedländer 1924, p. 106; Broos 1993, pp. 322-331.
10 Dyballa, Kemperdick 2019.
11 Weale 1901; Panofsky 1951, p. 34, n. 8; Châtelet 1999.
12 De Vos 1999, p. 404; Mund 2009, p. 512.
13 Pottasch et al. (forthcoming 2023).
14 Faries, Spronk 2003.
15 Delaney et al. 2017; Faries 2005; Walmsley et al. 1994.
16 Van Asperen de Boer first visualized the underdrawing of the
Lamentation of Christ in 1966, using the Barnes Infrared Camera. With
technical developments in infrared imaging systems, he revisited the
Mauritshuis Lamentation. In 1969 he used the Heimann 2000 IND
Resistron to make detailed images; in 1979 he used the Hamamatsu/
Grundig system; he used a Hamamatsu camera with a Hamamatsu
vidicon television system in 1996; and in 1999 he used the AEG Infra-
rot Module system. See: Van Asperen de Boer 1969; Van Asperen de
Boer 1970; Van Asperen de Boer 1974; Van der Weerd, Heeren, Van
Asperen de Boer 2001; Van Asperen de Boer 2003.
17 Van Asperen de Boer, Dijkstra, Van Schoute 1992, p. 17.
18 Idem.
19 The newest IRR system is the Apollo Camera by Opus Instru-
ments, launched in 2018. See www.opusinstruments.com/cameras/
apollo-camera.
20 Conover, Delaney, Loew 2015.
21 Van Asperen de Boer 1970; Van Asperen de Boer 2003, p. 60.
22 This was based on the detailed reflectograms made in 1979
with the Hamamatsu/Grundig infrared system. Van Asperen de Boer,
Dijkstra, Van Schoute 1992, p. 176.
23 Van Asperen de Boer, Dijkstra, Van Schoute 1992, pp. 176-179.
24 It should be noted that Van Asperen de Boer speaks of
systems, rather than stages.
25 Van Asperen de Boer, Dijkstra, Van Schoute 1992, p. 176.
26 Postec, Steyaert 2021, pp. 39-42.
27 Van Asperen de Boer, Dijkstra, Van Schoute 1992, p. 176.
28 Van Asperen de Boer, Dijkstra, Van Schoute 1992, p. 176.
29 Before 1443, oil on panel, 204 × 261 cm.
30 For a brief provenance, see: Van Asperen de Boer, Dijkstra,
Van Schoute 1992, p. 138. The Descent from the Cross was painted for
the Chapel of Our Lady Outside the Walls at Louvain, founded in the
fourteenth century by the Great Crossbowmen’s Guild. The earliest
datable copy, the Edelheere Triptych of 1443 (oil on panel, 106 × 90 cm,
Louvain, Museum M, inv.nr. S/85/V) shows that the Prado painting
was completed before that date.
31 The IRR image was taken with the Osiris camera (see: note
2) by the staff of the Museo del Prado and made available by Enrique
Quintana Calamita.
32 Mozo 2012, p. 235.
33 C. 1440, oil on panel, 71 × 129 cm.
34 Grosshans 1981, p. 49; Dyballa, Kemperdick 2019.
35 Van Asperen de Boer, Dijkstra, Van Schoute 1992, p. 239,
fig. 290.
36 C. 1445, oil on panel, 91 × 144 cm.
37 Köllermann 2009, p. 337. Most scholars believe that the
painting was commissioned by Pierre Bladelin for the church of Saints
Peter and Paul in Middelburg, which was built between 1452 and 1458.
38 C. 1460, oil on panel, 96 × 110 cm.
39 Van Asperen de Boer, Dijkstra, Van Schoute 1992, pp. 164-
170. The first mention of the Uffizi Entombment dates from 1666, when
it entered the Grand-Ducal collection in the Uffizi palace.
40 Van Asperen de Boer, Dijkstra, Van Schoute 1992, p. 168;
Steyaert 2013, p. 101.
41 C. 1450-1460, oil on panel, 32 × 47 cm.
42 Stroo 2009.
43 Dijkstra 1990.
44 Dijkstra 1990, pp. 134-161, 252-257.
45 Dijkstra 1990; Van Asperen de Boer, Dijkstra, Van Schoute
1992.
46 There are two exceptions in the oeuvre of Jan van Eyck: the
hands in the Arnolfini Portrait (London, National Gallery, NG 186) are
underdrawn with precise details too, as well as the hands in the Annun-
ciation panels of the Ghent Altarpiece (Ghent, Sint-Baafskathedraal).
These hands were drawn including knuckles and grooves. Other hands
in the Van Eyck group are drawn using contour lines only.
47 C. 1455-1465, oil on panel, 138 × 70 cm.
48 C. 1452-1453, oil on panel, 41 × 137 cm.
 the underdrawing of the LAMENTATION OF CHRIST revisited 33

49 For image 2.8j: Infrared reflectography was performed with a
Grundig FA 70 television camera equipped with a Hamamatsu N 214
IR vidicon (1975); a Kodak wratten 87A filter cutting-on at 0.9 micron
was placed between the vidicon target surface and the Zoomar 1:2 8/4
cm Macro Zoomatar lens. The television camera was mounted on a
sturdy Linhof professional tripod with extension pieces, and a 90 cm
sledge for moving the camera sideways. The monitor was a Grundig BG
12 with 875 television lines. Any documentation is done with a Nikon
camera, a 50 mm macrolens, and Ilford film FP 4, ASA 125. The IRR
assembly reproduced here was made with Adobe Photoshop 5.5 and
consists of images which were scanned on 1058 ppi with a Sigma High
Speed 16 Bits Film Scanner (equipped with software especially devel-
oped by the Durst Company) from photo negatives belonging to the
archive of J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer at the RKD.
50 The amount of detail visible with the multispectral IRC912
with bandpass filter has not been used to its full extend.
Ill. 3.1. Workshop of Hans Memling, Nativity, c. 1494, oil on panel, Phoebus Foundation
 3
The Phoebus Nativity:
A Close Look into the Workshop of Memling
Sara Mateu
A BSTRACT : In 2016 a Nativity attributed to Memling’s
workshop went on auction in Vienna. The extraordi-
nary quality of the painting opened the door to specula-
tion about the involvement of the master in its making.
Was Memling busy with more important commissions?
Did he pass before starting painting? The workshop
imitated the master faithfully, but the emphasis on
stylistic queues betrayed the collaborator. A stand-
alone painting today, the Phoebus Nativity was once the
left wing’s recto of a triptych, of which nothing is known.
Regardless of its hazardous material history, the painting
offers a clear example of Memling’s workshop practices.
The recent restoration treatment allowed connecting
the different levels of execution with the technical
documentation and compose an exhaustive overview
of how the painting was made.
—o—
Unknown for five hundred years
Until it came up for auction at Dorotheum in 2016,
the Phoebus Nativity1 (ill. 3.1) had been exhibited
only once. It was in 1994, in the Groeninge-
museum, at the exhibition commemorating the
500th anniversary of Memling’s death. In the cata-
logue, D. de Vos linked the painting to the Master
of the Legend of Saint Lucy but speculated about it
being a project of Memling’s workshop,2 a hypo-
thesis repeated in his monography on Memling
published that same year.3
Nothing more was added on the painting until
the catalogue entry for the auction, in which T.-H.
Borchert offered a more comprehensive analysis
based on the technical documentation available.4
His conclusions, elaborated further in subsequent
articles, laid a common ground to start considering
the painting closer to Memling than previously
thought.5 More than five hundred years after the
completion of the painting, many of its secrets
remain hidden to the naked eye. On the surface, it
is obvious that it is a work of extraordinary quality,
but it lacks the character and features of the first-
tier, Memling production. Underneath the surface,
there is a wealth of information on the making
process of the painting.
Technical research was carried as part of restora-
tion of the painting in 2019. This research was lim-
ited to the examination of infrared reflectography
and X-ray imaging prior to treatment and of the
material evidence offered by the painting once old
varnishes and retouchings were removed. Cross-
sections or other means of analysis weren’t deemed
necessary at the time. The findings added to the
evidence gathered by Memling scholars who have
focused on the topic of technique and workshop
practices.
In the particular case of the Phoebus Nativity,
the proximity of its making with Memling’s death
had invited to speculation about the involvement
of the master. The scope of this article isn’t attribu-
tion, since the idea behind workshop production in
the fifteenth century is to supress any individual
stylistic traits and assimilate to the brand style of
36 sara mateu
the master. Furthermore, the movement of assis-
tants and collaborators through Memling’s work-
shop makes it a Sisyphean task to reveal identities
or the extent of individual’s involvement through-
out the production. The scope of this article is to
elucidate the making process of the painting as a
reflection of how his workshop functioned and
how autonomous and reliable his collaborators
had to be.
One Nativity, two Nativities, three Nativities…
Memling and his workshop produced a number of
Nativities, some part of triptychs, where the scene
occupied the left wing. The same motives are pre-
sent in most of them, adopting different declina-
tions and combinations. The strongest parallelism
has been drawn between the Phoebus Nativity,
dated c. 1494, and the Nativity of the Triptych of
Jan Floreins dated in 1479 and exhibited in the
Oud Sint-Janshospitaal in Bruges (inv. o.SJ173.1).
The Floreins Nativity shows the Holy Family in a
derelict hut accompanied by two angels, the ox and
mule. Behind it, the shepherds walk through the
city gates. The model for the Virgin of the Floreins
Nativity was used in the Phoebus Nativity, but the
rest of the composition has been developed further
for a larger format. The Floreins Nativity is a much
smaller object measuring 56.7 × 33.7 cm including
the frame, whilst the Phoebus Nativity measures
99.2 × 72.5 cm without frame. This is approxi-
mately the same size as the Nativity of the Triptych
of the Adoration of the Magi exhibited at the Museo
Nacional del Prado in Madrid (inv. P001557),
painted in 1470-1472, which measures 98 × 63.5 cm
without the frame. With more space, the architec-
ture of the Phoebus Nativity was rearranged to
resemble Roman and simultaneously show the
interior and the exterior of the stable, as it is the
case in the Prado painting. The two praying angels
also appear in the Prado Nativity. A third angel was
added to the Phoebus Nativity, the landscape grew
in importance, a magpie sat on the roof. De Vos
hypothesised that the Phoebus Nativity could be a
copy of a lost Memling painting,6 but it is rather an
iteration of pre-existing compositions adapted to a
larger format executed by the workshop.
It is important to remember that the Phoebus
Nativity is only the front side of a left wing. It’s
format already suggested that the painting was part
of an ensemble. The presence of a square-angled
loss on the left edge of the panel, where the lock of
the triptych should have been, supported the
hypothesis of the painting being a left wing. The
rest of the triptych is lost (ill. 3.2). This is another
presence-absence that requires for some imagina-
tion. Overall measurements can be inferred to be
approximately 110 × 320 cm, including the frames
when fully open. The scenes of the main panel and
right wing probably were the Adoration and the
Presentation at the Temple, alas the reverse might
have been decorated in different ways. The Triptych
of Jan Floreins displays its donors, the Triptych of the
Adoration of the Magi depicts grisailles of an Ecce
Homo (on the reverse of the Nativity) and a Mater
Dolorosa (on the reverse of the Presentation in the
Temple). Other Memling triptychs choose patron
saints for their closed views. Beyond its icono-
graphy, as the painting is scrutinised to try to
understand who painted it and how, it cannot be
obviated that some weightbearing conclusions may
be undermined by the absence of the rest of the
artwork. Notably the obscure matter of Memling’s
involvement.
If Memling was still alive by the time the Phoe-
bus Nativity was painted, he could have had other
important projects to attend to, nevertheless keep-
ing a close control over his collaborator. He could
have also worked on more relevant parts of the
triptych while distributing the assistants on the
other paintings of the ensemble. He could have,
however, passed away during early stages of the
making process, forcing a gifted painter within
the workshop to take over the work without the
supervision of the master. He could also have been
dead by the time the painting was commissioned
and thus it would be the work of a collaborator that
carried on with the orders placed by clients. None
of these hypotheses are backed by evidence and the
 the PHOEBUS NATIVITY : a close look into the workshop of memling
Ill. 3.2. Proposal for the reconstruction of the Lalaing Triptych, to which the Phoebus Nativity (ill. 3.1)
belonged as the open view of the left wing.
only clues left are the technical features of the only
remaining side of a wing of a triptych.
How to and know how
Models
It is well established that Memling’s and other
workshops worked with templates and preparatory
designs that were reused and adapted to create
their compositions.7 Novelty was introduced by a
change in attitude and gesture, a shift in position,
a new element in the architecture, a small detail,
a different distribution of figures, vegetation and
buildings. The master set the aesthetical, icono-
graphical and technical features imposed by his
own creative agenda and the enthusiasm it awoke
on his clients. The assistants, collaborators and
journeymen had to mimic the brand style of the
master, so the compositions and technique would
evolve within established boundaries. Individual
hands had to be virtually indistinguishable. This
approach allowed for division of labour and effi-
ciency and allowed the master to be more flexible
in the delegation of tasks throughout the whole
process. There were not only the more menial
tasks of ground laying or pigment grinding, but
also the translation of models to underdrawing and
the executions of the paint layers. The Phoebus
Nativity is populated of details that speak of this
workflow.
37
Underdrawing
A blog entry by A. Strasoldo and D. Brennink-
meyer preceding the auction at Dorotheum cele-
brated the strong resemblance of the underdrawing
with Memling’s late work.8 They concluded that it
could only be by someone with access and deep
knowledge of Memling’s motifs and technique.
Either Memling himself or a close collaborator
within the workshop. The fact that it is not imme-
diately evident whether the master or an assistant
are behind the underdrawing speaks of how deeply
the style of the master was assimilated by his
collaborators.
The underdrawing of the Phoebus Nativity
(ill. 3.3) shows the compendium of resources the
workshop had at their disposal. Not only it makes
clear that pre-existing templates were ordinarily
used but displays the graphic phraseology that the
workshop used to communicate intentions for fur-
ther steps of the painting process. The underdraw-
ing was executed in black chalk, the common
denomination of the dry medium used by Memling.
The trait is dexterous but not loose, as it should be
when following a model. Long traits hooked at the
end to indicate a fold in the draperies. Lines are
repeated multiple times to delimit shapes and rein-
force silhouettes. Several corrections overlap when
it comes to the position of the hands, to be deci-
phered later, along with the network of hatched
38 sara mateu

Ill. 3.3. Workshop of Hans Memling, Nativity (ill. 3.1), IRR

 the PHOEBUS NATIVITY : a close look into the workshop of memling
lines that set the position and intensity of the shad-
ows. A few lines and incisions set the height and
inclination of the roof, the distribution of some
beams, and the position of the brickwork in the
foreground. Although the lack of visible under-
drawing on the architectural background could be
due to the use of other media, such as a silver point.
However, it seems that less effort was devoted
to the architecture and the landscape in the stage
of the underdrawing. This might have been inten-
tional. These less pushed areas underwent more
changes during the painting process.
Underlayers
Once the underdrawing was finished, the painting
progressed in three stages, where the result of each
phase was evaluated and, if judged necessary,
reworked. Almost every element was revisited and
mended several times, as if dissatisfaction or new
ideas were driving the painting to version itself
until a soucis de perfection was pleased. The changes
were more substantial in early the stages and just
slight shifts or reshaping when the painting was
close to being finished. These changes suggests
either a workshop practice directed by a demand-
ing decision-maker in an ambience of regular
reassessment or total autonomy on the part of a
meticulous collaborator that had completely inte-
grated the mannerism of his master, depending on
whether Memling was present or absent at the time
the painting was made.
The first layers of paint, quickly applied with
wide brushes, laid out the architectural background.
The underdrawing was a guide to constrain colours,
leaving areas in reserve. At this stage the sky wasn’t
visible though the collapse on the roof above
Saint Joseph’s head and what looks like a pillar, not
a column, closed the composition on the right side.
Both details concur with the Floreins Nativity.
However, the brickwork on the foreground was
originally stepped and the opening of the sewer was
on the bottom left corner, deviating from Floreins
Nativity. Draperies and carnations of the main
figures must have started with flat layers of light
39
and dark hues, according to the indications of the
underdrawing. At the end of this stage, most of
the underdrawing had been covered by opaque
paint and was no longer easily visible.
Changes
There are some faint traits made with a wet medium
that are difficult to interpret. They are only visible
in marginal parts of the composition, like the neck
and face of the virgin and, more prominently, as
hatched lines on the leg of Saint Joseph (ill. 3.4).
They use the vocabulary of the underdrawing and
have the appearance of underdrawing. However,
they appear to be placed over the first underlayers
and have subsequently been painted over.
The combination of dry and wet medium in
Memling underdrawings is a feature of some of
his production.9 Further analysis of the Phoebus
Nativity could determine whether the apparent
position is an optical illusion on indeed a second
underdrawing executed in a different medium at an
ulterior time when changes started to be intro-
duced in the composition. In the second stage the
painting started to move away from the initial plan.
For the architecture some solutions from the
Floreins Nativity were rescued, others abandoned.
Following the Floreins Nativity, part of the stepped
Ill. 3.4. Workshop of Hans Memling, Nativity (ill. 3.1), detail of
the hatched lines executed with wet medium on the leg
of Saint Joseph belonging to a second underdrawing
40
Ill. 3.5. Workshop of Hans Memling, Nativity (ill. 3.1), detail, face of the Virgin
brick wall morphed into a rotten beam. The sewer
opening was displaced towards the centre. A rock
covered with moss and dandelions hid the dis-
carded hole. Departing from the Floreins Nativity,
the pillar on the right edge was transformed into a
column. Its base, rehearsed several times with
a black contour, traps the tunic of the angel. The
position of the ox and mule shifted, moving
away from the initial reserve, which was partially
covered with finishing layers.
sara mateu
At this point, the contour of the Virgin face was
enlarged, as was her thorax, moving away from the
underdrawing’s stylised waistline that the painter
had insisted to define. The Virgin’s body and cape
overgrew their reserve and overlapped onto the
background. The paint was first applied in smooth
transitions, then as short, tightly packed traits to
create shadows of a more vivid blue. The folds
where delimited with longer traits of darker blue
and black paint. The highlights were reinforced to
 the PHOEBUS NATIVITY : a close look into the workshop of memling 41

hide previous contouring. The end result selec-

tively moved away from the underdrawing. Simi-
larly, Saint Joseph’s tunic was covered with a flat
layer of red lacquer. The shadows were rendered
with additional smooth layers or with short, curled
traits of dense lacquer. The folds were delimited
with lines of darker red or black.

Finishing
When the painting was very advanced but not yet
completed, it was subjected again to a final re-eval-
uation, which constitutes the third stage of the
painting process. At this point, the painter focused
on reshaping and contouring and adding some
small but crucial details. The face of the Virgin
became slenderer, and the previous contour was
Ill. 3.6. Workshop of Hans Memling, Nativity (ill. 3.1),
concealed with locks of hair (ill. 3.5). Her ear was detail, hands of the Virgin

Ill. 3.7. Workshop of Hans Memling, Nativity (ill. 3.1), detail, hands of Saint Joseph and shepherds in the background
42 sara mateu

redone. One of her hands was repositioned a few neath the green field. The painting was finished by
millimetres, lifting the sleeve and shortening her adding fine, crisp details: hay straws, vegetation
fingers (ill. 3.6). It had to be painted over and along the ridge of the roof, a magpie. All rendered
recontoured to hide the previous version. The same in minute detail. And thus, the painting joined the
happened to the hands of Saint Joseph, holding centre panel, and the triptych was sent to the
a lit candle (ill. 3.7). patron, a nobleman member of the Lalaing dynasty.
One of the wings of the praying angel was cor- It remained away from the public eye for over five
rected by swiftly applying wide brush strokes of grey hundred years.
over its tip, then the pink feathers were enlarged to
hide the background and trim his hair. His hands Preliminary conclusions
were reworked as well (ill. 3.8). The shoe of Saint The Phoebus Nativity has abundant information to
Joseph was added over the already painted ground, offer about the functioning of Memling’s workshop
moving away from the intended reserve, which was and the role of collaborators that were able to
then covered with a finishing layer of lighter grey. deploy their talent to carry out high quality pro-
This lighter grey layer was carefully used to contour jects. The fact that reproducing the style and tech-
the approved, finished parts and to trim and reshape nique of the master was without a doubt conditio
the refused parts. For instance, the tunic of the sine qua non makes difficult identifying individual
angels in the foreground was trimmed, both hands
of the angel in liturgical gown were reshaped. Pay
attention to the white dash of the sash on his
shoulder, a minuscule ‘mistake’.
The architecture was once again revisited. The
circumference of the arch supporting the roof was
expanded, applying a second layer of blue, thicker,
and darker, over the sky. It was decided to see the
sky also through the collapsed part of the roof
above Saint Joseph’s head, meticulously contouring
the dark underlayer to make the crossed beams
emerge. For the sake of homogeneity in colour, the
rest of the sky behind the stable was reworked. Fun-
nily enough, a small corner passes over one of the
beams, bringing the sky in front of the building in
a second ‘mistake’. The landscape, that was in a
stalled progress, was finished. Dense green paint
was used to recontour the ox’s horn and the rear
brick wall. As with the sky, the green of the hills
overlapped onto the architecture, another ‘mis-
take’ in this stage. The trees were added over the
hills. They cover the floating roof of a tower which
body was never painted. The tiny figures of the
shepherds were added. They were initially three,
but one of them was cancelled out immediately
after silhouetting him in brown colour (ill. 3.7). Ill. 3.8. Workshop of Hans Memling, Nativity (ill. 3.1),
It is now a ghostly image that creeps from under- detail, angel
 the PHOEBUS NATIVITY : a close look into the workshop of memling 43

collaborators or defining their exact implication in NOTES

the flexible division of labour. It is likely that they 1 The painting is referred to by some scholars as the Lalaing
Nativity owing to the previous owner of the painting before it was
were able to keep the workshop functioning after
acquired by the Phoebus Foundation.
the passing of the master. The extent of Memling’s 2 Bruges 1994, p. 167, nr. 46.
3 De Vos 1994, p. 345.
involvement in the Phoebus Nativity remains
4 Borchert 2016.
unclear and opens to debate, given the proximity of 5 Borchert 2021, pp. 185-189.
6 De Vos 1994, p. 345.
the date of the painting to Memling’s death. Not as
7 Ainsworth 1989; De Vos 1994, pp. 377-386; Borchert 1995.
much as for matters of attribution, but to under- 8 Blog publication by Alexander Strasoldo and Damian Bren-
ninkmeyer, Workshop of Hans Memling: Nativity/Masterful Hand,
stand the drive that led the painter to interrogate,
Dorotheum 1 April 2016. See: www.blog.dorotheum.com/en/work
version and mend its composition to such extent. shop-of-hans-memling-nativity (last retrieved 14 February 2023).
9 Ainsworth 2021, pp. 149-160.
Systematically retracing the similarities and differ-
ences among Memling’s production will be more
helpful to better understand workshop practices
than to identify individual hands. For now, it would
be enough that the presentation of this painting to
the scholar community awakes curiosity about the
captivating anonymous painter that collaborated
with Memling and probably remained active when
the master passed in 1494, around the time this
painting was finished.
Ill. 4.1. Hans Memling (attributed to), Lamentation, c. 1494, oil on panel, 54 x 38.2 cm, Sao Paulo Museum of Art.
Before treatment
 4
Rediscovering the Sao Paulo Museum of Art’s
Memling by Technical Examination
Sofia Hennen, Pedro Campos, Valter Felix, Renato Freitas,
Elizabeth Kajiya, André Pimenta and Márcia Rizzutto
A BSTRACT : An interdisciplinary project was created to
study the Virgin Lamenting, Saint John and the Holy Women
of Galilee, an oil painting on wood panel dated around
1485-1490, attributed to Hans Memling, which is one
of the masterpieces of the Sao Paulo Museum of Art
(MASP). Diverse damages disturbed the appreciation of
the painting’s material and stylistic features, jeopardising
an appropriate assessment of its attribution. The study
included documental, stylistic and technical analyses to
understand better the material history, the technique
and the conservation condition of the painting, which
was never examined under this interdisciplinary approach
until then. This comprehensive study brought new
insights into the artwork’s conception and painting pro-
cess. The careful analysis of the underdrawing allowed
in-depth comparisons with other works of the master,
suggesting the use of similar workshop prototypes and
models. Striking stylistic and material resemblances with
Memling’s paintings tend to support the attribution.
—o—
Introduction
The Virgin Lamenting, Saint John and the Holy
Women of Galilee (ill. 4.1) is an oil painting on
panel1 dated around 1485-1490 and attributed to
Hans Memling, which is one of the masterpieces of
the Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) and one
of the very few Netherlandish paintings in this col-
lection. From 2018 to 2022, an interdisciplinary
project was organised to study and treat the paint-
ing. The project was realised in partnership with
the Laboratory of Archaeometry and Sciences
Applied to Cultural Heritage (LACAPC) of the
Institute of Physics of the University of Sao Paulo
(IFUSP) and the Applied Scientific Instrumenta-
tion and Computational Simulation Laboratory
(LISComp) of the Federal Institution of Education,
Science and Technology of Rio de Janeiro (IFRJ).
The multi-band imaging of the painting – which
included visible, raking, and ultraviolet-induced
visible luminescence (UVL) photography, infrared
reflectography (IRR) and radiography – was per-
formed by IFUSP. Energy Dispersive X-ray fluores-
cence spectrometry (XRF)2 and Raman spectro-
scopy analysis3 were realised by IFUSP, while IFRJ
did Macroscopic X-Ray Fluorescence scanning
(MA-XRF). All the analyses were performed in situ
with portable equipment.
The project aimed to analyse the features of
the artwork from a technical point of view, as no
scientific analyses were ever performed to examine
the painting’s technique until this moment. The
project also aimed to bring a complete diagnosis,
mapping all the alterations observed to allow an
appropriate and well-founded treatment proposal.
An online scientific commission was formed to
discuss the study results and validate the treatment
proposal. The USP and IFRJ teams of scientists
participated in all the discussions before, during
and after the treatment, which was completed
46 sofia hennen et al.
recently. This project is the product of a successful
collaboration between institutions and was possi-
ble thanks to the implementation at MASP of a
working methodology inspired by the interdiscipli-
nary working practices of the Royal Institute for
Cultural Heritage in Brussels (KIK-IRPA).4
Attribution and provenance
As a renowned early Netherlandish painter, Hans
Memling had a very active workshop in Bruges,
producing a significant number of paintings. Some
of its compositions were very successful and were
copied and distributed on a larger scale. This
was the case of the Deposition diptychs – more
precisely, the conflation of a Lamentation and a
Deploration – displaying close-up scenes made of
half-length figures with a devotional function.5
The Lachovsky-Bardi Diptych represents this type of
composition. Its right wing would be the Lamenta-
tion conserved at MASP. The also called Weeping
Women has two known copies, one in the Palazzo
Durazzo-Pallavicini in Genoa and the other in the
Alte Pinakothek of Munich. The whereabouts of
the left wing, which would represent the Deposi-
tion, are now unknown. Its last known owner was
D. Sickles in Paris.6 Nevertheless, the composition
could be identified thanks to two copies conserved
in the Groeningemuseum in Bruges and the
Bargello Museum in Florence. Another copy of
the Deposition, dating from 1496, is also preserved
at MASP.
Very little is known about the history of the dip-
tych and the provenance of MASP’s painting
before entering the museum’s collection. Once the
diptych was dismembered, the two wings followed
separate paths. The Lamentation belonged to
the Marquis of Rochefort in Paris, and then to the
Wildenstein House in New York. Finally, the paint-
ing was purchased by the renowned Italian art
collector and first director of MASP, Pietro Maria
Bardi, who donated it to the museum in 1958.7
Regarding the attribution of MASP’s Lamenta-
tion, it was M.J. Friedlander who first, in 1928, pub-
lished the painting as a copy of Memling’s work-
shop. C. Périer D’Ieteren and R. Van Schoute also
considered it a workshop copy and B.G. Lane,
acknowledging Périer d’Ieteren’s arguments, placed
it in the rejected works list, while D. de Vos saw an
autograph composition.8
According to some authors, this subject would
have been inspired by a diptych painted by Hugo
Van der Goes,9 while after De Vos, Memling would
have created a new prototype merging the compo-
sitions of the Master of Flémalle and Hugo Van der
Goes.10 Another version of this subject is the trip-
tych conserved in the Royal Chapel of Grenade,
dated 1492-1494. Some specialists consider the
Lachovsky-Bardi Diptych as a variant of the Granada
work and propose a later dating, during the last
years of activity of the painter, before his death in
1494. On the contrary, De Vos supports that this
work would have been depicted earlier, but still in
a late period of Memling’s life: ‘Although wholly in
character with Memling’s typology and plasticity, I feel
that the work shows an unusually free and coarse
brushwork, which breaks the modelling down almost
impressionistically into a “wet-into-wet technique”.
This looser treatment is a trend detected in Memling’s
work only after the second half of the 1480s, and
appears to indicate a more rapid way of working. The
Granada triptych seems to me to mark the culmination
of this process in the final years of the painter’s life. The
more expansive character of its composition also dates
it more readily to a later period than the New York-Sao
Paulo version’.11 Périer-D’Ieteren considers both the
Lachovsky-Bardi and the Grenade diptychs work-
shop copies of an earlier original composition.12
However, she acknowledges a better quality in
MASP’s Lamentation, where ‘the disposition of the
figures is better achieved and more natural’.13
Conservation condition
The painting was heavily restored during the cen-
turies before it arrived at the museum, presumably
several times. The oldest campaign that could be
traced consisted of a very invasive treatment of the
paint layer and the support, and it dated probably
from the nineteenth century. At this moment, the
 rediscovering the sao paulo museum of art’s memling by technical examination 47

central joint of the panel had most likely opened,

and the paint layer was damaged, presenting losses
and wear. Thus, the original board was thinned to
4 mm, backed with a wood mahogany-like panel
constituted by three planks glued directly to the
original support. On top of this mahogany-like
panel was applied an oak-like cradle with sliding
slats (ill. 4.2). The inscription ‘made in Brussels’
figures over the central batten of the cradle, sug-
gesting that this treatment was maybe done in
Belgium. At this moment, the original panel was
enlarged by 1.7 cm with oak strips added to the left
and right edges (ill. 4.2). The paint layer was also
highly overpainted (although it is likely that older
inpainting was already present).
A second restoration campaign ensued in 1997
at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles when the
painting was sent there for an exhibition. The
Ill. 4.2. Diagram showing the later additions on the back
restoration was in charge of Elisabeth Mention and of the Lamentation (ill. 4.1)
consisted of cleaning and new retouching. Her
description of the condition of the painting is
emphatic: ‘Viewed in natural light, the painting looks inpainting altered the aspect of the composition,
dull and unsaturated. Discoloured retouching mars the disturbing the appreciation of its aesthetical and
faces, hands and garments of all of the figures (…). stylistic features. The coatings and inpainting from
Although the painting still reads well, it is severely 1997 were supposed to be in a better condition as
compromised by the disfiguring restorations and lack of they usually are pretty stable. Unfortunately, in
saturation of the colours […]. A very heavy varnish 2015 the painting was mounted in a wood shadow-
obscures the garments’.14 box made of Spanish cedar (Cedrela Odorata),
It is interesting to highlight that in 1994, which can release volatile organic compounds
before the Getty’s treatment, De Vos referred to (VOCs) if it is not completely dry.16 The contact
the painting more eloquently: ‘Despite its ruinous with VOCs regenerated and damaged the recent
state, it seems to be autograph. (…) The latter can no resins from the Getty’s treatment.
longer be adequately judged because of its material The multi-band imaging and the MA-XRF
condition’.15 This accurate assessment will be analyses showed, very clearly, the extension of
endorsed by the scientific analyses performed in abrasion and lacunae that constellated the artwork
2019, as explained below. It is also worth under- (ill. 4.3). The painting was indeed in a ‘ruinous’
lining that the discussions about the attribution of condition beneath the numerous retouches. Most
the painting were done before 1997’s treatment of the inpainting hid damages along the joint, the
when the Lamentation seems to have been in the edges, and the lower half of the composition.
worst condition. Besides these evident lacunae, the extension of
When the current project was organised in the abrasion and the loss of original glazes in the
2018, it was clear that the painting was again in deepest shades of the painting suggested old aggres-
bad aesthetical condition and needed treatment. sive cleanings.
Glossiness differences in the varnish and darkened
48 sofia hennen et al.

A B C

D E F

G H I

J K L

Ill. 4.3. Hans Memling (attributed to), Lamentation (ill. 4.1), before treatment. A: in raking light.
B: UVL. C: IRR. D: X-radiograph. E: MA-XRF map for lead (Pb). F: MA-XRF map for calcium (Ca).
G: MA-XRF map for mercury (Hg). H: MA-XRF map for copper (Cu). I: MA-XRF map for iron
(Fe). J: MA-XRF map for manganese (Mn). K: MA-XRF map for Titanium (Ti). L: MA-XRF map
for Chrome (Cr)
 rediscovering the sao paulo museum of art’s memling by technical examination 49

Support
The support is an oak panel of the best quality,
composed of two planks radially cut.17 The two
boards were assembled vertically with the grain of
the wood running in the direction of the longest
side and were probably butt-joined.

Ground and priming layers

The panel was prepared with white ground layers.
MA-XRF Ca (ill. 4.3f), XRF and Raman analyses
indicated the presence of a ground composed of
calcium carbonate (CaCO3). This corresponds
with the early Netherlandish tradition of applying
grounds made of chalk and animal glue. Further-
more, four unpainted edges showing some traces of
the original burrs (barbes), produced when the
painting is grounded while inserted in its original
frame (which is missing), are present.
The radiography (ill. 4.3d) and MA-XRF Pb
(ill. 4.3e)/ XRF analyses suggested that a trans-
lucent priming layer charged with lead white
Ill. 4.4. Hans Memling (attributed to), Lamentation (ill. 4.1),
(2PbCO3, Pb(OH)2) was applied over the ground IRR, detail: Mary Magdalene
(and eventually over the preparatory drawing), as
lead was detected in all the measured points by
XRF. A thin and sometimes slightly tinted priming such as black chalk is usually used for the rough
layer of lead white has been observed in other sketch, followed by dark painting with a brush to
Memling’s works. It is a common feature, giving a revise and finalise the forms.21 For example, the
distinctive aspect to Memling’s radiographs.18 This outlines of Mary Magdalene’s face (ill. 4.4) give
layer would intensify the luminosity of the model- the impression of a dry sketch, while the veil and
ling, bringing a brighter inner clarity through the hair seem to have been done with both dry and
translucency of the paint layers.19 fluid outlines. Her drapery (ill. 4.5b) also suggests a
mixture of dry and wet techniques. Using black
Underdrawing chalk would have resulted in loose and more free-
The analysis of the IRR allowed an in-depth study hand-sketchy drawings that would have allowed
of the underdrawing, helping to understand how more freedom for Memling during the second part
the composition was constructed. The detailed of his career.22
underdrawing is sometimes visible to the naked eye Little even, diagonal and parallel hatching
beneath the thin paint layer and in areas where the represents the shadows in the depressions of the
covering power of the pigments had notably dimi- folding in the garments and seems absent from the
nished, as is often the case in early Netherlandish faces and hands, which is recurrent in Memling’s
painting. work.23 Hooks or loops at the end of the hatching
It seems that the composition was drawn with a in the Virgin’s drapery and Mary Magdalene’s
first dry sketch outlined with a fluid drawing using mantle would also be a typical feature of Memling
a fine brush.20 In Memling’s drawings, dry media (ill. 4.5a-b).24
50 sofia hennen et al.

A B

Ill. 4.5. Hans Memling (attributed to), Lamentation (ill. 4.1), IRR, details. A: Virgin’s drapery. B: right part of the Virgin’s drapery
and the mantle of Mary Magdalene

The drawing seems quick and confident but no
less delicate. The dashes depicting the faces are fine
and soft (ills. 4.4, 4.6), giving the impression of a
more tightly-controlled drawing.25 On the contrary,
the outlines are firm and well-defined on the cloth-
ing details (ill. 4.5a-b), seemingly realised with more
energetic gestures. There is also a more geometric
treatment of the draperies, using angular lines, while
on the faces, the dashes are more curvilinear. The
final outlines are marked by a firmer gesture, char-
acteristic of Memling’s underdrawings.26
In many areas, the painter slightly enlarged its
figures and adjusted specific anatomic details, a
regular practice of Memling’s workshop (ills. 4.4-
4.6).27 These corrections may serve to enlarge or
diminish the amplitude of the gestures to affirm the
horizontality and to reach a better balance of the
composition.28 Notwithstanding, even if some
adjustments were made during the painting pro-
cess, the final image remained faithful to the first
intention of the painter.
The comparison with other underdrawings
attributed to Memling is striking. The faces of the
MASP composition are remarkably similar to well-
known Memling models. The treatment of the
facial features, the modelling’s softness and even
the typology of the dashes appearing on these
paintings are comparable, suggesting that identical
prototypes were used within the workshop. For
instance, the face of Mary Magdalene (ills. 4.4,
4.7a) is very similar to the Virgin of the Virgin and
Child (1475-1480) (ill. 4.7b), the Virgin of the
Annunciation (1480-1489) (ill. 4.7c), and the Saint
Barbara of Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine of
Alexandria and Barbara (c. 1480) (ill. 4.7d), all from
the Metropolitan Museum in New York (respec-
tively acc. nr. 32.100.59, acc. nr. 1975.1.113 and
acc. nr. 14.40.634).29 The prototypes look all the
same: a long and slim face, ended by a very small
round chin marked by a discreet shadow under the
lips; a heart-shaped line marks the upper lips while
a very short round stroke suggests the lower lips;
 rediscovering the sao paulo museum of art’s memling by technical examination 51

Another example is the resemblance between

Ill. 4.6. Hans Memling (attributed to), Lamentation (ill. 4.1),
IRR, detail: Holy Woman behind the Virgin
the almond-shaped and slanting eyes are semi-
closed and directing the gaze down; the nose is long
and straight; the rounded eyebrows are subtle,
slightly suggested. The faces are similarly drawn,
with soft and lighter dashes, while the veils and
the headdresses show a geometric treatment with
marked darker straight outlines.
one of the holly women (ill. 4.8a) and the angel at
the right of the Virgin in the Annunciation (1480-
1489), from the Metropolitan Museum (ill. 4.8b).
Both faces are almost identical, showing comparable
facial features as a rounder shape of the face than the
precedent prototype, with plainer cheeks, smoother
chins, thin and small noses, thin oval lips, and oval-
shaped eyes. In the same painting, strong similarities
can also be found between the faces of the two angels
at the left of the Virgin and the head of Saint John
in MASP’s Lamentation (ill. 4.8c-e). The three heads
seem to depict the same model of a young man with
delicate features: a face with a triangular form, a long
straight nose, a smaller mouth than the precedent
models, with thinner lips, slitted eyes and a similar
way to depict the hair with small round curls.
The treatment of the hands in MASP’s painting
(ills. 4.4-4.6), showing several readjustments, is
also analogous to the hands found in some other
Memling works, for example, those conserved at
the Metropolitan Museum. The way the fingers are
modified to reach a final place and size is quite
familiar. Several alterations are necessary to
achieve the graceful position of the fingers he
seems to procure. It looks like the artist hesitates
more as he needs more research to reproduce these
anatomic details.

A B C D

Ill. 4.7. A: Hans Memling (attributed to), Lamentation (ill. 4.1), IRR, detail: Mary Magdalene. B: Hans Memling, Virgin and Child,
c. 1475-1480, oil on panel, 17.5 cm, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, IRR, detail: Virgin. c. Hans Memling, Annunciation,
1480-1489, oil on panel, 76.5 x 54.6 cm, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, IRR, detail: Virgin. D: Hans Memling,
Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Barbara, c. 1480, oil on panel, 68.3 x 73.3 cm,
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, IRR, detail: Saint Barbara
52 sofia hennen et al.

A B

C D E

Ill. 4.8. A: Hans Memling (attributed to), Lamentation (ill. 4.1), IRR, detail: Holy Woman behind the Virgin. B: Hans Memling,
Annunciation (ill. 4.7c), IRR, detail: angel behind the Virgin, at right. C: Hans Memling (attributed to), Lamentation (ill. 4.1),
IRR, detail: Saint John. D: Hans Memling, Annunciation (ill. 4.7c), IRR, detail: Gabriel. E: Hans Memling, Annunciation (ill. 4.7c),
IRR, detail: angel behind de Virgin

Thus, the composition of the painting was Paint layer

clearly made after some specific prototypes present
at Memling’s workshop, widely used in other paint-
ings.30 Considering the research and freedom
shown in some parts of the drawing, the image
does not seem like a faithful copy of an earlier
composition. Even though it is difficult to affirm
this with complete certitude because a copy may
also need some research to achieve the expected
result. However, the idiosyncrasies observed sug-
gest the participation of the master himself.
MA-XRF and XRF analyses allowed the detection
of eleven elements that can be related to inorganic
pigments: calcium, sulfur, mercury, lead, iron, cop-
per, strontium, manganese, chrome, zinc and tita-
nium. Titanium (ill. 4.3k), Chrome (ill. 4.3l) and
zinc are only present in specific points and are
related to non-original pigments used for retouch-
ing. Lead indicates the presence of lead white,
which is abundantly present in the painting, as is
visible in the MA-XRF Pb (ill. 4.3e). Its intensity
 rediscovering the sao paulo museum of art’s memling by technical examination
is smaller in the flesh areas and the trees in the
background, where the paint layer is very thin and
translucent. Hence, little lead white was used to
paint the faces and the hands, as the luminosity
comes from the white ground layer under the trans-
lucent painting rather than from white brush-
strokes, which explains, from a material point of
view, the diaphaneity of the flesh tones often
described by the authors.31 The radiography
(ill. 4.3d) also shows the distribution of the lead. It
is interesting to mention that this analysis shows
no essential changes made during the painting
process. The main adjustments were made while
drawing, and the painting process limited itself to
selecting the final outlines, as seems to be often the
case. While the IRR shows research and modifica-
tions, Memling’s radiographs usually do not show
relevant changes.32 Thus, when the painting is
achieved, the image becomes a rigorous and equili-
brated construction where no hints of hesitation
and research are meant to be seen.33
Calcium appears as the main element of the
ground (ill. 4.3f). Still, it is also found in high
intensity in the blacks, for example, in the black
headdress of the Holy Woman in the background,
indicating the use of a black pigment as bone black
(Ca3(PO4)2 + CaCO3 + C). Calcium is also more
intense in ochre/brown and red hues in the flesh
tones, hair, and figures’ garments, such as the corset
of Mary Magdalene. In some cases, this may be
related to a lesser quantity of lead, allowing the
ground layer to appear more intensely. However,
calcite (CaCO3) was recorded in the angel hair of
Memling’s Christ with Singing and Music-making
Angels (1483-1494) (Antwerp, KMSKA, inv. 778-
780).34 Stratigraphic analysis of this painting
showed calcium in deeper lays, as a sulfate under-
layer covered by a calcite layer, and in the paint
layers with bone black pigment.35 Calcite was also
identified in MASP’s painting in Raman spectra.
Iron (ill. 4.3i) appears mainly in blacks, browns,
ochres, and some red colours, as in the flesh tones,
indicating the presence of iron oxides (Fe2O3). The
presence of manganese in some of these areas
53
(ill. 4.3j) suggests the use of manganese oxide, as
Sienna earth pigments (Fe2O3 + MnO2), as is the
case of the hair of Saint John and the red under-
garment of Mary Magdalene’s neckline. The IRR
(ill. 4.3c) also suggests the presence of carbon,
which is not detectable by XRF/MA-XRF, and
would come from black pigments applied in black,
brown, and ochre areas.
Mercury correlated to sulfur suggests the use of
vermillion (HgS), which is particularly intense in
the flesh tones, hair, and some specific details of
the garments (ill. 4.3g). It is interesting to point
out that this element appears with small intensity
in the red drapery of Saint John in the MA-XRF
Hg, and on the localised points measured by XRF
in this area. This suggests that the red drapery
would be mainly composed of red ochres, red glazes,
and lead white.
The distribution of copper is quite evident in the
MA-XRF Cu (ill. 4.3h) and appears in the green and
blue hues of the composition. The presence of this
element suggests a copper-based pigment, such as
azurite (2CuCO3·Cu(OH)2), malachite (CuCO3.
Cu(OH)2), or verdigris (Cu(C2H3O2)2.2Cu(OH)2).
The last one was used almost universally in the
early Netherlandish paintings for green tonalities,
while malachite was less common, according to R.
Billinge.36 Azurite was detected in the Christ with
Singing and Music-making Angels37 and many artworks
of the same period.38 It is important to highlight that
no copper was found in the blue mantle of the Virgin,
indicating the use of a blue pigment of another com-
position, such as ultramarine (Na8Al6Si6O24S2),
which was made of the precious lapis-lazuli mineral.
Raman analyses confirmed this by the presence of a
band in ~545 cm-1. Therefore, the drapery would
have been painted with a mixture of ultramarine and
lead white without the azurite underlayer found in
other paintings by the artist.39 Hence, this pigment
would have been reserved for the most prominent
part of the composition, as is the Virgin’s figure, with-
out any economies.
The paint layer is very thin, transparent, and
generally smooth. As described by De Vos, the
54 sofia hennen et al.
desired tonalities were obtained by very few lay-
ers.40 The overlay of translucent glazes to achieve
deep shadows in modelling the draperies produces
some slight relief visible in raking light (ill. 4.3a).
For instance, the glazes on the draperies of the
Virgin and Saint John show this feature, even
though they were significantly damaged over time.
The red glazes in the drapery of Saint John seem
to have been altered, as they have acquired a
rough brown, crusty aspect, while the blue ultrama-
rine glazes of the Virgin’s drapery present a very
abraded condition.
The delicate and careful representation of the
garment details and the clothes textures – repre-
sented down to the smallest details with meticulous
and precise tiny brushstrokes – is also comparable
to other Memling works. For instance, the stun-
ning corset of gold brocade made of golden threats
is depicted by slightly inclined light and delicate
brushstrokes, similar to other brocades described,
for example, by Périer D’Ieteren.41 The blue lace
passing through the golden hoops to attach the
corset is full of tiny highlights showing light reflec-
tion. The soft mantle of fur also displays the use of
overlayed purple glazes to represent the folding.
The little pearls of the headdress of the Holy
Woman appearing in the centre of the composition
is another remarkable example of the meticulous
work of the painter.
The quality of the anatomic details is undeni-
able despite the presence of abrasion and inpainting.
The faces show delicate transitions between light
and shade, with blurred and subtle brushstrokes.
Sheer drops of tears run down the cheeks of the
Holy Women. Tiny white teeth perceptible through
the small half-opened mouths show more minia-
ture light reflects, which is a well-known feature of
Memling to increase the dramatic aura of the
scene.42 Delicate brushstrokes depict the hair with
refined highlights. The nodosity of the long fingers
is outlined by small parallel strokes suggesting
texture and shadows, as observed by De Vos.43
The fingers and eyes have a graphic treatment
with sinuous lines emphasising the contours and
wrinkles. Indeed, the eyelids and nails are delin-
eated by marked contours of a brownish hue high-
lighted by slim white outlines that underline the
relief or the edges, as De Vos and Périer D’Ieteren
have observed in other paintings.44 The nails are
also marked with tiny spots of light.
Conclusion
The Lamentation panel attributed to Hans Memling
was probably the right wing of the dismembered
Lachovsky-Bardi Diptych, carefully studied at the
MASP. Technical, stylistic and documental insights
allowed us to understand this refined painting
despite its fair conservation condition. Several
damages such as past accidents, lacunae and gener-
alised abrasion, pigment alterations, tarnished
retouching and inhomogeneous oxidised varnishes
were altering the painting’s inherent aesthetical
and stylistic features. Particularly before the treat-
ment of 1997, these features disturbed the correct
appreciation of the composition.
The scientific analyses penetrated original and
non-original layers to distinguish the first dashes of
the composition. The underdrawing study was
essential for understanding the creative process of
the work, which seems to be an original composi-
tion made with workshop prototypes and models
used in other paintings by the master. The faces are
drawn with softness and subtlety displaying specific
formal devices to represent typologies of proto-
types. Some features, such as hook-ended hatching
for the shades of the draperies and the enlargement
of the anatomic details, especially for the hands,
are current in Memling’s technique. Adjustments
and research indicate a spontaneous and confident
drawing. It is, therefore, likely that the hand of the
master is to be found in the painting, at least in
some specific parts of it.
Several resemblances are found in other Mem-
ling works concerning the painting technique. A
comparable way to depict anatomic and garment
details and the diaphanous modelling of the faces is
to be outlined. Furthermore, the excellent quality
of the materials – for instance, the blue drapery of
 rediscovering the sao paulo museum of art’s memling by technical examination
the Virgin, probably made of natural ultramarine –,
the refined painting technique and the elegant
and equilibrated composition are consistent with
Memling’s work. These characteristics suggest a
painting of a certain value, produced maybe for an
important private client willing to pay a large sum
for a small devotional diptych. Whether the painter
himself painted the whole painting is not the
question, as long as the quality of his workshop is
unquestionably manifested in this artwork. Finally,
the dating of 1485-1490 also seems plausible.
The conservation-restoration process of the
painting was completed recently. Cleaning, new
retouching and varnishing were done to improve
its aesthetic condition. The mounting of the art-
work in Lina Bo Bardi’s ‘Crystal Easels’ in the per-
manent exhibition of the MASP, where it has been
absent for five years, is expected soon. Then, it
would be possible to fully appreciate its aesthetical
and stylistic features again.
NOTES
Firstly, we would like to thank MASP’s director, Adriano Pedrosa, who
approved the initiative and trusted us, and the members of MASP’s
Conservation and Collections Department, who contributed to all sorts
of things during the project’s duration. Furthermore, I would like to
personally thank Olivia Ardui, Simon and Thomas Bobak, Ulrich
Birkmaier, Emma Capron, Etienne Costa, Laure Fagnart, Aline
Genbrugge, Mariana Leme, Maximilaan Martens and Sara Mateu, who
kindly discussed with me the painting’s issues, giving me so many
insights and good advises. Finally, and above all, we thank Cecilia
Winter and Fernanda d’Agostino, both former Collections Managers
at MASP, for supporting, believing and eventually fighting for the pro-
ject’s completion.
1 54 × 38.2 cm.
2 Thirty-eight localised points in different parts of the composi-
tion, including all the different colours encountered, were analysed
by XRF.
3 Eighteen points were measured using portable equipment and
a 785nm laser in areas with and without varnish.
4 Hennen et al. 2022.
5 Périer-D’Ieteren 1993, p. 43; Bruges 1994, p. 154.
6 Catalogue-Sao Paulo 1998, pp. 78-80.
7 Catalogue-Sao Paulo 1998, pp. 78-80.
8 Van Schoute 1963, pp. 65-73; Périer D’Ieteren 1993, p. 43;
Bruges 1994, p. 154; Lane 2009, p. 337.
55
9 Van Schoute 1963, p. 67.
10 Bruges 1994, p. 154; De Vos 1994, pp. 332-335.
11 Bruges 1994, p. 154.
12 Périer-D’Ieteren 1993, pp. 39-64.
13 Périer-D’Ieteren 1993, p. 47.
14 Treatment report, 1997 (MASP archives).
15 Bruges 1994, p. 154.
16 In 2015, the Museum built many frames and showcases using
this wood (Barbosa 2015; Barbosa, Moreira, Vieira 2019). In 2018,
many of them started to present this problem. The research on this
specific issue was published in: Hennen et al. 2021.
17 The study of the support was done by close observation and
under an optic microscope. No dendrochronology analyses were possi-
ble. A panel painting specialist, Sara Mateu, was also consulted.
18 De Vos 1994, p. 382; Périer D’Ieteren 1994, p. 74.
19 De Vos 1994, pp. 382-384; Périer D’Ieteren 1994, pp. 67-77.
20 No scientific analyses were done to confirm this assumption.
As J. Sanyova and M. Postec have shown, some different media and
drawing techniques could have very similar results and are difficult to
distinguish from each other, so this assessment is to be taken prudently
(Postec, Sanyova 2018). However, L. Campbell, M.W. Ainsworth and
T.-H. Borchert, among others, often mention using humid and/or
dry methods in Memling’s work (Ainsworth 1994; Borchert 1995;
Campbell 1998, pp. 354-391). D. Bomford also describes different
humid and dry media in: London 2002, pp. 26-37.
21 Ainsworth 1994; Borchert 1995.
22 Ainsworth 1989, p. 6; Ainsworth 1994; Borchert 1995, p. 85.
23 Van Schoute 1963, pp. 65-73; Van Schoute 1976, pp. 97-113;
Ainsworth 1994; Borchert 1995; De Vos 1994, pp. 382-384; Périer-
D’Ieteren 1994, p. 70.
24 Ainsworth 1994; Borchert 1995.
25 Ainsworth 1994.
26 Périer-D’Ieteren 1994, p. 76; Borchert 1995.
27 Ainsworth 1994; Périer-D’Ieteren 1994; Borchert 1995.
28 Périer-D’Ieteren 1994.
29 The visible light photographs and the IRR of the mentioned
paintings are available in open access in the online catalogue of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
30 As Ainsworth recalls, the frequent repetition of figures and
motifs within the paintings of Memling suggests a considerable variety
of preparatory studies and pattern drawings in Memling’s workshop
(Ainsworth 1994).
31 De Vos 1994, pp. 382-384; Périer D’Ieteren 1994, p. 67.
32 Périer-D’Ieteren 1994, p. 71.
33 Périer-D’Ieteren 1994, p. 76.
34 Janssens et al. 2016, p. 42.
35 Janssens et al. 2016, p. 43.
36 Billinge et al. 1997, p. 34.
37 Janssens et al. 2016, p. 43.
38 Billinge et al. 1997, p. 35.
39 De Vos 1994, pp. 382-384; Campbell 1998, pp. 354-391;
Billinge et al. 2017.
40 De Vos 1994, p. 382.
41 Périer-D’Ieteren 1994, pp. 71-73.
42 Périer-D’Ieteren 1994, pp. 71-73.
43 De Vos 1994, pp. 384-385.
44 De Vos 1994, pp. 384-385.
Ill. 5.1. Jan van Eyck, The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele, c. 1434-1436, oil on panel, 122 x 157 cm,
Bruges, Groeningemuseum. The white boxes indicate details that are illustrated or reconstructed
 5
A Matter of Manner? Material Aspects of Style
and Reconstructions as a Research Tool
Jan Bustin and Abbie Vandivere
A BSTRACT : The metallic details in Jan van Eyck’s Virgin and
Child with Canon van der Paele (c. 1434-1436, Bruges,
Groeningemuseum) are exemplary in their realism and
technical sophistication. His depiction of armour, decora-
tive borders on clothing and gold-brocaded fabrics
show a mastery of his materials and their working prop-
erties. This paper uses these details to investigate how
Van Eyck’s characteristic manner (style) is related to
his materials (matter) and his gestures (manoeuvres). By
attempting to replicate metallic details in modern recon-
structions made with historically appropriate materials,
we demonstrate how specific pigments and gestures can
create a variety of visual effects. Specifically, the interac-
tions between a brown glaze (containing earth pigments)
used as a base tone, and opaque highlights (containing
lead-tin yellow) can be manipulated to produce either
crisp details or a blended reflective surface. Painted
reconstructions, documented using photographs and
videos, were a useful approach to study the artist’s
working methods.
—o—
Introduction
Bright saturated colours, smooth blending, and pre-
cise details are stylistic aspects that we have come
to associate with early Netherlandish paintings.
Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441) was a master of his
materials. By applying them using specific tech-
niques, tools and gestures, he achieved unparal-
leled realism in his paintings. The details depicting
reflective metal in the Virgin and Child with Canon
van der Paele (c. 1434-1436, Bruges, Groeninge-
museum, inv. GRO0161.I) (ill. 5.1) are suitable
examples to demonstrate how his style, and the
manner with which he painted, are connected to
his matter.
Before delving into how metal can be painted
in a convincing way, it is useful to define how the
concepts of matter, manner and manoeuvres are used in
this paper. Van Eyck’s paintings, like many other art-
works, are made of different materials that are layered
or combined: we refer to these materials as matter. We
consider the way in which the artist applied and
manipulated these materials to be manner. Specific
gestures made by the artist while handling his tools
can be described as manoeuvres. In this paper, we will
demonstrate how matter, manner and manoeuvre
are all crucial parts of the artist’s technique.
There is no doubt that Jan van Eyck was very
familiar with the properties of his materials (matter),
but also in the manner with which he could manip-
ulate them using specific manoeuvres. Scientific
analyses and technical examination can help deter-
mine what kind of matter Van Eyck incorporated
into his paintings.1 Determining which manoeuvres
he used to apply them is more difficult, since the
physical gestures Van Eyck made six centuries ago
were not documented. A life-sized reconstruction
of the Van der Paele altarpiece made by Jan Bustin,
one of the authors of this paper, allowed him to
test hypotheses about the working properties of
pigments and paints, and how different manoeuvres
affect their appearance.
58 jan bustin and abbie vandivere
In this paper, we will demonstrate how the
metallic details in the Van der Paele altarpiece can
be described according to their matter (pigments
with specific visual and handling properties, bound
in oil), the manner with which they were applied,
and the specific manoeuvres that might have been
used.2 Considering all of these aspects provides
insight into Van Eyck’s techniques and working
methods, and how these may relate to the charac-
teristic appearance or style of this masterpiece.
Painting reflective metal
The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele is full
of metallic objects and details, including armour,
chain mail, a bishop’s mitre, crozier, gold-brocaded
velvet cope, and decorative borders on clothing
(ill. 5.1).3 When compared to actual objects made
of different metals, each appear to reflect and scat-
ter the light convincingly, depending on the
smoothness and colour of the metal and its position
within the scene (ill. 5.2). Some of the details seem
to represent gold or a ‘warm-coloured’ copper alloy.
Van Eyck did not use actual gold to depict them;
the effect is achieved entirely with paint. Artists in
the centuries before Jan van Eyck often used real
gold to depict gilded objects. In his 1435-1436 trea-
tise De Pictura (On Painting), León Battista Alberti
discouraged this technique, writing: ‘I would try to
represent it with colours rather than with gold […]
There is greater admiration and praise for the artists in
the use of colours’.4 Around the time of Van Eyck,
and fundamentally influenced by the works of early
Netherlandish painters, there was a technical shift
towards the use of paint to depict metal.5
Real metal is opaque, but when it is depicted in
art, the properties of both opaque and transparent
paint can be exploited to accurately capture its
appearance. The techniques used to paint gold
or other warm-coloured metals often involved a
brown base tone and yellow highlights. Our ques-
tion was whether the realistic depiction of metallic
details was primarily the result of an artist’s obser-
vational skills and stylistic choices, or whether
it was also strongly influenced by the painting
materials, tools and gestures that they used. We
hypothesised that the realism is in large part
due the artist’s technique: in other words, the
manner with which they used their materials, and
specific manoeuvres they carried out while handling
their tools.
Matter: properties of the oil binding medium
The realism that Van Eyck and his early Nether-
landish contemporaries were able to achieve was
rooted in a highly refined power of visual observa-
tion. They also had a sophisticated understanding
of the properties of their paints, which were typi-
cally made by grinding pigments in linseed oil.
Although oil had been used as a binding medium
for centuries before the time of Van Eyck, the
effects that he created were so innovative that
Vasari (mistakenly) credited him with inventing
oil paint.6 Historic recipes and the results of analy-
ses have shown that linseed oil was sometimes sub-
jected to sun-thickening, heating or incorporating
additives in order to change its visual, handling,
and/or drying properties.7 Although Van Eyck may
not have understood the chemical and physical
processes behind these adulterations, he was cer-
tainly aware of how he could exploit the optical
and handling properties of their paints to achieve
unparalleled realism.
Two properties of the oil medium that are cru-
cial to achieving certain effects are: the refractive
index of pigments in oil (allowing the artist to
manipulate the translucency and opacity of their
paints), and the slow drying of the oil medium
(allowing for smooth blending and soft transi-
tions).8 Oil paints can be opaque or translucent
when mixed with specific pigments.9 If the refrac-
tive index of a pigment differs significantly from
the binding medium, the resulting paint is opaque:
it has good covering power, and hides the layers
beneath it. Conversely, if the refractive index of
the pigment and binding medium are similar, the
paint is translucent: it allows light to pass through,
creating a glaze where the layers underneath remain
(partially) visible. By layering translucent glazes
 a matter of manner? 59

A B C

Ill. 5.2. A: Jan van Eyck, The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele (ill. 5.1), detail, Saint Donatian’s crozier.
B: Three-tower reliquary, Aachen, Cathedral Treasury, c. 1370-1390. C: Reconstruction of Saint Donatian’s crozier

over opaque underlayers, early Netherlandish
painters achieved bright, saturated colours as well
as a realistic rendering of shadows, midtones and
highlights.
In contrast to an aqueous binding medium like
egg tempera, the oil medium dries relatively slowly.
Certain pigments or additives can accelerate dry-
ing, but generally oil paints can be blended or
manipulated hours – and sometimes even days –
after application. By blending contiguous colours
with each other wet-in-wet, or smoothing the
border between them with a soft dry brush follow-
ing paint application, subtle transitions between
light, midtone and shadow can be created. These
smooth transitions play an important role in mod-
elling volumes, and producing the illusion of three-
dimensionality.
Van Eyck exploited both of these properties of
oil in certain details of the Van der Paele altar-
piece. The red robe of the Virgin is painted with an
opaque vermilion underlayer, covered with translu-
cent red lake glaze layers (ill. 5.3). The layering of
opaque and transparent paints creates depth and
colour intensity. The red base tone is seamlessly
blended with the shadow; perhaps he used a dry
brush to soften the transition between the two
before applying the glaze on top. Once these layers
had dried, Van Eyck applied yellow and brown
60 jan bustin and abbie vandivere
Ill. 5.3. Jan van Eyck, The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele (ill. 5.1), detail, trim on the hem of the Virgin’s robe
paints to depict the gold-coloured trim. In this con-
text, the juxtaposition of both opaque and translu-
cent colours is important to impart a sense of depth
and three-dimensionality. This technique effec-
tively renders an illusion where certain details
come forwards and others recede. As demonstrated
below, this creates a difference in contrast, which
plays a role in the depiction of metallic details.
Matter: brown and yellow paints
Saint George’s helmet in the Van der Paele altar-
piece is an impressive feat of painting (ill. 5.4a). Its
surface appears so shiny and smooth that it reflects
the image of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child
multiple times. To paint the metal, Van Eyck only
needed a few pigments. Macro X-ray fluorescence
scanning (MA-XRF) examination detected iron
(Fe-K) throughout the helmet: these correspond to
iron-containing earth pigments (ill. 5.4b).10 In the
yellow highlights, MA-XRF detected lead (Pb-L)
(ill. 5.4c); these were painted using lead-tin yellow,
applied on top of the brown base tone.11 The com-
bination of these two pigments – one rather trans-
lucent and one opaque – is very suitable for paint-
ing metallic details, and Jan van Eyck used their
opposing properties to his advantage.
In Van Eyck’s time, earth pigments would have
been relatively cheap and common, dug up from
one of several deposits in Europe. Depending on
the iron content, the accessory minerals, and their
specific chemical structure, they could vary in com-
position, colour, workability and drying proper-
ties.12 Generally, iron-containing earth pigments
are rather quick-drying, and semi-transparent;
however, some specific types of earths might have
had different properties. Raw sienna, for example,
is generally more transparent, warm, and pure than
other iron-containing earth pigments.13 A specific
type of raw sienna excavated from near the North-
ern Italian village of Badia was found to be particu-
larly useful during the making of painted recon-
structions (described in the following section).
It is difficult to determine which specific earth
pigments Van Eyck might have had access to.
Judging from the colour and visual properties of
the brown base tone of Saint George’s helmet,
 a matter of manner? 61

B C

Ill. 5.4. Jan van Eyck, The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele (ill. 5.1), detail, Saint George’s helmet.
A: visible light. B: MA-XRF map for iron (Fe-K). C: MA-XRF map for lead (Pb-L)

the earth pigments that he used were rather trans-
lucent, pure and ‘warm’ in colour.
Lead-tin yellow is a bright, opaque yellow pig-
ment that was synthetically manufactured.14 It has
a lot of body, meaning that it can be applied thickly
to create three-dimensional impasto that stands
proud from the surface and catches the light. This
makes it ideal for the rendering of highlights on
metal, especially when applied on top of a darker
underlayer. Lead-tin yellow is very opaque in oil
due to its high refractive index, and can be ground
very finely without losing its hiding power or
colour. As a result, it flows easily from a fine brush,
thereby leaving a distinct trace of colour.
Returning to the decorative trim on the edge
of the Virgin’s red robe in the Van der Paele altar-
piece, the lead-tin yellow details are light in
colour, opaque and have slight relief (ill. 5.3). This
contrasts with the rather dark, translucent and
smoothly blended surface beneath. Small details
like gems and metal threads stand out more sharply
from their background or underlayer when one
or more factors are juxtaposed: contrast in tonal
value or colour, contrast between translucency and
62 jan bustin and abbie vandivere
opacity, and/or contrast between smooth blending
and crisp edges. These differences allow the viewer
to perceive the detail and background as being
distinct from one another, contributing to their
visual appeal and three-dimensional realism.
The depiction of many of the metallic gold or
warm-coloured metal details in this painting relies
on a brown underlayer and yellow highlights. Earth
pigments (used alone or mixed with a darker
colour) make an ideal underlayer for refined yellow
highlights to be applied on top. Furthermore, by
applying both the brown underlayers and the
yellow highlights using specific tools, gestures or
manoeuvres, the impression of crispness or softness
can be altered by blending. The effect of specific
manoeuvres can be practiced and visualised using
reconstructions made using historically appropriate
materials.
Manner and manoeuvres: making reconstruc-
tions
The most important information about material
composition (matter) comes from a painting itself.
Close visual observation, complemented by techni-
cal examinations and scientific analyses can pro-
vide evidence about the composition, optical and
handling properties of paints, and tools that were
used.15 These methods provide some indirect infor-
mation about the paint’s handling properties, but
often this is based on how it appears now, after
centuries of ageing and change. One method to
learn more about matter and manoeuvres is attempt-
ing to replicate painterly effects by making recon-
structions using historically appropriate materials.
Reconstructions have gained acceptance within
the field of technical art history, as a method of
testing hypotheses and gaining insight into an
artist’s material choices.16 Despite the fact that the
conclusions drawn from reconstructions can be
valuable, they should be considered within the
context of other evidence to avoid misconceptions
and misinterpretations.17
Jan Bustin has extensive experience making
reconstructions of early Netherlandish paintings,
including a full-scale reconstruction of the Virgin
and Child with Canon van der Paele. His insights into
traditional techniques provided first-hand experi-
ence of the way materials behave, and formed the
basis for trying to understand the manoeuvres that
Van Eyck might have carried out. Manoeuvres
are defined here as the way that an artist prepares
or applies their materials with specific tools and
gestures. Crucial manoeuvres take place before
painting begins: for instance, the grinding of pig-
ments with oil to create a workable paint. Some
pigments need to be ground with a muller for a long
time, affecting the eventual tinting strength, trans-
parency and handling properties of the paint.
Gritty earth pigments, for example, benefit from a
longer grinding time: the pigment becomes better
dispersed in the medium, gaining colour intensity
and translucency. A type of brown earth pigment
that Bustin found especially useful while making
reconstructions of early Netherlandish paintings is
a raw sienna dug from near the Northern Italian
village of Badia.18 While grinding this pigment in
oil using a glass muller, he observed that it started
as rather opaque and dull; however, after a long
grinding time, the tinting strength of the paint
increased, and it became significantly more trans-
lucent. A variety of brown colours could be
achieved by applying the paint in different thick-
nesses; when applied thinly, it had a yellowish tint,
and when thicker it appeared more orange.
The range of effects that can be created with a
single pigment shows that simply identifying an
‘earth pigment’ is insufficient to describe its proper-
ties, colour or rheology. Furthermore, the specific
type of earth pigment, and whether or not it is left
to fully dry before applying subsequent layers can
also have a profound effect on the visual outcome.
This can be demonstrated in Bustin’s reconstruc-
tion of the gold trim on a red drapery (ill. 5.5a-b).19
He painted the same detail repeatedly, each time
adjusting specific variables – incorporating differ-
ent pigments with differing translucency or opacity,
and method of application – to test how these
changes affected the visual appearance. In the first
 a matter of manner? 63

Ill. 5.5. Reconstructions of the border of a red drapery, using: A: opaque pigments; B: transparent and opaque pigments in oil.
3D digital microphotograph (Hirox), 30x magnification

reconstruction, he used only opaque paints, either
choosing pigments that are opaque in oil by them-
selves, or by adding lead white to enhance the
opacity of semi-translucent paints (ill. 5.5a). First,
he applied a brown underlayer (containing earth
pigments), and left it to fully dry before applying
details using lead-tin yellow paint. This resulted in
a high degree of contrast, where the highlights
stood out distinctly from the base tone. The yellow
paint skipped over the dry surface of the under-
layer, creating some ‘broken brushstrokes’.20 A sim-
ilar effect can be seen in the highlights in the chan-
delier of Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait (London,
National Gallery, NG 186).21
64 jan bustin and abbie vandivere
In Bustin’s second reconstruction, he used both
transparent and opaque oil paints throughout the
layer buildup (ill. 5.5b). The brown base tone
contained earth pigments in oil, applied in several
layers.22 The final layer of the base tone was an
extremely thin application of paint containing the
raw sienna from Badia.23 This resulted in a very
transparent yet strongly coloured yellowish glaze
on the surface. While the glaze was still slightly
damp, he added the lead-tin yellow details. This
meant that the yellow lines were painted into
the transparent underlayer, rather than sitting
distinctly on top. This combination of transparent
and opaque paints – and the specific way it was
applied – seems to more accurately mimic appear-
ance of the trim of the drapery in the Van der Paele
altarpiece (ill. 5.3). The sheen of the metallic
threads appears realistic because they merge with
the layer underneath rather than sitting crisply on
top. The manoeuvre of applying a thin translucent
glaze onto the underlayer also made the painting
process easier and more efficient. The slightly damp
underlayer facilitated the easy transfer of lead-tin
yellow paint from the brush onto the surface. With-
out the need of pressure from the brush, it was also
possible to paint extremely fine details.
Although this technique was effective, the
results of reconstructions cannot definitively prove
that Van Eyck used this specific technique or
pigment. It serves to demonstrate that the combi-
nation of matter and material are crucial to under-
standing why certain details stand out while others
merge into each other.24 By making reconstruc-
tions, Bustin identified a manoeuvre that helped
with applying fine details: by brushing out a brown
glaze in an extremely thin layer before applying
the highlights, he could produce a more visually
convincing metallic effect, which was easier and
more efficient to execute.
Reconstructing smoothly blended highlights
Bustin’s reconstructions of the border on the red
drapery were useful in understanding how to
best replicate the metallic details in his full-scale
reconstruction of the Virgin and Child with Canon
van der Paele. In some details, like Saint George’s
helmet, Van Eyck achieved a subtle blending
between the underlayers and the opaque highlights
(ill. 5.4a). Others, like the metallic threads in the
gold brocade, stand out more distinctly from
the brown underlayer (described in the following
section). Bustin found that both of these effects
could be achieved by applying the highlights on
top of a damp glaze using different manoeuvres.
An example of a rather smooth, subtle approach
is the decorative border around the neck of Saint
Donatian’s cope, which depicts images of saints
embroidered into the fabric using gold threads.
Bustin reconstructed the embroidery by carrying
out some of the manoeuvres described in the previ-
ous section: applying the lead-tin yellow highlights
onto (or into) a damp glaze layer. Once the base
tone and highlights had dried, he applied yet
another layer of the raw sienna from Badia on top,
painted more highlights, and worked some of
the colours into each other (ill. 5.6a). This resulted
in further blending and refinement of the range
of colour hues. Bustin used a similar approach to
reconstruct Saint George’s helmet and armour
(ill. 5.7a-b).
The drying time of the glaze was relatively short;
it was dry to the touch within approximately one
day. After further drying for 1 or 2 days, the gloss of
the glaze appeared to increase slightly, possibly due
to the rheology of the paint slowly settling and lev-
elling out (ill. 5.6b). Bustin noted that one of the
crucial factors to the success of this technique is
that the glaze layer had to be extremely thin. If too
much oil was incorporated, or if the layer was too
thick, details applied on top started to spread
beyond their boundaries and become ‘blurry’.25
These kinds of manoeuvres – and effects that
occur during and directly after drying – can only be
fully understood by trying to replicate the action
and effect yourself, or watching someone carry
them out. Unfortunately, we cannot observe the
painting processes and decisions that Jan van Eyck
made six centuries ago, which is why making
 a matter of manner? 65

A B

Ill. 5.6. Reconstruction of the border of Saint Donatian’s cloak. A: in normal light; B: from an angle, in raking light

modern reconstructions can be so informative. Reconstructing fine crisp details

Short videos are especially helpful in capturing and
visualising the gestures and the working properties
of the materials (matter). A video showing the
manoeuvres performed while painting the recon-
struction of Saint George’s armour reveals how
Bustin achieved smooth, subtle blending of the
highlights with the brown base tone (ill. 5.7b).26
Gold-brocaded velvets in the clothing of saints or
clergymen are a recurring feature in early Nether-
landish paintings. Depending on an artist’s tech-
nique and the manoeuvres they used, the highlights
had their own distinct visual characteristics: for
instance, the direction and thickness of the strokes,
and the shape of the lines or dots.27 Van Eyck’s

A B

Ill. 5.7. Reconstructions. A: the highlights in Saint George’s helmet. B: Saint George’s armour, with a QR code for a YouTube
video showing Jan Bustin painting lead-tin yellow highlights into/onto a brown glaze
66 jan bustin and abbie vandivere
characteristic approach to painting the threads on
the brocades are intrinsically related to his matter
and his manoeuvres. In some parts of the brocade,
crisp parallel lines and dots create the illusion of
thin gold threads woven into the fabric to produce
a delicate pattern. Reconstructions have the poten-
tial to expand to the knowledge we have about how
Van Eyck painted gold-brocaded velvet fabrics.
Bustin recommended three aspects that are crucial
for reconstructing fine crisp details: a brush with a
sharp tip, a binding medium that flows easily from
the brush then dries quickly, and a finely-ground
pigment that is rather opaque with good tinting
strength. With this knowledge, he devised a slightly
different strategy to paint crisp metallic details
(ill. 5.8).
A video shows Bustin painting metallic threads
in the gold-brocaded velvet cope of Saint Dona-
tian, and how he manipulated the paint with the
brush (ill. 5.8).28 On top of the brown underlayer
prepared with a thin glaze of the raw sienna from
Badia, he used a fine brush with a sharp tip to
apply paint made from lead-tin yellow in oil.29
When loading the brush with paint, he ensured
that it was evenly distributed among the hairs. To
avoid any clots that could disturb the even flow
from the brush on the surface, he regularly went
back to pick up paint from the palette while mov-
ing and spinning the brush. During application, a
steady controlled movement was required while
drawing the lines. The manoeuvres that he carried
out were influenced by the rheology (handling
properties) of the lead-tin yellow paint. It was
thixotropic, meaning that when the paint was agi-
tated – for instance, by twirling the brush on the
palette – it became slightly more runny; however,
when the movement was stopped, it regained its
stiffer consistency.30 The runniness of the paint
enabled him to paint very fine details, without the
need for volatile solvents used as a thinner. Once
the paint had flowed from the brush and onto the
glaze surface, it immediately stiffened up again,
creating crisp details.
These observations made during the reconstruc-
tion process show how profoundly the properties of
paints and other materials (matter) can affect an
artist’s manoeuvres, which in turn affected their
stylistic choices. The gold-brocaded velvet of
Saint Donatian’s cope required refined and crisp
details (ill. 5.8), while the visual effect of the
smooth polished surface of the warm-coloured
metal armour was more easily and effectively
achieved by blending the paint wet-in-wet
(ill. 5.7a-b). The materials used to paint them were
the same, but the manoeuvres ultimately created a
different visual effect.
Conclusion
We wondered if – and to what extent – Jan van
Eyck’s style and technique could have been influ-
enced by his materials (matter), the way he used
them (manner) and specific gestures (manoeuvres)
that he made during the painting process. Our
research focused on Van Eyck’s detailed depiction
of warm-coloured metals as one of his stylistic char-
acteristics, and how painted reconstructions can
help us understand more about his manoeuvres. The
application of a translucent brown glaze beneath
opaque yellow details helps to accurately capture
the sheen and reflection of smooth metal. It makes
the highlights merge subtly with the underlying
paint, and the result appear more contiguous and
realistic. The colours can easily be blended into
one other – for instance, in the armour and trim
of fabric – or with a slightly different manoeuvre,
the highlights can be more crisply defined – for
example, in the gold brocade.
We do not know for certain whether Van Eyck
used a brown glaze with similar properties to the
raw sienna from Badia – only that it seems logical
that, given his extensive material knowledge and
skill – he might have sought out a paint with simi-
lar properties.31 In the Van der Paele altarpiece,
examination and scientific analyses have identified
some materials, but have not yet provided enough
information to definitively determine whether he
 a matter of manner? 67

Ill. 5.8. Reconstruction of Saint Donatian’s gold brocaded velvet cope, with a QR code for a YouTube video showing
Jan Bustin’s brush handling and application of lead-tin yellow highlights onto a brown glaze

applied an extremely thin glaze as an underlayer for
metal.32 Even if paint samples were to be available,
it is unlikely that such a thin layer of glaze would
be visible or identifiable in a cross-section.33 Nev-
ertheless, the combination of visual examination,
analysis and reconstructions have the potential to
teach us more about how Van Eyck was able to
paint metallic objects so accurately. This study
concentrates on one specific type of detail: the
depiction of gold or warm-coloured metallic objects
in a single painting by one artist; however, we could
extrapolate that similar techniques might also
have been used to paint other ‘cool’ metallic
surfaces – perhaps based on a black or grey under-
layer, with white highlights. The strategy of apply-
ing opaque details onto a ‘damp’ glaze could also be
applied to other colours.
Reconstructions made using historically appro-
priate materials can help us better understand the
matter used to make artworks, and also the manoeu-
vres that might have been used to apply them.
By documenting these manoeuvres using photo-
graphs and videos, we can share how specific tools,
preparation methods and application methods can
affect the visual outcomes. Visually, the results
achieved by Bustin in his reconstructions (more or
less) resemble details from Jan van Eyck’s Virgin and
Child with Canon van der Paele; however, it bears
repeating that reconstructions are not a definitive
answer as to how historical artists might have
worked. They must be considered in the context of
other information available about the artwork: its
visual characteristics, information from art techno-
logical sources (like manuals and recipes), and
knowledge gained from scientific analyses.
More broadly, our approach – where evidence
from a historic artwork is considered alongside the
process and results of modern reconstructions with
a specific research question in mind – has the
potential to reveal how painters of the past achieved
68 jan bustin and abbie vandivere
specific visual effects that we now consider to be
typical for their style.34 Matter, manner and manoeu-
vre indeed have an impact on stylistic characteris-
tics. The results of reconstructions and material
evidence from the Van der Paele altarpiece have
demonstrated that the visual outcome is linked to
all of these factors.
NOTES
Acknowledgements: AXIS Antwerp X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy
Laboratory; Impact of Oil research project (Rijksmuseum/University of
Amsterdam/Universiteit Utrecht); Groeningemuseum, Bruges; Maurits-
huis, The Hague; Associazione Terre Coloranti (Antonio Martorelli);
Kremer Pigmente, Aichstetten; Closer to van Eyck website/KIK-IRPA,
Brussels.
1 Spring, Morrison 2017.
2 The term ‘altarpiece’ is used in this paper, but the Virgin and
Child with Canon van der Paele might originally have been an object of
private devotion before becoming a painted memorial for its donor,
then placed on the high altar of Saint Donatian’s Cathedral. For a
discussion of its history, see: Lane 1990.
3 Bol 2011, pp. 77-78.
4 Grayson 1972, p. 93.
5 Streeton 2013, pp. 117-119. The switch from actual to fictive
gold might also have been related to the availability of precious metals
like silver and gold in Van Eyck’s time (Streeton 2013, p. 118).
6 Eastlake 1960, 1, pp. 203-204; Roy 2000; Bol 2012, pp. 23-46;
Kirby 2012, pp. 257-259.
7 Kneepkens 2021; Kirby 2012, p. 261.
8 Kirby 2012, pp. 259-265.
9 Bol 2012, pp. 13-16; Streeton 2013, pp. 35-36. The refractive
index of fresh cold-pressed linseed oil is 1.47. Some traditional pigments
like red lakes, yellow lakes, copper greens and (to a certain extent)
ultramarine are close enough to that of oil achieve translucent glazes.
Other pigments like lead-tin yellow, whose refractive indices are
further removed from that of oil, appear opaque; they are better able to
cover the layer(s) applied beneath them.
10 MA-XRF examination was carried out by the Antwerp X-ray
Imaging and Spectroscopy Laboratory. The brown layer is presumably
also present beneath the yellow highlights, but in the MA-XRF map for
iron (ill. 5.4b) its elemental detection is ‘blocked’ by the heavier lead-
containing pigments applied on top.
11 The MA-XRF map for tin (Sn-L) also shows a more concen-
trated distribution in this area.
12 Helwig 2007, pp. 57-58. Even the commercially available
earths available today vary significantly. See, for example, the range of
earth pigments available from Kremer Pigmente (accessed 03/2023):
www.kremer-pigmente.com/en/shop/pigments/earth-pigments.
13 Helwig (2007, pp. 60-61) describes the properties of raw
sienna, and also the difficulty in distinguishing different types of
yellow earths.
14 Kuhn 1993.
15 Vandivere 2017.
16 Dunkerton 1996-1998, p. 290; Wrapson et al. 2012; Van-
divere 2017, pp. 420-423; YouTube video by Jan Bustin describing
‘The use and some methods for making reconstructions’, 2016: https://
youtu.be/lon6GRN68Y0.
17 Spring, Morrison 2017, pp. 200-201. To explain the presence
of translucent globule in details of early Netherlandish art painted
with lead-tin yellow, Kockaert (1973-1974) hypothesized that
these were caused by a protein component added to the oil medium.
Reconstructions carried out by students at the Stichting Restauratie
Atelier Limburg (SRAL) tested this hypothesis by adding egg yolk to
the yellow paint to make an emulsion. While this improved the
handling properties, it was not an accurate reflection of the methods
used in the fifteenth century. This illustrates one of the shortcomings
of reconstructions; just because it works does not necessarily mean that
this is the way it was done. Ultimately, the results of Kockaert’s staining
tests for protein were proven to be false positive results; the ‘bubbles’
are lead soaps formed by a reaction between the oil binding medium
and the pigment.
18 Kremer Pigmente 40404: Raw Sienna Badia, Italian. Further
information about pigments from this region was provided by Antonio
Martorelli from Associazione Terre Coloranti (written correspondence).
μ-XRF analysis was carried out on the powdered pigment and paints
(bound in linseed oil and applied to a grounded panel) used in the
reconstruction. XRF detected only iron, suggesting there are very few
accessory minerals, or that they are in too small quantity to be detected.
19 Although the detail of the red garment with a gold trim was
not directly copied from an existing painting, it was inspired by the
red robe of the Virgin in the Van der Paele altarpiece. To ensure com-
parable results, Bustin not only used historically appropriate pigments
when possible, but he also worked at a similar scale.
20 Dunkerton (1996-1998, p. 288) writes that a broken brush-
stroke can happen ‘when a light, rapid stroke of oil-bound colour is
applied over a dry underlayer’.
21 Kirby 2012, p. 269, fig. 13.8. Kirby describes how ‘the texture
of metal, as well as the roundness of the object, is evoked by translucent,
parallel strokes of faint yellow and brown scumbled over the dark brown paint
beneath: opaque paint, but dragged so thinly over the dry paint below that
the brush leaves a thin, broken line of paint’.
22 The pigments used to reconstruct the brown base tone were:
red ochre from Luyck (C.I. Pigment RED 102, Verfmolen De Kat),
sometimes mixed with some French ochre JOLES (Kremer Pigmente
40030) and/or with bone black (Kremer Pigmente 47100). A cold-
pressed and water refined linseed oil was used as a binding medium for
the first brown layers (Kremer Pigmente 73020).
23 The pigments used to reconstruct the glaze were: raw sienna
from Badia (Kremer Pigment 40404). The same oil mentioned above
was sun-thickened, heat treated and/or treated with a lead siccative.
24 Vandivere 2017, p. 431. Van Eyck achieved a variety of effect
in the trims around the angel’s necks in the Ghent Altarpiece (Ghent,
Saint-Baafskathedraal) by applying – and scratching into – the yellow
highlights in different ways.
25 Under magnification, some opaque details in the Ghent Altar-
piece also seem to have suffered from blurring or ‘spreading’ on top of a
darker underlayer; see for example, dots in the centre of the rivets in
the red bridle of Knights of Christ from the Ghent Altarpiece (Closer to
Van Eyck website, accessed 03/2023): www.closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be/
ghentaltarpiece/#viewer/s=3&l=1&id1=5dbe2336ab876d1c9766ddbc
1268e843&rep1=0&scale1=0.0016678&centerX1=19629.0&cent
erY1=35137.2.
26 YouTube link to video showing Jan Bustin reconstructing
Saint George’s armour: https://youtu.be/F1_3BG5OLRM.
27 Van Duijn 2017, pp. 408-414.
28 YouTube link to video showing Jan Bustin applying highlights
to the reconstruction of the brocade: https://youtu.be/dvgnXIpkKHU.
29 The pigment used in this case was lead-tin yellow light (Kre-
mer Pigmente 10100). The binding media a cold-pressed linseed oil
that had been refined and slightly sun-thickened. The size of the round
sable brushes that were used ranged from 2 to 00. These types of details
are often are so finely painted that it has been suggested that Van Eyck
might have used single haired brushes (see, for example: www.
apollo-magazine.com/van-eyck-kunsthistorisches-museum, accessed
03/2023). This video shows that very fine lines and dots can also be
 a matter of manner? 69

painted with a brush with several hairs, as long as they come to a sharp 32 Vandivere 2017; Van Duijn 2017.
point. 33 Vandivere 2011, p. 2.
30 The thixotropic properties of lead white are demonstrated 34 YouTube video by Jan Bustin ‘The use and some methods for
in this video from Natural Pigments (accessed 03/2023): www.natural- making reconstructions’, 2016: https://youtu.be/lon6GRN68Y0.
pigments.com/artist-materials/white-lead-historical.
31 While making the reconstructions, Bustin sought out other
methods to make a paint with similar properties, incorporating yellow
lakes and other organic colourants.
Ill. 6.1. Workshop of Quentin Massys, Unequal Marriage, oil on plywood, 54.5 x 88.5 cm, Sao Paulo Museum of Art.
Before treatment
 6
From Da Vinci to Massys: New Insights into
MASP’s Unequal Marriage
Sofia Hennen, Pedro Campos, Valter Felix, Renato Freitas,
Elizabeth Kajiya, André Pimenta and Márcia Rizzutto
A BSTRACT : The Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) real-
ised an interdisciplinary project concerning the in-depth
study of Unequal arriage, an oil painting originally on a
wood panel that was transferred to a canvas and then
to a plywood panel. The painting was attributed to a
follower of Quinten Massys and dated from 1525-1530.
However, its poor conservation condition made any
previous stylistic analyses problematic. Moreover, many
authors have seen a significant influence of Leonardo
da Vinci in this work, assuming a copy of Da Vinci’s
grotesque figures. Therefore, the project aimed to
analyse the painting from a scientific perspective,
approaching its historical, documental, stylistic and
technical features. This study brings unprecedented
insights into the artwork’s creation process and material
features. It also assesses its complex material history
and conservation condition. It finally allows answering
the questions raised by the bizarre composition to
better understand the connection between Da Vinci
and Massys.
—o—
Introduction
From 2018 to 2022, the Sao Paulo Museum of Art
(MASP) realised an interdisciplinary project con-
cerning the in-depth study and the conservation-
restoration treatment of Unequal Marriage,1 dated
from 1525-1530 (ill. 6.1), which is a fascinating
painting. This work was first published by M.J.
Friedländer, in 1947, as a replica by Quinten Massys
with unknown whereabouts.2 In 1974, L. Silver
mentions the same Festive Party as the work of
a Massys follower, still not knowing its wherea-
bouts.3 However, the image he shows does not
correspond to Friedländer’s picture nor MASP’s
and seems a later copy of lesser quality. In 1950,
E. Larsen published a similar composition belong-
ing to the private collection of Clarence Y. Palitz,
Alderman in New York, that he considers the orig-
inal.4 Nevertheless, the picture also displays a lesser
quality than the MASP’s version, with larger and
rougher figures. In 1984, Silver cited the painting
in his catalogue raisonné and attributed it to a
follower, still not knowing its whereabouts.5
J. Hand and M. Wolff also refer to the painting as
‘a painting, now lost, by a follower of Massys’.6
L. Campbell finally quotes the painting as ‘a
“Wedding Party” known from several versions, the best
being in São Paulo’.7
The work was damaged and heavily restored
over time. The painting was originally a panel
painting, which was probably transferred to a
canvas, and then transferred to a plywood panel,
modifying its original structure and losing much of
its inherent information. These past interventions
profoundly altered the painting’s aesthetical, stylis-
tic and technical features, making doubtful attribu-
tions that did not consider this material condition.
The project was a successful collaboration
between institutions, possible thanks to the imple-
mentation of a methodology inspired by the
72 sofia hennen et al.
interdisciplinary working practices of the Royal
Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels (KIK-
IRPA).8 The project was realised in partnership
with the Laboratory of Archaeometry and Sciences
Applied to Cultural Heritage (LACAPC) of the
Institute of Physics of the University of Sao Paulo
(IFUSP) and the Applied Scientific Instrumenta-
tion and Computational Simulation Laboratory
(LISComp) of the Federal Institution of Education,
Science and Technology of Rio de Janeiro (IFRJ).
The multi-band imaging of the painting – which
included visible, raking, and ultraviolet-induced
visible luminescence (UVL) photography, infrared
reflectography (IRR) and radiography – was per-
formed by IFUSP. Energy-Dispersive X-ray fluores-
cence spectrometry (XRF)9 and Raman spectro-
scopy analysis10 were realised by IFUSP, while
IFRJ did Macroscopic X-Ray Fluorescence scan-
ning (MA-XRF). All the analyses were done in situ
with portable equipment.
Subject
In the centre, a handsome young man with long
and blond silky hair is getting engaged with an
older woman. The face of the woman is marked by
pronounced wrinkles and displays a half-toothless
smile. She is richly dressed, wearing a gown that
shows off wrinkled breasts. Her hair is bunched
with golden lace in two plaited buns on both sides
of the head, which is covered on top by a white
headdress decorated with a brooch, set with four
large pearls and a table-cut diamond. She is hold-
ing a gold ring in her right hand and a blue purse
full of golden and silver coins in her left hand. The
young man delicately caresses his fiancée’s face with
his right hand, while resting his left hand on top of
the purse in a protective gesture. His glance is
seductively directed straight forward to the eyes of
the future bride. Next to him, at the right side
of the composition, a group of three older men
seem concerned by the central couple. The first of
these men holds a piece of paper and a pen in his
hands. He is probably in charge of redacting the
wedding contract, which seemingly involves the
golden coins and the treasures displayed on the
table, including delicate goblets, the one in the
foreground full of pearls. The second man, placed
at the centre of this small group, is richly dressed,
wearing an ostentatious mantle of brown fur and
a golden tiara. He keeps a nicely decorated chest
close to him, in which he inserts a chaplet made of
gold and pearls. The chaplet is entangled with an
equally precious belt with gold and pearl orna-
ments. The head of a third man – whose role might
be to act as a witness – appears at the far right. At
the left stand three other figures. Next to the bride,
an older man of vulgar appearance contemplates
the couple with a half-toothless smile. He does not
seem to have the same dignity in his attitude as the
solicitor-like men at the right. In the background,
behind this figure, a younger fellow with his mouth
big open – allowing a full view of his teeth – seems
to shout or laugh. This attitude also suggests a lack
of restraint and implies a lower status compared to
the decorous men on the right. On the left edge,
close to these undignified men, stands an older
woman with strange facial features: a snub nose
with wide nostrils, wrinkled and pimply skin, a
bulging forehead and a prominent chin. Her mouth,
wide open, shows some of her teeth. She is ele-
gantly dressed in a blue dress trimmed in brown fur.
Her prominent breast peeks out of the deep cleav-
age. She wears two small white horns in checkered
motifs under a neatly pinned and folded linen
headdress. She is either the mother or the match-
maker of the promised old lady. The garments of
this lady are old-fashioned, dating from the first
half of the fifteenth century. This may suggest
– together with her facial features, likely to the
‘rough’ men at her side – a lower status. Then,
she can be read as a tasteless old woman dressed
pretentiously in outdated clothes and displaying an
outrageous neckline.11
The innovation of using physical ugliness,
grotesque, and caricatural features to display moral
turpitude may be credited to Massys, who uses irony
as a complement to the writings of the humanists
and intellectuals of his days.12 The success of this
 from da vinci to massys
sort of moral satire is evident from the numerous
copies and variants that circulated, appealing to
the learned humanists and the larger public of the
early sixteenth century.13
Composition
MASP’s painting has been related to Leonardo
da Vinci (1452-1519) due to the similitude of
Da Vinci’s figures in his ‘grotesque’ drawings.14
Indeed, the central couple would arise from a lost
drawing from Leonardo, known today by an engrav-
ing attributed to Jacob Hoefnagel (Vienna, Alber-
tina Museum, early seventeenth century). The two
‘boorish’ men on the left side and the two solici-
tors-like men on the right side of the couple would
result from another composition of Leonardo, Five
heads (Windsor Castle, Royal Collection Trust,
RCIN 912495, c. 1494). The old lady is supposed
to be a copy of a lost Leonardo, as two drawings of
an old woman by followers of the artist are superfi-
cially similar (Windsor Castle, Royal Collection
Trust, RCIN 912492 and New York, Public Library,
Spenser Collection, French 1669).15
The figures of the Unequal Marriage also appear
in other paintings by Massys and his workshop.
The famous Portrait of an Old Woman (‘The Ugly
Duchess’) (London, National Gallery, NG 5769,
c. 1513) depicts the same elderly woman with
strange features who would suffer from an advanced
form of Paget’s disease.16 The Portrait of an Old
Man, the pendant of the ‘Ugly Duchess’ (New York,
private collection), and the replica of the same
man in the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris (inv.
829), which was signed by Quinten and dated
1513, are similar to two of the respectable men at
the right side of MASP’s painting. The rough
old man represented in the Ill-Matched Lovers
(Washington, National Gallery of Art, acc. nr.
1971.55.1, 1520-1525) resembles the man at the
left in the Unequal Marriage. Three of Saint John’s
executioners appearing in the right wing of the
Carpenter’s Guild Altarpiece (Antwerp, KMSKA,
inv. 245-249, 1508-1511) also present comparable
features.
73
For Silver, the relation of Leonardo’s drawings
with paintings of Massys is explained by the pres-
ence of Leonardo’s models in Massys’s workshop,
which would ‘have made their way northward from
Italy by some means’.17 Hand and Wolff suggest that
while it is evident that copies of Leonardo’s works
were available in Antwerp at the time, the exact
mode of transmission remains unknown to us.18
More recently, in his analysis of the London ‘Ugly
Duchess’, Campbell observes that Quinten’s knowl-
edge of and interest in Leonardo’s work was rela-
tively limited, except for the representation of
elderly people and the grotesque.19 The Da Vinci
drawings present a less convincing representation
of the deformed woman than the London painting,
especially considering that the technical analyses
of this painting confirm that it is an original com-
position.20 Massys’ figures ‘are ugly and their facial
expressions exaggerated, but, unlike many of Leonar-
do’s grotesque heads, they are neither caricatures nor
completely unnatural, hybrid inventions. Even when
Quinten copied Leonardo, he tended to diminish the
elements of caricature; he never ventured into repre-
senting the impossibly malformed’.21 For Campbell, it
is, therefore, difficult to accept the theory that
Quinten has followed in the ‘Ugly Duchess’ a lost
drawing by Leonardo: ‘It seems more likely that
Quinten and Leonardo, sharing an interest in ugly or
grotesque heads, exchanged sketches and that Quinten
sent to Leonardo a version of NG 5769, which was
copied by Leonardo himself or by his pupils. They
altered the proportions of the figure, simplified the
shapes, misunderstood the structures of the outlandish
and archaic Burgundian clothes and failed to compre-
hend the ways in which disease had transformed the
bones of the face and shoulders’.22
In the Unequal Marriage, the grotesque is quite
moderated compared to Leonardo’s drawings. The
figures are exaggerated but still realistic, much
richer in detail and far more sophisticated.
Material history
No documents relating the painting to a patron
or a specific context of command were found.
74 sofia hennen et al.
However, L. Fagnart brings unprecedented infor-
mation about the artwork’s whereabouts after its
creation in Antwerp. Indeed, a painting mentioned
several times in the French Royal Collection’s
inventories among Leonardo da Vinci’s artworks
corresponds quite precisely in terms of description
and dimensions to MASP’s painting.23 Further-
more, the name of ‘Metsys’ as the work’s author
appears among the first quotes, in 1683, after what
is referred to as Da Vinci.24 Fagnart explains that
this early attribution to Leonardo comes from the
association of Massys’ figures with the drawings of
the Italian master. Likewise, other paintings of the
same bunch were incorrectly attributed to Da Vinci
(interestingly, at least three of them were initially
panels that were transferred to canvases).25 Indeed,
after Fagnart, MASP’s subject does not refer to any
known original composition of Leonardo, and none
of the Leonardeschi depicts this scene. Conse-
quently, it must be associated with Massys, who is
related to three other versions.26 There is no
mention in the inventories of how the Unequal
Marriage entered the French Royal collections, but
it could have come from the fonds ancien or even
from the collection of François I (1494-1547). The
painting might have been purchased in Antwerp
through an art merchant, as was the case for other
artworks of François I’s collection from Flanders
registered in the Royal Archives.27
After the mid-eighteenth century, no other
mentions are found till the twentieth century,
when the work entered the art market. In 1929, the
painting was sold in the Berliner auction house
Wepke; in 1936, in another Berliner auction; and
in 1939-1940, at the Gallery Francke, in Leipzig.28
Later, the painting entered the collection of Baron
Thyssen-Bornemisza, who donated it to MASP
in 1965.
Friedländer saw the Unequal Marriage as a can-
vas painting in the art market when he published it
in 1947.29 It is not sure when the support transfer
occurred, the last mention of the artwork being a
panel would date from 1709-1710.30 Yet, some
material features of the artwork and the fact that
many paintings from the French Royal Collection
were transferred from their original panels to can-
vases is maybe a hint. Indeed, this procedure was
extremely popular in France from 1750 onwards,
when woodworm was active in a panel and/or the
paint surface was severely flaking.31
Old lacunae visible in the analyses of the Un-
equal Marriage (ill. 6.2b-f) suggest that the original
panel had probably suffered from an infestation of
xylophagous and was damaged by the rupture of
the central joint, which would have motivated
its elimination and its replacement by a canvas.
However, transfers were highly aggressive, even
‘horrific’, irremediably thinning and damaging the
ground and sometimes the paint layers.32 The cot-
ton gauze glued at the back of MASP’s ground as an
intermediary layer may date from this moment.33
General abrasion might have been produced then.
Tiny blisters and micro-lacunae were probably
provoked by hot glues and irons applied during
the flattening of the paint layer over the new
support, conferring to the image a blurred aspect.
This intervention also created the loss of the origi-
nal relief of the paint layer as the fine impastos
were crushed, and the fabric’s weave was printed all
over the surface (ill. 6.2a).
The glueing of the paint layer over the actual
plywood panel was probably done during the twen-
tieth century. Plywood panels started to be used as
secondary supports from the second half of the
nineteenth century but were far more popular in
the conservation field during the first half of the
twentieth century.34 Unfortunately, the pasting
of the paint layer sustained by the gauze over the
plywood panel (with animal glue) was executed
rather clumsily and caused several creases. Subse-
quently, the gauze partially delaminated from the
board, creating air bubbles that caused the lifting
and flaking of the paint layer (ill. 6.2a).
Both treatments must have included cleaning,
filling, retouching/overpainting and varnishing.
Past strong unappropriated cleanings might have
produced abrasion and the loss of original glazes,
altering the modelling’s subtility and deepness. In
 from da vinci to massys 75

A B

C D

E F

G H

I J

Ill. 6.2. Workshop of Quentin Massys, Unequal Marriage (ill. 6.1), before treatment. A: in raking light.
B: UVL. C: X-radiograph. D: IRR. E: MA-XRF map for lead (Pb). F: MA-XRF map for calcium (Ca). G: MA-XRF map
for mercury (Hg). H: MA-XRF map for iron (Fe). I: MA-XRF map for copper (Cu). J: MA-XRF map for cobalt (Co)
76 sofia hennen et al.
1974, the first restorer of MASP treated the paint-
ing. She noted that the paint layer was covered by
fungi, especially inside the cracks, and she decided
to remedy this by applying acetic acid all over the
work.35 Regrettably, this treatment probably incre-
mented the fragility of the already fragile thinned
ground layer, inherently sensible to acids, affecting
its cohesion and adhesion. Finally, on 24th August
1991, the glass easel where the painting was hung
in the exhibition room broke, letting the painting
fall and causing some losses of the paint layer.36
Localised interventions were done, but with poor
execution.
In conclusion, this material history explains
why the structural and aesthetical features of the
painting were compromised. Flaking, blisters and
creases, dark and visible inpainting hiding old and
recent lacunae and oxidised varnishes (ill. 6.2b)
were affecting the appreciation of the composition.
Support
The original support was probably an oak panel
made of two boards with a central joint assembled
with the wood grain running horizontally.37 Several
analyses show several losses forming a horizontal
line traversing the composition’s centre, suggesting
where the joint was placed (ill. 6.2b-f). The hori-
zontal line is not straight but diagonal: it starts
from the centre of the left edge and ends in the
upper half of the painting. This implies two possi-
bilities: either the joint was initially not straight, a
feature that appears more frequently later in the
sixteenth century (which would indicate a later
date of the painting). The second possibility is that
the original joint was straight, but the grain in the
upper plank wasn’t (suggesting a rift-sawn plank),
so the board fractured just above the joint, follow-
ing the grain.38
Ground
The panel was prepared with a white ground. MA-
XRF maps for lead and calcium (ill. 6.2e-f), and
XRF analyses, showed that lead and calcium are
present in almost all the points, which indicates
that the ground is composed of lead white (2PbCO3.
Pb(OH)2), and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and/
or calcium sulfate (CaSO4).39 The X-radiograph
(ill. 6.2c), the MA-XRF map for Pb (ill. 6.2e), and
the MA-XRF map for Ca (ill. 6.2f) suggest two
separate layers.40 Indeed, large brushstrokes going
through the painting in different directions, with-
out following the composition, are visible in the
X-radiograph and the MA-XRF map for Pb. It sug-
gests the presence of a priming layer made of lead
white. If a lead white ground was applied, which is
uncommon though not without parallel in Massys’
work, the X-radiograph and the MA-XRF map for
Pb would be opaquer.41 Moreover, large abrasion
areas correspond with areas with higher intensity
in the MA-XRF map for Ca, as the ground layer is
evidenced through the damaged paint layer. So, it
can be assumed that there is a first layer containing
calcium, followed by an oil priming layer of lead
white, as is often the case in Massys’ workshop.42
Underdrawing
Whether MASP’s painting is the original composi-
tion or a copy is an interesting question. The IRR
(ill. 6.2d) revealed a very sketchy and spontaneous
drawing. Many short and sinuous dashes indicate
the position of the wrinkles in the face of the
elderly woman (ill. 6.3). Some of these lines are
confusing and do not seem to represent anything
specific. The same random dashes appear on her
neck and do not correspond to the final representa-
tion of the neck wrinkles. The young man with the
opened mouth reveals several changes in the lines
of his mouth, nose and eyes as if the painter had
difficulty deciding the traits position (ill. 6.3).
In the group of men on the right side, several
adjustments and random short and curvy outlines
are visible within the faces (ill. 6.4).
Concerning the central couple (ill. 6.5), the
bride shows adjustments in the nose, front and
eyes. Firm dashes change the position of her cap. In
contrast, the face of the future husband shows only
a few slight adjustments. Similarly, the drawing of
the ‘rough’ man on the left side (ill. 6.3) – whose
 from da vinci to massys 77

The artist shows more hesitation in depicting

Ill. 6.3. Workshop of Quentin Massys, Unequal Marriage
(ill. 6.1), IRR, detail: heads of the figures at left
face appears in several other Massys works – is quite
faithful to the final composition. Both faces suggest
a literal copy of preexisting workshop models.
the bodies, clothes, and hands (ills. 6.5-6.7). All
the hands are redrawn several times, with confus-
ing lines. Much research is needed to find the fin-
gers’ final position. The final decisions are probably
made only while painting and not at the under-
drawing stage. The folding has curved lines that
confer to the drawing a nervous aspect, for instance,
in the dress of the elderly woman (ill. 6.6). Her
profuse neckline was also modified several times,
and her breast was even more prominent in the first
stage of the drawing. So, she seems to be an original
composition, probably inspired by workshop proto-
types. On the contrary, the body and garments of
the ‘rough’ old man are still faithful to the final
depiction without any essential corrections. His
drawing is much calmer.

Ill. 6.4. Workshop of Quentin Massys, Unequal Marriage (ill. 6.1), IRR, detail: heads of figures at right
78 sofia hennen et al.

Ill. 6.5. Workshop of Quentin Massys, Unequal Marriage (ill. 6.1), IRR,
detail: central couple (before treatment)

Ill. 6.6. Workshop of Quentin Massys, Unequal Marriage (ill. 6.1), IRR,
detail: bodies of the figures at left (before treatment)
 from da vinci to massys
Ill. 6.7. Workshop of Quentin Massys, Unequal Marriage
(ill. 6.1), IRR, detail: body of a figure and the table at right
(before treatment)
The man holding the chest has many essential
changes in the lines of his mantle, undergarments
and hand (ill. 6.7). He also seems to have been
drawn rather freely. The lines of the chest are loose,
suggesting a spontaneous gesture. Only in the
second or third stage did the artist achieve the
straight lines representing the geometric motifs.
Concerning the objects on the table (ills. 6.6-6.7),
the coins, the purse, the rosary and the goblet
full of pearls needed many alterations. The belt is
particularly confusing and has been repositioned a
few times. On the contrary, the two other goblets
were not corrected.
In conclusion, most figures display a free-hand
drawing, with much research, possibly freely
inspired by workshop models. The elderly woman
does not seem to come from a specific model but
rather from a mixture of models and perhaps partly
from the artist’s imagination. The central couple
also seems partly based on specific models but keeps
much spontaneity. It does not seem that the artist
based his composition on the Da Vinci drawing
79
copied by Hoefnagel. Idem for the solicitors and
the laughing young fellow, who might have been
inspired by some workshop prototypes but still
needed many amendments. They do not seem to be
derived from the Windsor’s drawing. Only the faces
of the man in green and the future husband seem to
have been copied more literally (but not necessar-
ily after Da Vinci’s drawings). It is interesting
to note that no hatching was made to indicate
the shadows.43
Concerning the drawing style, the softer, sub-
tle, and often barely visible autograph underdraw-
ing of Quinten is not recognisable in MASP’s
painting.44 However, similar curvy dashes some-
times appear locally in specific parts of Quinten’s
compositions, suggesting the participation in the
works of another hand. For example, the IRR of
the Adoration of the Magi (New York, Metropolitan
Museum, acc. nr. 11.143, 1526) shows similar lines
in the body of the Child, the neck of the Virgin
and the king in the foreground. The ‘Ugly Duchess’
have a face extremely close to the final image in
the IRR, whereas the drawing is freer and sketchier
for the clothes and hands.45 The child reading in
the centre panel of Massys’ Saint Anne Altarpiece
(Brussels, MRBAB, inv. 2784, 1509)46 also reveals
this treatment.47
M.C. Galassi recognises these ‘short and bold
lines […] many shifts in the contours of the figures and
some radical changes in the folds’48 in the Virgin and
Child (Brussels, MRBAB, inv. 5052), as well as in
the Saint Jerome (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches
Museum, inv. 965, 1537)49 that she compares to
Jan Massys Tax Collector (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie
Alte Meister, Gal-nr. 804, 1539) (ill. 6.8). She
attributes both paintings to a young Jan Massys at
the beginning of his career: ‘In his debut as a young
painter, Jan showed a penchant for following the mod-
els inherited from his father, probably as requested by
collectors and based on workshop cartoons, yet ines-
capably making some interesting changes and quickly
revealing his own personality, a style not fully con-
ceived but already making its presence known […]
In fact, the more we know of Jan’s painting technique,
80
Ill. 6.8. Jan Massys, Tax Collector, 1539, oil on panel, 85 x 115 cm, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, IRR, detail: figures
the more it seems evident that he differs significantly
from his father in both his use of underdrawing and
colour handling’.50 Comparing the underdrawings
of the Tax Collector (ill. 6.8) and of the Unequal
Marriage is even more eloquent. In both paintings,
the hesitant drawing is generalised: short sinuous
dashes, many corrections, and random outlines
within the figures, among other common features,
suggesting an attribution to Jan. Consequently, the
composition of the Unequal Marriage could be a
‘pastiche’ of prototypes of Quinten’s workshop,
where Jan integrated important innovations,
revealing his artistic personality.
Paint layer
Lead white, evident in the radiography (ill. 6.2c)
and the MA-XRF map for Pb (ill. 6.2e), was abun-
sofia hennen et al.
dantly used, modelling the elements of the compo-
sition in the lights. In contrast, some specific details
show little intensity in the MA-XRF map for Pb,
such as the dark blue outfit of the future bride.
Calcium is also quite evident in the MA-XRF map
for Ca (ill. 6.2f) in larger areas of the composition.
The presence of calcium and potassium suggests
the use of a calcium-based black pigment, such as
bone black (Ca3(PO4)2 + CaCO3 + C), which was
confirmed with Raman spectra. The background,
more specifically, appears in this image with very
high intensity, suggesting the use of bone black.
MA-XRF and XRF techniques do not detect
carbon, but the black areas in the IRR (ill. 6.2d)
indicate a carbon-base pigment, reinforcing the
presence of bone black in these areas that also
appear strongly in the MA-XRF map for Ca.
 from da vinci to massys
Whether the original background was meant to
be black is not totally certain. The paint layer is
particularly thin and worn in this area and was
overpainted in black paint in the past. Examina-
tion under the microscope shows a cream-coloured
layer behind the black layers. This cream-white
paint might correspond to the ground but could
also correspond to the original hue of the back-
ground. Other paintings by Massys have light back-
grounds that were completely overpainted later on,
probably for stylistic reasons.51 However, the two
copies published by Larsen and Silver show black
backgrounds, which tends to support the idea of an
original black background. In addition, other
Massys’ paintings have dark backgrounds as the Ill-
Matched Lovers of Washington. But the painting
could have been overpainted very early as well. As
no samples were taken, no stratigraphic data is
available yet to better understand this question.
Interestingly, the MA-XRF map for Ca (ill.
6.2f) shows some reserves, where the underlayer is
used for the final composition, as for the blond hair
of the future husband. This way of treating the
blond hair, using the tonality and the luminosity
of the underlayer, is quite similar to Dresden Tax
Collectors, but also to paintings by Quinten as the
Ill-Matched Lovers in Washington.
The presence of mercury, correlated to sulfur,
indicates the use of vermilion (HgS) for the reds.
MA-XRF map for Hg (ill. 6.2g) shows where this
pigment was used: with a very high intensity in the
red garments – indicating a significant quantity of
this pigment – and with lesser intensity in the flesh
tones. Red lake glazes were probably used for the
pink tonalities of the composition, as for the young
man’s pink garments, the pink corset of the elderly
lady and the belt. Some purple shades in the white
sleeves and the cap of the future bride also suggest
the addition of red lakes. However, MA-XRF and
XRF do not detect organic compounds and this
assumption comes from what is known from the
master’s painting technique.52
MA-XRF map for Fe (ill. 6.2h) shows the distri-
bution of iron, which was detected for the yellow
81
pigments, suggesting the use of yellow ochre. The
large presence of lead in the ground layer would
make it difficult to detect lead-tin yellow, though
tin wasn’t detected by MA-XRF/XRF means. Iron
is also present in several other areas besides the
yellow hues, such as the black, brown, and red
regions, suggesting the use of earth pigments.
In the green and blue elements of the composi-
tion, XRF and MA-XRF map for Cu (ill. 6.2i)
show the presence of copper, which suggests the
use of copper-based pigments such as azurite
(2CuCO3·Cu(OH)2) – which was often used for
the blue hues –, malachite (CuCO3.Cu(OH)2), and
verdigris (Cu(C2H3O2)2.2Cu(OH)2).53 The last one
was used almost universally in the early Nether-
landish paintings for the green tonalities, while
malachite was less common, according to R. Billinge.54
MA-XRF map for Cu clearly shows the distribution
of these copper-based pigments in the tablecloth,
the purse and several headdresses and garments,
such as the blue dress of the elderly woman. The
MA-XRF map for Co (ill. 6.2j) show the presence
of cobalt in specific regions of the painting. In the
blue dress of the elderly woman, cobalt seems to be
present as a restoration pigment (for instance,
cobalt blue), as its distribution is more random.
However, in the future bride’s garments and the
collar of the solicitor-like man, the cobalt distribu-
tion may be related to smalt pigment (CoO.n
SiO2). The date of introduction of smalt in Neth-
erlandish painting is unclear, but it appears from
the sixteenth century in Northern Europe.55
The paint layer is, in general, thin, flat and
translucent. A greyish-pink modelled underpaint
can be observed in some garments, similar to the
modelling effects found in the ‘Ugly Duchess’.56 In
some places, energetic feathering has been used to
soften transitions of tone, a technique which seems,
after Campbell, to have been peculiarly Quinten’s.57
White highlights on pinkish skin tones and the tips
of fingernails in some of the hands, which have
been described as recurrent, especially in later
works by Massys, are also visible.58 However, these
stylistic features can barely be correctly appreciated
82 sofia hennen et al.
because of the bad condition of the painting.
Above all, the modelling acquired a stiffer and
rough aspect. The original quality of the faces
can be assumed from the face of the young future
husband, which is in a better condition. Still, all
the transitions lost their original subtility and
translucency. The soft and subtle greyish shades
from a grey underlayer in the flesh tones, typical
from Massys, appear too marked and graphic in the
Unequal Marriage.
Conclusion
The documental and historical research allowed us
to trace much of the painting’s history. The possi-
ble presence of the work in the French Royal Col-
lection and other prestigious collections, such as
the Thyssen Bornemisza, implies rather valuable
origins. However, from Antwerp to France, then to
Germany, Spain and finally, to Sao Paulo, the art-
work suffered from several past accidents, damages
and restoration campaigns. The assessment of the
conservation condition of the painting – thanks
to scientific analyses and close examination –
brought a better understanding of the stylistic and
aesthetical features of the work, which are unfortu-
nately profoundly altered.
The study of the painting’s technique brought
unprecedented insights into the material features
of the artwork and allowed us to understand the
creation process of the moralising representation.
The study of the underdrawing suggested the con-
ception of an original composition made of models
and prototypes that might have been present at
Massys’ workshop. The figures depicted in the Un-
equal Marriage appear full of research and modifica-
tions, and are far more detailed and realistic than in
the drawings of Leonardo’s followers, suggesting
that they were conceived in Massys’ workshop
rather than in Leonardo’s. Furthermore, the sponta-
neous and nervous underdrawing style is similar to
the drawing of a young Jan Massys, as it appears in
other works attributed to the artist by Galassi and in
the Tax-Collectors of Dresden. The workshop of
Massys was a productive centre where its subjects
and models were emulated over a long period, and
it is likely that the son, at the very beginning of his
career, made conscious efforts to follow his father’s
production to maintain the identity of the family
workshop and to respond to specific requests of the
market.59 However, it’s also likely that the artist was
trying to find his own style and modernise his
father’s prototypes, which may explain the creation
context of the curious composition.
NOTES
Firstly, we would like to thank MASP’s director Adriano Pedrosa, who
approved the project. Also, we thank the members of MASP’s Conser-
vation and Collections Department, who contributed to all sorts of
things during the project’s duration – particularly Aline Assumpção,
who was involved in some stages of the treatment. Furthermore,
I would like to personally thank Olivia Ardui, Simon and Thomas
Bobak, Ulrich Birkmaier, Emma Capron, Etienne Costa, Laure Fagnart,
Maria Clelia Galassi, Aline Genbrugge, Mariana Leme, Maximilaan
Martens and Sara Mateu, who kindly discussed with me the painting’s
issues, giving me so many insights and good advises. Finally, and above
all, we thank Cecilia Winter and Fernanda d’Agostino, both former
Collections Managers, for supporting the project’s completion
1 54.5 × 88.5 cm
2 Friedländer 1947.
3 Silver 1974, p. 109.
4 Larsen 1950.
5 Silver 1984, pp. 46, 144.
6 Hand, Wolff 1986, p. 146.
7 Campbell 2014, p. 460.
8 Hennen et al. 2022.
9 Fifty-four points were analysed in various regions of the work
by XRF.
10 Forty points were measured with a 785nm Raman laser.
11 This kind of satirised figure is explained in: Campbell 2014,
pp. 446-463.
12 Silver 1974, pp. 115-121; Silver 2015, p. 8.
13 Silver 2015, p. 8.
14 Friedländer 1947, pp. 115-119; Silver 1974, pp. 109-111;
Silver 1984, pp. 46, 144; Catalogue-São Paulo 1998, pp. 87-91; Fagnart
2005; Fagnart 2019, pp. 226-230.
15 Campbell 2014, p. 446; Fagnart 2005; Fagnart 2019, pp. 226-
230.
16 Campbell 2014, p. 459.
17 Silver 1974, pp. 109-111.
18 Hand, Wolff 1986, p. 148.
19 Campbell 2014, p. 460.
20 Infrared reflectograms have revealed an underdrawing with
several amendments suggesting the painter was making a study from
close quarters of the model. See: Campbell 2014, pp. 446-463.
21 Campbell 2014, p. 460.
22 Campbell 2014, p. 460.
23 Fagnart 2005; Fagnart 2019, pp. 226-230.
24 Fagnart 2005, pp. 103-104.
25 Fagnart 2005; Fagnart 2019, pp. 226-230.
26 Fagnart 2005; Fagnart 2019, pp. 226-230.
27 Fagnart 2005; Fagnart 2019, pp. 226-230.
28 MASP’s archives.
29 Friedländer 1947, p. 118, pl. 3.
30 Fagnart 2005, pp. 103-104.
 from da vinci to massys 83

31 Several restorers were known to do transfers in the French
Royal Collection as Robert Picault, Marie-Jacob Godefroid and mem-
bers of her family, Jean-Louis and François-Toussaint Hacquin. See:
Massing 2016.
32 One way to remove the paint layer from the support was to
expose the verso of the panel to nitric acid vapours to soften and cor-
rode the ground, before the acid attacked the paint layer. Another way
was to remove the original panel gradually with gouges, chisels and
scalpels. The next operation involved glueing the paint layer onto a
thin gauze, a fine canvas or paper before glueing it into a linen canvas.
Finally, the painting was tensioned onto a stretcher. See: Massing 2016.
33 This gauze has an open weave visible in the radiography
(ill. 6.2c).
34 Muller 1992.
35 MASP’s Conservation archives.
36 At that moment, the hanging system of Lina Bo Bardi’s crystal
easels was not perfectioned as it is now, which is why some accidents
occurred in the past leading to the removal of this displaying system.
See: Pedrosa, Proença 2015, pp. 139-145. Later, in 2014, the system was
reviewed, and the crystal easels were back in the museum.
37 The use of panel boards was usual in Massys workshop. Can-
vases have been attested only in the case of tüchlein (Campbell 2014,
pp. 19, 430-503). The Unequal Marriage does not correspond from a
material point of view to a tüchlein.
38 The panel paintings specialists Simon and Tom Bobak, Sara
Mateu and Etienne Costa were consulted about this feature. Massys’
specialists Maximiliaan Martens and Maria Clelia Galassi also sug-
gested this (oral communications).
39 The analyses could not determine if it was calcium carbon-
ate or sulfate. However, based on the scientific literature, calcium
carbonate is more probable. See: Campbell 2014, pp. 220-222, 430-
503; Billinge et al. 1997, pp. 20-24.
40 No samples were done that could indicate the stratigraphy of
the ground.
41 Campbell 2014, p. 501.
42 Campbell 2014, pp. 19-25; Marín, Garcia 2018, p. 162.
43 Hatching sometimes appears in a discreet way in the under-
drawings of Quinten Massys. See: Campbell 2014, pp. 430-503.
44 Quinten’s underdrawing is described in: Dunkerton 2008,
pp. 66-67; Campbell 2014, pp. 430-503.
45 Campbell 2014, p. 455.
46 Van Schoute, Verougstraete-Marq 1989-1991.
47 Van Schoute, Verougstraete-Marq 1989-1991, p. 205, image
p. 210.
48 Galassi 2014, p. 17.
49 Galassi 2009; Galassi 2014.
50 Galassi 2014, p. 18. Before Galassi, Reis-Santos and Scarff
also discussed the possibility that some of Quinten’s paintings were
executed in collaboration with Jan, or were finished by Jan, or that
copies of Quinten’s prototypes were produced by Jan after 1530.
See: Reis-Santos 1964; Scarff 1970.
51 It is the case of the Old Man of the Musée Jacquemart-André,
which original whitish background was covered with a brown patina,
and of the ‘Old Duchess’, which green background had a black overpaint
applied very early, before 1693. See: Campbell 2014, p. 452.
52 Campbell 2014, pp. 432-503.
53 Marín, Garcia 2018, p. 160.
54 Billinge et al. 1997, p. 34.
55 Marín, Garcia 2018, p. 165.
56 Campbell 2014, p. 454.
57 Campbell 2014, p. 454.
58 Silver 2015, p. 2.
59 Galassi 2014.
Ill. 7.1. Ambrosius Benson, Lamentation, c. 1520-1525, oil on canvas transferred from wood, 91.4 x 56.2 cm,
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
 7
Alla Maniera di Gerard David?
Stylistic Irregularities in Ambrosius Benson’s
Oeuvre
Joyce Klein Koerkamp
A BSTRACT : This paper is part of an on-going study of
Ambrosius Benson’s oeuvre, which is a unique conflation
of Netherlandish and Italian Renaissance styles. Within
the theme of Alla maniera it discusses Benson’s depend-
ence on Gerard David’s work, as well as issues of stylis-
tic irregularities in his paintings, which might be in part
due to his awareness of the changing art market in
Bruges and ability to cater to it. It makes a first attempt
in defining a maniera in Benson’s underdrawings – and in
doing so – illustrates that technical examination can shed
new light on his oeuvre whereas, in this case, traditional
connoisseurship cannot.
—o—
Introduction
In his article on style, P. Sohm discusses the history
and etymology of the term maniera: ‘Maniera per-
vades art literature as an absolute measure of quality,
as an individual feature of an artist’s technique or
expression, as a characteristic form, and as a means
to classify works, artists, schools, and periods’.1
Following this definition, ‘Alla maniera di…’ is con-
sequently the imitation of an artist’s individual
technique or expression. The oeuvre of the six-
teenth-century Bruges painter Ambrosius Benson
(c. 1495-1550), is one where this phrase appropri-
ately applies. Like most Bruges painters during this
time, Benson continued with the traditions of his
predecessors, like Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling
and, most notably, Gerard David, in terms of style,
compositions and subjects. The art in Bruges in this
period is often viewed as conservative and archaic.
Especially compared to Antwerp which had taken
over the position of artistic centre of the Low
Countries. With Bruges constantly trying to win
back its old economic and cultural position, this
seemingly traditional approach to painting might
have been an attempt to preserve and propagate
the famous cultural identity of Bruges in the
fifteenth century.
This study is a continuation of the research that
started in 2017 on Ambrosius Benson’s Lamentation
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(acc. nr. 1982.60.23) (ill. 7.1).2 Comparing
this painting with the monogrammed Holy Family
in the Groeningemuseum, Bruges (inv. 2006.
GRO0001.I) (ill. 7.2), showed that although the
paintings differed stylistically, there was no doubt
that the underdrawings matched and originated
from the same workshop. This not only raised ques-
tions about stylistic comparison as a sole method of
confirming attributions, but problems with attribu-
tion in Benson’s oeuvre overall. This paper will dis-
cuss the reliance of Benson on artists like Gerard
David and Andrea del Sarto. Furthermore, it will
identify the possible reasons for Benson’s stylisti-
cally irregular oeuvre and in doing so illustrate why
attribution based on stylistic comparison will be
86 joyce klein koerkamp

Ill. 7.2. Ambrosius Benson, Holy Family, 1527, oil on panel, 83 x 65.5 cm, Bruges, Groeningemuseum
 ALLA MANIERA DI
challenging. It will conclude with a suggestion on
how to proceed with this research and the role
technical examination, especially the study of
underdrawings, can play.
Alla maniera di Gerard David?
Benson is best known among art historians from his
entanglement in the 1519 and 1520 lawsuits with
Gerard David, the then most successful painter in
Bruges. Originally from Lombardy, Italy, Ambrosius
Benson arrived in Bruges around 1518. For a brief
period of time, he stayed with Gerard David, and
most likely worked as a journeyman in his work-
shop.3 This collaboration was short lived when
Benson first filed for a lawsuit on 11 February 1519.
Because the verdicts by the Bruges Aldermen sur-
vived, we know Gerard David refused to return two
chests, containing painting materials, patterns and
studies, that were left by Benson when he moved
out of David’s workshop. Apparently, Benson owed
him a rather large sum of money, which prompted
David to withhold Benson’s belongings. The whole
ordeal ended in 1520 by Gerard David’s imprison-
ment and Benson being sentenced to work in the
old master’s workshop until he had paid off the
debt.4 This, however, did not prevent Benson to
settle in Bruges as a freemaster and painter on
21 August 1519.5
Through these types of archival documents, we
know a substantial amount about Benson’s life in
Bruges, like his close connection to the Spanish art
market, but there is no specific documentation
about any of his paintings. Most of them show a
heavy influence of Gerard David’s style and motives
and have been attributed to Benson through stylis-
tic comparison and traditional connoisseurship.
His oeuvre consists of around an astounding 300
paintings according to G. Marlier, who wrote the
first and only monograph on Benson in 1957. How-
ever, only two monogrammed works can be ascribed
to Benson with relative certainty and are therefore
the centrepieces of his oeuvre. One of them is the
1527 dated Holy Family in the Groeningemuseum
in Bruges, and the other is the Triptych with Saint
gerard david? 87
Anthony of Padua in the Royal Museum of Fine
Arts in Brussels (inv. 4129). While the Holy Family
is Italianate in style with the composition derived
from Andrea del Sarto’s Holy Family, now in
the Hermitage Museum in Saint-Petersburg (inv.
6680), the Saint Anthony Triptych refers more so to
Gerard David’s style and compositions.
Despite their turbulent relationship, it is obvi-
ous that Benson did admire Gerard David’s artistic
abilities, seeing as he extensively imitated his style
and made use of David’s compositions. In some
cases, he even blatantly copied certain elements.
Benson’s Saint Anthony, from the previously men-
tioned triptych, is derived from David’s Saint
Anthony depicted on the right wing of the
Saint Anna Altarpiece in the National Gallery in
Washington (DC) (Widener Collection, acc. nr.
1942.9.17.b). The artist used this figure again on
the right wing of the attributed Descent from the
Cross in the Segovia Cathedral. In the instance of
the Magdalen Reading by Benson in the National
Gallery of Art, London (inv. NG 655), the hands
and book of the Magdalen were copied from Gerard
David’s figure of Saint Barbara in the Virgin and
Child with Saints and Donor, also in the National
Gallery (inv. NG 1432).
Alla maniera di Andrea del Sarto?
Given that Benson probably trained in and origi-
nated from Lombardy, one would assume this to be
a reoccurring influence in his works, but other than
the frequent use of chiaroscuro and sfumato in his
paintings, his Italian background is usually not
apparent in his subject matter or compositions.
Benson’s origin is based on a single sentence in the
Bruges register from 1519.6 Although this has been
accepted by most art historians, nothing is known
about Benson’s time in Italy, let alone his training.
J. Weale made an effort to locate his origins near
Verona, but unfortunately came no further than
some circumstantial claims.7 And J. Marlier
attempted to find stylistic comparisons between
Benson and that of contemporary Italian painters,
like Cesare Da Sesto. He compared Benson’s Saint
88 joyce klein koerkamp
Jerome in the Museum Mayer van den Bergh,
Antwerp (inv. 32), with Da Sesto’s painting of the
same saint in the Southampton City Art Gallery
(acc. nr. 2/1958).8 And although his comparison is
not stylistically unfounded, there is no evidence
Benson was inspired by Da Sesto’s work.
Benson’s monogrammed and dated Holy Family,
however, is a clear link to a specific Italian paint-
ing, namely Andrea del Sarto’s Holy Family with
Saint John, now in the Hermitage Museum. The
arguments in favour of this comparison become
even stronger when aided by technical examina-
tion. The changes Benson made fairly late in the
process are visible on the infrared reflectogram
(IRR) (ills. 7.3, 7.4a-b), like the adjustment of the
hand of Josef which was first underdrawn at the
side of the little Saint John and later repositioned
on his shoulder which was already partly executed
in paint. The head of Josef was originally planned
lower and the leg and feet of Christ was changed as
well. The changes correspond with the painting by
Andrea del Sarto showing that Benson definitely
was familiar with his composition of the Holy Fam-
ily with Saint John. How Benson could have
known about Del Sarto’s Holy Family with Saint
John, which is usually dated between 1525-1529,
before completing his own in 1527, is a riddle that
is yet to be solved. It seems most likely that Benson
saw the composition through a drawing or print
that is now lost. Some drawings of Del Sarto sur-
vived and still exists today, like the Head of an
Infant in Profile to the Right, currently in the Uffizi,
Florence (inv. 631 E). Del Sarto probably used this
drawing for his Holy Family, and in two other paint-
ings, the Borgherini Holy Family at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art (acc. nr. 22.75) and Charity at the
National Gallery of Art in Washington (acc. nr.
1957.14.5). It illustrates how a drawing could be
reused multiple times, and in some cases even cir-
culated in within certain groups of painters.
Benson’s stylistic irregular oeuvre
What about Benson’s own maniera? Although he
relied on the art of his predecessors, he was also one
of the most prolific artists in Bruges in the early
sixteenth century. His vast oeuvre is a melting pot
for southern and northern stylistic influences.
Using style or maniera as a guide to define Benson’s
oeuvre, however, will be challenging. It shows
some significant stylistic irregularities, which could
be an issue of attribution within his oeuvre, a
consequence of his workshop and collaboration
with other artists, a keen insight in the demanding
art market and an ability to use multiple styles to
cater to it, or a combination of the three.
Problems of attribution
After the death of Gerard David in 1523, his clos-
est followers and likely former workshop assistants,
Ambrosius Benson, Adriaen Isenbrant, and Al-
brecht Cornelis, continued with the artistic tradi-
tions of the deceased master. Attribution is an
ongoing problem in this group, and many works,
even those of far less quality, are often ascribed to
Benson and Isenbrant simply because they show
the influence of Gerard David’s style. In fact, no
painting can be ascribed to Isenbrant and Cornelis
with certainty, and only the two previously men-
tioned monogrammed works can be attributed to
Benson. It was G. Hulin de Loo who laid the foun-
dations for the oeuvres,9 and since then, art histo-
rians have been adding paintings to this group
while simultaneously questioning some of the
attributions. J. Wilson, for example, proposed to
let go of attributing paintings to Isenbrant all
together, and instead, pleads for distinguishing
between different groups in his oeuvre on a stylis-
tic basis.10 L. Campbell, alternatively, connected
some of the paintings traditionally given to Isen-
brant with Albert Cornelis.11 And D. Martens
suggested to attribute some of the works residing
in Spain, that have been attributed to Benson, to
different masters.12 Moreover, during the prepa-
ration of the exhibition Pieter Pourbus and the
Forgotten Masters in Bruges, it became increasingly
clear that some of the Spanish ‘Bensons’ should be
considered the product of the Claeissens family
workshop.13
 ALLA MANIERA DI gerard david? 89

Ill. 7.3. Ambrosius Benson, Holy Family (ill. 7.2). IRR

90 joyce klein koerkamp
A B
Ill. 7.4. Ambrosius Benson, Holy Family (ill. 7.2), IRR. A: detail of Josef and Saint John the Baptist. B: detail of Christ’s feet
Benson’s workshop and collaboration with different
artists
Benson kept a productive workshop. He had at
least two apprentices14, and likely several assistants,
amongst them possibly his sons Guillaume and Jan,
who also became painters. From 1522-1530, Benson
rented a stall (or sometimes several stalls) each
year during the Bruges Fairs.15 Like many sixteenth-
century painters, Benson seems to have produced a
fairly sizeable amount of ‘ready-made’ paintings,
that might have been sold at these fairs. Certain
themes were extensively used; such as the Magda-
len, either reading or with an ointment jar. This
was a popular theme in the sixteenth century, due
to an increasing demand of devotional pictures.
In the Low Countries it was Quinten Massijs
who probably was the first to use this theme and
specific composition. In Bruges, however, Benson
and Adriaen Isenbrant popularized the image, as
is apparent from the number of paintings that
survived. Students, workshop assistants, but also
followers of both the artists, made grateful use of
this particular iconography, resulting in a substan-
tial production. Even within Benson’s ascribed
oeuvre it is difficult to assess which paintings are
the products of his workshop or which are perhaps
produced by followers. To complicate matters, the
Bruges artists also collaborated on different occa-
sions, as is illustrated by a description of the con-
tents of the two chests Gerard David withheld
from Benson: ‘[…] daerinne vele diversche projectiën
of partonen […], voort noch een cleen boucxkin, vul
aensichten ende naecte personnaigen, een tavereel van
Onser Vrouwen byden heesschere ghemaect om zynen
vadere, noch een cleen tavereelkin vander Noot Gods,
ooc vulmaect, een andere tafereel vander Noot Gods
ende een Machdaleene van dootvaerwe, begonnen
maken, metgaders een doze, daer diversche vaerwe in
es van colueren, bet voort diversche patronen die de
verweerere hadde ghedaen halen ten huuse van Adriaen
Ysenbaert, den voors. Heesschere toebehoorende, ende
inschelycx diverse andere patroonen die hy, heeschere,
gheleent hadde van Aelbrecht’.16 Through archival
documents such as these can be concluded that
the workshops of these painters were not as sepa-
rate as often presumed. They exchanged drawings
and patterns, likely worked together on several
occasions, and, in the case of Isenbrant, sometimes
even hired external help to paint a commission
under his name.17 This not only calls into question
 ALLA MANIERA DI
attribution based on stylistic comparison alone, but
also raises important questions regarding workshop
practice, the use and exchange of drawings, intel-
lectual property of designs, and the relationship
between masters and their journeymen.
Art market
An interesting aspect of intercultural comparison,
are the works that Benson made for Spain. He had
strong connections to the Spanish merchant com-
munity in Bruges who were established on the
Beursplein and from whom he received many com-
missions. Benson had agreements with Spanish
‘agents’ or ‘regaton’ like Sancho de Santander, who
were based in Bruges and bought Flemish paintings
on the market to send back to Spain. They also
acted as mediators between commissioners in Spain
and the artist in Flanders whenever they wanted a
painting of higher quality. In one instance, Benson
even made an agreement with the Spanish mer-
chant Lucas de Castro to purchase a house from
him, paying half of the price in paintings.18 These
might have been the four panels, now at the Museo
del Prado (inv. P001927, P001929, P001933,
P001935), that once formed a polyptych.19 Another
one of these monumental works is the Descent from
the Cross in the Segovia Cathedral. These works of
art seem to have a different and bolder character
than Benson’s other works. This could be an issue
of attribution or an awareness of his patron’s prefer-
ences and an ability to adapt his style to cater to it.
Benson’s dominance and role in the export of
paintings to Spain is certainly an interesting aspect
to explore in future research.20
Future research and the role of technical
examination in Benson’s oeuvre
So how can we address the issues in Benson’s vast
oeuvre? Due to his larger workshop, his followers, and
his collaboration with contemporary artists like
Adriaen Isenbrant, attempting to make solid attribu-
tions might be a futile venture. An interesting idea
comes from studying Isenbrant’s oeuvre. In her 1995
article on Isenbrant, J. Wilson argues to let go of the
gerard david? 91
idea of attributing paintings to the artist. Instead,
she pleads for distinguishing between different groups
in his oeuvre on a stylistic base.21 This will prove to
be difficult in Benson’s oeuvre, but technical exami-
nation, although still subjective, might be a valuable
addition in analysing his workshop practice and
overall maniera. So far, only a handful of Benson’s
paintings have been subjected to technical examina-
tion. Very little of this research, however, has been
published or compared to other studies.
Although there is not yet enough material in
order to speak of a maniera in Benson’s underdraw-
ings, some preliminary remarks can already be
made. In general, Benson seems to mostly focus on
his figures, and in paintings with an elaborate
underdrawing, such as the Lamentation in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the
Holy Family in Bruges, he makes use of extensive
parallel hatching to indicate shadowing. This is
especially evident in the draperies of his figures
(ill. 7.5a-c). They are underdrawn with strong
angular lines, mostly followed in paint, though
Benson made changes in the bottom part of Mary
Magdalen’s dress in the Lamentation (ill. 7.5c). The
underdrawings in the draperies of the Lamentation
and Holy Family also compare nicely with those of
the three angels in Benson’s Nativity in the Yale
University Art Gallery in New Haven (acc. nr.
1948.297).22 Overall, the handling of the draperies
feels reminiscent of Gerard David’s early works.23
Parallel hatching to indicate shading is also
very much present in the faces of Benson’s figures,
most notably in the cheeks and the eye sockets
(ill. 7.6a-c). These are almost always followed in
paint, resulting in Benson’s typical chiaroscuro of
the figures’ features. Even similar idiosyncrasies can
be observed, like two little lines on the noses of
both the Virgins (ill. 7.6a-b). Also quintessential
of Benson’s style are the hands of his figures, with
long fingers and pronounced knuckles. Looking at
the underdrawings he seems to have struggled with
this particular aspect quite often. The hands are
frequently altered in the underdrawing, as well as
the paint layers, and have a nervous energy to
92 joyce klein koerkamp

A B C

Ill. 7.5. A: Ambrosius Benson, Holy Family (ill. 7.2), IRR, detail of the draperies of the Virgin’s garment.
B: Ambrosius Benson, Lamentation (ill. 7.1), IRR, detail of the draperies of Saint John’s garments. C: Ambrosius Benson,
Lamentation (ill. 7.1), IRR, detail of the draperies of Mary Magdalene’s garments

them. Although there is not enough evidence yet,
this nervousness seems to improve as Benson
matured as an artist.
So far, not all of Benson’s paintings show an
elaborate underdrawing, as can be expected. Like
Gerard David in the beginning of the sixteenth
century, Benson must have streamlined his work-
shop production process to efficiently produce
standardized paintings, like those of the Mary
Magdalene.24 These show less underdrawing, mostly
just outlining the figure. In the case of the Magda-
len Reading in the National Gallery of Art in
London, L. Campbell points out that a liquid
medium was used to fortify a design that had been
transferred through tracing, though the hatching
in the eye socket seems to be freehand.25 For the
Saint Mary Magdalene in the Groeningemuseum
(inv. 1972.GRO0008.I) (ill. 7.7), the underdraw-
ing that is there seems to match Benson’s technique
(ill. 7.8), especially in the face and the hands.
There is typical hatching in the Magdalen’s left eye
socket, although very faint, and more pronounced
hatching in her cloak. The hands have been altered
and show Benson’s familiar jittery energy. Some
other changes are visible in the ointment jar, the
Magdalen’s right elbow and her ear.
 ALLA MANIERA DI gerard david? 93

A B C

Ill. 7.6. A: Ambrosius Benson, Holy Family (ill. 7.2), IRR, detail of the Virgin. B: Ambrosius Benson, Lamentation (ill. 7.1),
IRR, detail of the Virgin. C: Ambrosius Benson, Lamentation (ill. 7.1), IRR, detail of Mary Magdalene

Conclusion commissions and favoured ‘Eyckian and Rogerian’

Thus far, some preliminary conclusions can be
drawn, albeit cautiously: Benson was very much
aware of the demanding art market and his role in
it. And his dependence on Gerard David’s style
and compositions could have been a deliberate
choice in an art market that seemed to favour the
more traditional themes of the fifteenth century.
Especially for Benson who, despite his Italian back-
ground and workshop in Bruges, mostly kept ties to
an expatriate community not his own, the Spanish
merchants in Bruges from whom he received many
compositions. As the demand for works of art grew,
artists began to produce ‘ready-made’ paintings
with popular subjects to sell on the markets, as
opposed to solely working on commission. This
also had consequences for their workshop practice,
in some cases causing them to hire external help,
and their use of materials.26 Looking, for example,
at Benson’s attributed Lamentation in the Metro-
politan Museum of Art, examination pointed out
that more opaque paint layers were used, as opposed
to the translucent glazes popular in the fifteenth

A B C

Ill. 7.8. Ambrosius Benson, Saint Mary Magdalene (ill. 7.6), IRR. A: head of the Magdalen. B: hands. C: left arm
94 joyce klein koerkamp

Ill. 7.7. Ambrosius Benson, Saint Mary Magdalene, c. 1526-1550, oil on panel, 69.6 x 55.2 cm,
Bruges, Groeningemuseum
 ALLA MANIERA DI gerard david? 95

century. This was actually quite common in the
sixteenth century and probably had an economic
imperative, since it was less time consuming. Ben-
son, however, varied this method by using opaque
paint to achieve a marblelike quality to the flesh
tones, and reserving glazes for the clothing. Fur-
thermore, through comparing underdrawings we
can link some works together that show stylistic
differences in the paint layers. Studying paintings
with close attention to the specifics of their frac-
ture like this, can shed some light on the level of
inventiveness of these painters. As D. Marechal
wrote: ‘The Spanish-favouring Bruges Italian Ambro-
sius Benson was clearly at a cross-road of North and
South, old and new’.27 So perhaps the Bruges paint-
ers of the sixteenth century like Ambrosius Benson
were not as conservative as we presumed after all.
N OTES
For supplying the infrared reflectography of the Lamentation and allow-
ing me to study it up close in the painting conservation studio, I am
grateful to Maryan Ainsworth and Sophie Scully from the Metro-
politan Museum of Art, New York. For making the infrared reflecto-
graphy of the Holy Family and Saint Mary Magdalene I thank Anne van
Oosterwijk and Guenevere Souffreau from Musea Brugge, Bruges.
1 Sohm 1999, p. 104.
2 The findings of this research can be found as an online entry
on the Met’s website. Joyce Klein Koerkamp and Sophie Scully, The
Lamentation (New York, 2018). www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/
search/435651.
3 Parmentier 1937, p. 89.
4 Parmentier 1937, pp. 92-94.
5 Van Den Haute 1913, p. 62. ‘Hambrosus Benson, ende was hut
Lombardie, was vrymeester, als schylder, ontfangen, op den XXI van Hoest,
an° XIX […]’.
6 Van Den Haute 1913, p. 62.
7 Weale 1908.
8 Marlier 1957, p. 211.
9 Hulin de Loo 1902, p. 29.
10 Wilson 1995.
11 Campbell 2014, pp. 276-277.
12 Martens 2010, pp. 149-155.
13 Bruges 2017, pp. 37-39.
14 Bruges 1998, p. 142. These apprentices are Joachim Spaers in
1541 and Jacob Vinson in 1549.
15 Campbell 2014, p. 84. ‘[…] 1522 (1½ stalls), 1523-5 (1), 1526
(3½, shared with Jan Zutterman), 1527 (3), 1528 (1½) and 1529-30 (1)’.
16 Parmentier 1937, pp. 92-93. ‘[…] containing various designs and
patterns […], a small book full of portrait studies and nudes, a Madonna
made by the plaintiff for his father, a small finished Pieta, another unfinished
Pieta and the beginnings of a Magdalene [in ‘dead-colour’], a box with paint-
ing materials in numerous colours, various ‘patterns’ [cartoons?] which the
defendant [Gerard David] got from the studio of Adriaen Isenbrant but
belonged to the plaintiff, and other patterns that he [Benson] borrowed from
Albert [Cornelis]’.
17 Bruges 1998, p. 121. In 1534 Isenbrant filed a lawsuit against
painter Jan van Eckele because he failed to supply the paintings Isen-
brant had commissioned from him. The paintings were supposed to be
produced from Isenbrant’s sketches, and to be sold under his name
when they were finished.
18 Parmentier 1937, pp. 97-98.
19 Díaz Padrón 1989, p. 11.
20 Martens 2010. D. Martens discussed Benson in his study on
Flemish paintings in the Iberian Peninsula.
21 Wilson 1995.
22 As noticed by the author when studying the infrared photo-
graph (IR) in the painting’s museum file.
23 Ainsworth 1998, pp. 44-47.
24 Ainsworth 1998, p. 45.
25 Campbell 2014, p. 86.
26 For a comprehensive study on this topic, see: Vermeylen,
2003; Faries 2006; Helmus 2006.
27 Bruges 1998, p. 144.
Ill. 8.1. Salvo d’Antonio, Predella with Christ and the Twelve Apostles, 1510, panel, 28 x 200.5 cm, Mdina (Malta), Cathedral Museum
 8
An Analytical Investigation into Two
of Antonello da Messina’s Nephews’ Workshop
Practices: Insights into Antonio de Saliba
and Salvo d’Antonio’s Paintings on Malta
Charlene Vella
A BSTRACT : This paper analyses the results of scientific
investigations as well as what emerged following the
eventual conservation and restoration of several Renais-
sance panels that formed part of four different altar-
pieces for various churches on Malta. The investigations
were carried out at laboratories in Malta beginning in
2010 and are still ongoing. While two of these altarpieces
are documented as being commissioned from two of
Antonello da Messina’s nephews – Antonio de Saliba and
Salvo d’Antonio – the two others are not documented.
The study brings to the fore an analysis of the two artists’
workshop methods, one of whom had also worked with
Giovanni Bellini in Venice.
—o—
Introduction
The island of Malta has several works of art that
betray close connections with Sicily and which
reached the island before the arrival of the Knights
of the Order of Saint John to Malta in 1530.1 These
include Renaissance sculptures and paintings.
Among these are paintings that originally belonged
to four altarpieces for churches in Rabat, Mdina and
Żejtun that were obtained from Messina from two
nephews of Antonello da Messina (c. 1430-1479).2
Antonello was a Quattrocento master with excep-
tional skill, who perfected the use of the oil tech-
nique, and who was talented and innovative enough
to gain the attention of Venetian patrons who
requested his presence in the Lagoon City to exe-
cute several works of art between 1475 and 1476.3
Antonello da Messina’s nephews propagated the
Renaissance tradition among Eastern Sicilian,
Calabrian and Maltese patrons in the late fifteenth
century and the first three decades of the sixteenth
century. The artists in question were primarily
the cousins Salvo d’Antonio (documented from
1493-died pre-1526) and Antonio de Saliba
(c. 1466/1467-c. 1535). They were the sons of
Antonello’s brother Giordano (documented 1460-
1488) and Antonello’s sister who was married to
the intagliatore or woodcarver Giovanni de Saliba
(documented 1461-1517), respectively.4 It is here
worth pointing out that Malta probably fostered a
relationship with Antonello da Messina through
Giovanni de Saliba, who was very likely of Maltese
descent and who is also recorded on Malta on more
than one occasion.5
Antonio de Saliba was a prolific artist who ran
a successful workshop in Messina from the mid-
1490s until at least 1534.6 Antonio established
himself in Messina when he was c. 30 years of
age, following a fifteen-year sojourn in Venice. He
had relocated to the Lagoon City in 1480 with the
98 charlene vella
master to whom he was apprenticed on 21 January
1480. His master was his cousin and Antonello’s
son, Jacobello di Antonio (c. 1454? - died pre-
1488).7 Jacobello was largely absent from Messina
because he ran his father’s second bottega in Venice
after Antonello returned to Sicily in 1476.
However, Jacobello returned to Messina in 1479
following his father’s death, when he was made his
universal heir, as per Antonello’s testament.8
Having completed his four-year apprenticeship,
Antonio likely stayed on in Venice, at first working
in Jacobello’s workshop.9 However, following Jaco-
bello’s death, that probably took place in or before
1488, Antonio seems to have moved on to work as
an assistant in the workshop of the greatest Vene-
tian Quattrocento Renaissance artist: Giovanni
Bellini (c. 1430/1435-1516) returning to Messina in
the mid 1490s.10 Antonio de Saliba, therefore, had
a sound training on Antonello da Messina’s style
and technique, as well as that of the Venetian and
Bellinian aesthetic, through Giovanni Bellini.
His cousin, Salvo d’Antonio appears, on the
other hand, to not have had any connection with
Venice, and instead, he appears to have been very
much aware of central Italian Renaissance painting,
as well as Catalan and Byzantine art.11 He may have
received his artistic training in Messina from his
father, having later ventured to mainland Italy.12
An assessment of Salvo’s oeuvre is hindered by the
lack of surviving paintings by the artist.13 The most
telling painting is an altarpiece on a unified field
portraying the Dormition of the Virgin that he was
commissioned in 1509 for the chapel of the Lectors
(‘cappelle lectorii’) dedicated to the Assumption in
the Cathedral of Messina.14 It is only known today
through a fragment in the Museo Regionale di
Messina reserve collection and a black and white
photograph, since it was destroyed along with much
of Messina in the 28 December 1908 earthquake.
Antonio de Saliba and Salvo d’Antonio’s altar-
pieces for Malta
Among the documented works on Malta is a titular
altarpiece commissioned in 1505 from Salvo
d’Antonio for the Mdina Benedictine nunnery
church.15 As is revealed from the inscription
carried on the parapet wall of the predella, Salvo
completed it in 1510, five years after it was
commissioned.16 Out of the nine paintings that
composed Salvo’s Mdina altarpiece, only two paint-
ings survive in the Mdina Cathedral Museum:
the signed and dated predella (ill. 8.1) and the full-
length figure of Saint Peter.
This altarpiece was in the archaic polyptych
format set on three tiers.17 The top tier was to be
composed of three panels; the central one portray-
ing the dead Christ (presumably a Crucified
Christ) with the Madonna and Saint John the
Evangelist, flanked by an Annunciation of the
Virgin (presumably with the Archangel Gabriel
on the left and the Virgin Annunciate on the
right). The two panels flanking the central image
portrayed Saint Peter on the left and Saint Bene-
dict on the right. While G. Di Marzo did not
specify the subject of the central panel, it must
have portrayed a Soccorso Madonna or a Madonna
of Mercy (Madonna della Misericordia) since the
church was dedicated to the Madonna della
Misericordia. The predella was to portray Christ
and the Apostles. The remaining two panels of
the polyptych may have served as shutters and
portrayed Saint Blandano (?) and Saint Peter
Martyr on either side.18
The only securely documented altarpiece com-
missioned from Antonio de Saliba for a Maltese
church is a now dismembered altarpiece he exe-
cuted for the Franciscan Observant church of Santa
Maria di Gesù in Rabat that was commissioned
soon after 1510, completed in 1515, and probably
installed in 1517.19 While there is no known con-
tractual agreement that survives relating to this
commission, a Giovanni Frendo of Malta left 25
uncie in his 1510 will to the friars and specified
that it was for the ‘icona di lo altari maturj’.20 A copy
of the receipt for this polyptych survives in the
Franciscan Provincial Archives on Malta, stating
that it was produced for a fee of 50 uncie and that
Antonio had received the last payment in Messina
 an investigation into antonello da messina’s nephews’ workshop practices 99

Ill. 8.2. Digital hypothetical reconstruction of Antonio de Saliba’s altarpiece commissioned for the Observant Church of
Santa Maria di Gesù in Rabat (Malta) in 1505. This reconstruction has the eight surviving paintings that belonged to the
altarpiece: the Deposition, Saint Louis of Toulouse and Saint Anthony of Padua on the top tier; the Madonna and Child Enthroned
with Angels on the central tier, and a predella composed of seven panels, four of which having been identified. The other
paintings were included from other known altarpieces by Antonio de Saliba. Reconstruction by Andrea Luca Bartolo

on 20 November 1517, two years after the altar-
piece was completed.21
A 1730 account of the altarpiece has proved
crucial for associated panels from the dismembered
altarpiece with this commission as well as surviving
altarpieces by Antonio de Saliba in Sicily.22 The
description reveals that the altarpiece was com-
posed of five panels that were set on the top tier
that had a central Deposition flanked by male
saints, and another five panels were set in the
100 charlene vella

middle tier with a central Madonna and Child

flanked by four female saints. The lower register
consisted of the predella portraying the Salvator
Mundi and an equal number of Apostles on either
side. Recent research has established that the pre-
della was composed of seven separate panels.23
Out of the seventeen paintings that composed
Antonio’s Rabat Franciscan altarpiece, only two
portraying the Deposition and Madonna and
Child Enthroned with Angels survive in the
church, the two central images of the top and
middle tier respectively. However, six other paint-
ings from Maltese private collections have
recently been associated with this altarpiece.
These are four predella panels portraying Christ
and the Apostles in half-length and two individ-
ual male saints, Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint
Louis of Toulouse (ill. 8.2).24
Apart from these two altarpieces that were com-
missioned for Rabat and Mdina churches in Malta
from Salvo d’Antonio and Antonio de Saliba,
there are other paintings in public and private
collections on Malta that can be safely attributed
to Antonio de Saliba. These serve as evidence for
two other altarpieces having been commissioned
for Maltese churches, both of which were of smaller
dimensions and of the triptych type. The extant
Ill. 8.3. Attributed to Antonio de Saliba, Madonna and
paintings are the Żejtun Parish Museum Madonna Child Enthroned, c. 1500, oil on lime panel, 110 x 60 cm,
Adoring the Child Enthroned (ill. 8.3) that was the Żejtun, Parish Museum
central panel of a triptych, and the Mdina Cathe-
dral Museum triptych portraying the Madonna del were subjected to several tests, including inspec-
Soccorso or the Virgin of Bounty that is set on three tions under ultraviolet radiation (ill. 8.5), infrared
panels (ill. 8.4).25 reflectography, X-ray, wood identification, and
pigment profiling. The latter allows for a scientific
A history of interventions analysis of the preparation and cross-section of
Among all of these aforementioned pictures by each sample, and the chemical elements that make
Antonio de Saliba and Salvo d’Antonio, nine up the layers thus determining which pigments and
paintings have been diagnostically studied and sub- binders are present.
sequently conserved and restored since 2010.26 The painting that sustained the most damage
Several of these paintings have been found to have and additional painted layers was the Żejtun panel.
been heavily modified by paint layers that were It was the first among these paintings by Antonel-
added in the Baroque and subsequent periods. In lo’s nephews on Malta to be diagnostically tested
the early stages of analysis, each of these paintings and conserved. The Żejtun painting was believed
had paint samples taken from different areas that by many to be a copy of a lost Renaissance original
 an investigation into antonello da messina’s nephews’ workshop practices 101

Ill. 8.4. Antonio de Saliba and workshop, Madonna del Soccorso Triptych, 1493, oil on panel, central panel: 128.5 x 53.5 cm,
wings: 110.5 x 32.5 cm, Mdina (Malta), Cathedral Museum

since it carried the signature of the painter Knight
Fra Pedro Nuñez de Villavicencio and the date
1672.27 The first test that was carried out on this
painting was infrared reflectography which estab-
lished that the mantle of the Madonna had eight-
pointed stars hidden beneath the layers of added
paint. This, and the fact that the painting is on a
limewood (or Tilia spp.) support, strongly suggested
that the original Renaissance paint layers were hid-
den beneath a heavy restoration. This painting was
an object of cult in the original Parish Church of
Saint Catherine in Żejtun.28 It was likely attacked
and badly damaged in the Turkish raid of 1614
when the church was plundered, with its side pan-
els being completely destroyed. The paint layers
that were added to the original had drastically
altered the physiognomies of both the figures of the
Virgin and Child, but these have been largely
removed in the restoration and conservation inter-
vention that took place between 2010 and 2012.29
102 charlene vella
Ill. 8.5. Antonio de Saliba and workshop, Madonna del
Soccorso Triptych (ill. 8.4), UV, Virgin
While the Madonna del Soccorso Triptych
(Mdina, Cathedral Museum) has been attributed
to more than one of Antonello da Messina’s fol-
lowers, following a thorough investigation that
included diagnostic investigations, it is possible to
attribute the triptych to Antonio de Saliba. This
Madonna del Soccorso Triptych is associated with
the 1493 will of the noble Pietro Vaccaro who left
7 uncie for an altarpiece for his private altar in the
Cathedral of Mdina. Vaccaro’s request was for
the painting to depict the ‘Virginis Marie de lu
Succursu’ flanked by Saint Peter (his namesake)
and Saint James the Elder (to whom the altar was
dedicated).30 It was also to have an angel above,
thereby explaining the Annunciation flanking the
central Golgotha scene in the cusps of each panel.
Since the painting was destined for Mdina, the
artist seems to have made an effort to include a
walled city in the Golgotha scene which would
allude to the city of Mdina but he would have
never have actually visited the city himself;
instead, he would have heard about it from his
father, Giovanni, who is recorded on Malta.
The central composition of the Madonna del
Soccorso is similar, especially when mirrored, to a
signed and dated Antonio de Saliba 1497 painting
of the Madonna and Child Enthroned in Catania
(Museo Civic de Castello Ursino, inv. 6412). The
Catania painting was the central panel of a now
dismembered polyptych which is the first work
that Antonio is known to have produced on his
return to Messina from Venice in the mid-1490s.31
This triptych was subjected to several overpaint-
ings in its long history which also included some
clumsily executed motifs on the Madonna’s mantle
and heavy outlines on the figures. Having scien-
tifically analysed works by both Antonio and
Salvo, the results recently obtained from the
Soccorso panels can be compared alongside those
of the documented Rabat paintings by Antonio
de Saliba, Salvo’s signed predella, as well as the
Żejtun Madonna Adoring the Child Enthroned. The
results can also be compared to the non-invasive
investigations that were carried out on Antonio’s
Catania Madonna and Child Enthroned (ill. 8.6)
with a Macro X-Ray Fluorescence (MA-XRF) fast
scanner.32
Salvo’s predella was better preserved although it
did have some scattered overpaintings. Antonio’s
1515 Deposition was similarly not heavily retouched.
The Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels, on
the other hand, changed significantly following the
recent intervention. It had at least two overpainted
layers, one of which had significantly modified the
Madonna’s face as well as the figure of the Christ
Child concealing several features such as the coral
pendant and bracelets, among others. The two pre-
della pantings from this 1515 Rabat altarpiece
similarly had significant interventions that altered
their appearance, but they have since been con-
served and restored. The two panels portraying
Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint Louis of
Toulouse had a refulgent gold added on top of the
blue sky background and interventions on the
figures, especially in the case of Saint Anthony.33
The support
All of the paintings by Antonio de Saliba and
Salvo d’Antonio that have been studied and diag-
nostically tested on Malta have been identified as
being prepared on a wood support identified as
limewood (or Tilia spp.).34 Bar the paintings that
formed part of a predella, the support of the paint-
ings is composed of vertical planks of limewood
an investigation into antonello da messina’s nephews’ workshop practices 103

Ill. 8.6. Antonio de Saliba, Madonna and Child Enthroned, 1497, oil on panel, 125.5 x 77.5 cm,
Catania (Sicily), Museo Civico Castello Ursino
104 charlene vella
that are joined together by means of ‘butterfly
joints’ or ‘double dovetails’. While the Saint
Anthony painting is composed of one plank of
limewood which has been cut down from the left
side, the Saint Louis of Toulouse painting is com-
posed of one larger plank and a smaller plank on
the right side with gesso used to fill the gap and
strengthen the joint. Limewood is the same wood
employed as a support for all of the paintings by the
antonelliani in Malta that have been studied.
This is also the case for the Catania Madonna
and Child Enthroned in Sicily. Tilia spp., a wood from
lime or linden trees, is typically found in the more
wooded areas of the Mediterranean, including
Messina, and is known to have been the preferred
support by Antonello da Messina for his portraits
together with walnut, which was the more expen-
sive type of wood.35 A limewood support was also
employed by Antonello in the Saint Jerome in
His Study (London, National Gallery, NG 1418).36
It was used as an alternative to poplar which was
the most common support in Italy between the
thirteenth and early sixteenth centuries.37 Gio-
vanni Bellini favoured poplar panels.38 The Żejtun
Madonna and Child Enthroned panel, moreover,
indicates the presence of organic adhesive holding
the planks together. Studying the Rabat Deposi-
tion panel from the back also reveals that it was
cut down at some point, and that the extra piece
of panel would have served as support for the
elaborate gilded framework that was very much an
integral part of these altarpieces.
Preparatory layers
After having manufactured the support, a Renais-
sance artist’s next concern would have been to
obtain a smooth surface that would receive the
painting.39 A smooth support was in these paint-
ings achieved by a gesso preparatory layer that must
have been applied with a brush directly onto the
support in order to correct any imperfections in the
wood, thus providing a uniform surface. While
none of these paintings had canvas applied to the
panel for this purpose, the Żejtun painting has
strips of canvas along the joints of the planks.
All of the paintings by the antonelliani that have
been analysed have been prepared in the same
manner, as was common to Italian artists active
in the Renaissance period, that is, they were
prepared with a white ground layer composed of
gypsum or gesso – that is calcium sulphate of
mineral origin – bound in animal glue.
The eight paintings by Antonio from the Rabat
Franciscan altarpiece were executed in tempera
with the use of oil in the same or different layers.
The preparatory layer of all of the paintings is
composed of gesso coated in a thin layer of animal
glue in order to reduce absorption of paint. A
charcoal underdrawing has been detected in the
pigment analysis that is consistent with the results
of the IR reflectography (ill. 8.7). Analysis of the
paint samples retrieved from Antonio de Saliba’s
paintings from the Rabat and Żejtun altarpieces
revealed that a thin second layer of animal glue
was added above the preparatory gesso or ground
layer to further reduce paint absorption into the
gesso, what is called the imprimatura. Several pre-
paratory gesso layers of varying thicknesses have
been observed in the Żejtun painting that were
composed of different colours ranging from white
to yellow to light brown, but the imprimatura
that received the paint layer was a bright white
preparation. No imprimatura was detected in the
Soccorso Triptych and Salvo d’Antonio’s predella.
A brown gesso preparatory layer – made of natu-
ral earth and red lake particles – was noticed on the
Soccorso Triptych panels that was applied above
the drawing in the area that was to receive the
azurite that makes up the Madonna’s mantle, in
what is called the reserve technique. Coloured
priming layers were common to works in the sec-
ond half of the Quattrocento in Northern Italy,
and it became more common in the fifteenth cen-
tury.40 This extra layer was thus added to the area
that was to receive azurite in order to obtain a
deeper blue hue, in the same way that morellone
would be applied under azurite in fresco painting.
In the paint sample analysis of Antonio’s Rabat
 an investigation into antonello da messina’s nephews’ workshop practices 105

Ill. 8.7. Antonio de Saliba and workshop, Madonna del Soccorso Triptych (ill. 8.4), IRR, detail, head of Saint Peter (left panel)

Madonna panel, the translucent imprimatura above
the gesso layer was found to be a light blue azurite
as a preparation for the Virgin’s blue mantle.
In Salvo’s predella, however, it is the first and
only ground layer that has a light brown hue and
which seems to have been applied across the
support as a preparatory layer. Since a brown impri-
matura was not applied throughout the Rabat
paintings, this would indicate that Antonio wanted
the white of the preparatory gesso ground to help
to brighten the colours, especially when lighter pig-
ments were employed. The imprimatura was thus
sometimes applied after the underdrawing was laid
down in charcoal as has been detected in the paint
samples taken from the Żejtun and Soccorso paint-
ings. In this way, the imprimatura would have
served to seal the underdrawing thus serving to
protect the drawing while paint layers were being
added. It also served to further separate the paint
layers from the highly absorbent gesso.41
What emerges clear, therefore, is that Antonio’s
paintings are composed of preparatory layers that
were well-thought out with underdrawings and
translucent imprimatura layers that could vary
according to which paint layer was to be received
directly above it. Charcoal particles have been
observed on four out of ten paint samples of the
Soccorso Triptych that indicate the presence of a
detailed underdrawing. Carbon was noticed in two
out of four paint samples taken from the Żejtun
Madonna. Moreover, an underdrawing is visible on
the Madonna’s wimple in the Rabat Deposition to
the naked eye where the paint layers are very finely
applied and which paint layers have likely thinned
106 charlene vella
over the centuries. Such evidence for underdraw-
ings is extremely revealing of the importance of
drawings to Renaissance artists.42 Many drawings or
cartoons do not survive because they were destroyed
when the drawing was being transferred onto the
support.43 Infrared reflectograms also reveal that
these paintings were executed following a detailed
drawing. That cartoons were certainly employed in
the execution of these paintings is evidenced from
the presence of charcoal in the paint samples that
were analysed. Figure outlines were incised into the
preparatory layers as is also easily visible in raking
light, with details and hatched areas being applied
separately. This is known to have been the method
employed by Giovanni Bellini in Venice, which
Antonio de Saliba must have known. Moreover,
decorative details were first executed by the use of
incision marks that imprinted the gesso layer, such
as on the outer side of the pages of the book that
Saint Louis of Toulouse holds as is visible through
IR reflectograms and the sword of Saint Paul on the
central predella panel that has some deeply incised
lines.44
Pigments and binders
The pigments used by Antonio de Saliba in the
eight Rabat paintings were identified as lead white,
lead red/minium, red lake, red and yellow ochre,
carbon black, azurite, cinnabar/vermillion, lead-tin
yellow, and verdigris.45 This is consistent with
the analysis of pigment samples retrieved from the
Żejtun Madonna Adoring the Child Enthroned, the
Madonna del Soccorso Triptych, as well as Salvo
d’Antonio’s Predella with the Salvator Mundi and
the Twelve Apostles.
With regard to the blue pigments detected in
these paintings, ultramarine was found to have
been employed by Antonio only in the 1497
Catania Madonna and Child Enthroned. Ultra-
marine, derived from the precious lapis lazuli, was
one of the most expensive pigments, alongside gold.
The pigment azurite used in the panels on Malta
would have been somewhat cheaper than ultra-
marine, however it was still substantially pricier
than other pigments available to Renaissance
artists.46 Just like azurite is used throughout these
panels, red lake pigments are visible throughout
the spectrum of paint samples that have been ana-
lysed. As is visible in the edges of the Żejtun
Madonna painting, it is typical for red lakes to
fade, a colour which was an expensive pigment
for an artist to employ.47 A layer of red lake was
moreover beneath the azurite used for the blue
sky in Salvo d’Antonio’s predella panel and the
Soccorso Virgin’s mantle. The red lake was in this
case applied in order to obtain a deeper blue.
A peculiarity that was noticed in the Żejtun
Madonna and the Rabat altarpiece panels is the use
of pulverised glass as an additive to red lake. This
was not detected in Salvo’s predella pigments nor
the Soccorso Triptych, although there could be very
small fragments in the latter. Powdered glass was
added to red lake for a variety of reasons: as a drier
for the paint, for added luminosity and brilliance,
and for an added richness and depth to the colour
red. This technique was used by fifteenth- and
sixteenth-century painters particularly those active
in Venice, but not just.48
Gold was applied in some sections of these
Renaissance paintings such as for the gilding of
haloes, which often survives. However, other
details were gilded and which are only scarcely
visible or noticeable through X-ray imagery and
sometimes even through IR reflectograms, such as
stars and motifs on the Virgin’s mantle, as well as
details on the pages of the books held by the figures
in the form of zigzag dotted lines (ill. 8.8). These
dots would have been gilded, of which only slight
resides remain after cleaning.49
Conclusion
As evidenced through the diagnostic tests carried
out over the last thirteen years on paintings by
Salvo d’Antonio and Antonio de Saliba on Malta,
the two certainly used the same methods and tech-
niques in their respective workshops. While it is
known that Antonio de Saliba was apprenticed to
Jacobello di Antonio and was later associated with
 an investigation into antonello da messina’s nephews’ workshop practices 107

Ill. 8.8. Antonio de Saliba, Two Apostles from the Rabat Altarpiece (ill. 8.2), X-radiograph, detail, part of the central
predella panel

the bottega of Giovanni Bellini, Salvo d’Antonio’s
apprenticeship is not recorded. Yet, he likely stu-
died under his own father, Giordano, Antonello’s
brother, who had spent at least a few months
apprenticed to Antonello early in 1461.50 While
being first cousins and having presumably received
a similar initial formal training based on Antonello
da Messina’s techniques, there is no evidence for
Salvo’s and Antonio’s workshops having ever inter-
acted. This, despite there also being mention of
a ‘contrata di li pingituri’ in Messina where Salvo had
a house, and which is where Antonio may also
have had a property.51 There could still be the pos-
sibility that the two workshops assisted each other
when the need arose. Could, for instance, the lack
of imprimatura on the Madonna del Soccorso Triptych
and Salvo d’Antonio predella indicate a collabora-
tion on the Soccorso Triptych commission?52
That both Antonio de Saliba and Salvo
d’Anonio used oil in their workshops is borne out
of now destroyed documentation related to com-
missions that they accepted. These specified that
they were to use oil as the binding medium for their
pigments.53 The specific mention of oil also indi-
cates that tempera was the standard binder used
in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries
in Sicilian workshops. Tests carried out on the
pictures studied on Malta by his nephews suggest
that both Antonio and Salvo were making use of
both tempera and oil as binders for their pigments
in the same painting, making them, therefore,
tempera grassa on panel paintings.54 This would
108 charlene vella
imply that they were not as adept as their uncle
Antonello da Messina in the use of oil as a binder,
or, it may be a lack of confidence in the use of oil.
They seem to, for example, have continued to pre-
fer tempera certainly for the gesso preparatory layer
as well as for the imprimatura. Oil was then added
to the layers of paint. This proves that the shift
from tempera to oil was not exactly straight-
forward.55 However, this may also have been a
conscious decision. It is, in any case, safe to say that
both Antonio and Salvo knew their technique very
well indeed, which is obvious when looking at the
fine application of paint that can be better appreci-
ated through a microscope in the laboratory.56
NOTES
The author would like to thank Mario Buhagiar, Donal Cooper, Gino
Gauci, Keith Sciberras, Pierre Bugeja, Paul Muscat, Roderick Abela
and Andrea Luca Bartolo for their time and insights, as well as
the Franciscan Minors of Rabat (Malta), Edgar Vella and the private
collectors for allowing me to study the paintings in question.
1 See for instance: Buhagiar 2005; Vella 2013.
2 A connection with Antonello da Messina and Malta dates
back to 1477 when his brother-in-law, Pietro Cuminella, was working on
the Cathedral in Mdina. For more information, see: Vella 2018-2019.
3 For a recent publication on Antonello da Messina, see: Milan
2019.
4 For more information on Giordano and Giovanni de Saliba,
see: Vella 2022, pp. 25-26, 28-31.
5 For more information, see: Vella 2018-2019.
6 Vella 2022, pp. 31-34 and Chapter 3.
7 The apprenticeship agreement was first published in: La Corte
Cailler 1903, pp. 439-440.
8 Antonello’s will was first published in: La Corte Cailler 1903,
pp. 428-433, doc. XVI.
9 While there is no documentary evidence for Antonio de
Saliba having worked in Jacobello’s workshop after completing his
apprenticeship, there are several paintings that attest to this. See: Vella
2022, pp. 43-74.
10 Antonio de Saliba’s presence in Messina following his stay in
Venice is first borne by the signed and dated Madonna and Child
Enthroned today in the Museo Civic di Castello Ursino in Catania,
a painting that formed the central panel of a polyptych for the church
of Santa Maria di Gesù in Catania which he completed in 1497. For
more information, see: Vella 2022, chapter 2.
11 Vella 2022, pp. 39, 207.
12 On Salvo d’Antonio, see: Vella 2022, pp. 38-39 and Chapter 4.
13 The only securely attributable paintings by Salvo d’Antonio
in public collections are two paintings in the Mdina Cathedral Museum
in Malta, and a painted crucifix in Calatabiano, province of Catania,
Sicily. For more information, see: Vella 2022, Chapter 4.
14 The surviving fragment from this altarpiece measures
c. 40.5 × 95.5 cm. It contains the artist’s signature in an all’antica
tabula ansata that features among small shrubs with a partridge to the
right and a dove, now barely visible. The original document record-
ing this commission to Salvo d’Antonio was first transcribed and
published in: Di Marzo 1903, pp. 142-143, doc. VI.
15 The now destroyed contractual agreement for this commis-
sion stated that the artist was to be paid 22 and a half uncie. The docu-
ment was cited but not transcribed by: Di Marzo 1899, p. 6; Di Marzo
1903, pp. 94-95.
16 The predella carries the inscription: ‘Magister Salvus de a[nton]
i messanensis / me pinsit [1]510’.
17 Vella 2022, pp. 219-226.
18 G. Di Marzo may have mistranscribed Blandano, which could
have referred to an abbreviation of San Bernardino (who would have
provided a fitting Franciscan balance for the Dominican Saint Peter
Martyr). Shutters on the polyptych are mentioned in sixteenth- and
seventeenth-century documents. For more information, see: Vella
2022, p. 220.
19 Vella 2022, p. 118.
20 This is recorded in the Franciscan Provincial Archives of
Malta in a 1510 receipt. The document in Franciscan Provincial
Archives (FPA), Acta Originalia, I, fol. 92. See also: Vella 2022, p. 118,
n. 63, Doc. 089.
21 FPA, Acta Originalia, I, fol. 3.
22 Among these are the Taormina Altarpiece commissioned from
Antonio de Saliba in 1503 and the Monforte San Giorgio Altarpiece that
is signed and dated to 1530.
23 Vella 2018.
24 This altarpiece as well as its hypothetical digital reconstruc-
tion was the subject of the Undergraduate thesis by Andrea Luca
Bartolo: Bartolo 2022.
25 The latter has been variously attributed to different followers
of Antonello da Messina, namely Salvo d’Antonio and Giovannello
d’Itala (documented early sixteenth century).
26 Others are in the process of being studied.
27 Vella 2013, pp. 183-184. See also: Vella 2016.
28 It is possible that the painting was commissioned by the
Mdina Cathedral Chapter soon after the church was reconstructed
in the late fifteenth century to serve as the church’s main altarpiece.
See: Vella 2022, p. 186.
29 The original azurite of the mantle did not survive so the blue
pigment that was added in subsequent centuries was retained. See:
Vella 2016.
30 Will of Petrus Vaccaro in Notarial Archives Valletta, Notary
Bartolomeo Sillato, Ms. 1069, 1485-1531, fol. 36v, published in:
Wettinger 1976, p. 117. This was first suggested by: Luttrell 1983. See
also: Vella 2013, p. 186; Vella 2022, p. 190.
31 The Catania composition was adapted for the Soccorso
Madonna by removing the Christ Child, and adding a stick and the nude
figure. This adapted drawing or cartoon was used to transplant it onto
the primed gesso layer of the Soccorso painting. Cartoons were also in
use in Giovanni Bellini’s workshop, of which there is evidence for Anto-
nio de Saliba to have also made use of. The Virgin’s high forehead with
an acute central parting which is reflected in the veil is reminiscent of
Venetian late Quattrocento art, primarily that of Giovanni Bellini.
This, as well as technical considerations obtained from diagnostic inves-
tigations, helps to better associate it with Antonio de Saliba since it is
he who had worked in Giovanni Bellini’s Venetian workshop in the late
fifteenth century. For more information, see: Vella 2022, pp. 190-191.
32 Dos Santos et al. 2018.
33 These two paintings are currently being conserved and
restored at PrevArti, Malta.
34 All of the wood identification was carried out by Michael
Formosa.
35 Lucco 2006; Vella 2022, pp. 24-25, 258-259.
36 Dunkerton et al. 1991, p. 152.
37 Dunkerton et al. 1991, p. 152.
38 Tempestini 2004, p. 258.
39 This paragraph is based on the reports of the technical analy-
sis of each painting by Antonio de Saliba and Salvo d’Antonio that
 an investigation into antonello da messina’s nephews’ workshop practices
have been studied on Malta. The reports are: Madonna del Soccorso
Triptych in 2019 (PrevArti); Predella panel depicting the Resurrected
Christ with Saint John and Saint Paul in 2023 (PrevArti); Predella
panel depicting Saint Andrew and an Apostle in 2023 (PrevArti),
Żejtun Panel in 2012 (ReCoop) and Rabat Panels in 2013 (ReCoop).
40 Such coloured imprimatura was the norm for Cinquecento
Italian paintings. See: Dunkerton, Spring 1998.
41 Dunkerton et al. 2018, p. 46.
42 This is a technique that Antonio de Saliba could have learn
from Jacobello or Giovanni Bellini. On Bellini’s use of underdrawings,
see the sections titled La tecnica esecutiva: il disegno in Analisi scientifiche
in: Rome 2008.
43 In his 2004 essay, A. Tempestini discussed Bellini’s use of
underdrawings and the workshop’s methods for the employment of
cartoons. See: Tempestini 2004, p. 258. See also: Bambach 1999,
pp. 29-32, 93, 100-101; Hills 1999, p. 133. See also: Golden 2004.
For the use of cartoons by Antonio and Pietro de Saliba, which they
learnt from Jacobello di Antonio and Giovanni Bellini’s workshops,
see: Vella 2022.
44 For more information, see: Bartolo 2022.
45 For more information, see also: Bartolo 2022, p. 59.
46 Dunkerton et al. 2018, p. 19.
47 Dunkerton et al. 2018, p. 22. Cochineal imported from the
New World after the 1540s offered artists a cheaper alternative for a red
pigment.
48 On the use of colourless powdered glass in Venice, see: Hills
1999, p. 134. See also: Spring 2012, p. 4.
Among the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century paintings in the
National Gallery, London, more than 70 works were found to have
colourless powdered glass as a paint additive. See: Berrie, Matthew
2005, pp. 16-17.
49 Personal communication held with Andrea Luca Bartolo,
Pierre Bugeja and other restorers at PrevArti held on 22 March 2023.
109
50 Vella 2022, pp. 24-25. For the original contractual agreement
and addendum, see its first transcription and publication in: Mauceri,
Perroni-Grande 1923, p. 11, doc. 1.
51 Vella 2022, pp. 136, 208.
52 The technique in itself is not sufficient to attribute the trip-
tych to Salvo d’Antonio when considering the similarities that exist
with other Antonio de Saliba paintings. For more information, see:
Vella 2022, p. 191.
53 For more information, see: Vella 2022, p. 260.
54 The types of lipid binding agents employed by Antonio
de Saliba and Salvo d’Antonio has not been established. It is there-
fore not known if they made use of linseed or walnut oil, or any other
oil.
55 This was also the case with Giovanni Bellini, see: Volpin et al.
2000, p. 175.
56 That some of Antonio de Saliba’s paintings in Malta do
not feature drying cracks, especially the smaller paintings, can be an
indication of the presence of tempera grassa, since drying cracks or
craquelure are characteristic of the oil medium. Such cracks are likely
associated with drying defects that is a result of an unfamiliarity with
the medium when oil is employed, and are limited to the painted
layers. Drying cracks also depend on the type and grain size of the
pigment used, the ground and the technique used by the artist to
apply paint. That these paintings have all been applied with finely
applied paint layers also helps in the reduction of doing cracks since
a thicker paint application affects the development of drying cracks.
See: Nicolaus 1999, p. 167. Cracks could also develop through ageing
which is possible to distinguish from drying cracks: Bucklow 1997.
In paintings by Antonello da Messina and Giovanni Bellini, early
exponents of the oil medium in the Italian Renaissance have been
detected. See: Bucklow 1997-1998, p. 512. See also: Bucklow 1999;
Dunkerton et al. 2018, p. 15.
Ill. 9.1. Andrea del Sarto, The Sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1528, oil on panel, 178 x 138 cm, Cleveland (Ohio), Cleveland Museum of Art
 9
Three Versions of Andrea del Sarto’s
Sacrifice of Isaac: Technical Research
and Comparative Study
Marcia Steele
A BSTRACT : This paper compares the materials and tech-
niques of the three versions of Andrea del Sarto’s
Sacrifice of Isaac from 1527-1528. The version at the
Cleveland Museum of Art has long been thought to be
the first due to its unfinished state, with underdrawing
exposed to the naked eye. A completed version is
located at the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden. A smaller
panel of the same subject is housed at the Prado Museum
in Madrid. Drawings for various details of the paintings
are compared with the paintings and underlying under-
drawing. The technique of the Cleveland version is
examined in depth. Infrared images of all three reveal the
interrelationship between the underdrawing and changes
of the three paintings, as well as a surprising discovery of
underdrawing of an entirely different composition by
another artist in the Dresden painting
—o—
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) acquired
Andrea del Sarto’s Sacrifice of Isaac in 1937 from
Spencer A. Samuels, a noted art dealer who organ-
ized acquisitions for major museums including the
Metropolitan Museum, the Chicago Art Institute,
and the Louvre among others.1 In a letter to a
Cleveland Museum research assistant in 1976,
Samuels recalled his acquisition of the painting
and subsequent joint ownership leading up to the
procurement by the museum. Mr. Samuels wrote: ‘I
could never forget such a purchase, I was still at school
at the Courtauld and it was the first painting I ever
bought myself. I sold a half a share to Thomas Harris,
who was a young dealer then… He in turn sold half
a share to Durlacher Brothers in New York, I believe
for $12,000’.2 The partners then sold the painting
to the Cleveland Museum of Art for $20,000.
Mr. Spencer recalled the conservation treatment
by the Drown Brothers, done in London prior to
the acquisition by Cleveland. ‘We watched the upper
right-hand corner being cleaned first which as you know
is the least finished part, and our hearts sank. Of
course, when the entire picture was cleaned, we were
delighted’.3 My research into the Drown Brothers
conservation firm did not uncover any treatment
records or images, since the premises on Duke
Street was bombed during World War II and the
business ceased in 1987.4
Three versions of the Sacrifice of Isaac were
painted c. 1528. Each portrays the famous biblical
story in which Abraham’s faith is tested by God
asking him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Accom-
panied by two servants and a donkey, they find a
place where Abraham builds an altar and prepares
wood for the fire. At the last moment, as Abraham
prepares to slay his son, an angel is sent to stop him
and instead Abraham sacrifices a ram, seen in the
left of the composition. Each painting is fascinat-
ing in its own unique way. The Cleveland version
has long intrigued viewers due to its unfinished
112
Ill. 9.2. Andrea del Sarto, The Sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1528,
oil on panel, 98 x 69 cm, Madrid, Museo del Prado
state, with the preliminary underdrawing and
initial paint layers left visible (ill. 9.1). Its incom-
pletion has identified it as the first rendition. The
Prado painting (Madrid, Museo del Prado, inv.
P000336) captivates the viewer with its reduced
size, and the relationship of the changes visible
in the infrared image to the two larger versions
(ill. 9.2). Finally, the Dresden panel (Dresden,
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Gal.-Nr. 77) is a
curious circumstance where Andrea del Sarto re-
used the panel for the large, finished version
complete with his monograph in the lower right
(ill. 9.3).
All three paintings are comprised of vertically
planked panels butt joined with sliding cross beams
that are inserted into tapered carved tracks. The
wood of the Cleveland panel was the only one
analyzed. It is poplar and the center cross brace is
European chestnut. Only the Cleveland and Prado
marcia steele
Ill. 9.3. Andrea del Sarto, The Sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1528,
oil on panel, 213 x 159 cm, Dresden, Staatliche Kunst-
sammlungen, Gelmaldegälerie, Alte Meister
panels could be X-rayed. The lead white coating on
the reverse of the Dresden version prevented X-ray
analysis. The CMA painting is composed of four
vertical members, vertically grained, each member
tangentially cut and coming from near the center
of the tree. Originally the planks were simply glued
together with extra support provided by three cross
braces (ill. 9.4). During this period various types of
sliding cross beams were attached to the pack of
multi-planked panel paintings.5 These included
dovetailed crossbeams inserted in parallel grooves.
Trapezoidal in cross-section, as is the case with the
Cleveland painting as well as the Dresden version,
the cross braces were inserted into carved tracks.
The battens and tracks tapered from one side to the
other, allowing a tightening of the join by sliding
the batten in crosswise from the edge. The Prado
painting has two vertically oriented planks, with
one join running down the left side of the panel
through Isaac’s arm (ill. 9.5).
 three versions of andrea del sarto’s
L. Keith, Director of Conservation at the
National Gallery in London proved the similarity
between the Cleveland and Dresden paintings in
2001 by publishing an overlay of the two paintings,
with Cleveland shaded red and the other green.6 In
order to confirm the use of the same cartoons for
both paintings, we updated the overlay using the
actual dimensions. The recent infrared image of
the Cleveland underdrawing was compared to the
Dresden painting. While the Dresden version is
slightly larger, the main figures match in size and
scale, however the artist expanded the foreground
and background above and below the figures in
the later finished painting now in Germany. The
similar contours of the two main characters in
particular support the use of the same large drawing
as the basis for both paintings.
Overlaying the Cleveland and Prado paintings
presents another story. The Prado painting is a
quarter size replica of the Cleveland version. The
width is exactly half the dimension of the CMA
painting while the height is slightly larger (9 cm)
than half the corresponding measurement. The
smaller size of the Prado painting can be propor-
tionally compared with the Cleveland painting.
When the Cleveland painting is reduced about
50% in photoshop, the heads of each main figure
match, but the image must be shifted horizontally
for the heads to align. The position of Isaac’s lower
body and in particular his leg is moved up and to
the right in the Prado version. This indicates some
shifting of the drawing during the reduction and
transfer procedure.
The preparation of all three panels is similar,
with the Cleveland painting revealing the most
information, due to its unfinished state. The white
ground of the Cleveland painting contains calcium
sulphate (gypsum anhydrite). The underdrawing
appears to be transferred to the panel using the
calco method. In this process, the cartoon is placed
on the panel with an interleaf coated on one side.
A stylus is then used to transfer the drawn lines of
the cartoon onto the panel’s prepared surface. The
underdrawing of the donkey in the Cleveland
SACRIFICE OF ISAAC 113
painting shows the characteristics of calco transfer,
with lines of even density and points where the
stylus was lifted from the surface of the paper and
re-started around the area of the saddle. Inciden-
tally, the same type of underdrawing is seen in both
the Dresden and Prado paintings. A thin brown
toning layer is visible in the Cleveland version,
which covered and sealed the gesso surface and
transfer lines in wide brushstrokes. A similar thin
dark brown imprimatura was seen microscopically
in the Prado version.
The overall infrared images of the three paint-
ings were taken with different cameras. The wave-
lengths are nearly identical, ranging from 1.5-
1.7 microns. In general, the Cleveland version con-
tains finer lines with more embellishment, in a
sense almost a full-scale drawing (ill. 9.6). The
Dresden version has far fewer lines with less detail,
and slightly sharper angles (ill. 9.7). Through
detailed comparisons of infrared images, it becomes
clear that the Prado is the second version taking
some elements from the unfinished Cleveland
painting and reworking others (ill. 9.8). The com-
parative lack of changes in the underdrawing of the
Dresden painting and its close similarity to the
modifications made in the Prado version support
the theory that the Dresden painting is the last of
the three.
The underdrawing of Abraham’s knife wielding
hand shows that the Prado has softer more abbrevi-
ated drawing, probably somewhat due to its smaller
size. The angled line at the wrist of the CMA and
Dresden pictures matches as well as the curved out-
lines of the clenched fingers. The Prado under-
drawing is very close but was obviously not taken
from the same cartoon due to its size. Other details
in normal and infrared show changes in the shape
and position of the smaller figures and landscape.
In the Cleveland painting, we see the artist’s
struggle with the placement of the descending
angel. The Prado version shows similar indecision
while the Dresden version repeats position of the
angel of the Prado painting with only a minor shift
of the tucked arm visible in IR.
114 marcia steele

Ill. 9.4. Andrea del Sarto, The Sacrifice of Isaac (ill. 9.1). X-radiograph
three versions of andrea del sarto’s SACRIFICE OF ISAAC 115

Ill. 9.5. Andrea del Sarto, The Sacrifice of Isaac (ill. 9.2). X-radiograph
116 marcia steele

Ill. 9.6. Andrea del Sarto, The Sacrifice of Isaac (ill. 9.1). IRR
 three versions of andrea del sarto’s
Ill. 9.7. Andrea del Sarto, The Sacrifice of Isaac (ill. 9.3). IRR
A closer look at the Prado infrared image shows
traces of the plumper angel seen in the infrared
image of the Cleveland version. Apparently, the
original, more upright position of the descending
angel was initially transferred to the Prado panel
before that preliminary underdrawing was aban-
doned. The original underdrawn angel in the
Prado painting was slightly higher in relation to
Abraham’s shoulder, resolving the overlap of the
hand over the shoulder seen in the Cleveland
underdrawing. Evidently this was still unsatisfac-
tory as the angel was then reduced in size and
enters the scene at a more acute angle in the fin-
ished Prado painting. The underdrawn angel in
the CMA painting was reduced in photoshop to
match the Prado’s original outline. Unlike the
main figures of Abraham and Isaac, who were
reduced approximately 50% in photoshop, the
angel only needed to be reduced by about a third
in order to match. So the angel became propor-
SACRIFICE OF ISAAC 117
Ill. 9.8. Andrea del Sarto, The Sacrifice of Isaac (ill. 9.2). IRR
tionally bigger in relation to the other figures in
the transferred underdrawing, but was finally made
smaller in the Prado painting.
Comparison of the figures in the lower right
reveals that the seated figure on the rocks at left is
seen in both the CMA and Prado infrared images.
This figure is abandoned in the painting at the
Prado and a new grouping of attendants is created.
The turned, semi-reclining figure first appears in
the Prado underdrawing and is then copied in the
Dresden painting. In the Cleveland painting, there
is more attention to anatomy and detail in the
underdrawing, even down to the boot seen on
the foot in the Cleveland version which becomes
a simple outline with pointed toes in the Prado
underdrawing. This shape is more akin to the foot
in the preliminary drawing from the Uffizi. The
lower foot of the turned figure in both the Dresden
and Prado paintings lacks significant underdrawing.
118 marcia steele
In the Dresden painting, it was shifted forward
significantly.
A preliminary drawing for the donkey from the
British Museum in London (nr. T,12.19) has rein-
forced lines over the contours and saddle, which
may have been darkened for tracing and transfer.
Like the seated figure at left, the drawing needs to
be reduced by about a third in order to match up
with the Prado picture. The donkey in the Dresden
painting is 50% larger than the British Museum
drawing. In fact, a lot of the overlays of drawings
and underdrawings and paintings repeat similar
percentages of roughly one third or one half
enlargement or reduction in size, pointing to the
use of grids and tracing for transfer, although no
grids were found under the paint layers with infra-
red reflectography in any of the three paintings.
Subtle shifts in the face of Isaac reflect refine-
ment of his expression and a change in the overall
tenor of the story. In the Cleveland painting,
Andrea had not yet created the open mouthed,
distressed expression seen in the later paintings
where Isaac looks directly out. It is also apparent
that Andrea originally positioned the head of Isaac
to the right in the later two paintings where the
underdrawn curve of the jaw line is seen touching
the left side of the painted mouth. The underdrawn
left eye resembles a bull eye between the eyes in
the final paintings. These details confirm the
close relationship between the Prado and Dresden
versions. Perhaps he was working on them at the
same time, making similar changes to the large and
small versions as he progressed from the under-
drawing to the painting. The Cleveland painting
gives clear insight into Andrea del Sarto’s order of
paint application. Initial layers were painted up
to and around contours. Early on, the positions of
figures and trees/branches were adjusted and
Andrea started to paint out many of the tree limbs.
The areas of the Cleveland painting that are the
least finished are the animals. Two of the most
finished areas are Abraham’s drapery (particularly
the red robe) and the pink and yellow drapery at
the bottom left of the composition. This suggests
the involvement of a workshop that specialized in
particular elements of the composition, such as ani-
mals or drapery, leaving more complicated and
prominent areas such as the faces for the master.
E. Walmsley, conservator at the National Gal-
lery in Washington, has proposed the term sfregazzo
to illustrate the scratchy brushwork that is thinly
applied in regular patterns across the sealed ground
layer.7 She also found evidence of this in her exam-
ination of paintings by Piero di Cosimo, where the
artist initially applied paint with quick scrubbing
motions, producing a thin layer of color with lively
visual texture left by the flat tipped brush. The
term sfregazzo is translatable to “rubbed”. The
unfinished areas of Cleveland’s Sacrifice of Isaac
reveal that sfregazzo is found in nearly all areas of
the painting. The thin red/orange layer under
the Abraham’s red cloak, for example, is likely
the same type of painting under the entire robe.
A similar underlayer is found microscopically
under the red paint layers of Abraham’s robe in the
Prado version.
The layering in Abraham’s face is an example of
the complex thin paint application found in Andrea
del Sarto’s work. Applications of thin layers quickly
covered the underdrawn lines. One-centimeter-
wide brushes were used to apply the green/blue
background sky up to and around the outline of the
head. Swirling brown and gray brushstrokes follow
contours and underdrawn facial features, hair, and
beard, as well as the end of his nose and nostril, the
area above eyes, and opening of mouth. Highlighted
areas remained in reserve with little or no under-
coat of brown/gray. Next, white patches for hair
were applied, along with most intense pinks of flesh.
The pigments in the pink nose were identified as
lead white, vermilion, and pale red lake. Thinner
pink for the cheeks was followed by a reddish-brown
diagonal stroke, on top of which the gray/pink of
the mustache is painted. The cheek and area above
the lips were further defined by thin dark orange
paint. Frown lines above his eyes were hidden by a
few transparent layers and one thin opaque pink
brushstroke. The opaque whites, high key pinks and
 three versions of andrea del sarto’s
transparent browns form the basis for light and
shadow. In the corresponding heads of Abraham in
the finished versions at the Prado and Dresden, the
additional buildup of smooth transitions resulted in
soft modelling characteristic of finished paintings
by Andrea del Sarto.
The area of purple drapery in the lower left
exemplifies the astonishing thinness of the initial
colors used to define the values there. Andrea
started with a thin purple midtone, followed by
more opaque brushwork of the same color for
shadow, then applying the lightest highlights,
all still allowing the underdrawing to be visible.
The dark purple drapery contains transparent red
lake, umber or iron oxide and charcoal black.
The yellow appearance of the ground showing
through is the result of the thin brown imprimatura
which covered the entire painting before the paint
was applied.
The red robe of Abraham demonstrates the
handling of drapery in a finished state. The robe
was blocked in with thin red/orange which likely
enabled the underdrawn folds to be visible. The
shadows were then painted following the under-
drawn lines. Midtones were then applied and
thicker highlights and denser paint were added last.
One of the most interesting outcomes of the
examination of the recent infrared images of
Andrea del Sarto’s paintings was the ability to dis-
cern incisions under the paint layer more clearly.
Incisions on paintings by Andrea del Sarto have
been documented in conservation literature as
early as 1986, with the publication of technical
images and treatment of a painting of Saint John at
the Palazzo Pitti (Florence, inv. Palatina n.272).
The article in OPD Restauro by M. Ciatti and
M. Seroni from that date included a diagram of
incisions (identified with dotted lines) and men-
tioned small incised lines are found in other paint-
ings by the artist.8 The accompanying published
X-ray shows an example of reuse of a panel cover-
ing an earlier painting of a different portrait. The
incisions appear to relate to the initial portrait of
a figure facing right.
SACRIFICE OF ISAAC 119
Using the infrared images of the CMA and
Prado paintings, incisions could be located and
superimposed. The lesser penetration into the IR
range used in Dresden did not allow for the same
type of analysis. The incisions found consist of arcs
and ruled lines that are not haphazard. The inci-
sions are most easily discerned in the infrared
images of the Prado and CMA images as extremely
thin dark lines and arcs, often with sharp endpoints
or tiny hooks at the end of straight lines. Only a
few faint lines were seen in the Dresden version,
likely because of the buildup of paint layers under-
neath. Incisions are less visible in X-rays, but can
be discerned in some instances as fine white lines.
While the artist was not using the same exact
placement for the arcs and ruled lines for the
Cleveland and Prado paintings, it appears he was
positioning certain elements in the composition
and the incisions may be some kind of shorthand
instruction to the workshop; in particular the
horizontal marks at the center of Abraham’s chest,
incisions through his wrist, and long arcs that end
in the vicinity of Isaac’s forehead, as well as indica-
tions of Abraham’s hip where it is placed under the
flow of the drapery in the Cleveland painting,
and along the edge of the leg in the Prado painting.
The fact that they are sometimes reversed from
one painting to the other is intriguing.
The incisions that were used for architectural
elements such as the altar differ from the thin arcs
and lines just discussed. They are deeper and wider,
and clearly more visible in the infrared image,
as well as on the surface of the painting. Similar
incisions are found in the altar in all three painted
versions of the Sacrifice of Isaac. These incisions do
not converge at a single vanishing point, suggest-
ing that precise perspective was not of upmost
importance to the artist of his workshop for any of
these compositions.
While it is not out of the question that these
incised lines are the result of ground application, it
seems they may hold more significance. It is not
uncommon to find parallel arcs within a small area
of a painting. It has been suggested by conservators
120 marcia steele
Y. Szafran and S. A. Chiu that Sarto may have
used a proportional compass to enlarge or reduce
cartoons, or to measure distances.9 And its use
seems likely as well, for the parallel twin arcs found
under the paint layer in various Sarto artworks.
Returning to the curious case of the Dresden
panel, when I was in Germany on a courier trip in
2015, I took a modified Fuji camera to the gallery
to capture an infrared image. It had long been
known that the panel was first prepared for a differ-
ent composition, in opposite vertical orientation,
as in the catalogue raisonné, J. Shearman noted the
upside down architecture visible in the area below
Abraham’s foot.10 In raking light, the upside down
arch is seen under the lower area of the painting,
showing the relief of the outlines of the underlying
composition. Lacking a Renaissance scholar in
Cleveland at the time, I searched in vain for similar
stairs and arches in other Andrea del Sarto paint-
ings. At that time, the Getty was planning an exhi-
bition focused on Andrea del Sarto’s drawings and
I had been asked to write about our painting, which
was to be included in the show due to the signifi-
cant and visible underdrawing. Knowing that the
deadline for the catalogue was looming, I sent
the infrared image to J. Brooks, Getty Curator of
Drawings in charge of the exhibition. He identified
it as another version of a painting by Perugino
housed the Musée des Beaux Arts in Caen
(inv. 171). Perugino had studios in both Florence
and Perugia and died in 1523. The subject, painted
in 1502-1504, is the Marriage of the Virgin.11 It is
known that Perugino re-used cartoons for different
versions of the same painting and this is likely
another case of such recycling. The composition
under the Dresden painting is off center indicating
the right side and top of the panel were cut for re-
use. The dimensions of the Dresden painting are
approximately 25 cm shorter and 27 cm narrower
than the Perugino painting in Caen. This could be
the result of damage to the edges, or the preferred
dimensions of Andrea del Sarto for his commission
for the Sacrifice of Isaac.
Subsequently, back in Cleveland, we teased out
some more details for the Perugino composition
particularly in the area of the presiding priest and
distant figures. Andrea apparently flipped the
panel to reduce the distraction of the underlying
image. Examination by conservators in Dresden in
2016 did not reveal any underlying paint. In the
future, cross sections could help confirm the under-
drawing media and presence of any imprimatura or
initial paint layers for the Perugino composition,
as well as Andrea del Sarto’s Sacrifice of Isaac.
Comparison with the composition of the Marriage
of the Virgin by Raphael of similar date (Brera,
Pinacoteca, inv. 336) show the popularity of the
subject and the fact that both artists focused on
proper perspective.
The area of the intertwined hands of the three
versions of the Sacrifice of Isaac reveals the pro-
gress from the unfinished Cleveland panel to the
final version in Dresden. As thin veils of paint
were built up in the Prado painting and finally in
the Dresden composition, soft modelling of forms
was attained. The hands in the Cleveland paint-
ing have only the initial stages of dark red, brown,
and pink delineating the fingers and preliminary
blocking in for the shadows. The Prado picture is
the only one in which Isaac’s hand is proportion-
ally smaller, whereas in the Dresden version, the
position and size particularly of Isaac’s hand mim-
ics the one in the CMA painting. The Dresden
painting shows more detail in the hand of Abraham,
but this could be partially due to condition issues
with the Prado painting. In both the later paint-
ings, the highlights and fingernails were added
last. Through this comparison, it is clear that
Andrea del Sarto achieved simple beauty even in
a complicated arrangement of fingers, culminating
in a gesture of compassion and tenderness rather
than harsh restraint in the pause just before the
sacrifice of Abraham’s son was prevented through
divine intervention.
 three versions of andrea del sarto’s SACRIFICE OF ISAAC 121

NOTES Nancy Wixom, Research assistant, Paintings Department, Cleveland

Museum of Art, March 1, 1976.
Acknowledgements. Cleveland Museum of Art-Imaging specialists: 3 Ibidem.
Joan Neubecker and David Brichford; Chief Conservator: Per Knutås; 4 Email correspondence to Marcia Steele from Rebecca Rush-
Painting Conservator: Dean Yoder; Paper Conservator: Moyna Stan- field at the National Portrait Gallery, British Picture Restorer’s data-
ton; Conservattion Intern: Derek Lintala. Museo del Prado-Researcher: base via Joyce Hill Stoner October 16, 2013.
Ana Gonzales. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstammlungen, Gemäldegalerie- 5 In at least one other case of a similar panel of a painting by
Curator: Andreas Henning; Conservator: Axel Börner. Los Angeles, Pontormo, the cross battens are tapered in opposite directions. See:
J. Paul Getty Museum-Conservators: Sue Ann Chiu, Yvonne Szafran; Tucker et al. 2004, p. 34.
Curator: Julian Brooks. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art- 6 Keith 2001, p. 51.
Conservators: Elizabeth Walmsley, Jay Kruger. New York, Metropolitan 7 Walmsley 2015, p. 72.
Museum of Art-Conservator: Michael Gallagher. Caen, Musée des 8 Ciatti, Seroni 1986, pp. 74-76.
Beaux-Arts: Magali Bourbon. 9 Chui, Szafran 2015, pp. 14-16.
1 Obituary: Spencer A. Samuels; Noted Art Dealer, in Los Angeles 10 Shearman 1965, p. 281.
Times, February 5, 1999 (online: www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm- 11 Los Angeles 2015, pp. 194-195.
1999-feb-05-mn-5140-story.html).
2 Private correspondence, Cleveland Museum of Art Conserva-
tion and Curatorial file. From Soencer A. Samuels and Co. To Mrs.
Ill. 10.1. Joan de Borgonya, Saint Felix Preaching, part of the Altarpiece of Sant Feliu, 1518-1521, oil on panel, Girona, Museu d’Art
 10
The Northern Way: Engraving Success
in Catalan Painting around 1500
Elsa Espin
A BSTRACT : Prints started to circulate more widely during
the second half of the fifteenth century. Engravings
by Martin Schongauer and Albrecht Dürer, but also by
Lucas van Leyden and Cornelis Engelbrechtsz, spread all
over Europe and impacted several generations of artists.
Trained in the Rhine valley, Joan de Borgonya knew the
prints of these ar tists, appropriated their manner
and reproduced their compositions, animating his
monumental figures with almost grotesque expressions.
His paintings helped with the diffusion of the German
style in Catalonia. The oeuvre of this underestimated
painter – commonly perceived as uninventive although
he clearly dominated the artistic production in Cata-
lonia – is contextualized within the context of early
sixteenth-century painting in Europe. It will be possible
to address the taste of the Catalan elite in this period
and shed on the pictorial skills of the the painter and
his contemporaries.
—o—
The art of engraving appeared at the end of the
fourteenth century in Europe and played a decisive
role in the circulation of ideas and models.1 Easy to
reproduce and transport, engravings were the
medium of exchange par excellence. They crossed
borders and circulated between different artists’
studios, contributing to the diffusion of artistic
trends originating in the Germanic and Italian
centres. One of the most eloquent examples is
certainly that of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528).
We find the models he created in the four corners
of Europe, thus favouring an artistic correspon-
dence among different centres in the early sixteenth
century. The Speech of Wisdom, from the Ship of
Fools, is the perfect demonstration of the success of
Dürer’s art. This engraving had such a tremendous
influence that it was used by many other artists,
such as Nicolas Cordonnier in his Saint Vincent
Preaching (private collection),2 Paolo de San Leo-
cadio, an Italian painter active in Valencia, and
Saint Felix Preaching by Joan de Borgonya. Albrecht
Dürer’s work was, of course, one of the most wide-
spread and famous engraved models of this period.
As many studies and recent exhibitions underline:
his art recognised no boundaries. The same can be
said about the prints of other artists such his prede-
cessor, Martin Schongauer (c. 1435-1491) who was
also copied far from his native land.3 Still, it should
be noted that the situation of the two artists was
quite different: Dürer used his engravings as part of
a commercial strategy to help spread the word, a
process that is not documented for Schongauer. In
any case, all these engravings constitute an almost
inexhaustible repertoire of models for painters.
Because he used many engraved models, nota-
bly ones by Dürer, Joan de Borgonya (documented
from 1496 to 1525) is considered as a secondary
artist in the historiography.4 As many other con-
temporary painters in Europe and Catalonia, he is
perceived as having very little imagination. How-
ever, when we look more deeply into the archives
of the Crown of Aragon – where his entire career
took place – it appears that Joan de Borgonya was,
124 elsa espin
in fact, a very successful artist. He completely ruled
the Catalan pictural panorama from 1510 until his
death in 1525. Thereby, the following article
review the use of pre-existing models in painting
through the figure of Joan de Borgonya. In order to
do so, we will define this artist and his production
before looking at the use of engraved models and
the practical innovations they allow. This analysis
will also allow us to highlight the fact that this
practice should not be perceived as a limitation
or a lack of creativity, but rather as an essential
component of the practice of this period.
Joan de Borgonya, a German painter in the
Crown of Aragon
Joan de Borgonya first became known as Mestre de
Sant Feliu, Saint Felix Master, in reference to the
panels he painted for the altar of the church of Sant
Feliu in Girona (Museu d’Art, Girona). It was not
until 1958 that the historian Josep Gudiol
discovered the documentation related to this com-
mission and thus the name of Joan de Borgonya,
a painter and citizen of Barcelona.5 This discovery,
as well as the important archival work of Valencian
and Catalan historians of the twentieth century,
such as J. M. Madurell i Marimon, allows us to draw
an exhaustive portrait of the life of this artist.6
Thereafter, many documents were discovered. One
of the most important is Joan de Borgonya’s will,
dated March 13th 1523.7 We learn from this docu-
ment that, although Joan’s name seems to indicate
a French origin – ‘Borgonya’ referring directly to the
Duchy of Burgundy – he was in fact German. The
first lines of the document are unequivocal: ‘Ego
Iohannes de Burgunya, pictor, civis Barchinone, filius
Iohannis de Dos Puncts, quondam, argenterii civitatis
de Stras Borch en Alamanya’. Joan de Borgonya,
painter and citizen of Barcelona, was the son of a
goldsmith from Strasbourg, in the Holy Roman
Empire, where he was certainly born himself. Unfor-
tunately, we do not have more information about
the first years of his life or his artistic training.
The first known document situates Joan de
Borgonya in 1496 in the south of the Kingdom of
Valencia, in the city of Orihuela.8 He must have
arrived there at least a year before, as the written
document specifies that he had already painted an
altarpiece dedicated to the Rosary Virgin. At this
moment, Joan de Borgonya seems to have been
well settled as he was granted a chapel in Orihuela’s
cathedral to be buried with his family. Neverthe-
less, in 1502, he left the city for the capital Valen-
cia, where he worked on the decoration of several
chapels in the cathedral, before leaving once again,
this time for Barcelona, where he settled perma-
nently in 1510. There he founded a workshop, as
pointed out by the recruitment of several appren-
tices and also by the order of numerous artworks.
From his Barcelona workshop, Joan de Borgonya
was responsible for at least twenty works, half of
which is only known through the archives. He drew
cartoons and designs for stained glass, embroidery
and goldsmithery. He also painted the heraldic
decoration of the choir seats of the Cathedral of
Barcelona (in situ) – upon the occasion of the Order
of the Golden Fleece’s chapter in 1519. However,
the most important part of his work were the altar-
pieces he painted for churches throughout all Cata-
lonia: Santa Creus monastery, near Tarragona
(1510); the church of Sant Cebrià d’Esponellà, in
Allela (1523); Sant Feliu (1521) and the Cathedral
of Girona (1523); Santa Maria del Pi in Barcelona
(1515) and many more.
His work is characterised by a great attention to
detail, an exquisite atmosphere with the figures
dressed in luxurious and embroidered clothes with
gold thread and rich brocade, lively colours, and a
strong expressiveness. It is also marked, as we have
seen in the introduction, by the recurrent use of
engraved models that were then circulating
throughout Europe. Saint Felix Preaching (ill. 10.1)
is symptomatic of this phenomenon as it refers
directly to the Ship of Fools, or more precisely to the
Speech of Wisdom by Albrecht Dürer (ill. 10.2),
an engraving that was very successful and widely
used by many artists. This shows that Joan de
Borgonya was in the same line as the other great
painters of his generation.
 the northern way: engraving success in catalan painting around 1500
Ill. 10.2. Albrecht Dürer, Speech of Wisdom, in Sebastian
Brant, Ship of Fools, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek,
Rar. 121, fol. 29v
One of the most eloquent examples of his sys-
tematic use of engraving is certainly the impressive
Virgin and Child and Saint John the Baptist (ill. 10.3a).
This painting is a direct reference to Dürer’s Virgin
and Child with Monkey (ill. 10.3b). The parallels are
particularly evident in the posture of the Virgin,
looking towards her son sitting on her right leg,
and of the Child, with a powerful body twisted into
a sinuous shape to observe the bird on his right
hand. It is also worth noting that the painter intro-
duced some variations: the monkey becomes an
almost anecdotal element, and the book held by
the Virgin is now open. On the painted manuscript,
we can read ‘Ego in altissimis habito, et thronus meus
in columna nubis. Gyrum caeli circuivi sola, et profun-
dum abyssi penetravi; et in fluctibus maris ambulavi, et
in omni terra steti’ (Ecclesiasticus, 24:34-6). The
125
background is also changed and presents several
biblical scenes that echo engraved models. In the
foreground, on the left of the Virgin, we can see
Saint Jerome in Penitence (ill. 10.4a) which refers
to Dürer’s Saint Jerome in the Desert (ill. 10.4b), but
with a mirror effect, perhaps the painter had access
to a reproduction engraving in this particular
case. It should also be noted that the lion’s face is
identical in both artworks. Back to the painting
as a whole, on the right of the Virgin, still in the
foreground, we can see the Rest on the Flight into
Egypt (ill. 10.5a). Here, the figure of Saint Joseph
seems to echo an engraving of another German
artist: Martin Schongauer and the Flight into Egypt
(ill. 10.5b). On another note, in a more general
way, it is also interesting to highlight a similar
treatment of the architecture, in ruins and punctu-
ated with round-arches as we can see in Schon-
gauer’s artworks as well as in Dürer’s ones such as
the Adoration of the Magi (Florence, Galleria degli
Uffizi, inv. 1890 n.1434).
The German models were not the only ones
used by Joan de Borgonya. In fact, among the bibli-
cal scenes depicted in the background of the Virgin
and Child and Saint John the Baptist, there is the
Massacre of the Innocents (ill. 10.6a), which is a
direct takeover of Marcantonio Raimondi’s engrav-
ing of the same theme after Raphael (ill. 10.6b).
We can also find another Italian model in the
Saint Ursula Altarpiece, made for the church of
Nuestra Señora de Olivas in Girona province.9 The
Dream of Saint Ursula follows closely Marcantonio
Raimondi’s print of a pensive woman.10
Thus, Joan de Borgonya used numerous engraved
models, not all of them were Germanic, as we have
just seen, this therefore underlines the importance
and diversity of the corpus he must have had in his
possession; although his sources are geographically
diverse, all the models are used in the same way.
This variety also underlines the prestige of these
works, which were reproduced very early on since
the use of engravings as model was developed at
the end of the fifteenth century and throughout
the sixteenth century and was intensified from
126 elsa espin

A B

Ill. 10.3. A: Joan de Borgonya, Virgin and Child, c. 1515-1525, oil on panel, 181 x 127 cm, Barcelona, Museu Nacional d’Art de
Catalunya. B: Albrecht Dürer, Virgin with a Monkey, c. 1498, engraving on laid paper, Paris, Petit Palais (inv. GDUT3975)

1520-1530 following the sack of Rome.11 Thereby,
even though Joan de Borgonya was not the first to
use engravings as a working tool, we can consider
that he was one of the first, if not the first, in Cata-
lonia to use them as a marketing tool. This use
allowed his clients to select the motive from his
repertoire while at the same time providing them a
new aesthetic, the bella maniera, that broke with
the one in place at the time, a double added value
compared to local artists.
Engraved models, an asset for painters
When it comes to questioning what made Joan de
Borgonya so successful in Catalonia, we should
consider his vast collection of engraved models
as a part of the answer. First, it is important to
remember that engravings, especially Dürer’s, were
the way for many artists to discover the innova-
tions of the Italian Renaissance. Joan de Borgonya
must have been one of them, even more so as the
possibility of a travel in Italy before coming to
Valencia is now rejected. Because of a portrait
called Lady with a Rabbit, signed Opus Johannes
Burgundi and coming from the old Neapolitan col-
lection of San Marco, historians assumed that Joan
de Borgonya had been in Southern Italy in the
1490s before arriving in the Crown of Aragon.12
However, this hypothesis cannot only be based on
the provenance of this work. The portrait could
have been made in Catalonia then moved to Italy.
Recently, it has been proposed that this portrait
was that of a woman from the family of one of
the knights present in Barcelona in 1519 upon
the occasion of the Chapter of the Golden Fleece,
 the northern way: engraving success in catalan painting around 1500 127

A B

Ill. 10.4. A: Joan de Borgonya, Virgin and Child (ill. 10.3a), detail, Saint Jerome in Penitence. B: Albrecht Dürer, Saint Jerome in the
Desert, c. 1495-1497, engraving on laid paper, New York, Brooklyn Museum (acc. nr. 74.180)

possibly the Neapolitan nobleman Pietro Antonio
de San Severino, Duke of San Marco;13 one more
reason to rule out a stay in Italy.
However, Joan de Borgonya’s paintings show
many Italianisms like the use of contrapposto and
unstable position as we can see in Saint Andrew’s
Refusal to Make Sacrifices to the Idol and the Flagel-
lation of Saint Andrew (private collection). He also
represents bodies with a monumental appearance
and prominent musculature, and uses architecture
with an antique-style. He combined these refer-
ences with those of the northern style. One of the
most striking examples is certainly the Virgin and
Child with Saint John the Baptist (ill. 10.3a). The
massive bodies of Jesus and John draw our atten-
tion: they are as much chubby children’s bodies as
muscular bodies.
Behind the Virgin, seated on a throne, we can
observe a ‘Flemish’ green landscape, whose horizon
is tinted with the blue of the sky and whose ele-
ments become more blurred the further away they
are. Some of the scenes punctuating the landscape
are presented in a more Italian aspect, such as the
Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Epiphany,
which are set in an antique style architecture with
round-arches, Corinthian columns and entabla-
ture. These representations also seem to use a geo-
metric construction of space with convergence
lines. The panels dedicated to Saint Andrew, which
are in a private collection, are also relevant. There
we can also see an architecture based on the codes
of classical architecture with the presence of Ionic
capitals. The unstable position of some of the fig-
ures is also striking, their almost systematic wig-
gling is another reference to the Italian Renais-
sance as the contrapposto and the desire of
highlighting the bodies, their musculature and
their curves.
128 elsa espin

A B

Ill. 10.5. A: Joan de Borgonya, Virgin and Child (ill. 10.3a), detail, Rest of the Flight Egypt. B: Martin Schongauer, Flight into Egypt,
c. 1470-1475, engraving on laid paper, Paris, Petit Palais (inv. GDUT8612)

All these Italian references are also present in
Albrecht Dürer’s engravings as for example Adam
and Eve14 or the Annunciation15 from the Life of the
Virgin, precisely because he went to Italy a least two
times, in 1494, then from 1505 to 1507, and worked
there.16 So, thanks to Dürer’s engravings and his
travels to Italy, Joan de Borgonya did not have to
make the journey to learn these new references. It
should also be remembered that Dürer stayed in
Alsace in the 1490’s for his training (he was in Col-
mar in 1492 and could have ended his journey in
Strasbourg in 1494). Before traveling to Valencia,
Joan de Borgonya could have had access to his
work, especially through the printers. This could
partially explain the numerous models Joan had at
his disposal and his active participation in the dis-
semination of this pictorial renewal, which he was
one of the first to introduce in Catalonia.
The large number of orders received and the
speed with which they had to be completed
suggests that Joan de Borgonya’s workshop must
have played an important role in his production,
which could in part explain the uneven quality
of the works attributed to him. It should also be
considered that Joan de Borgonya was not the only
one to use this process, nevertheless he actively
participated in its democratization.
Because he dominated the Catalan art scene
and his style combines engraved references and
Italian revival, it is tempting to present works made
in the same context as works by Joan de Borgonya.
This was the case for an Arrest of Saint Stephen
presented at Christie’s in 2004,17 which takes up
Dürer’s Presentation of Christ before Caiaphas.18 The
work is clearly reminiscent of the Altarpiece of
Saint Felix in Girona with its slender figures whose
 the northern way: engraving success in catalan painting around 1500
A B
Ill. 10.6. A: Joan de Borgonya, Virgin and Child (ill. 10.3a), detail, Massacre of the Innocents. B: Marcantonio Raimondi, The
Massacre of the Innocents, c. 1512-1513, engraving on laid paper, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. nr. 22.67.21)
attitudes tend towards mannerism, but the treat-
ment of the figures differs. The same observation
can be made with a Nativity recently put up for sale
and attributed to the Strasbourg painter.19 The
comparison of this panel with the rest of Joan de
Borgonya’s production, especially the figures, forces
us to see the intervention of another artist who also
had a northern culture marked by the use of
engraved models. In this case, this use is so devel-
oped that it turns the painting into a patchwork of
different elements that do not seem to interact
with each other. The architectural elements on the
right and left of the panel do not appear to be on
the same plane. This is particularly noticeable with
Saint Joseph, who is placed higher than the Virgin.
Under him we see a marble decorated with putti,
while the Virgin is on the ground. This difference
of treatment does not seem to have any logic. Like-
wise, in the background, the mountainous land-
scape is strangely superimposed; it is completely
disconnected from the building lines of the fore-
ground. The artist has obviously assembled various
elements from pre-existing models, perhaps to
distance himself from them. Even though the
final result is, unfortunately, a not very skillful
collage, it testifies to the widespread use of engraved
compositions by artists of this period.20
We encounter a similar process with Pere
Nunyes (documented from 1513 to 1554). This
129
Portuguese painter moved to Barcelona in the first
decade of the sixteenth century. There he met Joan
de Borgonya,21 who probably had an influence on
him, possibly in his method of working, using
almost systematically pre-existing models. Among
the conserved works by this painter, the doors of
the Altarpiece of Saint Eligius show a broad knowl-
edge of references including Dürer’s Birth of the
Virgin (ill. 10.7a), which we find in the upper right
compartment that depicts the Birth of Saint Eligius
(ill. 10.7b). Similarly, the closed doors show an
Annunciation in grisaille which exhibits a synthe-
sis of Flemish manner and a design that evokes
contemporary Roman works such as the Annuncia-
tion by Giulio Romano (Paris, Musée du Louvre,
Département des Arts Graphiques, inv 3597). We
also find many Italian references in the Altarpiece of
the Miracle of Riner (Solsonès, Catalonia) and more
particular allusions to the work of Raphael popular-
ized by the engravings of Marcantonio Raimondi.
This is notably visible in the figure of the resur-
rected Christ and the saints in the side panels.22
All things considered, it is appropriate to look
at Joan de Borgonya’s and his peers’ inventiveness
again. Obviously, because they used pre-existing
designs their work cannot be considered as original,
however they are not imitating those designs – as
Marcantonio Raimondi did with Dürer’s engrav-
ings23 – but inventing from them.24 Far from being
130 elsa espin

A B

Ill. 10.7. A: Albrecht Dürer, The Birth of the Virgin, c. 1503-1504, engraving on laid paper, Paris, Petit Palais, inv. GDUT4136.
B: Pere Nunyes, Altarpiece of Saint Eligius, c. 1526-1529, oil on panel, 175 x 140 cm,
Barcelona, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (inv. 024254-000), detail: Birth of Saint Eligius

just copyists, they borrowed the models offered by
engravings and drawings to adapt them – a practice
that was democratized in painting as well as in
engraving itself and other graphic arts throughout
Europe25 – to create their own works. A procedure
that Albrecht Dürer himself applied in some of
his works, such as the Presentation of Christ before
Caiaphas26 which is largely inspired by Schongauer’s
version.27
It is also essential to take into account that the
use of engraving was, obviously a quick and easy
way for them to access the pictural renovation tak-
ing place in Italy and to offer it to their commis-
sioners – a considerable asset that certainly gives
them the lead in certain orders. Another important
element is that this recourse to pre-existing models
must have allowed them to work faster than other
artists. This is at least what we can deduce from the
almost systematic use of engraved patterns.
Working fast, a key to success from the North?
The use of engraved models was, indeed, a chance
of rapid access to the pictorial renewal taking place
in the rest of Europe and especially in Italy. Engrav-
ings also seem to be able to serve as a repertoire
of models that, if requested, could be submitted to
the approval of the patrons before the painting
was carried out. It also cannot be excluded that in
some cases the clients themselves may have pro-
vided an engraved model that they wanted to see
reproduced.
These patterns could also be reused at will – the
desire to obtain a painted altarpiece quickly taking
precedence over its originality. The numerous
 the northern way: engraving success in catalan painting around 1500
commissions Joan de Borgonya received in Barce-
lona seem to indicate a sustained rhythm of pro-
duction.28 When he died in 1525, Pere Nunyes
took the lead in the Catalan art panorama by
joining forces with another Portuguese painter,
Henrique Fernandes, a partnership that allowed
them to limit the space left to competitors. Like
their predecessor, the works coming out of their
workshop show a clear use of a wide repertoire
of models.
Reusing the models available without limit, art-
ists standardized their production and at the same
time optimized the time spent on each project,
which allowed them to produce more and more
quickly. This principle of rationalization of work is
particularly profitable and was not limited to paint-
ers. It can be also noticed in other fields linked
to the production of altarpieces that favours a
greater output. The most eloquent example is that
of sculpture. Like the northern painters, northern
sculptors were very successful thanks to the import
of a semi-industrial production process for altar-
pieces, developed in the Netherlands and the Holy
Empire from the end of the fourteenth century,29
and adapted to the local aesthetic and to the
demands of the Catalan parishes. The producing
principle was a standard basic wooden structure,
similar for the whole production, which was then
completed with sculptures or/and paintings made
independently. Miquel Lochner (documented
from 1483 till 1490), a German cabinetmaker and
sculptor, is considered to be the instigator of this
phenomenon in Catalonia. He is the author of the
pinnacles of the choir of Barcelona cathedral, a city
where he appears in 1483, pinnacles whose form is
repeated in the altarpieces he made later, including
the one of Sant Pere de Premià de Dalt for which
he was appointed in 1487 (ill. 10.8).30 Obviously,
the use of pinnacles is nothing new in the sculpted
Gothic world, neither was it in the Catalan altar-
pieces.31 However, with Miquel Lochner, pinnacles
are democratised as a decorative element in altar-
pieces and can be considered as a direct adaptation
of the Germanic tradition ausfsatz/auszug, an
131
Ill. 10.8. Choir of Barcelona cathedral
element that would become characteristic and
make Premià’s altarpiece an undisputed reference.
Its success was such that Miquel Lochner was
asked to create numerous altarpieces till his death
three years later and that he established a tradition
definitively in this region by transmitting it to local
masters, including Pere Torrent,32 considered as
Miquel Lochner’s most important continuator.
The former was hired in 1510 to create the Altar-
piece of Santa Maria del Pi,33 later painted by Joan de
Borgonya, as well as the Altarpiece of Saint Eligius,34
which was painted by Pere Nunyes, to name but a
few examples.
Thus, at the beginning of the sixteenth century,
it was common to find Nordic painters and sculp-
tors on the same building site, or at least artists
trained in this rationalisation of work imported
from the North. One of the most eloquent exam-
ples is certainly the monumental Altarpiece of
Saint Feliu from the eponymous church in Girona
(ill. 10.9),35 for which we keep an abundant docu-
mentation, including the majority of the contracts
signed with the craftsmen. A first agreement was
signed in 1504 with Joan Dartrica, a Brabant
master and cabinetmaker established in Girona, to
build the wooden structure of the predella of the
altarpiece.36 A second contract with Joan Dartrica
was signed in 1505 and committed the sculptor to
132
Ill. 10.9. Saint Felix Altarpiece: reconstitution by the Museum
of Art of Girona
making the body of the altarpiece.37 Unfortunately,
he died in 1507 without completing his work, but
the perfectly standardised production of the altar-
piece structure meant that the work was taken over
by not one, but two craftsmen. The same year Dar-
trica died, Pere Coll, a cabinetmaker and citizen of
Girona, was hired to finish the work. However, for
unknown reasons, Pere Coll did not fulfil his com-
mitment, and on November 30th of the same year,
a new contract was signed with Pedro Robredo,38 a
cabinetmaker from Girona, a native of the city of
Burgos in Castilla.
The same misadventure happened to the paint-
ing of Saint Feliu altarpiece. It was initially done by
the French painter Pere de Fontaines but he only
had time to complete the decoration of the predella
before dying in 1518. The rest of the painting was
then entrusted to Joan de Borgonya. The preserved
works, by Pere de Fontaines, make an extensive
elsa espin
used of engravings, in particular those of Martin
Schongaueur, as Joan de Borgonya did with Dürer’s
for the painting of the body of the altarpiece.
This standardized way of proceeding, using pre-
existing models, appears then as the most efficient
way to work while bringing modernity. Being
able to work fast is essential because artists such as
Joan de Borgonya were dealing with many orders
and because the altarpieces were usually large.
Thus, what we today perceive as a lack of imagina-
tion appears to be, in fact, an innovative and
speedy way of working in the first decades of
the sixteenth century.
N OTES
1 The first engravings in Europe were on wood. The oldest
known is the Protat woodcut, named after a printer in Mâcon (France),
dated 1370-1380 and now kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France
(Bnf), Département des Estampes et de la Photographie, Rés. Musée.
For more information on the history of engraving, see: Gondard 2010.
2 Thiébaut 2015, p. 80.
3 On this topic, see in particular: Galilea Antón 2003; Lacarra
Ducay 2017.
4 Not to be confused with his contemporary and homonymous
Juan de Borgoña, who was active in the Crown of Castile from 1496 to
his death in 1535-1536.
5 Gudiol Ricart 1941, p. 50; Ainaud de Lasarte 1958; Post 1958,
pp. 78-80.
6 Among the studies on this artist, see in particular: Madurell
Marimón 1943-1944; Nieto Fernández 1984; Mata 1997; Girona 1998;
Garriga 2001; Muñoz Sebastià 2006.
7 Madurell Marimón 1943, n. 140.
8 Nieto Fernandez 1984, p. 67.
9 The entire altarpiece is only known from photographs in the
MAS archives; only the central panel with Saint Ursula is preserved in
the Museu d’Art of Girona.
10 Also called sometimes Saint’s Vision: Paris, Musée du Louvre,
Département des Arts Graphiques, collection Edmond de Rothschild,
inv. 4299 LR/recto.
11 This is particularly true in the case of the difusion of Raphael’s
work. See: Vasselin 1983.
12 This hypothesis was first proposed by A. Condorelli and then
by M. Falomir, who suggested that the painter arrived in Valencia in
1501. This possibly has been rejected since we know from A. Nieto
Fernández’s study that the painter was already well establish in the
Kingdom of Valencia in 1496. See: Cordorelli 1965; Falomir 1996,
p. 382; Nieto Fernández 1984, p. 67.
13 Garriga 2001, pp. 154-155.
14 Bartsch 1
15 Bartsch 83
16 See: Panosfky 1945; Paris/Chantilly 2022, pp. 61-75.
17 Paris, Christie’s, 24 June 2004, lot 11.
18 Bartsch 6
19 La Suite Subasta, Barcelona, 1 December 2022, lot 11. The
attribution was proposed by Pr. A. Velasco who, at the time we are
writing this paper, is writing an article on the subject that will appear
in Ars Magazine in the summer 2023. However, this proposal does
 the northern way: engraving success in catalan painting around 1500
not have unanimous support among specialists of the period. See: Ribas
Tur 2022.
20 A special thanks to H. Grollemund, in charge of German
drawings in the Département des Arts Graphiques in the Louvre, for
the rich discussion we had about this work at the time of its sale.
21 January 31th 1516, Joan de Borgonya appears as a witness
in the contract signed between the potters’ brotherhood and the
Portuguese painter Pere Nunyes for an altarpiece dedicated to Saint
Hyppolyte. See: Madurell Marimón 1944, in particular p. 30.
22 For a more comprehensive view of the use of German and
especially Italian models in the work of Pere Nunyes, see: Bosch 2002.
23 Regarding copying and falsification of Dürer in Italy, see:
Vrand 2022.
24 On the question of originality and invention, see in particu-
lar: Schaeffer 1997, pp. 98-100.
25 A fact already highlighted by C. Larraz in her Ph. Diss. thesis
on the painter Simon de Châlon, she emphasised in her conclusion the
commonality of this practice through France and in many fields, see:
Larraz 2021, pp. 324-339.
26 Bartsch 6
27 Bartsch 11
28 Between 1510 and 1525, the Catalan archives keep track of
some twenty works (altarpieces and stained-glass designs) commis-
sioned from Joan de Borgonya.
133
29 Both are standardized production. The main difference
between the Flemish and Germanic styles is that the former usually
adopts a T-shape, whereas the latter opts for a rectangular shape with a
rich crown called ‘ausfsatz’ or ‘auszug’. On the northern contributions
to the making of altarpieces, see: Jardí Anguera 2007-2008, p. 83.
30 Piferrer 1839-1865, 1, p. 34; Madurell Marimón 1946, p. 308.
31 In Catalonia, we have a very earlier example: the Saint Tecla
Altarpiece for the cathedral of Tarragona commissioned from Pere
Johan, a local artist, in 1423. Another example, closer to our chronol-
ogy, is to be found in the Kingdom of Aragon, in Zaragoza, with the
altarpiece of the high altar of the cathedral commissioned in 1473 to
Hans Piet d’Anso, a German sculptor.
32 Garriga 1986, p. 45.
33 Madurell Marimón 1946, p. 61, n. 342.
34 Madurell Marimón 1950.
35 This altarpiece is now dismantled and preserved in its almost
totality in the Museu d’Art of Girona. For a complete study of the
altarpiece, see: Ruiz Quesada, Yeguas Gassó 2016.
36 Freixas 1985, p. 262.
37 Freixas 1985, p. 264.
38 Freixas 1985, pp. 273-274.
Ill. 11.1. Master of the Pulkau Predella and workshop, The Pulkau Altarpiece (with open wings), c. 1514-1521,
fir and limewood, c. 11.5 x 5.95 x 0.5 m, Pulkau, Church of the Holy Blood
 11
Under- and Overdrawing
in the Pulkau Altarpiece:
New Insights into a Stylistic Enigma
Björn Blauensteiner
A BSTRACT : The article takes a fresh look at the winged
altarpiece in the Church of the Holy Blood in Pulkau
(Lower Austria). In preparation of the study, infrared
images of the altarpiece and several connected paintings
were made for the first time to assess the underdrawings
and to get a clearer picture of the superimposed con-
touring (‘overdrawing’), which is a distinctive feature of
the Pulkau predella. The new image material allows a
reassessment of the question whether the paintings on
the predella and the main wings were created by the
same artist. Moreover, it is now possible to compare the
underdrawings of the Pulkau Altarpiece with Altdorfer’s
drawings and underdrawings, especially those of his
Sankt Florian Altarpiece. Finally, several other paintings
variously attributed to the ‘Master of Pulkau’ were also
examined and their underdrawings compared to those
of the Pulkau Altarpiece, which enabled a more concise
assessment of the artist’s oeuvre
—o—
About 80 km northwest of Vienna lies the town of
Pulkau, where a chapel was erected in 1339 follow-
ing an alleged host desecration and miracle – blood
was said to have poured out of a host after having
been stabbed – to present the miraculous wafer to
pilgrims. To handle the growing number of visitors,
the chapel was replaced from 1396 on by a pilgrim
church of which only the choir and the transept
were eventually completed.1
In the centre of the choir towers a winged altar-
piece2 (ills. 11.1-11.2) that stands more than eleven
meters tall and is nearly six meters wide when
the wings are opened.3 The altarpiece narrates the
Passion of Christ in twelve stations.4 The sequence
starts on the exterior of the predella wings with
Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem and the Last Supper.
The narration continues with the Agony in the
Garden, the Arrest of Christ, Christ before Caiphas
and the Flagellation on the closed main wings.
On the interiors of the main wings, flanking
the central shrine,5 the Passion carries on with the
scenes Ecce homo, Pilate Washing his Hands,
the Carrying of the Cross and the Crucifixion. The
cycle ends on the interiors of the predella wings
with the Deposition from the Cross and the
Entombment. The Desecration and the Conceal-
ment of the Host, to which the church’s foundation
harks back according to the foundation legend,
are portrayed on the fixed parts of the predella
forefront.6
The altarpiece was introduced into art histori-
cal literature by O. Benesch in 1930.7 He attributed
the paintings on the predella to the draftsman who
created the illustrations in Joseph Grünpeck’s
Historia Friderici et Maximiliani (Vienna, Öster-
reichisches Staatsarchiv, Sig. HS B9)8 and the shrine
wings to his workshop. According to Benesch,
the artist learned from Cranach during his stay in
Vienna and later worked there. For the time being,
136 björn blauensteiner

Ill. 11.2. Master of the Pulkau Predella and workshop, The Pulkau Altarpiece (with closed wings), c. 1514-1521,
fir and limewood, c. 11.5 x 2.97 x 0.5 m, Pulkau, Church of the Holy Blood
 under- and overdrawing in the
Benesch’s attribution of the altarpiece to the
Master of the Historia Friderici et Maximiliani
was generally accepted.9 However, while Benesch
regarded the painter as a pupil of Lucas Cranach,
many scholars saw a closer connection to Albrecht
Altdorfer.10 Furthermore, the paintings on the shrine
wings were attributed to workshop assistants by
most scholars.11
In the catalogue of the exhibition on Altdorfer’s
graphic work in Berlin and Regensburg (1998),
H. Mielke advocated that the Historia drawings
were created by Altdorfer himself,12 reintroducing
an argument that C. Dodgson had already put for-
ward in a review from 192413 and later found
acceptance by P. Halm.14 This re-evaluation, which
was widely accepted in the subsequent literature,15
meant that Benesch’s attribution of the Pulkau
Altarpiece to the Master of the Historia had to be
reassessed as well.16 The paintings are now gener-
ally attributed to an anonymous Altdorfer succes-
sor and dated around 1515.17
In the following, a fresh look at the specific
maniera of the Pulkau paintings is thrown. While
the already known material deserved a new assess-
ment too, this study is motivated by new art-tech-
nological findings. A. Stange had already noted
that infrared images of the paintings attributed to
the Master of the Historia would help to substanti-
ate the artist’s painterly oeuvre.18 In preparation
of this study, such images of the Pulkau Altarpiece
and several connected paintings were made to
enable an assessment of the underdrawings for the
first time and get a clearer picture of the superim-
posed contouring, which is a peculiar feature of
the Pulkau predella. The new image material
proved insightful regarding several questions.
Firstly, it allowed a comparison between the under-
drawings within the ensemble. This is important
for the above-mentioned debate whether the paint-
ings on the predella and shrine wing were in fact
created by the same artist. Moreover, it is finally
possible to compare the underdrawings of the
Pulkau Altarpiece with the Historia drawings, which
for over half a century were regarded as the works
PULKAU ALTARPIECE 137
of the same artist, and other early drawings and
underdrawings by Altdorfer. For this purpose,
infrared images were also made of Altdorfer’s Sankt
Florian Altarpiece,19 since only a few isolated infra-
red details of the panels were previously known.20
Finally, several other paintings variously attributed
to the Master of Pulkau were examined to enable
a comparison of their underdrawings to those of
the Pulkau Altarpiece and therefore a more concise
assessment of the artist’s oeuvre.
The compositions of the predella panels are laid
out in extensive configurations of underdrawing
applied in a fluid medium. The design is dominated
by arrays of sickle-shaped hatchings resembling
blades of grass (ills. 11.3-11.4). These distinctive
curves, applied in firm and secure brushstrokes,
are mostly concentrically, at times also radially
arranged. While the hatchings of draperies and
larger elements of the composition are generally
followed quite closely in the painterly execution,
there are several changes and relocations regard-
ing the indication of smaller objects and facial
features, whose outlines are indicated by crinkled
lines. This can be seen, for example, in the
arrangement on the table and the narrow edge of
the bench in the Last Supper (ill. 11.5). The land-
scape backgrounds are outlined in that manner as
well, and these parts of the underdrawings also
conform with the executed paintings only very
roughly.
While comparisons between different artistic
techniques are always difficult, the brushwork of
the paint layers seems related to the underdraw-
ings, consisting of similarly curved strokes applied
with masterful certainty. However that may be, the
Pulkau underdrawings doubtlessly show parallels to
Altdorfer’s early drawings. Not only are shaded
areas indicated in a very similar way, also the way
heads are laid out is comparable. In many early
hand drawings,21 as well as the Historia illustrations
and the Fall and Salvation of Mankind woodcuts,22
most faces consist of little hooks and circles, indi-
cating eyes, noses and mouths. There are, however,
138 björn blauensteiner

Ill. 11.3. Master of the Pulkau Predella, The Pulkau Altarpiece, detail of the predella: Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem (ill. 11.2),
IR photography, detail: Christ

apparent differences. Altdorfer’s drawings, includ-
ing the Historia illustrations, are more compart-
mentalized, they contain cross hatchings, and the
arrays of hatchings are less orderly compared to the
Pulkau underdrawings, which seem almost mechan-
ically arranged.
The underdrawings of Altdorfer’s Sankt Florian
Altarpiece (ills. 11.6-11.7) boast a lineage quite
similar to Altdorfer’s early hand drawings, except
for the extensive planes of hatchings23 which do
not feature in his autonomous drawings to the same
extent. Compared to the Pulkau predella, there are
several differences too. In Sankt Florian, the
hatched lines are often flat-out straight and more
divergent than the almost identical and always at
least slightly curved strokes in the Pulkau under-
drawings. There are, as mentioned, also no cross
hatchings in Pulkau and no shaded faces, which are
a characteristic feature of the underdrawings in
Sankt Florian and of Altdorfer’s drawings in gen-
eral.24
The underdrawings of the main wings of the
Pulkau Altarpiece are quite different from the pre-
della (ill. 11.8). Here, both the contour lines and
the hatchings seem more uncertain and hesitant,
with some of the lines ending in little hooks, which
cannot be found on the predella. Contrary to the
extensive arrangements of concentric brushstrokes
on the predella, drawn fluently without stutters,
the lines on the upper tier are sometimes jagged,
sometimes curved, and therefore seem less confi-
dent in general. As for the hatchings, they are not
 under- and overdrawing in the
Ill. 11.4. Master of the Pulkau Predella, The Pulkau Altarpiece,
detail of the predella: Deposition from the Cross (ill. 11.1),
IR photography, detail: Christ
only less orderly and parallel but also restrained in
scale and number. The underdrawn lines generally
coincide with the executed painting, but like on
the predella, several details were altered. For exam-
ple, the stick held by the boy with the blue cloak in
the Ecce homo is underdrawn as being in front of
the man next to him, whose cane, by the way, was
laid out longer than it was eventually painted. In
the Crucifixion, Mary’s clasped hands differ from
the final appearance, and the curled sword knob of
the soldier on the right is designed more prominent
in the underdrawing.
Certain parts of the predella panels, especially
facial features and strands of hair, but also contours
of certain other motifs, such as drapery folds, were
defined more precisely by thin black lines drawn
above the uppermost paint layer. The technique
can be discerned well in the infrared images
(ills. 11.3-11.5), where the lines stand out against
both the paint layers and the underdrawing, which
was applied in broader brushstrokes. The super-
PULKAU ALTARPIECE 139
imposed lines, which do not contain any hatchings
contrarily, strictly following the underdrawings,
do not function as mere tracings of the executed
composition. They are formative elements of the
composition, giving the predella panels a very
characteristic, rather graphical appearance. The
approach can also be found on the main wings,
but here the outlines fit in with the paintings
more organically than on the predella. The tech-
nique is generally used to a lesser extent on the
upper tier, especially regarding the accentuation
of facial features.
Scholars have noticed this distinctive quality of
the Pulkau predella from the beginning: As early
as 1939, K. Oettinger stated that the Master of
Pulkau was ‘literally drawing into the paintings’.25 In a
similar vein, O. Benesch wrote that on the pre-
della, the painter was drawing dark structural lines
with the brush, like a pen drawing to be filled with
colour: ‘It was all about calligraphy’.26 In an article on
Hans Schäufelin’s Visitation (Vaduz-Vienna, Col-
lections of the Prince von und zu Liechtenstein,
inv. GE 934), M. Ainsworth coined the fitting
term ‘overdrawing’ for this particular phenomenon
and compared its visual effect to chiaroscuro wood-
cuts,27 the technique of printing images using inde-
pendent blocks for outlines and colouring invented
in Germany in the first decade of the sixteenth
century.28 Ainsworth interpreted the practice of
overdrawing as ‘a deliberate reference to a graphic
convention borrowed from printmaking’ and suggested
that its use in paintings may reflect a desire by
the artist to appeal to the prevailing aesthetic.29
This assumption also seems plausible for the Pulkau
Altarpiece, especially since the ensemble has
frequently been linked to Cranach, who was among
the inventors of the new printing technique, and to
Altdorfer, who excelled in the closely related field
of chiaroscuro drawing on toned paper.30 The visual
effect of overdrawing is also comparable to glass
painting, where the composition is defined by
the application of black enamel on the coloured
panes, and to the technique of superimposing black
contours on a gold ground, which was utilized in
140
Ill. 11.5. Master of the Pulkau Predella, The Pulkau Altarpiece, detail of the predella: Last Supper (ill. 11.2), IR photography, detail
numerous panel paintings of the late gothic period
(see, for example, the crook of Saint Bernard’s
crosier in ill. 11.12).
Regarding the ‘overdrawings’ of the Pulkau
Altarpiece, Oettinger already saw parallels to Schäu-
felin, fittingly,31 and similar black lines above the
uppermost paint layer can be found in many of
Schäufelin’s paintings indeed.32 He carried the
technique the furthest in a small winged altarpiece
with Passion scenes (Berlin, Staatliche Museen,
Gemäldegalerie, Kat.Nr. 571, 2017.2, KFMV.309),
björn blauensteiner
which he probably created around 1506.33 Here,
almost all the figures’ outlines, contours and
facial features are retraced in thin black lines
(ill. 11.9),34 even exceeding the approach’s usage
on the Pulkau predella. Schäufelin seems to have
picked up the practice from Albrecht Dürer whose
workshop he joined in 1503. In several early
paintings by Dürer and his workshop the retracing
can be found too, and it was described as a distinc-
tive feature of the artist’s early period by various
scholars.35
 under- and overdrawing in the
Ill. 11.6. Albrecht Altdorfer, Sankt Florian Altarpiece, detail: Recovery of the Body of Saint Sebastian, c. 1509-1516, painting on
spruce, 112.5 x 94.5 cm, Sankt Florian Monastery, IR photography, detail
However, overdrawings can also be found in
other places around the year 1500. In the given
context, it is of particular interest that Altdorfer
accentuated certain details, especially facial fea-
tures, with thin black lines as well, for example in
his Sankt Florian Altarpiece (ills. 11.6-11.7) or in
the Holy Family in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches
Museum, inv. GG 5687)36 and the Nativity in
Bremen (Kunsthalle, inv. 6-1851), both dated
1507.37 Altdorfer’s overdrawings, however, never
reach the level of elaboration, of the Pulkau
Altarpiece, since they are mostly restricted to a
resharpening of certain details. Regarding eyes,
for example, only the pupils are retraced in Sankt
Florian, while in Pulkau the eye sockets, lids and
lashes are specified in the overdrawing.
PULKAU ALTARPIECE 141
While the dark finishing is rather restrained in
Altdorfer’s paintings, there is another form of over-
drawing that he made use of extensively. Many of
his early paintings, especially the Saint George in
Munich (Alte Pinakothek, inv. WAF 29)38 and the
Nativity in Berlin (Staatliche Museen, Gemälde-
galerie, Kat.Nr. 638E),39 contain calligraphic high-
lights applied in a white to yellowish-green tone,
mostly indicating reflections of light but also veg-
etal motifs as such.40 Albeit not to the same extent
as the dark overdrawings, these opaque additions
in a light tone can also be found in the Pulkau
Altarpiece. In this regard, the tufts of grass in the
foreground of the Concealment of the Host, as well
as the garlands at the top of the same panel and of
the Desecration of the Host on the other side of
the predella are prime examples.
142 björn blauensteiner

Ill. 11.7. Albrecht Altdorfer, Sankt Florian Altarpiece, detail: Crowning with Thorns, c. 1509-1516, painting on spruce, 112 x 94 cm,
Sankt Florian Monastery, IR photography, detail

The following conclusions can be drawn from the
above-mentioned observations.
1) The underdrawings on the main wings and the
predella were certainly created by different artists.
This resonates with the division of labour between
the paintings on the predella and the main wings
most scholars have assumed on the grounds of
various differences. In compositional terms, the
figures are grouped in a small foreground area on
the predella. In contrast, the figures are more mon-
umental on the main wings, where only a narrow
strip of landscape serves as a backdrop. The depic-
tion of the personnel differs as well, especially
regarding the clothes, which are much puffier on
the predella. Moreover, some of the figures on the
upper tier are shown in rather awkward body posi-
tions, and also their body proportions are hardly
convincing in many cases (see, for example, the
man on the right-hand side in the Crucifixion,
ill. 11.8). The facial types vary as well, as can be
seen in the depiction of Christ, who has wavier
hair, a higher forehead and even a different halo on
the main wings.
As noted above, also the distinctive overdraw-
ings cannot be found on the upper tier to the
same extent as on the predella. This might be partly
due to the differing dimensions: the panels of
the main wings are one and a half times taller than
 under- and overdrawing in the
Ill. 11.8. Workshop of the Master of the Pulkau Predella,
The Pulkau Altarpiece, detail of the right wing: The Crucifixion
(ill. 11.1), IR photography, detail
the predella panels, and since the figures are also
more monumental on the upper tiers, here, the per-
sonnel is almost two and a half times larger than on
the predella. Therefore, there might not have been
a similar eagerness to accentuate certain details,
especially facial features, on the main wings,
because they appeared rather legible as such. How-
ever, also the manner of painting seems to vary
quite widely. It is characteristic for both registers of
the altarpiece that the figures in the foreground are
depicted with sharp and precise outlines, while the
landscape backdrop is executed in a very painterly,
almost impressionistic fashion. But upon closer
inspection, the firm and confident brushwork of
the predella, mostly applied in circular strokes,
differs from parts of the upper panels so heavily that
another artist must have been involved in the
execution of the paintings on the main wings
most certainly. On the other hand, several figures
on the upper tier are quite similar to the depictions
on the predella, for example the screaming man
with the green cap in the Ecce homo or the Judas
group in the background of the Agony in the
Garden. Moreover, a concise division of hands is
complicated by the fact that the appearance of the
PULKAU ALTARPIECE 143
Ill. 11.9. Hans Schäufelin, Crowning with Thorns, c. 1506-1507,
limewood, c. 23.5 x 18 cm, Berlin, Staatliche Museen,
Gemäldegalerie, IRR
paintings on the predella is more heavily altered by
overdrawing as mentioned.
Therefore, the predella, whose underdrawings
and paint layers seem quite homogeneous, can be
attributed to the Master of the Pulkau Predella,
be it that this Notname stands for a single artist
who was responsible for both the preparatory design
and the painterly execution, or for a workshop
collective that consisted of more than one hand.
Regarding the Pulkau Altarpiece as a whole, the
ensemble must certainly be regarded as a workshop
effort as it was customary at the time.
2) While the Pulkau predella’s under- and overdraw-
ings seem indeed related to Altdorfer’s practices,
they differ from the Sankt Florian Altarpiece and the
Historia as well as other early Altdorfer drawings too
strongly to consider a creation by the same artist.
Nevertheless, there are numerous links between the
Pulkau Altarpiece and Altdorfer. The compositions of
144 björn blauensteiner
the Deposition of the Cross and the Last Supper
were modelled on Altdorfer’s Fall and Salvation of
Mankind woodcuts created around the year 1513,
which, by the way, must therefore be regarded as a
terminus post quem for the creation of the Pulkau
Altarpiece.41 In motific terms, the exquisite jewellery,
splendid headwear and voluminous, seemingly pad-
ded garments, often intertwined by parallel folds
with white highlights, can also be found in many of
Altdorfer’s early works. The same goes for the facial
types and vegetal motifs like the distinctive vines
and pendulous larch branches covered with lichen.
More specifically, the ruinous architecture that pro-
vides the backdrop of the Desecration of the Host
seems to hark back to Altdorfer’s Bremen Nativity,
which, by the way, also features extensive overdraw-
ings in the joints of the brick wall on the left.
All these connections make it likely that the
Master of the Pulkau Predella emerged from Alt-
dorfer’s workshop or at least came in immediate
contact with the artist, as has been considered
by many scholars. This assumption is certainly
more plausible than the affiliation with Cranach
Benesch has suggested: while the Pulkau Agony in
the Garden is probably based on a Cranach wood-
cut from around 1502,42 and the painterly brush-
work of the Pulkau Altarpiece resembles the paint-
ings from Cranach’s Viennese period in a broader
sense, little else seems to connect the ensemble
to Cranach, whose underdrawings have a very
different appearance43 and who did not apply com-
parable overdrawings either.44
As mentioned, there are, however, certain links
to Hans Schäufelin. Not only did he utilise over-
drawing in a similar way, several compositions of
the altarpiece – the Entry into Jerusalem, Pilate
Washing his Hands, Ecce homo and Carrying
of the Cross panels specifically – probably hark back
to Schäufelin’s woodcut illustrations in the Specu-
lum Passionis published by Ulrich Pinder in Nurem-
berg in 1507. Motifically, Christ is depicted with a
strikingly high forehead in these prints just like in
some of the Pulkau panels, especially in Christ
before Caiphas. What is more, F. Dworschak
assumed that the Pulkau Altarpiece was commis-
sioned by the humanist Benedictus Chelidonius
from Nuremberg.45 Chelidonius entered the Abbey
of the Scots, which administered the parish of
Pulkau until 1995,46 around the year 1514, and he
was elected its abbot in 1518. Chelidonius died in
1521, so the altarpiece was probably created
between 1514 and that year if he commissioned it
indeed. Moreover, Chelidonius could have acted as
concepteur as well, given the altarpiece’s rather
unique pictorial programme, which narrates the
Passion of Christ in twelve stations, starting and
ending on the predella. After all, Chelidonius, a
pupil of Conrad Celtis, was well-versed in this field.
His text Passio Jesu Christi Salvatoris Mundi, which
embedded the Passion of Christ into the context
of Salvation history, was first printed in 1506 in
Strasbourg with accompanying woodcuts by Hans
Wechtlin and published again in 1511 in Nurem-
berg with woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer (Small Wood-
cut Passion). In the same year, the Great Passion was
issued in Nuremberg, in which Dürer’s woodcuts
complement devotional texts by Chelidonius.
Against that background, it seems that not only the
Altdorfer circle but also the artistic environment in
Nuremberg deserves consideration as a source of
inspiration for the creators of the Pulkau Altarpiece.
3) The new insights into the Pulkau Altarpiece
might also clarify the catalogue of paintings
currently affiliated with its creators.47 Therefore,
some of these works were also examined to enable
a comparison between their and the Pulkau under-
drawings for the first time.
a) Among the first works linked to the Pulkau
Altarpiece are four double-sided wing panels in
Sankt Florian.48 The exteriors of the panels, on
which scenes with various Saints are depicted,
are extensively underdrawn with dynamically
swung lines and bow-shaped indications, partly
complemented by dense hatchings consisting of
short straight brushstrokes (ill. 11.10). The design
is quite sketchy, providing mere indications for the
execution of the paintings. It was obviously not
 under- and overdrawing in the
A B
Ill. 11.10. Workshop of the Master of the Pulkau Predella, Saint Demetria Being Abducted to a Brothel, c. 1515-1520,
painting on fir, Sankt Florian Monastery, IR photography, details. A: man. B: head of a woman
applied by the draughtsman responsible for the lav-
ish underdrawings of the Pulkau predella, and the
Sankt Florian paintings do not boast similar over-
drawings either. The linear and rather hesitant
underdrawings of the Pulkau main wings, however,
resemble the Sankt Florian design to a certain
extent, especially regarding the hatchings. Consid-
ering the close compositional parallels between the
upper tier of the Pulkau Altarpiece and the exteriors
of the Sankt Florian wing panels, as well as the
similar figure types, draperies and manner of paint-
ing, there can hardly be any doubt that the pictures
were created in the same workshop.
As for the former interiors of the panels, which
bear a gold ground and show scenes from the life of
Saint Margaret, the underdrawings are of quite a
different nature. Meticulously applied, the thin and
comparably bright lines provide outlines closely
followed in the painterly execution. This resonates
with the notion that the interiors and exteriors
of the Sankt Florian wing panels were certainly
created by different painters. However, it seems
PULKAU ALTARPIECE 145
possible that the painter of the interiors, the Mas-
ter of the Legend of Saint Margaret, was involved
in the creation of the Pulkau Altarpiece. Some of
the faces on the main wings, especially the woman
with the imposing gold chains and the young man
in the right foreground of Pilate Washing his hands,
which differ strongly from the other personages
due to the more refined execution, resemble certain
figures on the Saint Margaret panels (ill. 11.11) as
well as Wolfgang Katzheimer’s Kunigunde panel in
Bamberg. Therefore, the paintings seem linked to
the workshop which created the Pulkau Altarpiece
as well, and they might even provide a clue for a
third painter active in the workshop. After all, also
the superimposed facial features on the Pulkau pre-
della bear a certain resemblance to the faces on the
Saint Margaret panels (see, for example, the man
with the turban on the right in ill. 11.11a and the
man spreading out his cloak in ill. 11.3), so it seems
worth considering that the Master of the Legend of
Saint Margaret even contributed to the distinctive
overdrawings on the altarpiece’s predella.
146 björn blauensteiner

A B

Ill. 11.11. A: Workshop of the Master of the Pulkau Predella, Beheading of Saint Margaret, c. 1515-1520, painting on fir,
Sankt Florian Monastery, detail. B: Workshop of the Master of the Pulkau Predella, The Pulkau Altarpiece, detail of the right wing:
Pilate Washing his Hands (ill. 11.1), detail

b) The Vision of Saint Bernard in Vienna (Belve-
dere Museum, inv. 6203)49 is another work that has
long been linked with the Pulkau Altarpiece. The
painting on gold ground initially formed the inte-
rior of a wing panel, whose exterior with four saints
in a landscape was later split off.50 In terms of the
composition, there is an obvious similarity to the
Deposition from the Cross on the Pulkau predella,51
and the dynamic brushstrokes seem related to the
Pulkau Altarpiece too. What is more, certain details
– Christ’s eyelids and eyebrows, for example, or the
wings of the angel on the right – were also superim-
posed and their contours retraced with thin black
lines in a similar fashion. These additions are cer-
tainly not as elaborate as on the Pulkau predella,
but they call to mind the overdrawings on the main
wings of the altarpiece. Here, the figure and facial
types are also closely related, as can be seen in the
depiction of Christ in particular.
The underdrawing of the Vision of Saint Bernard
(ill. 11.12) is entirely in line with this assessment.
The extensive system of sketchy, sometimes jaggy,
sometimes swung lines and dense but short hatch-
ings is different from the consistently curved under-
drawings of the Pulkau predella, where, in the
Deposition, the cross shaft is also covered with
curved hatchings unlike in the Saint Bernard. How-
ever, the design resonates with the comparably
shaky underdrawings of the Pulkau main wings,
which also contain lines that end in similar hook-
like forms. Therefore, while the Vision of Saint
Bernard is certainly not by the same hand as the
Pulkau predella, the panel can very well be assigned
to the painter’s workshop.
c) Finally, the Pulkau Altarpiece has long
been associated with a split wing panel, whose for-
mer interior shows a Nativity (Chicago, The Art
Institute, acc. nr. 1933.799) with various motific
 under- and overdrawing in the
Ill. 11.12. Workshop of the Master of the Pulkau Predella,
Vision of Saint Bernard, c. 1510, painting on wood,
116 x 84,5 cm, Vienna, Belvedere Museum, IRR, detail
parallels to Altdorfer.52 However, in a recently
made infrared image of the painting53 hardly any
underdrawing is visible. Only the faintest of lines
can be detected, cautiously indicating the outlines
of the figures in the background, the folds of
Mary’s sleeves and the cloth Christ is resting on.
While this impression might be partly due to the
applied medium, there is no denying that the design
differs strongly from the extensive and sketchy
underdrawings of both the predella and the main
wings of the Pulkau Altarpiece. The painterly execu-
tion seems quite different as well. Firstly, the pastel
tones of the Nativity seem quite restrained com-
pared to the intense colouring of the Pulkau Altar-
piece. What is more, the pastose paint was applied
with dynamic brushstrokes in a very painterly
fashion in Pulkau, whereas the manner of painting
of the Chicago Nativity seems far more refined. The
exquisite modelling – of the flesh tones in particu-
lar – contrasts strongly with the rather graphical
appearance of the Pulkau Altarpiece, especially in
PULKAU ALTARPIECE 147
areas where overdrawing was applied. Overdraw-
ings can also be detected in the Nativity, but not
nearly to the same extent as in Pulkau.
Therefore, it is unlikely that any of the painters
responsible for the Pulkau Altarpiece were involved in
the execution of the Chicago Nativity.54 The panel
seems more closely related to early paintings by
Altdorfer himself, such as the Bremen Nativity and
the Holy Family in Vienna, but also later works, in
particular the Portrait of a Young Woman in Madrid
(Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, inv. 2),55 where the
face and the sleeves of the sitter are also exquisitely
modelled. However, given the inhomogeneous
stylistic qualities of the ensembles in Pulkau and
Sankt Florian, it may well be that the altarpiece the
Nativity stems from was in fact connected to the
Pulkau workshop. What is more, the painting’s for-
mer reverse, a Presentation of the Virgin (Belgrade,
Royal Palace),56 is more closely related to the Pulkau
Altarpiece regarding both motifs and manner of paint-
ing. Technological examinations of the Belgrade
panel might provide further insights into that matter.
In conclusion it can be said that the Chicago Nativ-
ity is not the only work connected to the Pulkau
Altarpiece on which further research seems indi-
cated. This first glance at the altarpiece’s under-
drawings may provide a starting point for new
insights into the Pulkau workshop. On that note,
I would like to conclude with a question not yet
addressed. In her article on Schäufelin’s Visitation,
Ainsworth argued that the practice of under- and
overdrawing shows that Schäufelin ‘was quintessen-
tially a printmaker. The quality of his line, the way he
structured groupings of lines, the form and function of
these lines – all were conceived in terms of graphic con-
ventions’.57 Therefore, it could also prove insightful
to revisit the graphic works linked to the Pulkau
workshop with the knowledge of the altarpiece’s
underdrawings. In this regard, the drawing Two
Lovers by a Fountain in a Landscape in New York
(Morgan Library & Museum, inv. 2006.51)58 seems
a quite promiseful candidate. But that is the subject
of another discussion.
148 björn blauensteiner
NOTES
For helpful comments, image material and various other assistance,
I am grateful to Maryan Ainsworth, Stephanie Auer, Peter Böttcher,
Jacquelyn Coutre, Harald Ehrl, Ulrike Fischer, Wolfgang Huber,
Stephan Kemperdick, Guido Messling, Herbert Puschnik, Julie Simek
and the editors of this volume.
1 Reich 1963, pp. 46-52; Puschnik, Puschnik 1998, pp. 109-
111.
2 High-resolution images of all panels of the Pulkau Altarpiece
are available at www.realonline.imareal.sbg.ac.at.
3 The shrine, superstructure and wings are made of fir and the
sculptures of limewood. The whole altarpiece, including the superstruc-
ture, stands c. 11.5 m tall, and the dimensions of the shrine are c. 367
× 297 × 50 cm. The measurements of the paintings are c. 160.5 ×
123 cm on the main wings, c. 107 × 50 cm on the predella wings and
c. 122 × 58 cm on the predella side panels. Regarding the altarpiece’s
state of preservation, see the report of the last restoration from 2006:
Höring 2008.
4 Regarding the iconography of the altarpiece, see: Stadlober
1982, pp. 67-199; Kahsnitz 2005, pp. 343-345. The panels Agony in the
Garden/Ecce Homo and Christ before Caiphas/Carrying of the Cross,
respectively, were apparently misplaced after a previous restoration.
5 The shrine contains life-sized carved sculptures of Saint
Bartholomew, Christ as Man of Sorrows and Saint Sebastian, as well as
smaller carved saints and angels. The superstructure is stocked with
carved depictions of the Virgin with the Child and the Saints Benedict,
Bernard (?), Stephen, Leopold and Lawrence. As for the stylistic quali-
ties of the sculptures, which are beyond the scope of this study, see:
Seiberl 1944; Oettinger 1951, pp. 73-75, 114, nr. 48; Stadlober 1982,
pp. 241-267; Schultes 2003, p. 358, nr. 147; Kahsnitz 2005, pp. 345-346.
6 On the predella reverse, the Saints Barbara, Christopher,
Agathius and Catherine are depicted in front of a parapet, separating
the figures from a mountain landscape: Kahsnitz 2005, fig. 145. In the
predella niche, a carved Lamentation of Christ was recently placed
after its acquisition in 1999: Vienna 2001, p. 5, fig. 8. The relief’s
connection with the Pulkau predella was first suggested by Oettinger:
Oettinger 1951, pp. 74, 114, nr. 49. However, the Lamentation is obvi-
ously too small for the shrine and therefore most likely not its original
content. Given that the predella is unusually tall and has an emphasis
on eucharistic subject matter on its wings, it seems likely that the
predella shrine was meant to house either a relic monstrance with
the miraculous host or the Blessed Sacrament. Regarding this ques-
tion, see: Kahsnitz 2005, p. 345; Merback 2005, p. 596; Merback 2012,
pp. 96-97.
7 Benesch 1930, p. 81. See also: Benesch 1936, p. 38.
8 See, most recently: Paris 2020, nr. 42, with further references.
9 Oettinger 1939; Vienna 1939, nrs. 224-237; Winzinger 1952,
pp. 54-56; Krems 1959, nrs. 77-78; Oettinger 1959, p. 122; Krasa-
Florian 1962, p. 13; Sankt Florian/Linz 1965, nrs. 231-232, 242; Zykan
1967, p. 40; Stange 1971, pp. 114, 149-150; Krems 1971, p. 159; Win-
zinger 1975, p. 59; Swoboda 1980, p. 188; Stadlober 1982, p. 224;
Anzelewsky 1984, p. 41; Paris 1984, p. 353.
10 Oettinger 1939; Winzinger 1952, pp. 54-56; Winzinger 1975,
p. 16; Anzelewsky 1984, p. 41. F. Dworschak also argued that the artist
emerged from the Altdorfer workshop, and he identified him, without
any further evidence, as Niklas Preu, Jörg Breu’s younger brother.
Dworschak even came up with a specific name for the painter of the
interiors of the main wings, namely a journeyman called Christoph
Rothuet. See: Dworschak 1948, pp. 190-191; Krems 1959, nrs. 77-78;
Sankt Florian/Linz 1965, nrs. 231-232, 247. Even more curiously,
A. von Aufsess attributed the Pulkau Altarpiece to Paul Lautensack.
See: von Aufsess 1963, pp. 47-49, 57-58, 93.
11 Oettinger 1939, p. 166; Krems 1959, nrs. 77-78; Sankt
Florian/Linz 1965, nrs. 231-232, 247; Stadlober 1982, p. 224.
12 Berlin/Regensburg 1988, pp. 68-83, nr. 30.
13 C. Dodgson argued that the Historia drawings are ‘simply early
works of Altdorfer himself, and the immediate forerunner of his earliest signed
drawings […]. An artist so immature as Altdorfer then was does not have
‘Nachfolger’, but he has one ‘Vorgänger’, and that is the artist himself at a
stage still more immature’. See: Dodgson 1924, p. 94.
14 Halm 1930, pp. 65-66.
15 Butts 1988; Kahsnitz 2005, p. 347; Wolff 2008, p. 38; Frank-
furt/Vienna 2014, nrs. 113 (by G. Messling), 116 (by A. Hoppe-
Harnoncourt); Messling 2020, p. 46. However, some scholars main-
tained an attribution to a separate artist, see: Koreny 2003, p. 565,
nr. 304; Vienna 2012, nr. 15 (by E. Michel); Stadlober 2018.
16 H. Mielke suggested that O. Benesch presented the attribu-
tion with ‘disarming self-confidence’ but ‘without even the slightest trace of
justification’ and stressed the problematic nature of comparisons
between works of different art forms in general: Berlin/Regensburg
1988, p. 72. The attribution of paintings to the Master of the Historia
was a textbook case of that practice. Here, sketch-like hand drawings
were paralleled with paintings, whose underdrawings were not even
known.
17 Rosenauer 2003, pp. 488-489, nr. 252; Schultes 2003, p. 358,
nr. 147; Kahsnitz 2005, p. 342; Wolff 2008, pp. 388-389; Messling 2021,
p. 126. Only M. Stadlober still attributed the Pulkau paintings to the
Master of the Historia, see: Stadlober 2018. However, M. Bushart con-
sidered Altdorfer himself as the author of the Pulkau paintings (Bushart
2004, pp. 38-39), referring to A. Wynen, who had attributed the altar-
piece to Altdorfer and Michael Ostendorfer (Wynen 1961, p. 417).
18 Stange 1971, p. 149.
19 Winzinger 1975, pp. 15-24, 78-82.
20 Winzinger 1975, fig. A15-16; Schütz 2015.
21 See especially the drawings Two Landsknechts and a Couple
(Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst, inv. KKSgb 2943; dated
1506), Wild Man (London, British Museum, inv. 1910.0611.1; dated
1508) and Saint Nicholas of Bari Rebuking the Tempest (Oxford, Ash-
molean Museum, inv. WA 1863.399; dated 1508): Berlin/Regensburg
1988, nr. 21; Frankfurt/Vienna 2014, nr. 3; Paris 2020, nrs. 11a, 16b.
22 Winzinger 1963, pp. 65-69, nrs. 25-64.
23 In this regard, see also: Winzinger 1975, pp. 61-62; Schütz
2015, p. 493.
24 For the underdrawings of other Altdorfer paintings, see:
Smith, Wyld 1983; Munich 2011, pp. 106-121, nrs. 7-8; Hess, Mack
2012b.
25 Oettinger 1939, pp. 169-170.
26 Benesch, Auer 1957, pp. 52, 62. See also: Krasa-Florian 1962,
p. 13; Swoboda 1980, p. 188; Kahsnitz 2005, p. 349, for similar remarks.
27 Ainsworth 1987, p. 139.
28 Vienna 2013, especially pp. 9-27, 28-87.
29 Ainsworth 1987, p. 140.
30 Winzinger 1952, pp. 34, 60; Berlin/Regensburg 1988,
pp. 18-19.
31 Oettinger 1939, p. 169.
32 C. Metzger hints at this aspect of Schäufelin’s art with refer-
ence to H.J. Gronau, who had already traced the phenomenon back to
Dürer. Metzger 2002, pp. 61-62.
33 Two panels are in the possession of the museum as permanent
loans from a private collection. See: Janzen 2018-2019. For the exte-
riors, see: Metzger 2002, pp. 245-247, nr. 10.
34 The unpublished image was kindly provided by Stephan
Kemperdick (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie).
35 Anzelewski 1971, p. 89; Heimberg 1998, pp. 48-49; Hess,
Mack 2012a, pp. 186-187.
36 Frankfurt/Vienna 2014, nr. 23; Paris 2020, nr. 3a.
37 Winzinger (1975, pp. 72-73, nr. 2) remarked on this aspect of
Altdorfer’s paintings that ‘in the last step, a graphic element plays a certain
role’.
 under- and overdrawing in the
38 Winzinger 1975, pp. 74-75, nr. 6.
39 Frankfurt/Vienna 2014, nr. 78.
40 See also Altdorfer’s Diptych with Saints Francis and Jerome, and
his Satyr Family (all dated 1507 and in Berlin, Staatliche Museen,
Gemäldegalerie, Kat.Nr. 638, 638A): Frankfurt/Vienna 2014, nr. 11;
Paris 2020, nr. 2a-b; Winzinger 1975, pp. 73-74; as well as the Sankt
Florian Altarpiece, especially the first three Passion panels, which are all
night scenes.
41 Oettinger 1959, p. 123. Regarding the prints used as a model
for the Pulkau Altarpiece in general, see: Benesch, Auer 1957, pp. 52-74.
42 The only known impression of the woodcut is in New York
(Metropolitan Museum, acc. nr. 27.54.3).
43 See, for example: Heydenreich 2007, pp. 105-115; Munich
2011, pp. 78-85, nr. 3.
44 The saints on the reverse of the Pulkau predella (Kahsnitz
2005, fig. 145), however, do bear some similarities to Cranach’s figure
types, albeit rather to those of his later period.
45 Dworschak 1963, p. 158. On that matter, also see: Merback
2005, pp. 626-627; Merback 2012, pp. 81-82, 120. Regarding Chelido-
nius in general, see: Posset 2005, pp. 63-92.
46 Puschnik, Puschnik 1998, pp. 58-60.
47 See: Winzinger 1952, pp. 101-104, nrs. 130-142; Benesch,
Auer 1957, pp. 128-131; Sankt Florian/Linz 1965, nrs. 227-242; Zykan
1967, pp. 39-51; Stange 1971, pp. 149-150; Stadlober 1982, pp. 200-
232; Paris 1984, pp. 353-355.
48 Dworschak 1965.
49 See: Stadlober 1986; Stadlober 2006, pp. 292-293. The paint-
ing can be viewed online at www.sammlung.belvedere.at/objects/4953/
vision-des-hl-bernhard.
PULKAU ALTARPIECE 149
50 The painting is in Sankt Pölten (Niederösterreichische
Landessammlungen, inv. 977) today, see: Catalogue-Vienna 1970,
nr. 39. The wing panel hails from the Cistercian abbey of Lilienfeld,
and the altarpiece it stems from was likely situated there initially, given
the iconography of the paintings.
51 The composition is also related to the depiction of Saint
Bernard’s Vision in the Saint Augustine Altarpiece in Nuremberg
(Germanisches Nationalmuseum) and to an earlier woodcut of the
same subject: Stadlober 1986, pp. 369-370, figs. 2-3. Moreover, it
resembles Hans Wechtlin’s Deposition from the Cross woodcut in the
Passio Jesu Christi Salvatoris Mundi from 1506.
52 Wolff 2008. The painting can be viewed online at www.artic.
edu/artworks/15496/the-nativity.
53 The image was kindly provided by J. Coutre and J. Simek
(Chicago, The Art Institute).
54 M. Wolff linked the Chicago painting to three panels with
depictions of saints in Klosterneuburg Monastery (inv. GM 99-101),
which she also attributed to the Master of Pulkau as a consequence.
See: Wolff 2008, p. 389. On these paintings, see: Vienna 2021, nr. 39/1-
2. However, while the bulky figure types are certainly comparable, the
dynamic and sketchy underdrawings, prominently visible in recently
made infrared images, differs strongly from the Nativity, and also the
painterly execution seems less cultivated in comparison to the fine
modelling of the Chicago panel.
55 Frankfurt/Vienna 2014, nr. 148.
56 Frankfurt/Vienna 2014, nr. 113.
57 Ainsworth 1987, p. 140.
58 Winzinger 1952, p. 103, nr. 136; Berlin/Regensburg 1988,
nr. 47; Paris 2020, nr. 14a.
Ill. 12.1. Passion cycle from the Lusina Polyptych, c. 1510, tempera on panel, 184 x 68 cm each wing,
Krakow, National Museum
 12
Painted Sketch as the Underlayer
of the Lusina Polyptych
Joanna Zwinczak
A BSTRACT : In the collection of the National Museum in
Kraków, there are two pairs of lateral wings, remains of
a wartime loss Lusina Polyptych. They are decorated with
gilded ornaments, reliefs, and paintings, dated around
1500-1510. Nonetheless, the history of the altar remains
unknown; investigations undertaken in 2018 have shed
some light on its nature. They not only revealed the
craftsmanship of the artist but also displayed his
individual manner resembling the style of the painter.
The nervous but still painterly conducted line showing
evidence of numerous changes is very suggestive and
detailed. The composition demonstrates awareness
of prints that circulated in Europe at the time, by artists
whose inventions were creatively modified. The
engraved, drawn and painted sketches tell us how
the author planned the composition and what changes
the painting underwent, and finally link figures of the
sketcher and the painter of the panels
—o—
Introduction
In the National Museum in Kraków (MNK), there
are two pairs of side wings, originally sections of the
Lusina polyptych (ill. 12.1). They are the remains of
the only surviving example of a movable winged
tri-view sculpture and painting-embellished polyp-
tych in Lesser Poland.1 Attributed by some late
scholars to Veit Stoss’ workshop and most certainly
influenced by the artist, the origin of the altarpiece
has not been proven.2 According to archival
sources, it was donated to the Kraków Scientific
Society by owners of the manor house in Lusina, in
two separate endowments in 1850 and 1851, one
comprising the outer wings, the other the inner
wings with the shrine.3 The polyptych was placed
on display in the Society’s Museum in 1858, its
earliest known photograph was taken during that
exhibition. The outer wings were deposited at the
MNK in 1891, the inner wings and the shrine
remaining at the Academy of Arts and Sciences
until 1938, when they were joined to the MNK
collection as a deposit. The 1928 conservation
programme specified restoration of the inner wings
and shrine, and construction of the frame support-
ing and joining the aforesaid.4 It remains unknown
whether the restoration project had actually been
completed. The polyptych was seized under Nazi
occupation, and displayed in its entirety during
a 1941 Veit Stoss exhibition. Subsequently, one
of the sculpted wings depicting the Dormition of
Mary and the Legend of Saint Theophilus of Adana
was presented as part of another wartime exhibi-
tion the following year. Restoration works were
carried out during the period separating the two
exhibitions. Once the war ended, only the disas-
sembled wings – missing the single most imagina-
tive carved scene of the Legend of Saint Theophilus
of Adana – have been recovered (ill. 12.2b). Featur-
ing a relief depicting the Holy Family, the main
body of the polyptych has never been returned to
Poland, and continues to be listed in the wartime
losses catalogue.5 The wings are currently on dis-
play at the MNK.6 The original structure consisted
152 joanna zwinczak

A B

Ill. 12.2. Archival photographies of the Lusina Polyptych,1505-1510, wood relief. A: Holy Feast Day view.
B: detail, Legend of Saint Theophilus of Adana

of two pairs of hinged movable wings attached to
the sides of the central section decorated with a
relief depicting the Holy Family, and – in all like-
lihood – a sculpted crown and predella. Nine-
teenth-century pre-restoration photographs of the
polyptych by K. Beyer and I. Krieger hint at
the presence of pinnacle-like sculpted remains in
the shrine (ill 12.2a.). While they do not seem to
be part of the original composition, they may have
been reused crown remains of the same altar.
According to the before 1944 photograph,7 these
elements had been partly removed from the central
section, affording a more organised setting for the
relief.8 Additionally, a dove representing the Holy
Spirit had been removed. However, each polyptych
panel is an interesting piece of art in itself; the
unique phenomenon of the winged altarpiece lay
in the complexity of the structure and gradual
development of artistic measures. The regular daily
view comprising painted images of the Holy Patrons
evolved into a more elaborated, gilded Sunday
view decorated with scenes of the Passion, and
– ultimately – into the holy feast view embellished
with polychromed and gilded reliefs depicting the
life of Mary, the latter revealed once both outer and
inner wings opened. Researchers have identified
a number of sources of inspiration discernible in
the polyptych. The central relief references a rare
iconographic motive of Mary weaving a seamless
garment for Jesus, depicted in Veit Stoss’ copper
print The Holy Family, one alluded to. The painted
panels are dated according to woodcuts by Hans
Schäufelin (1507) and Lucas Cranach the Elder
(1509) they were inspired by, pointing to the year
1510 as terminus post quem, considering the time
required to execute the paintings and compose the
polyptych.9 The erstwhile proffered hypotheses
ascribing the reliefs to Veit Stoss,10 his son Stani-
slaus,11 or the sculptor’s apprentice or workshop12
were ultimately dismissed by scholars at a later
date. 13 It is assumed that the reliefs were created
by a Cracovian workshop active in the second
half of the sixteenth century and possibly reused in
the altar.14 Certain inconsistencies in the structure
of the remaining wings suggest that the retable
had not been manufactured by a single workshop,
but rather at two different locations at least: a
joinery workshop, where the polyptych structure
 painted sketch as the underlayer of the
and wooden panelling would have been con-
structed, gilded and presumably painted; and a
sculpture workshop where the reliefs would have
been carved.15
The investigation
A shortage of pre-nineteenth-century archival and
the limited reliability of what had been preserved
have rendered technological studies extremely
valuable. The use of raking light, ultraviolet radia-
tion, infrared photography (IR), and macro XRF
scanning allowed us to observe the underlayers of
painted panels and sculptures (indiscernible in
visible light), and investigate earlier stages of
the polyptych creation process. Nonetheless, the
history of the altar, its provenance and commission
remain unknown; investigations undertaken in 2018
have shed some light on its nature. In addition,
samples of the pictorial layer, gilding, wood, and
textile fibres had been collected to prepare cross-
sections and stratigraphic studies. Questions pivotal
to researchers concerned the provenance, author-
ship and circumstances of altar creation, as well as
technology, consistency and artistic inspirations
influencing the artist or artists. Once dissembled,
observations of the polyptych revealed its com-
plexity and clarified interrelations between certain
altar components, ostensibly of different origin.
Analytical photographs allowed us to examine
the condition of panels, and the range of inter-
ference during previous conservation campaigns.
IR revealed the presence and nature of preparatory
layers, helping us determine the technique used
by the artist or artists, as well as the consistency of
individual panels in the context of the remaining
structure. It also became a source of information
regarding changes throughout the process of exe-
cuting the polyptych. The investigation resulted in
ascertaining the general technology of the Sunday
view – Passion cycle panels (ill. 12.1). The wooden
supports had been glued and primed with at least
two layers of whitish ground, in all probability
comprising chalk and hide glue. The dried primer
has been engraved with a chisel and compass. The
LUSINA POLYPTYCH 153
Ill. 12.3. Passion cycle from the Lusina Polyptych (ill. 12.1),
detail, Crucifixion, cross-section of a sample taken from
the blue robe of Mary (200x), a: whitish ground layers,
b: brownish-reddish imprimatura, c: paint layers
ensuing composition is adumbrative, some of the
grooves not connected – or, on the contrary, inter-
sected – in a general suggestion of individual
shapes. The engraved designs are adjunctive in
terms of composition planning, and have been used
to separate the painted and gilded areas – notably,
the engraved grooves are gilded. The macro XRF
scans reveal a relatively precise and economical use
of gold leaf. Red bole has been applied and covered
with silver or gold leaf in areas decorated with
metal foil. Underdrawing painted with a brush or dry
medium is visible under IR as executed in carbon-
based pigment, whereas a brownish-reddish impri-
matura – invisible under IR, yet found in several
cross-sections – has been applied on top of the
primer and (locally) the underdrawing (ill. 12.3).
Its character shall be investigated with further
analyses. Paint has been applied in layers. Compo-
sition outlines were revealed with the use of IR in
the underlayers of all painting surfaces of the daily
and Sunday views (Passion cycle). Underdrawing
with a brush has been observed in all paintings
of the Passion cycle, whereas in four instances –
Arrest of Jesus, Jesus before Caiaphas, Jesus at Pilate’s
Court, and Crowning with Thorns – additional pre-
paratory lines seem to have been executed in dry
medium with a hard tool. Considering the analyti-
cal properties of IR, these sketches were probably
made with the use of carbon-based pigments.
154 joanna zwinczak
Unfortunately, due to the condition of the over-
cleaned panels, it is not possible to distinguish the
two techniques with any great certainty. Some of
the sketches reveal corrections, suggesting that at
this stage of execution, the composition was not
defined and was thus adaptable. The underdrawing
of the individual scenes seems essential to compre-
hending the executive process of painting the
polyptych. Except for Jesus at Pilate’s Court and
Stations of the Cross, all panel images show compo-
sitional alterations. Nonetheless, inspired by famous
woodcut prints, the author did not recreate them,
but rather chose to adapt their motifs, embedding
them into a new artwork in new form. Not copied
directly, the individual elements were modified
and rearranged to fit a new composition. Based on
IR, stylistic analysis results for individual Passion
cycle panels have been discussed in the following
section of this paper.
Analysis of the underlayers of the Passion
cycle panels
IR of Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the entry
panel to the Passion of Christ narrative, reveals
multiple examples of underdrawings with a brush as
well as alterations in their arrangement. A painted
diagonal line absent in the final composition is
observable beneath the group of soldiers following
Judas, the rock to the right repositioned as well.
The most interesting underdrawing is the one
detectable in the faces of the sleeping apostles
(ill. 12.4a). The meandering lines of the under-
drawing unveil how the composition evolved. The
outline reveals the painterly, free-flowing yet pre-
cisely delineated form of the apostles’ hair and
facial features. The figure of the praying Christ is
another example of underdrawing and composi-
tional alteration. The nervous sketched arrange-
ment of folded hands unveiled in IR has been ulti-
mately simplified; moreover, the entire figure has
been moved towards the right side of the panel,
as observable in profile delineation and foot con-
tour. Upon closer investigation, it becomes obvious
that the nasal shape has been modified, a detail
discernible not only in IR but also with the naked
eye. While other anatomical details visible in the
underdrawing – such as Adam’s apple or collar-
bones – have been omitted or simplified in the
painting process, observation of the chiaroscuro
finish of Christ’s painted body and luminous impasto
at the top of the collarbone suggests that skeletal
elements have been accentuated with less linear
means (such as changes to light or tonality) rather
than ignored. One can assume that such measures
had been taken deliberately to idealise Christ’s
appearance. Owing to increasing translucency,
these and other lines of the underdrawing are now
partly visible under layers of lead white pigment.
Yet at the time of finishing the painting, they must
have been covered with layers of opaque paint.
In conclusion, rejection of a linear and more sug-
gestive manner points to a wilful artistic choice of
idealisation, along with the capacity for achieving
the intended effect.
IR of the Arrest of Jesus reveals an underdrawing
made with wet material, and several alterations to
composition in comparison to the final painting,
the latter including anatomical details, facial
expressions, hair strand locations and of drapery
forming. The choice of Jesus as the central figure in
the gilded painting area is consistent with the
sketch, and understandable for iconographical rea-
sons. Some features – such as hair or wrinkles –
imply considerable conversions to Judas’ face, sug-
gested reasons for change involving difficulty in
painting the scene of the kiss, the ultimate execu-
tion rather awkward, the pentimento somewhat
lapidary and insufficient. The overall arrangement
of the other figures covers their underdrawing.
Temple guardian Malchus falls mutilated by Peter
the Apostle, and is immediately healed by Christ
touching his ear. Minor changes to the arrange-
ment of Peter’s hair and fingers are notable, all dis-
playing painterly, brushlike, variable lines. In the
falling Malchus, alterations come up as rearrange-
ments to his hand and drapery, several attempts to
recreate the twisted wrist and palm clearly observ-
able. Once again, the artist reworked advanced
 painted sketch as the underlayer of the LUSINA POLYPTYCH 155

Ill. 12.4. Passion cycle from the Lusina Polyptych (ill. 12.1), detail, underdrawing and evolution of the composition under visible
light and IR photography. A: Agony in the Garden, detail, faces of the Apostles. B: Arrest of Jesus, discernible paint stroke and
evolution of composition in the underdrawing of Malchus’ robes

fore-shortenings in the anatomy of the final paint-
ing, the most significant change detectable in the
robe of Malchus – it is also one of the best examples
of the varied nature of the preparatory layer
(ill. 12.4b). Discernible in all panels of the cycle,
the latter comprises expression and nervousness
alike. The sleeves and folds have been rendered in
sweeping, diagonal brushstrokes, narrowing with
change of direction or traverse, widening under
pressure, a typical feature of the painting tech-
nique. In contrast to drapery, the sketch behind
Malchus’ facial features is less dramatic: particu-
larly delicate and precise, his nose may have been
drawn, not painted.
156 joanna zwinczak

Ill. 12.5. Passion cycle from the Lusina Polyptych (ill. 12.1), detail, Jesus before Caiaphas,
visible light and IR photography, face of Christ

Investigation of the Jesus before Caiaphas panel
unveiled a subtle and precise preparatory sketch,
pointing to quite important compositional altera-
tions. The sketch seems to have been executed in
two techniques: with wet and dry materials. Jesus’
face has been composed with subtlety and exact-
ness, including minute wrinkles around the eyes
and several attempts to reposition his nose and hair
(ill. 12.5). Patently different to the aforesaid tip-of-
brush drawing or painting technique, the collar-
bone or neck lines are painterly limned in distinc-
tive thin-to-wide strokes. Alterations to Jesus’
hands in contrast to the underdrawing and engrav-
ing are visible as well. The face of a guard to Jesus’
right has been sketched in a similar, linear, precise
way, aforementioned facial structure of Christ com-
posed of repetitive lines. Some modifications to
Caiaphas’ face are notable. In the underdrawing,
his ear was located upwards and to the left in com-
parison to the final version. Other observations
include a preparatory rendering of his nostril, pre-
cise and on an incline. His gesticulating hand
has been altered as well, as proven in discernible
painted attempts to capture the tricky foreshorten-
ing. Other curious discoveries include a visible
remodelling of sculpted ornamentation to Caiaphas’
throne: the discernible vertical lines had in all like-
lihood been planned as a continuation of the
throne curtain.
The task of interpreting underlayers visible in
IR of the Jesus at Pilate’s Court panel is hindered
by the condition and layers of grime and aged
varnish, and by retouches. In consequence, no
compositional change (or lack thereof) can be
determined with any certainty. Unclear contours
require further examination, any descriptions at
this stage are conditional. While revealing the
preparatory process and elimination or evolution
of some concepts of the forms involved, IR has
revealed no critical compositional alteration. Evo-
lution is observable in certain elements of the
underdrawing of Christ’s profile, absent in the
final work (ill. 12.6a). Likewise, some hair strands
obscuring Jesus’ face in the original design are no
longer there in the final painting, leaving Christ’s
face exposed. Repeated contours emphasising the
oval of a servant’s face and Pilate’s moustache are
observable in the scene of a servant pouring water
 painted sketch as the underlayer of the LUSINA POLYPTYCH 157

Ill. 12.6. Passion cycle from the Lusina Polyptych (ill. 12.1), detail, visible light and IR photography.
A: Jesus at Pilate’s Court, detail, Jesus’s profile. B. Jesus at Pilate’s Court, detail, face of a servant

on Pilate’s hands (ill. 12.6b). A similar sketch is
discernible in the hands – seemingly chaotic and
nervous, interlacing lines are combined with geo-
metrical hatching to cover the fingers of the
flagon-tilting servant and the hand holding a
towel. A more precise, potentially drawn design
might be detectable in the related underdrawing.
Pilate’s nose and cheek have been rendered with
fine lines, defining the convexity of form. Some
of the underdrawing remains visible beneath the
layer of paint, which has lost its opacity. While
thus completing the painted form, it was presum-
ably invisible at the time of the panel’s creation,
its purpose served by the chiaroscuro. The under-
158 joanna zwinczak
drawing of facial details of the servant kneeling
before Pilate also shows a weave of lines around
the eyes, a nervous contour delineating the con-
cavity of Pilate’s cheek. The underdrawing is also
discernible in the hand area.
An analysis of the Flagellation panel has revealed
preparatory techniques and, however inspired by
woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Elder, composi-
tional alterations. Changes were chiefly applied to
Christ’s figure, the painted sketch rendering the
shape of collarbones and curl-enhanced muscles
with considerable precision. Not re-enacted in
paint layer contour, these features have been con-
veyed with a change to edges and the use of chiaro-
scuro. Christ’s legs, while not altered in terms of
arrangement, have been lengthened, notable
underdrawing components including lines posi-
tioning the feet and calves much higher than in the
final composition. Covered with a pale layer of
lead-based paint, the underdrawing is now observ-
able in the visible spectrum of light. An under-
drawing and changes to composition have also
been revealed in the figure of a flogger with a birch,
side figures of floggers transitioning towards the
centre. Nose and moustache contours delineating
painted details are visible on the IR. Features such
as floating lines and variable intensity are indica-
tive of the use of a brush. An identical transition
towards the centrally depicted face of Christ is
observable in the figure of the swinging flogger in
the bottom left corner. Executed with a wavy
brushstroke, mouth, nose and eyes contours are
detectable below and to the right of the final com-
position. While an underdrawing with wet or dry
material is also visible in the figure of a flogger
holding a scourge, fewer traces of change to the
composition are notable herein (ill. 12.7a). Most of
the primary sketches – eyebrows, wrinkles around
the mouth and eyes, and frowns – have been kept
in the final version, whereas exaggerated lines near
raised eyebrows have been omitted.
Several changes are identifiable in the ultimate
composition of the Crowning with Thorns, modifi-
cations chiefly involving torturer poses and altera-
tions to Christ’s figure. The panel features both
painted and drawn preparatory sketches. The cen-
tral positioning of Jesus’ face reflects the original,
multiple painted or drawn nasal lines observable
under IR and through the translucent paint layer.
One of the most significant changes has been made
to the face of the torturer in the red hat, rendered
placing the crown more firmly on Jesus’ head (ill.
12.7b). His nose has been repositioned upwards for
a wider view of his facial expression. The lines are
rather flowing herein, in contrast to the angular
and markedly pronounced former location of the
ear. Alterations to the torturer’s finger positioning
are blatant as well. Rendered with painterly, flow-
ing strokes, diagonal finger lines resemble those
used in sleeve fold arrangement, absent in the final
version. The face of the other oppressor – wearing
a white turban or other head wrap – is also slightly
different from the sketch discovered under IR. His
ear has been repositioned along with the originally
narrower jaw. Some modifications have been made
to the tormentors’ legs, presumably with intent to
make the composition more dynamic. Rendering
the outer figures as more distant enhanced the illu-
sion of them pushing against the sides of the paint-
ing, the change to their poses resulting in a more
balanced composition, well-nigh symmetrical.
Aforesaid alterations have introduced a circular
movement to the composition, delineated along
the figures’ arms. The sketch of the figure in green
garments is greatly detailed, contributing to the
anatomy and emphasising the musculature of one
leg resting upon a bench. Originally positioned a
little deeper within the perspective, an underdraw-
ing of a foot is observable as well. Two versions
thereof had been painted, the ultimate one closer
to the edge of the bench. An underpainted line
running along the leg of a torturer in green is
slightly less obvious to interpret – at first glance,
it seems to be a dismissed version of the original
composition; a comparative study of a woodcut by
Schäufelin suggests that the line was that of a trou-
ser leg seam, running in parallel to the limb. It is
noteworthy that all aforesaid rearrangements of
 painted sketch as the underlayer of the LUSINA POLYPTYCH 159

Ill. 12.7. Passion cycle from the Lusina Polyptych (ill. 12.1), detail, visible light and IR photography.
A: Flagellation, detail, torturer’s face. B: Crowning with Thorns, detail, torturer’s face

Schäufelin’s woodcut were deliberate, resulting in
a greater composition dynamic. The painted figures
and their garments reveal variance in the prepara-
tory composition. A number of changes to the
draping of Christ’s garments is also discernible. IR
reveals expressive and nervous painted forms,
delineated to arrange folds of the clothing in the
central section, and around Christ’s arms and feet.
Other changes include those to the width of the
bench, originally visibly narrower.
The condition of the Stations of the Cross panel,
the grime and aged varnish deposits, and retouches
make reliable technological interpretation difficult.
Not only has the colour palette changed – some
160
Ill. 12.8. Passion cycle from the Lusina Polyptych (ill. 12.1), detail, Crucifixion, visible light and IR photography,
underdrawing visible in a loss of the paint layer
paint layer details cannot be determined or distin-
guished from preparatory layers visible under IR.
Therefore, minor verifiable elements will be the
only ones described herein; more advanced analyses
should be undertaken once panel conservation
works have been completed. IR reveals minute wrin-
kles of a smile on a guard’s face, suggesting that the
face was moved downwards in comparison to the
underdrawing. Judging by a line around the armpit,
the armour has been moved slightly as well. The area
beneath the guard’s feet suggests modification as
well, the painted loop marking the prior positioning
of the heel. The contour along the side of his calf
hints at the leg having been shifted as well.
In the Crucifixion panel, IR confirmed the pres-
ence of the wet medium underdrawing visible to
the naked eye under the semi-translucent paint
layer in the Christ’s complexion. An underdrawing
of veins on Christ’s arms and of shoulder and armpit
shading (showing through layers of paint) is sug-
gested, a vivid example of the phenomenon. The
final version has slightly shifted the wavy contour
of stretched arms and taut muscles. Some minor
changes to the positioning of Christ’s hair strands
joanna zwinczak
and ringlets are visible, his legs marginally moved
to the right. Paint layer loss on Christ’s cheek has
provided an interesting opportunity to observe the
underdrawing of the Crucifixion (ill. 12.8). Discern-
ible in analytical light, a black line in the area
continues in the underdrawing of Christ’s jaw.
Hatched shading and compositional alterations
can be found in the figures of Mary and Saint John,
their necks rendered with numerous lines, repeti-
tive in similar sketches. More refined, form-empha-
sising hatching is detectable on Saint John’s cheek,
his face originally composed with more hair strands
falling across the forehead, absent in the final paint-
ing. Clasped in prayer, Mary’s hands originally
pointed upwards, as seen under IR – the finished
painting shows them rather awkwardly reclined
towards the centre. Consequently, the underdraw-
ing of the contour and details of her face – and chin
– suggests positioning with a greater incline towards
the side of the panel than in the final composition.
An underdrawing had also been prepared for soldier
figures, their faces and hands, the hand gesture of
the soldier on the right clearly changed: the original
finger grip was tighter, and the fist closed
 painted sketch as the underlayer of the
Conclusion
Examinations of the painted panel underlayers have
yielded significant information, allowing us to form
conclusions and a separate thesis regarding the pro-
cess of creating the altar. IR of Passion cycle panels
points to multiple examples of compositional alter-
ations. Painted or drawn preparatory layers are
identifiable in all Sunday view panels, most entail-
ing compositional changes. Therefore, any drawing
or painting on a panel installed in the altar wing
frame constitutes a stage of unfinished composition
design. Even scenes based on woodcuts by Hans
Schäufelin and Lucas Cranach the Elder underwent
repeated modification due to change in proportion
– the panels are narrower than the prints. The
intent behind some alterations was that of achiev-
ing a more sophisticated or expressive outcome,
such as scene dynamism or accentuation of a cer-
tain component, often as not symbolically essential.
However, varied and comprised of different means,
the style of underdrawing in wet and dry material is
similar across all panels, matching the painted
scenes. Yet while discernible in some areas of the
four panels, dry underdrawings have only been exe-
cuted locally, the ultimate form complementing the
underdrawing with a brush rather than constituting
a separate composition. In some instances, altera-
tions to the composition are visible in the underlay-
ers as well as in the finished painting, suggesting
that change-related decisions were made at the
final stage of altar evolvement. While this would
affirm the hypothesis regarding the unvarying
authorship of the designs and paintings like col-
laboration with a journeyman or apprentice at the
painting stage cannot be dismissed. Considering the
rules of Krakow’s painters’ guild and how painting
workshops operated in the early sixteenth century,
assistance by an apprentice or journeyman is likely,
although the less experienced might have been
tasked with executing the less ornamental daily
view panels featuring patron saint. Such division of
labour has also been suggested by scholars analysing
the polyptych.16 Analogies to woodcuts by Lucas
Cranach the Elder and Hans Schäufelin imply
LUSINA POLYPTYCH 161
awareness of West European trends, allowing panels
to be dated by setting the terminus post quem. The
notable nervous and vibrant manner in underlayer
and painting execution is neither inept nor unskil-
ful. On the contrary: the unrestrained line defining
different shapes is artful, while the free manoeu-
vring of figural deployment points to an autonomy
in existing patterns and creativity.
NOTES
The project was funded by National Museum in Kraków. I would like
to thank the coordinator Dominika Tarsińska-Petruk for inviting me
to join the project of researching the Lusina Polyptych; Michał
Obarzanowski, Tomasz Wilkosz and Paweł Gąsior for their photographs
of the panels; and Daria Kuzak and Dr Adam Spodaryk for consulting.
Experimental techniques. VIS photographies were taken with: Nikon
D810 camera equipped with Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 ED lens. The photo-
graphs were taken under continuous lighting lamps 5500K; Canon EOS
5D Mark III camera equipped with Canon Macro Lens EF 100mm,
1:2.8. USM. The photos were taken under flash lighting with the
energy of 2x250. Exposure paremeters: 1/100 sec; f/5, ISO 400. Near-IR
photographies (IR) were taken in range 830 nm, with FujiFilm IS Pro
camera equipped with Coastal Optics UV, VIS, IR 60 mm APO Macro
lens and BW IR 830 nm filter with 2x250. Exposure parameters: 1/100
sec; f/8, ISO 100. Microscopic observations of cross sections were
carried out in visible light (VIS) in reflection mode and in light
induced by ultraviolet (UV, wavelength range 359 nm - 371 nm) using
a Zeiss Axio Imager A2 microscope. Panels were examined using
M6 Jetstream Large Area micro-XRF Scanner, Bruker.
1 Walanus 2001, p. 60.
2 List of scholars attributing the relief authorship to Veit Stoss:
Sokołowski 1901, p. 33; Daun 1903, p. 26; Daun 1906, p. 17; Kopera
1907, p. 118; Daun 1916, p. 41; Lepszy 1930a, p. 91; Lepszy 1930b,
pp. 1-2, nr. 2; Walicki 1934, pp. 1006, 1008; Dobrzeniecki, 1980, p. 52,
nr. 223.
3 Shrine is understood as a central section of the structure com-
prised of the wooden chest and its decoration.
4 Korespondencja Sekretariatu Generalnego PAU za rok 1928
(1928 Correspondence of the Secretariat General of the Polish Academy of
Arts and Sciences), Polish Academy of Sciences Archives, Krakow
Branch, Inventory No. 1005/28.
5 Estreicher 2003, pp. 92-93, 601.
6 Marcinkowki, Zaucha 2007, p. 34.
7 Photograph by S. Kolowca: www.fototeka.ihs.uj.edu.pl/navi
gart/node/124663
8 The pinnacles are registered in the MNK inventory.
W. Walanus widely discusses composition alterations in the central
section as shown in historical photographs and the possible structure of
the polyptych in the related chapter of his unpublished MA thesis:
Walanus 2000, pp. 22-34.
9 Gadomski 1995, p. 68.
10 Daun 1903, p. 26; Lepszy 1930a, p. 91.
11 Posiedzenie z dnia 29 listopada r. 1850 (Session of November 29th
1850), Minutes of Kraków Scientific Society sessions, Polish Academy of
Sciences Archives, Krakow Branch, Inventory No. TNK-73, pp. 19-22.
12 Lossnitzer 1912, p. 46; Walanus 2001, p. 49.
13 Dettloff 1961, 1, pp. 8-44; Walanus 2001, p. 49.
14 Olszewski 1964a, p. 313; Olszewski 1964b, pp. 105-106.
15 Gadomski 1995, p. 67; Walanus 2000, pp. 32-33, 89; Walanus
2001, p. 54.
16 Gadomski 1995, p. 67.
Ill. 13.1. Master of the Saint Martin and Saint Giles Altarpiece, Altarpiece of Saints Martin, Giles and Erasm, c. 1515-1517,
Sighisoara/Schässburg, Church upon the Hill, festive side
 13
A ‘Nuremberg’ Workshop in Remote Transylvania?
Investigations on Early Sixteenth-Century
Altarpieces Painted in Sighișoara/Schässburg
Ciprian Firea and Cristina Serendan
A BSTRACT : Documentary evidence already published in
the nineteenth century indicates that several artists orig-
inating in Nuremberg established themselves in Transyl-
vania shortly after 1500. Among them, there were two
sons of the celebrated sculptor Veit Stoss: Johannes,
a painter, and Vitus (the Younger), a sculptor and painter.
Since the publication of these sources, scholars have
attempted to attribute surviving artworks to artists
supposedly trained in the Franconian metropolis. Several
altarpieces preserved in different collections indicate
artistic connections with the art produced in Nurem-
berg. Close examination of the works made in Sighișoara
reveals certain idiosyncrasies in the style, as well as in
the technology of painting. This study aims at the attribu-
tion of the paintings through morellian analysis and by
investigating the preparatory drawings using IR photo-
graphs. Three different artists have been considered the
most representative for this stylistic trend.
—o—
On 31 October 1534, the town council of
Sighișoara/Schässburg, a borough in Transylvania,
drew up an answer to a letter received from the
municipality of Nuremberg. In the letter, the coun-
cil of the imperial city was requesting information
about Johannes Stoss, one of the (numerous) heirs
of the recently deceased Veit Stoss (d. 30 Septem-
ber 1533), citizen and renowned artist of Nurem-
berg. Johannes, an inhabitant of Sighișoara, was
the beneficiary of a share of his father’s legacy.
In response, the Transylvanians wrote a letter
specifying that the painter Hans/Johannes Stoss,
son of the late Veit Stoss, was also dead (since
5 September 1530), leaving behind a widow and
three underaged sons. At the time of the response,
the widow Magdalena was already re-married to
the journeyman of the late Johannes, named
Christian, who had begun running the workshop.
The representatives of the town of Sighișoara
recommended that the legacy of Veit Stoss should
be transferred to Christian, who was also the tutor
of the three legitimate heirs of Johannes Stoss
and grand-sons of the famous Nuremberg master.
This exchange of letters, already mentioned by
G. Lochner in 1875,1 (and published in original
Latin by M. Friedberg2 in 1936) is the unique docu-
mentary evidence of the presence of an artist of
Nuremberg origin in the town of Sighișoara in
Transylvania. The historical data hint at the exis-
tence of an active network of relations between
the imperial city and Transylvania in the Late
Middle Ages and the Renaissance.3 For example,
the documented presence of a certain Eustachius
Stromer, public notary in Sighișoara in 1511, and a
scion of the powerful patrician Stromer family from
Nuremberg, could be also interpreted as an inter-
mediary for artistic exchanges. He may have played
the role of broker between the dynamic society
of artists in Franconia and provinces in need of
164 ciprian firea and cristina serendan
specialised artists. A brother of Johannes Stoss,
namely Vitus (or Veit) Stoss the Younger, a sculp-
tor and painter, established himself in another (and
considerably larger) Transylvanian town: Brașov/
Kronstadt. He occurs in the local sources between
c. 1520 and 1524.4 Although it is not perfectly
clear, it seems that Vitus later moved to Sighișoara
as well, where he collaborated with his brother;
where the two of them eventually died together,
probably in an epidemic outburst of the year 1530.5
Sighișoara was a secondary ranked town of
medieval Transylvania, in the rear of the more
highly developed and populated – mainly by Ger-
man speaking inhabitants – towns of Brașov, Sibiu/
Hermannstadt or Cluj/Klausenburg. Nevertheless,
after the 1480s, in this specific locality apparently
flourished a dynamic artistic life. An extensive part
of the Transylvanian medieval altarpieces surviv-
ing today has been created in this centre.6 Leaving
aside the altarpieces of the late fifteenth century,
which reveal many connections with the oeuvre
of the so-called ‘Schottenmeister’ from Vienna7
(sometimes identified as Johannes de Septem
Castris/Hans Siebenburger, thus ‘John the Transyl-
vanian’8), there are about twenty (entirely or frag-
mentarily preserved) altarpieces produced in
Sighișoara in the first three decades of the sixteenth
century.9 Besides the artwork itself, there are hardly
any other documentary sources concerning the
artistic life of Sighișoara in the period under exam-
ination. An interesting, though rather peculiar
document is the royal charter dated 24 February
1513 of King Vladislaus II of Hungary (1490-1516).
The charter offered some privileges to those arti-
sans intending to move to the upper town of
Sighișoara (the citadel) which was at risk of being
depopulated. The charter was naming the painters
explicitly (the first in the row), together with
other craftsmen (masons or architects included):
‘pictores, fabri lignarii, sellipares, torneatores et archi-
tecti’.10 The document represents a piece of evi-
dence concerning the existence of several painters
(and probably workshops) in Sighișoara. However,
as previously mentioned, with the exception of
Johannes Stoss (and a briefly occurring Philippus
Pictor in 151511) there are no other artists known
by name, and no signatures have been observed on
the works of art so far. It is also worth mentioning
that, with the notable exception of an altarpiece
preserved in the former Dominican convent of
Sighișoara, all other medieval retables have been
found in the villages (inhabited by Transylvanian
Saxons) scattered more or less in the proximity of
the town. In the last decades, so as to safeguard the
works, they have been brought to new locations
including church collections and museums, mainly
belonging to the Evangelical Church.
A pioneer of Transylvanian altarpiece studies,
V. Roth, attributed eight of the surviving works
of art of the sixteenth century (including the altar-
piece from Sighișoara) to a group (‘die Grosse
Altargruppe’)12 created by Johannes Stoss, the
artist of prestigious origin. Following his leads,
other authors supported the attribution, sometimes
with changes in the composition of the group.
However, a closer look at the artwork indicates
that this attribution was largely based on other
considerations than the style of the painting,
such as the formal aspect of the joinery works,
the characteristic of the gilded reliefs, etc. Upon
thorough examination of the paintings, certain
aspects have indicated a greater variety of styles: up
to seven different painters may be identified on the
basis of surviving works. Which one might have
been Johannes Stoss?
Together with Cristina Serendan, painting
restorer and lecturer at the Department for Conser-
vation and Restoration of the National University
of Arts in Bucharest, and with the support offered
by colleagues from the Technical University in
Cluj-Napoca, we carried out a research on the
panel painting produced in Sighișoara in the first
decades of the sixteenth century with the aim of
offering more accurate attributions, as well as that
of authenticating these oeuvres. In the framework
of the project,13 we have also investigated the pre-
paratory drawings of the panels through infrared
(IR) photographs obtained with a modified Canon
 a ‘nuremberg’ workshop in remote transylvania?
DSRL camera. The images have been subsequently
processed in Adobe Lightroom. The next few
pages attempt to reveal part of the achievements of
this research.
Paraphrasing a recent and prestigious scholarly
model (‘What is a Bosch?’14), we wondered: ‘what
would a Johannes Stoss look like?’ Presumably,
it would be a painting displaying strong stylistic
connections with the art of Franconia, Nuremberg
or maybe Krakow in the time span between
c. 1500-1530. His maniera should bear suggestions
of that specific Renaissance artistic milieu, ‘quota-
tions’ of that visual environment, as well as some
technological characteristics. Thus, among the
preserved works, we chose those that feature the
closest stylistic relationship with the specified
artistic area(s).
A first question to be raised here is: what was
the art ‘produced in Sighișoara’?15 As previously
mentioned, the documentary information is very
scant. However, a series of characteristics may
define artwork (or altarpieces) ‘made in Sighișoara.’
Among these, of great importance is the specific
aspect of the joinery, hence of the ‘frames’ in which
the paintings have been assembled. A successful
joinery workshop was the one run by Johannes
Reichmut from Sighișoara16 and its mixed Gothic
and Renaissance stylistic features can be recognised
in the altarpieces as well as in the intarsia on the
pews.17 It is likely that different painters collabo-
rated with the same joinery workshop. Another
important characteristic concerns a specific deco-
ration, the gilded reliefs, present in the upper part
of the painted panels, especially on the festive side
of altarpieces.18 These gilded reliefs decorated with
branches, leaves, flowers and fruits create a sort of
arch that frames the composition and the back-
ground. Whether carved or engraved into the
ground, these arches are gilded with high quality
gold leaf and polished.19 One gilder (Goltschlager or
blacterator in the documentary sources) is likely to
have collaborated with different painter work-
shops. Common characteristics have also been
observed in the usage of materials and the technol-
165
ogy of painting,20 but the research is still in the ini-
tial stage. The present paper aims to contribute to
this field of research, and especially to the study of
underdrawings.
Of the painters active in Sighișoara in the first
decades of the sixteenth century we shall focus here
on three: those considered to be most distinctly
influenced by the South German art of painting.
The first master is the one who created the altar-
piece preserved in the former Dominican convent
of the town. As formerly pointed out, scholars
identified him as Johannes Stoss, but the identifi-
cation is disputable. The altarpiece itself (ill. 13.1)
was previously credited to display Dominican ico-
nography, indicating thus the provenance. In fact,
it has been argued that it was not dedicated to
Saint Martin and Saint Dominic, but to Saint Mar-
tin and Saint Giles, and that it was originally
intended for a parish church outside the town and
not for the convent.21 There is a collateral matter
here. In our opinion, the group of the Master of
Saint Martin and Saint Giles Altarpiece includes
eight works of art dating from 1513 to c. 1530:22
the altarpiece of Beia/Meeburg (dated 1513);
the altarpiece of Cund/Reussdorf (c. 1515); the
altarpiece of Sighișoara/Schässburg (c. 1515-1517);
the altarpiece of Băgaciu/Bogeschdorf (dated
1518); the retable (‘pala d‘altare’) of Richiș/Reich-
ersdorf (c. 1520); the altarpiece of Fișer/Schweis-
cher (shrine dated 1520; painting dated 1522);
the predella of Mediaș/Mediasch (figuring the
Last Supper) (c. 1525-1530); the recently identified
Flagellation of Christ (c. 1520) from Hampel Auc-
tion House, Munich.
The paintings are usually included in late
Gothic joinery structures (in the form of the polyp-
tych) but there are also some definite Renaissance
frames, in the form of Italianate pala d’altare. The
style of the paintings is obviously connected with
the German Renaissance. They reveal an artist
inclined towards the ‘classicism’ of the Franconian
area dominated by Nuremberg, being close – to a
certain degree – to the style of Wolf Traut. At the
same time, the expressionist tendencies of the
166 ciprian firea and cristina serendan
Danube region, from Regensburg to Vienna (mani-
fested in the so-called ‘Danube School’ of painting)
are found to a lesser extent. His characters, dressed
in clothes with curved drapery, have proportional
volumes and fill the compositions in the fore-
ground, so that there is almost no landscape. Where
the background does appear, it is in the form of a
minimal natural setting, reduced to a few rocks,
characteristic vegetation (with leaves enlivened by
small flashes of light), buildings or ruins perched on
cliffs, jagged alpine ridges in the distance and blue
sky. Other scenes have an architectural back-
ground, with elements that are decisively related to
the language of the Renaissance: massive semi-
circular arches, strong cornices, balustrades, barrel
vaults, etc. We have no reference to Gothic,
although the mix of styles is very characteristic
of the Transylvanian context of those years. The
painter demonstrates a special skill in representing
the lavishness of some of the costumes and the
materiality of the textiles (brocades, textiles with
metallic shine like silk, etc.). The details in gri-
saille of the episcopal mitres deserve a special men-
tion, as well as other detailed clothing accessories
(jewellery, pendants, textile borders embroidered
with figurative elements and saints, tassels, etc.).
One may acknowledge many common stylistic fea-
tures that cluster the above-mentioned artworks in
the same group, as demonstrated (for example)
by the comparison of portraits (ill. 13.2a-e) or
gestures. On several altarpieces, portraits share the
same characteristics and almost the same dimen-
sions. One could say that there is a prototype for
female figures. Although signs of drawing transfer
are not visible, it is not to be excluded that stencils
have been used for some figures.
In the stylistic or morellian analyses, we sur-
veyed many details: portraits, hairstyles, gestures,
clothing and textiles, hands and feet, fingers, eyes,
ears etc., as well as other features such as the gilded
reliefs in the upper part of the panels. In this regard,
it is worth mentioning that the design of these
reliefs is clearly inspired by several woodcuts of
Dürer (e.g. Albert I /Albrecht I. der Gluckhaftig from
the monumental Arch of Honour, c. 1515-1517)
and of his followers such as Hans Springinklee
(Saint Dorothy, c. 1519), Erhard Schön (several
woodcuts in editions of the Hortulus Animae, 1515),
etc. The dating indicates a simultaneous reception
(and usage) of such woodcuts in this Transylvanian
workshop (or gilder workshop?), which could
suggest a direct connection between the Transylva-
nian master and Nuremberg.
There are yet other visual features that indicate
a certain stylistic proximity with the art produced
in Nuremberg. An indirect confirmation was pro-
vided by the authentication of a certain work of art
(a Flagellation of Christ) auctioned in a prestigious
auction house from Munich. The Flagellation was
attributed to Hans Leonhard Schäufelin and his
workshop.23 The composition, which interpreted
a print of Dürer with the same subject (Kupferstich-
passion, 151224) was certainly a work of our painter
in Sighișoara.25 The first striking feature is the
gilded relief in the upper part of the panel, very
similar to those produced in Sighișoara. Several
details (from radiant halos, to clothing and physi-
ognomies) point to the same paternity. The closest
analogies may be found on the altarpiece of Fișer,
dated 1520-1522. In the series, the Flagellation
might be dated around 1520. Regardless of the
erroneous initial authentication, it indicates that a
link may be acknowledged between the art from
Nuremberg (and of Schäufelin, a prestigious fol-
lower of Dürer) and the workshop in a remote
Transylvanian town.
At this point, it is worth mentioning the results
of the investigation carried out on the preparatory
drawings, namely the photography of the paintings
in infrared spectrum. The investigation aimed to
emphasise (if discernible) the underdrawings, in
order to use the information for the authentication.
Indeed, the preparatory drawings have been
discovered for several of the altarpieces of this
group. The paintings that are dated earlier (Beia,
Cund, Sighișoara) have free designed preparatory
drawings, with the outlines of the characters and
the drapery loosely sketched. Beginning with the
 a ‘nuremberg’ workshop in remote transylvania? 167

A B

E F

Ill. 13.2. Master of the Saint Martin and Saint Giles Altarpiece, details of different altarpieces.
A. Beia/Meeburg, 1513. B: Cund/Reussdorf, c. 1515. C: Băgaciu/Bogeschdorf, 1518, IR. D: Sighisoara/Schässburg (ill. 13.1),
c. 1515-1517. E: Fiser/Schweischer, 1522. F: Richis/Reichersdorf, c. 1520
168 ciprian firea and cristina serendan
altarpiece of Băgaciu (1518), the underdrawings
became more elaborate, with a lot of hatchings that
imitate prints and woodcuts.
Another very interesting observation is that IR
photographs revealed the presence of distinctive
signs marked on the preparatory layers of the paint-
ings (ills. 13.3a-b and 13.4a-f). These marks, resem-
bling cursive letters (w-, ge(l)-, T, etc.), have been
probably used in workshops as indicators for the
colours planned to be painted on those specific
areas or objects.26 Thus, they document a specific
method of organizing the work in such studios,
which included the master, journeymen and
apprentices.27 The master was usually responsible of
the composition’s design, he painted the most sig-
nificant or elaborate parts, and he also marked spe-
cific areas which had to be consequently completed
by his helpers. The last decades witnessed an
increasing interest for the study of this kind of
marking and the research of medieval art in Roma-
nia is finally following the trend.28 The marks have
been discovered so far on five out of eight attri-
buted works: the altarpieces of Sighișoara, Cund,
Beia, Richiș, and (in a more explicit way) Mediaș.
On the last-mentioned artwork, which is also the
latest of the group (c. 1525-1530), on the ground
under the red colour is written rot, and under a
brownish garment is written praun.
The question that arises here is: have such sym-
bols or marks been used in Nuremberg painters’
workshops, and, if so, to what extent? Apparently,
as colleagues kindly pointed out to us, these spe-
cific marks were not characteristic to paintings of
Nuremberg, at least in Albrecht Dürer’s circle.
They were instead present in the workshop prac-
tice of one of the most prolific painters from Augs-
burg, Jörg Breu the Elder (c. 1475-1537).29 It should
also be mentioned that several similar marks have
been observed on the preparatory drawings of the
altarpiece in Biertan/Birthälm, created in 1483 by
a Late Gothic workshop from Sighișoara (probably
headed at the time by Valentinus Pictor), which
was closely connected with ‘Schottenmeister’ and
Vienna.30 Maybe the idea that the workshop of
Valentinus (that disappeared from sources in the
very first years after 1500) and its technological
characteristics was taken over by the South Ger-
man (or Nuremberg) journeyman and afterwards
master (around 1510) should be taken into consid-
eration as well.
In the development of this Renaissance work-
shop from Sighișora, two specific evolutions are
worth taking into consideration. Both occurred
around 1518. The first concerns the use of prints
created by Albrecht Dürer or other printmakers in
Nuremberg and Germany. The early altarpieces of
the workshop indicate that some of the prints were
available to the master, but he used them in a very
discreet way. For example, the archivolt of the
gates of Rome entered by Saint Ursula and her
company, represented on the festive side of altar-
piece from Beia (1513), is decorated with the same
branches that appear on the Golden Gate at the
Meeting between Joachim and Anne, the woodcut
of Dürer (1504) from the Life of the Virgin series.
The little dog present in the scene of Christ before
Herod from the altarpiece of Cund (c. 1515) was
clearly ‘borrowed’ from the woodcut representing
the Flagellation (c. 1497) of the Great Passion
series. There are many such details that indicate
not only the knowledge and the possession of these
visual sources (prints), but also a moderate or cau-
tious use of them. After c. 1518, the paintings of
the same workshop are documenting a change in
the approach of the ‘interpictoriality’31 in the sense
of a prodigious use of the prints. For example, in
only two panels painted of the small pala from
Richiș (c. 1520), there are ‘quotations’ of at least
five different prints (usually woodcuts) created by
Dürer, as well as by Cranach.32 Sometimes, the
painter copied and adapted for his use minute or
collateral details of the prints such as the acolyte
from the Mass of Saint Gregory (1511)33 transformed
in the painted composition in a censing angel pre-
sent at the Baptism of Christ. On the contrary, the
scene of Ecce homo from the altarpiece from Fișer
(1522) is a literal and full replica of the engraving
from Kupferstichpassion of Dürer (1512).34
 a ‘nuremberg’ workshop in remote transylvania? 169

Ill. 13.3. Master of the Saint Martin and Saint Giles Altarpiece, Altarpiece of Saints Martin, Giles and Erasm (ill. 13.1),
detail of the central panel. A: in visible spectrum. B: IR (marks on the preparatory layers)
170 ciprian firea and cristina serendan

A B

C D

E F

Ill. 13.4. A-B: Master of the Saint Martin and Saint Giles Altarpiece, Altarpiece of Cund/Reussdorf, detail, IR and visible light.
C-D: Master of the Saint Martin and Saint Giles Altarpiece, Altarpiece of Saints Martin, Giles and Erasm (ill. 13.1), detail, IR and
visible light. E-F: Master of the Saint Martin and Saint Giles Altarpiece, Altarpiece of Beia/Meeburg, detail, IR and visible light
 a ‘nuremberg’ workshop in remote transylvania?
The second development concerns the dramatic
changing of the preparatory drawings. The early
altarpieces (1513-1518) document a master design-
ing freely the forms of the compositions, with sim-
ple and curved lines, whereas, starting with the
altarpiece from Băgaciu (1518), as previously men-
tioned, the drawings became much more elaborate,
using hatching to indicate shadows or volumes.
The hatching is often similar to the lines of wood-
cuts. The mentioned signs on the preparatory lay-
ers almost disappeared and they were used again
later in the form of written words on the predella of
Mediaș (c. 1525-1530).
The two phenomena likely occurred as a conse-
quence of the addition of a new journeyman in the
workshop c. 1518-1519. This journeyman soon
became an independent master, as demonstrated by
several exquisite works, such as the Pala of the Holy
Kindred in Copșa Mare/Grosskopisch (c. 1519-
1520), the altarpiece of Armășeni/Csíkménaság
(1524 (?), preserved in the Hungarian National
Gallery in Budapest, and (probably) the recently
found panels with Apostles (c. 1520-1525) – used
as raw material or boards for a tribune – in the
Evangelic church of Apold/Pold, near Sighișoara.35
A new sense of colour is to be noticed on these
works of art, as well as a new emphasis of the
Nuremberg style. They have many features that
eloquently prove the formation of the painter in
the Nuremberg environment (c. 1505-1515), under
the influence of Dürer and Hans Schäufelin. The
vividness of the color palette is very similar to that
of Franconian painting, and the compositions are
created by the overwhelming use of Nuremberg
graphic models.
The small Pala d’Altare of the Holy Kindred of
Copșa Mare (ill. 13.5) was commissioned by
Lazarus, the parish priest of the village (between
1519 and 1521), who was also a doctor in decrees
(probably of the university of Krakow).36 He is rep-
resented as a donor on the central panel, and this
is undoubtedly one of the best portraits of the kind
in Transylvanian art. The predella features Lazarus
Raised from Dead, as a hint to the patron’s identity.
171
These two small panels document the use of at least
nine different prints of Dürer and Schäufelin,
woodcuts and engravings alike.37 They have been
used in a skilful way and thus resulted in new and
powerful compositions. This sense of visual ‘inter-
textuality’ (or interpictoriality) was replicated a
couple of years later by the older master of the
Saints Martin and Giles Altarpiece, as priorly men-
tioned.
The print used for the main design of the cen-
tral composition, Dürer’s Virgin Surrounded by Many
Angels,38 was created in 1518. It was then replicated
already in 1519-1520 in this Transylvanian paint-
ing, which is quite remarkable. The main character
of the print, the Virgin Mary, was converted in
Saint Anne (Selbdritt) in order to meet the icono-
graphic requirements and the dedication of the
altar. The infrared photography of the central panel
(ill. 13.6) demonstrates how similar the hatches of
the preparatory drawing are to the lines of the
actual woodcut it follows. This is an additional
argument to support the training of the painter in
the most important center of German print pro-
duction, Nuremberg, in the time when the huge
Arch of Honour, commissioned by Maximilian I,
was created by a large team of artists coordinated by
Dürer. Thus, the identification of this specific
Transylvanian painter with Johannes Stoss, the son
of the famous artist Veit Stoss from Nuremberg, is
all the more attractive. His activity proven by the
preserved works (which fall between c. 1519-1525)
corresponds more precisely to the sparse documen-
tary information about Johannes Stoss. He should
have arrived in Transylvania around 1518-1519,
then married (to acquire the right of citizenship)
c. 1520 (with the first son born in 1522). He
became a full-fledged craftsman in Sighișoara at
a time when his brother (Veit Stoss the Younger)
was just settling in Braşov.39
A last artist to be mentioned here is the master
of a unique oeuvre, with no evident stylistic anal-
ogy within the province. The Renaissance Altar-
piece of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the
Evangelist from Roadeş/Radeln (c. 1525) (ill. 13.7)
172 ciprian firea and cristina serendan

Ill. 13.5. Johannes Stoss (attributed to), Retable of

the Holy Kindred of Copsa Mare/Grosskopisch, c. 1519-1520, Sighisoara/Schässburg, Church upon the Hill
 a ‘nuremberg’ workshop in remote transylvania?
contains high-quality paintings and wooden sculp-
tures. The festive part of the altarpiece, framing
the shrine with the two statues, features on each
side two episodes of the lives and passions of the
two Saints John. In closed position, there are eight
scenes from the Passion of Christ. The multimedia
work can be connected to Sighişoara not only
through the use of tracery decorations (foliage)
very similar (for example) to those present on the
large pew from the monumental parish church of
the town (1523), probably produced by the joinery
workshop of Johannes Reichmut, but also through
the relative geographical proximity of Roadeș.
The painting, however, is unique in the preserved
heritage. In addition to the convincing use of Dür-
er’s models (see, especially, the woodcut The
Beheading of Saint John the Baptist from 1510)40,
the painter is the only one who clearly documents
the use of Hans Sebald Beham’s graphic models
in Transylvania (Ecce homo, Bearing of the Cross,
partially Agony in the Garden). For this reason, pre-
vious scholars placed it in a later period (after
1532-1533),41 a fact which is not justified, since
the specific woodcuts serving as models here date
from the years 1521-1522. The sculptures in the
shrine with Saint John the Evangelist and Saint
John the Baptist (the latter also designed after a
model by Dürer, the woodcut of Saint John the Bap-
tist and Saint Onofrios, c. 1502)42 have a special
quality, and have been related since Victor Roth to
the circle of Veit Stoss Senior, the master from
Nuremberg. They could rather be attributed to his
son Veit Stoss the Younger who came to Transyl-
vania (as his brother, the painter Johannes)
towards 1520.43 As formerly mentioned, he estab-
lished himself in the large town of Brașov, where
he occurred in several local sources (among which
the written regulation of the guild of painters,
wood-carvers joiners and glaziers adopted by the
municipality in 1523).44 The documentary sources
mention him as both a carver and painter (‘Vitum
sculptorem et pictorem’), and he apparently had
some legal issues with the guild. The organization
fined him a considerable sum in 1524, a penalty
173
Ill. 13.6. Johannes Stoss (attributed to), Retable of
the Holy Kindred (ill. 13.5), IR, detail of the central panel
corresponding to the guilt of attracting other mas-
ters’ apprentices. His disappearance from the local
sources may indicate that he has left Brașov for
Sighișoara, where he apparently died in 1530
(as his brother Johannes).
Therefore, it is very tempting to attribute to
‘Vitus Stoss Sculptor et Pictor’ the polyptych from
Roadeș in its entirety (work dated c. 1525-1526).
As previously mentioned, the painting followed
several prints of a kleinmeister from Nuremberg,
and its colour palette is close to Franconian art.
Furthermore, the investigations through IR photo-
graphs emphasized a consistent use of the under-
drawings (ill. 13.8). One might observe both
extensive hatchings and free lines that sketched
the characters, their portraits, bodies and drapery,
the shadows etc.
To summarize, our investigation on the altar-
piece painting from Sighișoara in the first three
decades of the sixteenth century attempted to
assess the consistency of artistic exchanges between
Nuremberg (Franconia, South Germany) and the
remote Transylvanian artistic centre, as suggested
by several documentary sources. Among the paint-
ers active in the mentioned lapse of time, three are
especially relevant. The first, the Master of Saint
Martin and Saint Giles Altarpiece, was probably a
174 ciprian firea and cristina serendan

Ill. 13.7. Veit Stoss the Younger (attributed to), Altarpiece of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, c. 1525,
Roades/Radeln, Johanniskirche Sibiu/Hermannstadt, festive side

painter of South-German origin (Augsburg?), conspicuous Nuremberg style (Hans Schäufelin,

largely influenced by Franconian painting (Wolf
Traut, Hans Schäufelin). He was the first painter
of the Renaissance established in Sighișoara
(c. 1510), and maybe he took over the workshop
of a Late Gothic master, ‘Valentinus Pictor’ (with
distinct Viennese artistic connections). His first
dated altarpiece is from 1513 and the last dates
c. 1525-1530. He was the most prolific master, if
one judges after the attributed work. His identifica-
tion as Johannes Stoss is not to be entirely rejected,
but this research favours the identification in
the person of the second artist discussed here, the
Master of the Altarpiece of Armășeni. He came
later in Sighișoara (c. 1518), with a large collection
of (fresh) prints from Nuremberg, and with a more
Hans Dürer). Initially, he probably served as a
journeyman in the workshop of the older master,
influencing the preparatory drawing (stamp-like
hatchings). As an independent artist (c. 1520), his
style displays more definite Nuremberg features.
Therefore, we consider him Johannes Stoss, son of
Veit Stoss Senior. The third artist, the Master of
Saints John Altarpiece, was also trained in a
Renaissance German environment and he might
be identified as Veit Stoss Junior, ‘sculptor et pictor’,
active in Transylvania from c. 1520. He probably
died in Sighișoara in 1530, as his brother Johannes,
in an epidemic outburst. The brothers probably
collaborated on the Altarpiece of Saints John, as the
preparatory drawings may suggest.
 a ‘nuremberg’ workshop in remote transylvania? 175

NOTES
1 Lochner 1875, pp. 103-104.
2 Ptaśnik, Friedberg 1936-1937, 1, pp. 303-304.
3 Schwob 1969, pp. 14-15, 41-42, 44.
4 Roth 1906, pp. 55-65.
5 Baader 1868, p. 240.
6 Sarkadi Nagy 2012b, p. 90.
7 Krasser 1973; Sarkadi Nagy 2012b, pp. 88-90; Firea 2023,
pp. 293-295.
8 Takács 1991; Suckale 2004.
9 Firea et al. 2019, pp. 44-45.
10 Schuller 1897, p. 402.
11 Firea, Pop 2021, p. 219.
12 Roth 1916, pp. 80-98.
13 Elaborating Complex Methodologies Regarding the Attribution and
Authentication of Medieval and Early Modern Paintings Belonging to the
National Cultural Heritage – 53PCCDI/2018-2021 – project supported
by a grant of the Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation,
UEFISCDI.
14 Ilsink et al. 2016, pp. 32-53.
15 Sarkadi Nagy 2012a.
16 Sarkadi Nagy 2011.
17 Mihály, Szász 2021, pp. 188-223, 368-386, 503-548.
18 Serendan 2010, passim.
19 Serendan et al. 2013, p. 64.
20 Serendan et al. 2013.
21 Firea 2009.
22 Firea et al. 2020, p. 40.
23 www.hampel-auctions.com/a/Hans-Leonhard-Schaeufelein-
und-Werkstatt.html?a=107&s=517&id=537456
24 Bartsch 8.
25 Firea 2017-2018.
26 Von Baum et al. 2014, pp. 78-85, fig. 77.
27 Jansen 2006.
28 Mihály 2014.
29 Morall 2016, pp. 28-31, fig. 1.11.
30 Firea 2023, p. 295.
31 Hahn 1999.
Ill. 13.8. Veit Stoss the Younger (attributed to), Altarpiece 32 Firea 2010.
of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist (ill. 13.7), 33 Bartsch 123.
34 Bartsch 10.
IR, detail of the Martyrdom of Saint John the Evangelist 35 Mihály 2014, p. 79.
36 Firea 2014, pp. 51-52.
37 Firea 2019.
38 Bartsch 101.
39 Firea 2014, pp. 52-53.
40 Bartsch 125.
41 Vătăşianu 1959, p. 797.
42 Bartsch 112.
43 Firea, Pop 2021, pp. 286-289.
44 Nussbächer, Marin 1999, pp. 139-141.
A

B C

Ill. 14.1. A: Francisco João (attributed to), Machede Altarpiece, c. 1570-1580 displaying: Christ Carrying the Cross, 95 x 68 cm;
Calvary, 131 x 88 cm; and Deposition, 97 x 68 cm. B: Francisco João (attributed to), Sousel Altarpiece, c. 1570-1580, 490 x 400 cm.
C: Francisco João (attributed to), Sousel Altarpiece (ill. 14.1b), detail, Saint John the Baptist, 167 x 76 cm.
 14
The Drawing Hand
of a Portuguese Mannerist Painter
Helena Pinheiro de Melo, António João Cruz,
Sara Valadas and António Candeias
A BSTRACT : The materials and graphical layout of the
underdrawing of two sets of paintings attributed, on
stylistic grounds, to the workshop of the Portuguese
painter Francisco João (doc. 1558-1595) were investi-
gated using infrared reflectography. Two types of under-
drawing were found. Comparison between each group
of paintings enabled to identify a characteristic drawing
style that can be of assistance in future studies on the
work of Francisco João. Material evidence related to the
painting technique and the underdrawing layout suggests
that the painter was responsible for both the underdraw-
ing and the painting stage. This relevant information
sheds new light into the working conditions of regional
mannerist Portuguese workshops and contributes with
material data to the scarce information on these issues
found in historic documentary sources.
—o—
Introduction
The consistent knowledge about the underdrawing
stage of the painting practice is the missing piece in
the puzzle of sixteenth-century Portuguese paint-
ing. Art historians have built the fundamental
framework of what can be considered the ‘Golden
Age’ of Portuguese painting through archival, bio-
graphic, iconographic and stylistic analysis of the
remaining works and artists.1 Yet, the anonymous
and collectivist character of Portuguese painting of
this period, produced by partnerships of painters to
be part of altarpiece structures, makes it challeng-
ing to identify the style of individual artists, assign
authorships and understand essential features of
the painting practice, namely the workshop labour
division and the management of large-scale altar-
piece constructions. The lack of material and tech-
nical information regarding Portuguese Mannerist
paintings is particularly significant, since many of
the most relevant works are not easily accessible,
as most still remain in situ, largely preserved in
the Alentejo region.2
In this context, this investigation examines two
sets of paintings attributed, on stylistic grounds, to
the workshop of Francisco João, the most renowned
Mannerist painter, active in Southern Portugal
between 1558 and 1595. The panels under analysis
belong to two altarpieces on display in the churches
of Machede and Sousel, Southern Portugal, and are
dated c. 1570-1580 (ill. 14.1). The Machede paint-
ings depict Scenes of the Passion of Christ that are
mostly copied from well-identified compositions,
notably by Luis de Morales, el Divino (1512-1586),3
Michelangelo (1475-1564)4 and Francesco Salviati
(1510/1511-1563)5 (ill. 14.1a). The church of
Sousel is dedicated to the Holy Spirit and the altar-
piece paintings are related to this theme, with the
central panels of the Pentecost (lower tier) and
the Ascension of Christ (upper tier), framed on
each side by paintings of Saint John the Baptist,6
Saints Cosmas and Damian, Saint Catherine of
Alexandria and Saint Lucia (ill. 14.1b-c). In both
178 helena pinheiro de melo, antónio joão cruz, sara valadas and antónio candeias
altarpieces, the narrative and devotional represen-
tations of saints and scenes of the Life and Passion
of Christ attest to the regional and standardized
interpretation of Portuguese Mannerism used as an
instrument of Tridentine propaganda.
The painter Francisco João lived in the city of
Évora, in those days the second cultural centre of
the country, and worked for the whole Alentejo
region, now comprising the districts of Évora, Beja
and Portalegre.7 Although a regional master work-
ing under local patronage, mostly for the Church,
Francisco João was a prestigious figure, owning
important properties and slaves. He was a promi-
nent member of the Holy House of Mercy – a char-
itable organization founded in 1498 by the Queen
Regent D. Leonor – and from 1570 onwards, he was
the official painter of the Inquisition in Évora.
Francisco João was further known for being one of
the first Portuguese artists to fight for the recogni-
tion of the Liberality of the Art of Painting, thus
claiming a higher social and intellectual status for
his profession.8 Nothing is known about his train-
ing, but the influence of the Spaniard Luis de
Morales, el Divino (1512-1596), who also worked in
Évora and lived just across the border, is recognized
in much of his work.9 Francisco João embodies the
Mannerist generation of Portuguese regional paint-
ers whose activity was favored by the Counter-
Reformation spirit and by the politic union with
Castile in 1580, an event that weakened Lisbon’s
former centrality and gave new impulse to regional
workshops, stimulating an almost industrial pro-
duction of altarpieces in the country.
The art historian V. Serrão, who considers Fran-
cisco João ‘the most industrious Mannerist painter’
active in the Alentejo,10 has assigned him a corpus
of fifty-nine altarpiece panels. The attributions are
made on the basis of stylistic affinities with a core
group of seven surviving paintings that belong to
documented commissions of three altarpieces, now
dismembered. Three of these paintings correspond
to the artist’s first known commission, dated 1558,11
and the others to his late production, a few years
before his death, in 1595.12 For the moment, it was
not possible to examine the underdrawing of these
works. Despite a stylistic unity, in part resulting
from the local taste for the art of Morales, the pro-
duction ascribed to Francisco João reveals differ-
ences in refinement and technique. The disparate
state of conservation of the works, almost all kept
in situ, makes comparisons challenging. As a result,
the attributions of some of the works, including
the Sousel paintings, have changed over the last
decades, and only recently have been linked to
the painter.13
This contribution intends to characterize and
compare the underdrawing of the paintings from
each altarpiece in terms of materials and graphical
layout. The role of the underdrawing in the paint-
ing process and its relation with the painted sur-
face will be examined. The results will contribute
to a deeper knowledge of the working methods of
Portuguese Mannerist regional workshops and to
the characterisation of a drawing style that can be
useful for the study of other works attributed to
this master. The investigation is based on the
visual inspection of the paintings’ surface under
incident light and infrared reflectography (IRR).14
Results previously acquired on the nature of the
underdrawing material and painting stratigraphy15
will be discussed in the context of the current
investigation.
Materials and structure of the preparatory
layers and underdrawing
All panels were made of oakwood and prepared
with a single white layer of gesso grosso bound in
animal glue.16 Two types of underdrawing lines
were detected in the IRR images. In all of the
Machede paintings and in the central panel of the
Pentecost from the Sousel altarpiece, the under-
drawing is clearly evident in the IRR images. It
appears as dense ‘black’ lines with areas with a
granular appearance, indicative of the use of a
dry material with a high carbon concentration,
somewhat friable but, simultaneously, quite soft
(ill. 14.2a-b). A second type of underdrawing,
visible in the IRR images as fainter ‘light grey’
 the drawing hand of a portuguese mannerist painter 179

A B

C D E

Ill. 14.2. A-B: Francisco João (attributed to), Machede Altarpiece (ill. 14.1a), IRR, details, Christ Carrying the Cross, dry carbon-
based underdrawing. C-E: Francisco João (attributed to), Sousel Altarpiece (ill. 14.1b), IRR, details, Saint John the Baptist (C-D),
Saints Cosmas and Damian (E), less visible underdrawing

lines, often coincident with the painted contours
and, in those instances, difficult to distinguish
from the paint layers, was detected in all of the
remaining paintings from the Sousel altarpiece
(ill. 14.2c-e). In this case, it was not possible to
assess if a dry or fluid medium was used, as some
lines exhibit the ductus and interrupted quality of a
dry medium (ill. 14.2c), while other appear more
sinuous and, although no drops of accumulated
liquid were detected, suggest the possibility of
the use of a brush poorly charged in a fluid medium
(ill. 14.2d-e). The painting of Saints Cosmas and
Damian (Sousel) associates both types of under-
drawing as will be discussed ahead. Only samples
from the first type of underdrawing were examined
in cross-section under the optical microscope.17
In these samples, the underdrawing appeared as
irregularly-shaped black particles, mostly round but
sometimes angular, lying close together and creat-
ing a thin dotted black line in the surface of the
ground.18 Previous analysis of the material used was
inconclusive.19 Considering the estimated produc-
tion date of 1570-1580 for these paintings and the
appearance of the underdrawing in the IRR images,
this dry underdrawing material most probably cor-
responds to charcoal or to a natural or fabricated
black chalk.20
Underdrawing in the paintings of the Machede
altarpiece
The Machede paintings were entirely underdawn
with an abundant and sketchy underdrawing clearly
visible in the IRR images, including under the
copper-based blue and green passages or beneath
180 helena pinheiro de melo, antónio joão cruz, sara valadas and antónio candeias

A B C

Ill. 14.3. Francisco João (attributed to), Machede Altarpiece (ill. 14.1a), detail, Calvary. A: tracing of the underdrawing.
B: IRR. C: IRR, detail, arm of Saint Mary Magdalene

the thicker lead-white based modelling of the faces.
The underdrawing places all figures and elements
in the composition, including objects and decora-
tive details (ill. 14.3). It also establishes most of the
folds of the draperies and indicates anatomical
details such as the nipples, belly-buttons, muscles,
neck tendons, as well as the protruding bones of
chests, knees, wrists and ankles of most of the char-
acters (ills. 14.3-14.4). The features of the faces,
such as eyebrows, eyes, nose lines, mouths and
often the cheek bones, are loosely detailed
(ill. 14.4d-f). Curly hairs and beards are roughly
underdrawn with curved lines. Elements in the
background or landscape are schematically indi-
cated through the outline of a mountain or the
crenels of a castle’s battlement.
The underdrawing is carried out with impetus
and force, with no concern for the clarity or
aesthetic appearance of the final image. The rough
and loose ductus of the outlines, scribbled, and
often reworked in an insistent, almost frenetic
manner, is typical of a freehand working under-
drawing. Although some form of first placing of
the composition using a transfer method such as
squaring, pouncing or tracing could eventually
have been used, no traces of these techniques were
found in the IRR images.
Due to the increased transparency of some paint
layers, parts of the underdrawing can be seen to the
naked eye. Underdrawn lines exhibit variable
widths, as a result of the manipulation and pressure
of the drawing stick, but often appear quite wide,
with a width reaching c. 2 mm (ill. 14.2b). Wider
lines show an irregular grainy appearance in the
IRR images, suggesting a loss of sharpness from the
vigorous use of the drawing stick or from its use in
a sideways position (ill. 14.2a-b). The layout can be
characterized as a loose contour underdrawing,
where the delineation of forms is achieved with
repeated adjacent and superimposed medium-sized
or small lines instead of a steady continuous line
(ill. 14.3c). The equivalent level of intensity and
strength between redrawn outlines contributes to a
messy and confusing design, since no definite final
 the drawing hand of a portuguese mannerist painter 181

A B C

D E F

Ill. 14.4. Francisco João (attributed to), Machede Altarpiece (ill. 14.1a), IRR, details. A-B: Deposition. C-E-F: Calvary.
D: Christ Carrying the Cross. White arrows indicating the characteristic circular marking of the wrists and ankle bones.

form emerges from this amalgam of reworked
scratches (ill. 14.4a). This is particularly true of
some of the underdrawn hands that appear with a
multitude of fingers in adjacent positions, making
it impossible to visualize a coherent shape or select
the chosen position to be followed at the painting
stage (ill. 14.4c).
Shading is scarce and was randomly applied to
only a few of the draperies of some of the fore-
ground figures (ill. 14.3c). The shading is generally
executed with less force than the outlines, as it
often exhibits a lower intensity in the IRR images.
It mostly maps areas of shadow without signifi-
cantly contributing to the creation of volume. The
shading follows no systematic rendering as lines are
oriented diagonally, perpendicularly or following
the outline of the form they intend to shade
(ills. 14.3c, 14.5b). Although drawn adjacent to
one another, lines of shading are not carefully par-
allel between them and are unevenly spaced,
often creating a ‘rainy’ effect (ill. 14.5b). Projected
shadows were sometimes drawn behind the feet of
the figures (ill. 14.5a). Cross-hatching was only
detected in the projected shade of a foot of Nicode-
mus in the Deposition (ill. 14.5a), where the
lines of shading are drawn in a fan-shape projection
from the foot.
From the above description, it can be con-
cluded that the underdrawing of the Machede
paintings has a two-dimensional sketchy character
in which some notion of volume is conveyed
by the occasional shading, but mostly by the
inner contours that place the protruding muscles,
bones and main folds of the fabrics. It acts as a
guide for the painting stage without any under-
modelling function.
182 helena pinheiro de melo, antónio joão cruz, sara valadas and antónio candeias

A B

Ill. 14.5. Francisco João (attributed to), Machede Altarpiece (ill. 14.1a), IRR, details. A: Deposition, front leg of Saint Nicodemus.
B: Christ Carrying the Cross, tunic of Christ.

Underdrawing in the paintings of the Sousel
altarpiece
The thick brownish varnish that covers the surface
of all the Sousel paintings, makes it difficult to
visualize any part of the underdrawing with the
naked eye. In IRR images, an extensive freehand
contour underdrawing was detected exclusively
in the central panel depicting the Pentecost
(ill. 14.6). In this painting, the underdrawing has a
sketchy and loose character similar to the under-
drawing of the Machede’s paintings but without
the incessant reworking of the forms and with
shading only locally applied in the occasional hand
or foot. As in Machede, the underdrawing places
all figures in the composition and details the main
folds and anatomical features of hands and faces.
However, the design is much clearer and more pre-
cise (ill. 14.6g). As so many figures are placed in
such a tight space without significant hesitations or
changes in relation to the final painted image, it is
possible that the observed freehand underdrawing
follows a first layout transferred to the surface, or
else, a very detailed preparatory model.
In the remaining paintings, mostly simplified
compositions depicting one or two saints, but also
in the upper tier of the Ascension of Christ, the
underdrawing is not evident under IRR. Some faint
lines are clearly present, usually coincident with
painted contour lines. This type of underdrawing is
more exact, with the scarce visible contour lines
sometimes made by a succession of fragmented
separated stacato lines with a static ductus that
reminds transferred lines (ill. 14.2c). No shadows
nor the anatomical details of protruding bones were
registered in IRR images. In some areas, however,
especially in the faces and landscape, the lines still
retain some flexibility typical of a freehand execu-
tion (ill. 14.2d-e). It is therefore possible to conjec-
 the drawing hand of a portuguese mannerist painter 183

A B C

D E F G

Ill. 14.6. A-G: Francisco João (attributed to), Sousel Altarpiece (ill. 14.1b), IRR, details, Pentecost. Note the eyebrows
with a til (~) shape, especially in A, B, E and the cane marked with two opposed curved lines, as a couple of parentheses in B

ture that the main contour of the figures and their
garments were transferred to the surface and over-
lapped by the actual underdrawing. Details from the
curly beards, hairs and facial features would have
been drawn freehand, possibly with a fluid medium,
over this first placing of the figures (ill. 14.2d-e).
The landscape elements, composed of a tree trunk
in the foreground, mountains in the horizon or, in
the Ascension of Christ, a large cloud, were schemat-
ically and loosely underdrawn and would not require
any primary transferred reference.
The painting of Saints Cosmas and Damian
associates both types of underdrawing. The main
part of the underdrawing, difficult to visualize in the
IRR images, is made of exact contour lines. How-
ever, in the area corresponding to a change in the
position of the head of Saint Cosmas, to the left, a
dense black sketchy underdrawing that extends to
the lower body of the saint can be clearly distin-
guished from the faint underdrawing also present
(ill. 14.7). The final position of the head, now seen
leaning right, towards Saint Damian, was painted,
without any underdrawing reference, directly over a
first version of the head, underdrawn and painted in
the opposite direction (ill. 14.7c). Traces of an
underdrawing of the face leaning towards the right,
as the final painted version, appear slightly lower
and to the right than the final painted version.
From this material evidence, it can be conjectured
that the head of the saint was first drawn leaning
towards the right (ill. 14.7d: green lines), then this
underdrawing was abandonned and a second head
was drawn and then painted in the opposite direc-
tion (ill. 14.7d: red lines). After painting, the artist
decided to again change the head towards the right,
painting it directly over his first version, without
184 helena pinheiro de melo, antónio joão cruz, sara valadas and antónio candeias

A B D

Ill. 14.7. Francisco João (attributed to), Sousel Altarpiece (ill. 14.1b), Saints Cosmas and Damian. A: under incident light.
B: IR with tracing of the two types of underdrawing: a dry carbon-based medium (in red), and an unidentified material
(in green), less visible in IR. C: IRR, detail, Saint Cosmas’ head. D: same detail as C with the tracing of two types
of underdrawing already mentioned

any underdrawing reference. The dry dark under-
drawing medium was thus used in a corrective
phase, after a first placement of the forms with an
underdrawing that appears quite faint in the IRR
images (ill. 14.7b).
The underdrawing of the Sousel paintings,
independently of the nature of the media used, can
thus be characterized as a bidimensional contour
drawing whose role is to guide the painting stage.
The use of a transfer method for the main figures is
suspected, especially in the case where the under-
drawing is less visible in the IRR images.
Underdrawing style: the hand of the master
The underdrawing can be best compared between
the compositions that resort to the same type of
material, a carbon-based dry medium, and where
the layout is clearly visible in the IRR images
(ills. 14.3-14.6). The cursive ductus of this type of
underdrawing, although more frenetic and some-
what hesitant in the paintings of Machede, is quite
similar between both set of paintings. This is par-
ticularly evident in the way the outlines are made of
several segmented slightly curved lines whose
extremities sometimes overlap or, in others, don’t
touch each other. Affinities can also be found in the
graphic signs used to draw the features of some faces,
such as the nose cane marked with two opposed
curved lines – as a couple of parentheses when rep-
resented in a frontal view –, or the way some eye-
brows are marked as the ‘tilde’ (~) accent, and the
upper lip’s Cupid bow of the mouths is shaped with
 the drawing hand of a portuguese mannerist painter
a sharp ‘M’ silhouette (ills. 14.4, 14.6). The hair
arrangements are also very characteristic, with the
frequent use of a ‘flame-like’ shape to draw some of
the curls (ills. 14.4, 14.6). The confusing position-
ing of the fingers in some hands and the shading of
their inner face, when facing outwards, with diago-
nal straight parallel lines, is found in the under-
drawing of both altarpiece paintings (ills. 14.3c,
14.6f). The usual annotation of the cheek bones
with two sinuous parallel lines is also visible in
many faces and appears to expose an uncontrolled
tick, typical of a personal drawing technique
(ills. 14.4d, 14.6a, 14.6c, 14.6e). This automatism
can be seen in other details, such as the protruding
bones of Christ in the Calvary and the Deposition
of the Machede altarpiece (ill. 14.4f). The same
type of signal, traced as two parallel small lines or
three fan-shaped lines, is used to locate the face
temples (ills. 14.6d-e). Interestingly, this same
graphic language is found at the painting stage, in
the modelling of flesh tones, an indication that
strongly suggests the painter was responsible for
both the underdrawing and painting (ill. 14.8). This
suspicion is further confirmed by the fact that the
underdrawing contour lines are usually kept inside
the painted motif, a detail that illustrates the artist’s
distinctive working method in both altarpieces.
Finally, it must be highlighted that the recur-
rent and characteristic circular marking of the
wrists and ankle bones in the Machede under-
drawing (ill. 14.4a, 14.4c) was not evident in the
Sousel underdrawing layout. In the latter, the
hands were generally more carefully underdrawn
and those circular marks were mostly found in the
finger knuckles. Despite this small disparity, the
overall appearance of the underdrawing with its
very personal graphic language can be of assistance
in the identification of Francisco João’s maniera
and drawing style.
Workshop practice
To a greater or lesser extent, both set of paintings
reveal changes at the underdrawing stage, and
between the underdrawing and the painted image.
185
In Machede’s Deposition, the figure of Nicodemus
is drawn slightly forward and redrawn back to the
right side of the panel, away from the scene, a posi-
tion that was selected in the final painting stage
(ill. 14.5a). Similarly, in Christ Carrying the Cross,
the horizontal beam of the cross was first drawn in a
slightly lower position and then redrawn and
painted higher. This change affected the right hand,
bottom of the tunic and feet of Simon of Cyrene
which were also first drawn in a lower position and
later redrawn higher, in order to sustain the cross. In
this composition, the left hand of Christ resting on
the cross was also drawn twice, at two different
heights, and the lowest was chosen in the painting
stage. These changes at the underdrawing stage
reveal the artists’ struggle with the design of the
cross, an issue that was not resolved in the final
painted composition, where perspective mistakes
remain unsolved. Although in Machede the paint-
ing stage broadly respects the underdrawing layout
– with the expected minor adjustments resulting
from a more accurate and clean paintwork in regard
to a sketchy reworked underdrawing – two changes
were nevertheless noted between the underdrawing
and the paint layers. These relate to the figure of
the soldier to the right, in Christ Carrying the
Cross, where a sword first underdrawn was not
painted, and his left foot was drawn considerably
higher than the final version, painted directly on
the prepared panel surface, with no underdrawing
underneath. The same situation occurs with the left
arm and hand of Mary Magdalene in the Calvary
panel, first drawn in a much higher position than
later painted, with no guiding from any underdraw-
ing (ill. 14.3c). The repositioning of the foot and
hand of these figures in the painting stage creates a
projection of their bodies forward that strongly con-
tributes to a deeper sense of depth in the composi-
tion. From the three known versions of the Deposi-
tion and Christ Carrying the Cross attributed to
Francisco João, those from the Machede altarpiece
are smaller in size.21 Given the reworked appearance
of the underdrawing layout, it can thus be conjec-
tured that the artist was trying to directly adapt a
186 helena pinheiro de melo, antónio joão cruz, sara valadas and antónio candeias

A B

Ill. 14.8. Francisco João (attributed to), Machede Altarpiece (ill. 14.1a), detail, Deposition. A: face of Nicodemus
under incident light. B: IRR. The white arrows point to the parallel lines used in the painting and underdrawing stages,
to mark the face temples and cheekbones

larger model to the smaller size of his paintings. As
opposed to the Machede paintings, beyond the
aforementioned modification in the position of the
head of Saint Cosmas (ill. 14.7), no further changes
or corrections were visible between the underdraw-
ing and the final painted image in any of the remain-
ing Sousel paintings.
In both altarpieces, the modifications at the
underdrawing and painting stages establish a
continued engagement on behalf of the painter in
his work, therefore indicating that the master
would have been in charge of the most relevant
stages of artistic creation: underdrawing and
painting. Furthermore, the characteristic under-
drawing style detected in both altarpieces, the
reuse of the same underdrawing language in
the modelling of light areas in the painting stage,
definitely identifies a single artist.
The outlines of the figures in the most simpli-
fied compositions of the Sousel paintings, suspected
to have been transferred onto the painting surface,
may indicate that the painter had some form of
collaboration from an assistant or an apprentice, as
would be expected in the production of large-scale
altarpiece structures. Yet, the recognition of char-
acteristic underdrawing features in the freehand
underdrawing of faces and hairs in these paintings
(ill. 14.2d-e) also points to the possibility that all
stages of the underdrawing, including the transfer,
or at least the underdrawing following the trans-
ferred lines, were the master’s responsibility.
This perspective, based on material evidence,
significantly contributes to a better understanding
of Portuguese painting practice, notably in terms
of workshop size and labour division in a regional
context. Historic documentary sources from the
sixteenth century are largely silent on these issues,
although they shed some light on the required
collaboration between different craftsmen, nota-
bly woodworkers – carvers, sculptors and panel
 the drawing hand of a portuguese mannerist painter
joiners – and painters, sometimes gilders as well,
for altarpiece construction.22 Contracts reveal the
establishment of different types of partnerships,
often involving an oil painter and a woodworker;
on occasion an oil and a tempera painter, the latter
responsible for the polychromy of the wooden
structures; but also of two master oil painters.23
The historically documented association of
Francisco João with the carpenter Ascenso Fer-
nandes, in 1583, to build an altarpiece that is now
lost, attests to this reality.24 Furthermore, existing
learning contracts reveal that, for the whole coun-
try, each painter would usually only take one
apprentice at the time, again implying that the size
of these workshops would be quite reduced.25 The
reality of renowned court painters, some of whom
were favoured with scholarships to learn their art
abroad, would be necessarily different. Yet, these
preliminary results suggest that, despite his pres-
tige and relevant social status, Francisco João was
still subject to the harsh working conditions of a
regional market where cutting expenses with
workforce and assuming a one-man show appears
to be the only way to survive.
Final remarks
The underdrawing analysis with IRR of two sets of
paintings attributed to the Mannerist Francisco
João, not only enabled the identification of an
underdrawing style, but additionnaly brought a first
insight into the labour system involved in Portu-
guese regional workshops. For the moment it was
not possible to ascertain the reason underlying the
choice of two types of underdrawing in paintings
belonging to the same altarpiece. Further studies
are needed in order to gain a more comprehensive
understanding of the painting practice and work-
shop management of sixteenth-century altarpieces
produced in Portugal.
NOTES
This investigation was funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tec-
nologia (FCT), Portugal [Grant SFRH/BPD/109296/2015], the Fundo
Social Europeu (FSE), ERIHS.pt [ALT20-03-0145-FEDER-022115
(Program Alentejo2020)], Hercules Strategic Plan [UIDB/04449/2020
187
e UIDP/04449/2020]. HPM wishes to acknowledge the Diocese of
Évora, Father Eduardo Pereira da Silva and Father António José Nabais
for allowing access to the altarpieces, and Nuno Carriço for the assem-
bly of the IRR reflectograms.
1 Pereira 1995; Serrão 1986, 1995, 2002; Rodrigues 2009.
2 Although a significant number of altarpieces have been dis-
mantled and their paintings lost or scattered, the Alentejo region is
home to the largest national collection of Mannerist altarpieces still
preserved in situ in the country. See: Lameira 2005; Melo, Cruz 2009;
Melo, Sanyova, Cruz 2011; Melo et al. 2020; Melo et al. 2022a; 2022b;
2022c, 2022d.
3 The painting depicting Christ Carrying the Cross from the
Machede altarpiece follows Morales well-known composition of the
same subject, see: Caetano 2001, p. 33.
4 The figure of Christ from Calvary of Machede closely follows
a model from Michelangelo. See: Serrão 1995, p. 285.
5 The Deposition of Machede altarpiece emulates Salviati’s
Deposition preserved in the Galleria Pitti in Florence. See: Carrol 1971,
p. 19, figs. 5-6.
6 The figure of Saint John the Baptist from the Sousel altar-
piece is directly inspired by the same figure in Morales’ Virgin and Child
with Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist from Valencia de
Alcántara in Cáceres, Spain. See: Madrid/Bilbao/Barcelona 2015,
pp. 90-92, nr. 13.
7 On the life and work of the painter Francisco João, see:
Espanca 1955-1956; Serrão 1983, pp. 193-194, n. 1, pp. 219, 328-329;
Serrão, 1995, pp. 45, 486-487; Serrão, 2008, pp. 155-157; Serrão, 2016,
pp. 36-42; Melo 2012.
8 Kubler 1967, p. 444.
9 Espanca 1955-1956; Serrão 1987; Serrão 1995; Caetano 2001.
10 Serrão 1986, p. 72.
11 Serrão 2016.
12 Espanca 1955-1956.
13 Keil 1943; Serrão 2008.
14 IRR was recorded using a high-resolution Osiris® camera,
equipped with an In GaAs sensor sensible to infrared radiation
between 900 and 1700 nm and an internal filter Schott RG850 that
blocks radiation under 850 nm. The lens was kept at a f/11 relative
aperture.
15 The nature and structure of the preparatory layers of these
paintings was investigated in: Melo et al. 2014. Regarding the analysis
of the underdrawing material, see: Melo et al. 2022a.
16 Melo et al. 2014.
17 Paint samples collected in areas where underdrawing had
been previously detected using infrared examination, were embedded
in an epoxy resin (Struers SpeciFix 40), polished in cross-section and
studied with optical microscopy (OM) in reflection mode, under visible
(OM-Vis) and ultraviolet radiation (OM-UV, excitation filter BP 340-
380, dichromatic mirror and suppression filter of Lp425 size), using a
Leica DM2500 microscope. Digital images were taken with a Leica
DFC290HD digital camera.
18 Melo et al. 2022a, pp. 20-21, figs. 4-5.
19 Melo et al. 2022a.
20 London 2002, pp. 32-36; Burns 2007, pp.1-16.
21 A larger version of the Deposition and Christ Carrying the
Cross from a documented commission to the painter Francisco João for
the Church of Santa Helena do Monte Calvário in Évora can now be
found in the Museum of the Cathedral of Évora (Espanca 1955-1956;
Melo 2012). Other larger versions of these subjects, attributed to the
painter, can be found in the Passion Altarpiece of the Church of São
Francisco, in Évora (Melo 2012).
22 On archival documents related to painting apprenticeship
and profession, see: Correia 1926; Serrão 1983.
23 Correia 1926; Serrão 1983.
24 Serrão 2008, p. 157.
25 Serrão 1983, pp. 190-204, 293-307.
Ill. 15.1. Filippo Paladini, Religione, Coat-of-arms of Cardinal Grand Master Verdalle and Ordine di San Giovanni,
Malta, Verdala Palace, south-west wall, 1590-1595

Ill. 15.2. Filippo Paladini, Guerra, Coat-of-arms of Grand Master Verdalle and Pace,
Malta, Verdala Palace, north-east wall, 1590-1595
 15
The Technique of Filippo Paladini:
a Case Study of his Sixteenth-Century Wall
Paintings at Verdala Palace, Buskett, Malta
Sarah Yeomans Gafà
A BSTRACT : Grandmaster Hughes Loubenx De Verdalle
(1582-1595) built Verdala Palace overlooking Buskett
Gardens, to the east of Rabat, Malta and adorned it with
ceiling frescoes documenting his life achievements.
Attributed to Filippo Paladini (c. 1544-c. 1614), and
executed between 1590 and 1595, the wall paintings in
the Entrance Hall are this research’s main focus in inves-
tigating the technique of this celebrated Florentine
artist. Heavily influenced by Italian Mannerists such as
Pontormo and Parmigianino, Paladini was one of the
most recognized artists working for the Order of Saint
John. For this research, scientific investigations expose
characteristics of Paladini’s maniera, including his adapta-
tion of the fresco technique, distinctive brushwork,
and identify the original materials and pigments used.
The findings are paralleled with other Maltese lime-
based paintings, especially the frescoes by Paladini him-
self at Grand Masters’ Private Chapel of the Magisterial
Palace in Valletta, which provide comparison for the
painting technique and deterioration phenomena.
—o—
Introduction
Attributed to the Florentine artist Filippo Paladini
(c. 1544-c. 1614), and probably executed between
1590 and 1595 during the reign of Grand Master
Hughes Loubenx De Verdalle (1582-1595)1, the
wall paintings in the Entrance Hall form part of
a larger cycle of paintings that embellish part of
Verdala Palace’s interior. Four allegorical figures
and two coats-of-arms enclosed within a fictive
architectural decoration adorn the vault of the
Entrance Hall, while two lunette paintings occupy
either wall of the room. The south-west wall
consists of the figure of Religione, the coat-of-arms
of Cardinal Grand Master Verdalle and the figure
of the Ordine di San Giovanni (ill. 15.1), while the
north-east wall has the figure of Pace, the coat-
of-arms of Grand Master Verdalle (without the
Cardinal’s hat) and the figure of Guerra (ill. 15.2).
Each lunette painting depicts scenes from the life
of Grand Master Verdalle. The north-west lunette
depicts a scene representing Verdalle at his instal-
lation while kneeling in front of an altar taking an
oath (ill. 15.3), whilst the south-east lunette
depicts Verdalle as a young knight on horseback,
with troops (ill. 15.4).
Up until this study was carried out, very little
was known about these paintings. However, a pre-
liminary and short survey2 of the wall paintings in
the Entrance Hall carried out in 2007, revealed as
yet existing features of the original lime-based
technique of these paintings, while it also pointed
out the presence of severely deteriorated areas,
especially concerned with plaster delamination.
Based on the preliminary findings of the 2007
survey, a more detailed study of these paintings was
prompted with the objective of investigating the
original manufacturing technique used to produce
190 sarah yeomans gafà
the wall paintings in the Entrance Hall and shed
further light on their artistic attribution. This study
was paralleled by gaining information on other
sixteenth-century wall paintings in Malta, espe-
cially the extensive study carried out as part of the
conservation project on the wall paintings in the
Grand Master’s Private Chapel of the Magisterial
Palace in Valletta, also attributed to Paladini. The
latter study was done between 1998 and 2003 by
the Courtauld Institute of Art (London).
Brief description and historical background
Verdala Palace, which is a massive square fortress
with thick walls, is located on an elevated ground
to the east of Rabat, overlooking Buskett Gardens,
at two miles from the old capital city, Mdina. It
was originally built in 1585-1586 as the summer
residence of Grand Master Hughes Loubenx De
Verdalle (1582-1595) on the design of the Maltese
architect Gerolamo Cassar (c. 1520-1592). The
building material from which the Palace was con-
structed was quarried from the surrounding ditch.
The type of material used in the exterior façade of
Verdala Palace is tas-sekonda, which is a formation
of Upper Coralline Limestone, while in the inte-
rior, the yellow-coloured Globigerina Limestone
was used. The upper floor (piano nobile) with the
main balcony, the balustrades, the windows with
the triangular pediments, and the balustrade at the
very top of the building were added at a later stage.
In fact, they were built during the leadership of
Grand Master Fra Antonio Manoel de Vilhena
(1722-1736). This implies that the ceiling of the
ground floor, where the wall paintings in this study
are located, was for approximately a century the
roof of the building.3
The Palace continued functioning as the
summer residence of various Grand Masters after
Verdalle. It suffered neglect following Vilhena’s
death, especially under the leadership of Grand
Master Fra Emanuel Pinto de Fonseca (1741-1773).
When the Order of Saint John left the Maltese
Islands, the Palace underwent various changes to
accommodate the needs that gradually arose from
time to time and according to different ownership.
Under British rule, the most prominent events that
may have left significant impact on the Palace
include its conversion into a prison for French pris-
oners of war in 1800, and its use as a silk factory in
1827. By 1815, the Palace was described as being in
a state of ruin.4 Some British Governors attempted
some maintenance throughout the years; however,
as World War II approached, the Palace was used as
a repository for artefacts from the National Museum
in 1939, and later converted into a hospital for
polio-sufferers in 1945. On change of ownership
again from the British Government to the Maltese
Government, the Palace underwent a number of
restoration interventions. From 1987 up until the
present day, it is used as the official summer resi-
dence of the President of Malta.5
The Entrance Hall is the first room accessed
through the main door of Verdala Palace, and was
once used as a dining room, probably in the nine-
teenth century.6 It is rectangular and measures
8.70 × 5.16 × 6.59 m. The ceiling is barrel vaulted
and divided into three bays by two ribs. The attri-
bution of the wall paintings in the Entrance Hall
has been given to Filippo Paladini. Born in Casi,
Val di Sieve in c. 1544 and died in Palermo in
c. 1616, he arrived in Malta as a prisoner on a galley,
after having committed a crime in Florence. A
member of the Florentine Accademia del Disegno
since 1578, his skills were immediately noted by
Grand Master Verdalle and was commissioned for
various paintings. His presence in Malta is confirmed
by his canvas masterpiece Virgin and Child Enthroned
with Saints John the Baptist, Paul, Ubaldesca, Joseph
and a Franciscan Saint which he signed and dated
PH.P.P.-1589.7 However, his largest commission in
Malta was the wall paintings of the Grand Master’s
Private Chapel in the Magisterial Palace in Valletta
depicting scenes from the life of the Baptist, and
later at Verdala Palace in Buskett. He returned to
Florence in 1595 and then travelled to Sicily where
he produced a number of easel paintings. He could
also have returned to Malta in 1611.8 The earliest
attribution known to date of the Entrance Hall
 the technique of filippo paladini 191

Ill. 15.3. Filippo Paladini, Grand Master Verdalle at his Installation while Kneeling in front of an Altar Taking an Oath,
Malta, Verdala Palace, north-west lunette, 1590-1595

Ill. 15.4. Filippo Paladini, Grand Master Verdalle as a Young Knight on Horseback with Troops, Malta, Verdala Palace,
south-east lunette, 1590-1595

paintings to Paladini was given by G.F. Abela in
1647 where he states: ‘Dalla sala poi, (che si stende
per tutto il resto fino alla facciata, ch’e’ situate sopra il
giardino verso Lebeccio) si va’ in due camera per parte
assai commode, le quali insieme con la sala e’ entrata9
sono abbellite e’ adorne d’eccellenti, e vaghe pitture a’
fresco di mano, la maggior parte, di Filippo Paladini
célèbre, e’ ingegnoso pittore Fiorentino’.10
Paladini was influenced by Italian Mannerist
artists such as Andrea del Sarto (1486-1531),
Cigoli (1559-1613), Bronzino (1503-1612) and
Parmigianino (1503-1540), while the stylistic ren-
dering of the faces and bodies were adopted from
Pontormo (1494-1557) and Alessandro Allori
(1535-1607). It is possible that the wall paintings
in Malta are the only examples of wall paintings
192 sarah yeomans gafà
that exist in all of Paladini’s recognized artistic out-
put, since generally he preferred canvas as a support
for his paintings, although he also made use of
wood and copper.11
Although documented interventions in the
Entrance Hall are very scarce,12 it is evident that a
re-decoration of the vaulted ceiling was carried out
in the past. The allegorical figures’ current appear-
ance fits the description given by B. Lintorn Sim-
mons in 1895. However, a difference is noted when
she refers to the two coats-of-arms of Grand Master
Cardinal Verdalle and Grand Master Pinto, since
nowadays that of Pinto is no longer visible.13 This
indicates that the latter was covered at some point.
A fictive architectural setting decorates the vault
and surrounds the allegorical figures. Each figure is
depicted in a seated position and enclosed within a
niche, formed by pilasters and crowned by an arch.
Under each allegorical figure, inscriptions in Italian
are included. A 1913 plan of Verdala Palace at the
Chief Draughtsman’s Office Archives in Floriana
under the name Plan of Verdala Palace showing the
proposed inscriptions for the four figures in the ceiling of
the Entrance Hall shows that the inscriptions beneath
the allegorical figures were added at this time. The
description given by Lintorn Simmons casts doubt as
to whether these inscriptions were present during
her time since she states that ‘there are four painted
female figures, representing apparently14…’.
Considering what the Palace had been through
over time, such as the addition of another storey
during the eighteenth century and a period of
approximately a hundred years of neglect, have had
a significant impact on the conservation of these
paintings. Thus, it does not come to a surprise that
this led to a number of restorations and repairs.
Despite that, the scientific investigations carried
out on the wall paintings in the Entrance Hall for
this study yielded rich information into the original
technique of Filippo Paladini.
Literature review
A literature review on the technology of wall paint-
ings carried out using lime-based techniques in
Malta was needed to construct background knowl-
edge against which the case of the wall paintings in
the Entrance Hall could be investigated. In Malta,
most monuments and buildings are constructed
from the local Globigerina Limestone which is soft
and easy to shape. Nonetheless, the formations of
Upper and Lower Corraline Limestone were also
used for building purposes in the past, but to a
much lesser extent.15
Wall paintings in Malta range from rock art as
in the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum in Paola (c. 4000BC-
2500BC) to more recent ones such as the twenti-
eth-century frescoes by Virginio Monti (1852-
1942) in Saint Helen’s Collegiate Basilica in
Birkirkara. However, those utilizing lime-based
techniques can be seen between the twelfth and
the sixteenth centuries as in Saint Agatha’s crypt
and catacombs in Rabat and Santa Marija tà Bir
Miftuħ in Gudja. The paintings by Matteo Perez
D’Aleccio (1547-1616) showing the Great Siege
done between 1572 and 1581 in the Grand Coun-
cil Chamber, and Leonello Spada (1576-1622)
showing the History of the Order of Saint John in
the Pages’ Room done in 1610 (both at the Magis-
terial Palace in Valletta), as well as the decoration
adorning the Grandmasters’ Crypt of Saint John’s
Co-Cathedral in Valletta done by Niccolò Nasoni
(1691-1773) in c. 1730, show examples of wall
paintings by artists working during the rule of the
Order of Saint John. For the purpose of this study
the wall paintings cycle showing the Life of Saint
John the Baptist by Paladini himself, and found
at the Grand Master’s Chapel, in the Magisterial
Palace in Valletta was of interest in comparing the
original technique to the paintings in the Entrance
Hall of Verdala Palace.
During the studies carried out by the Courtauld
Institute of Art between 1998 and 2003, it was
found that the original technique involved keying
and scoring of the Globigerina Limestone support
and the application of a very thin plaster layer
(2-3 mm thick). The plaster layer consists of lime
and calcareous particles which indicate the use of
crushed Globigerina Limestone as an aggregate.16
 the technique of filippo paladini
The plaster was applied in large giornate using a
trowel. Indirect incisions were used to outline the
figures and draperies, while direct incisions using a
ruler and a compass were used to plan the composi-
tion of the painting. The original pigments identi-
fied include: haematite, yellow ochre, cinnabar,
red lead, smalt, azurite, green earth, malachite,
verdigris, lime white, dolomite and charcoal black.
Red lead and cinnabar were applied a secco using
egg as a binding medium, while smalt was mixed
with lime white prior to application. A number of
pigment alterations were also discovered. These
include the alteration of green earth into a yellow
colour (ferric hydroxide), azurite into paratacamite
(copper chloride) and red lead into plattnerite.
The artist used the pigments either in their pure
form or as mixtures. The painting technique
included hatching, impasto and a particular swirl-
ing brushstroke.17
Several events might have had a negative
impact on the conservation of the wall paintings by
Paladini in Valletta, however, the most prominent
one mentioned is the bomb explosion a few meters
away from the Magisterial Palace during World
War II. Prior to the conservation project carried
out by the Courtauld Institute of Art, the wall
paintings were suffering from severe plaster delam-
ination (both planar and deformed) due to the
bomb blast.18 However, the conservators also sus-
pected that plaster delamination was present prior
to the explosion and probably ever since its execu-
tion, and attributed such deterioration to a faulty
original technique.19 The information obtained
from these discussed case studies was of vital impor-
tance when comparing their technological features
and state of conservation with those of the wall
paintings in the Entrance Hall of Verdala Palace.
Methodology
The study of the wall paintings in the Entrance
Hall of Verdala Palace took a scientific approach.
Visual observations led to the choice of a repre-
sentative area20 where further observations were
carried out in ultra-violet fluorescence (UV) in
193
order to establish the extent and distribution of
past restorations, and infrared reflectography
(IRR) done to establish any features present
underneath the current painting scheme. These
non-invasive investigations were essential to
organize the subsequent sampling campaign. The
analytical techniques carried out on the samples
collected included:
– Optical Microscopy (OM) which showed the
stratigraphy present;
– Scanning Electron Microscope Energy Disper-
sive Spectrometery (SEM-EDX) which gave
insight into the morphology of the layers and
elements present;
– Histochemical tests (HCT).
Visual observations were carried out in diffuse and
raking light and inspected all the wall paintings in
the Entrance Hall. General characteristics of man-
ufacturing technique and state of conservation
were listed. For closer observations, a 10× magnify-
ing glass equipped with a built-in illumination
source and a 10× optivisor were used to identify the
superimposition of layers and surface characteris-
tics. For UV, the fluorescence was stimulated by
illuminating the paintings using two sets of holders
with two ultraviolet tubes each (black glass fluores-
cent lamps of 36 Watts each). A Hamamatsu Vidi-
con Camera C-2400 equipped with IRIS Filter
(1000nm) was used for observations in near infra-
red. The paintings were photographically docu-
mented, whilst graphic documentation was carried
out by mapping information via AutoCAD™.
For the sampling campaign, the areas chosen for
sampling were decided upon following the results
obtained from the non-invasive investigations.
Since sampling is an invasive procedure, a limited
number of samples were extracted, with the loca-
tions being representative of the information being
sought. These were intended to gather information
in the identification of original materials, includ-
ing the plaster, pigments and any binding medium
present. Each sample was given an identification
code with the letters VEH (Verdala Entrance Hall)
followed by the sample number.
194 sarah yeomans gafà

The unmounted samples were first observed

under an Olympus SZ11 stereomicroscope with
magnifications ranging from 18× to 60×. The strati-
graphic samples were embedded in polyester resin
(Serafix™ polyester cold mounting resin). Grind-
ing and polishing of the embedded samples were
carried out onto silicon carbide paper on a grinding
and polishing machine. The polished cross sections
were observed under a Polarising Light Microscope
(PLM) Olympus BX50, with magnifications rang-
ing from 40× to 400×. The samples scheduled for
further investigations in SEM-EDX were carbon
coated in order to render the samples conductive.
A strip of copper tape was applied between the
embedded sample and the microscope stage
for better electrical contact. A LEO 1430 SEM
equipped with secondary emission and back scatter
(BS) detectors was used, attached to Carl Zeiss
Smart computer software. At high magnifications,
pigment particles were resolved and elemental
analysis could be carried out on single pigment par-
Ill. 15.5. Filippo Paladini, Grand Master Verdalle at his
ticles for characterization purposes. Elemental
Installation while Kneeling in front of an Altar Taking an Oath
analysis was carried out via an EDS Oxford Link (ill. 15.3), Sample VEH07 extracted from a flesh tone, visually
Spectrometer with an ATW2 window using the exhibiting black pigment alteration. Three layers.
computer software INCA Microanalysis Suite. 1. (5μm) crystal-like black layer, bleeding into layer 2,
identified as lead-based, probably red lead (minium)
Histochemical tests were carried out on the cross- or lead white; 2. (4μm) very thin light pink layer identified
sections21 in an attempt to identify any organic as red ochre particles in a matrix of calcium carbonate;
binder, used originally by the artist for a secco areas. 3. (6μm) plaster layer consisting of large yellowish aggregates,
The stain tests were carried out using Fuchsin S seen in a crumbled state. Unmounted, OM (top) and
mounted, PLM (bottom)
and amido black general to test for proteins, and
Sudan black to test for oils.
limestone as an aggregate.22 The plaster was applied
Original technique: lunettes and allegorical in large giornate, most of the time overlapping from
figures the right to the left. A possible giornata inserita was
To increase the adhesion between the wall and the observed on the north-west lunette (ill. 15.6).23
plaster layer, the stone support was prepared The presence of toolmarks may indicate the use of
through both scoring using a scraping tool, as a trowel to apply the plaster. The artist made use of
observed on the lunettes, and keying using a pick- direct incisions which were used to trace the perim-
axe, as observed on the allegorical figures. The eter of the lunette paintings and for the main con-
artist applied only one very thin layer of plaster struction lines to plan the general composition.
composed of lime probably mixed with local lime- Additional shallow direct incisions, probably done
stone aggregates. Large, calcareous aggregates, using a ruler and a compass, were also used to trace
observed in plaster samples VEH06 and VEH07 architectural designs and straight lines. Indirect
(ill. 15.5) may indicate the use of crushed local incisions, indicating the use of a cartoon, were used
 the technique of filippo paladini 195

to trace the drawing of figures, drapery folds and

Ill. 15.6. Filippo Paladini, Grand Master Verdalle at his
Installation while Kneeling in front of an Altar Taking an Oath
(ill. 15.3), an example of a giornata inserita
other details such as facial features (ill. 15.7). The
painting technique of the artist included the
build-up of layers. In fact, in two particular cases,
he probably made use of a preparatory layer consist-
ing of a green tint before applying the flesh tone
and a grey colour prior to applying the blue for the
sky. Thick brushstrokes accompanied by a granular
texture of the surface (ills. 15.7-15.8) and the use
of impasto were observed to be distinctive charac-
teristics of the paint layer, along with particular
swirling brushstrokes (ill. 15.8) used for blending
colours. Shadows were obtained through the appli-
cation of fine lines for hatching (ill. 15.8).
The artist’s palette, deduced through elemental
analysis, included red ochre, a copper-based pig-
ment which has altered to paratacamite (azurite
or malachite), a green-coloured copper-based pig-
ment which exhibited no alteration (malachite or
verdigris), green earth and smalt. The pigments
were used either pure and/or in combination. Mix-
tures of different pigments included a copper-based
pigment24 combined with green earth, smalt, green

Ill. 15.7. Filippo Paladini, Grand Master Verdalle at his Installation while Kneeling in front of
an Altar Taking an Oath (ill. 15.3), examples of indirect incisions, indicating the use of a cartoon,
used to trace the figures, drapery folds and facial features, as well as the granular texture
of the painted surface
196 sarah yeomans gafà
Ill. 15.8. Filippo Paladini, Religione, Coat-of-arms of Cardinal
Grand Master Verdalle and Ordine di San Giovanni (ill. 15.1),
detail, Ordine di San Giovanni: example of a swirling brush-
stroke on the nose, hatching on the lips, as well as the
granular texture of the painted surface
earth and a copper-bearing pigment,25 and red
ochre and lime white to create the flesh tone. Gen-
erally, the pigments seem to have been ground
thoroughly, especially ochres. However, in sample
VEH11, the red ochre was observed to consist of
masses of material which may indicate that the
pigment was not ground prior to its application.
A black altered lead-bearing pigment, possibly
red lead (minium) or lead white, was observed
either on top of the original paint layer (ill. 15.5)
or in other cases sandwiched between the original
painting scheme and the restoration scheme.
Closer examination showed that the black altera-
tion is mostly concentrated over red, white and
flesh tone colours (ill. 15.5). In samples showing
the black layer, it was observed to be stratigraphi-
cally on top of a very thin layer of red ochre (pre-
sumably original). In samples VEH07 (ill. 15.5)
and VEH11, the black layer appeared to be infil-
trating the layer underneath.
The application of giornate and the use of inci-
sions traced into the wet plaster indicate that the
artist worked on a fresh lime plaster. Sample
VEH16 showed pigment particles of smalt and
green earth within the plaster layer, indicating that
these pigments were applied a fresco. However, the
size of the giornate (ill. 15.6) might have made it
difficult to finish the work in one day. The grainy
texture of the surface (ills. 15.7-15.8), as well as
the thick brushstrokes and swirling (ill. 15.8)
may in fact indicate the use of lime white mixed
with the pigments to increase the binding proper-
ties of the paint. Not all pigments mentioned
above are however compatible with the caustic
action of lime. Azurite and malachite can alter
into a grey-black product in an alkaline environ-
ment, while verdigris alters into a pale blue altera-
tion.26 These pigments were, in fact, commonly
applied a secco, and this is likely to be the case also
for the wall paintings in the Entrance Hall. Results
of histochemical tests using fuchsin S gave an
indicative result of the use of a proteinaceous bind-
ing medium in sample VEH16.27
Fictive architecture and coats-of-arms earlier
painting scheme
The fictive architecture of the vault and the coats-
of-arms in the central bay, are the result of a re-
decoration phase. Both the evidence collected
from documentary sources as well as that gathered
during the scientific investigation of these paint-
ings point in this direction. The evidence pro-
vided through the writings of Lintorn Simmons in
1895 mentioning the presence of Grand Master
Pinto’s coat-of-arms which is no longer visible, as
well as her description of the inscriptions under-
neath the allegorical figures is important here.
The latter is substantiated with the evidence col-
lected from the Plan dated 1913 as the year in
which the inscriptions beneath the allegorical fig-
ures were included.
 the technique of filippo paladini
Moreover, underlying polychromy is visible
from limited areas on the coats-of-arms and the
border surrounding the lunettes, where the current
paint layer was lost. On the coats-of-arms this
included an inner most plaster layer, as well as pale
yellowish and blue hues. On the north-west lunette,
an indication of a previous decoration on the
border can be observed (ill. 15.3). IRR detected a
decorative pattern near the figure of Religione
which is nowadays not visible.
The challenges of fresco artists in Malta
Verdala Palace has been through a turbulent his-
tory of structural modifications, diverse uses to that
of its original intention, as well as changes of own-
ership, which undoubtedly had affected on the
conservation of the wall paintings over the years.
Since the Palace was originally built as one storey,
the ground floor ceiling was for approximately a
century the roof of the building with a potential for
rainwater infiltration. Subsequently, the addition
of the piano nobile during Vilhena’s Grandmaster-
ship most probably caused a rapid addition of load
on the barrel vaulted ceilings of the ground floor
rooms. This might have resulted in a negative
effect on the structure, producing pressure or move-
ments in specific locations of the building, such as
the keystone and the 1/3 and 3/3 voussoir of
the barrel vault.28 This explains the deterioration
present at these areas on both the lunettes and the
allegorical figures. The nearly hundred years of
neglect in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
and other uses of the building had also contributed
to the deterioration of the building, and hence also
the paintings.
However, when investigating the case of the
wall paintings in the Entrance Hall of Verdala
Palace against those by Paladini in the Magisterial
Palace in Valletta, it can be seen that they were
made using locally available materials. The devia-
tion from the traditional fresco buono technique29
in applying only one thin layer of plaster, is justi-
fied due to the limitations in the locally available
sources. A low ratio of mixed filler with the lime
197
might have been essential in order to execute a
very thin and smooth plaster layer. Although the
stone support was properly prepared with keying
and scoring in order to increase adhesion with the
plaster layer, the smoothness and lack of rough-
ness, which is usually rendered by the use of river
sand as an aggregate, was probably responsible for
the plaster’s susceptibility to detach from the wall.
Observations of the original plaster in sample
VEH07 (ill. 15.5) under OM and PLM revealed
a very fragile and crumbled state of this stratum.
As was observed by the Courtauld Institute of
Art conservators working in the Grand Master’s
Private Chapel in the Magisterial Palace in Val-
letta, the paintings by Paladini suffered from
extensive plaster delamination, which the conser-
vators attributed to an inherent faulty technique.
Although the wall paintings in Valletta suffered
damage due to a bomb explosion which happened
very close to the Magisterial Palace in World
War II, it was still observed by the conservators
that the plaster delamination at the Paladini
paintings occurred much before, probably ever
since their execution.30
Visual observations and SEM-EDS analysis
have also indicated the use of pigments not recom-
mended for wall paintings, such as lead- and
copper-based pigments which have altered. These
pigments are known for their susceptibility to
alteration, especially due to their incompatibility
with the caustic action of lime or the presence of
salts within the system. In fact, alterations of an
azurite pigment into paratacamite (Cu2(OH)3Cl)
in Paladini’s paintings seems to be recurrent, as
this process is induced by moisture and sodium
chloride salts.31
Art historical attribution
Significant similarities could be observed between
the wall paintings in the Entrance Hall of Verdala
Palace and those by Paladini at the Grand Master’s
Private Chapel of the Magisterial Palace in Val-
letta32, which are an essential tool for art historians
to consolidate the attribution of these paintings.
198 sarah yeomans gafà
Common technological features include:
– Simultaneous use of keying and scoring of the
stone support;
– Application of one, thin and smooth layer of
plaster with calcareous aggregates, applied using
a trowel in giornate, and a granular morphology
of the painted surface indicating the mixing of
the pigments with lime;
– Use of indirect incisions to trace the drawing and
direct incisions to trace architectural designs;
– Particular swirling brushstroke and the use of
very fine hatching to build up volume and create
shadows;
– Use of a similar range of pigments, mostly applied
a fresco, but a secco areas may have been exe-
cuted using a proteinaceous binder;
– Mixture of pigments by Paladini identified in
Valletta included a copper-based pigment with
green earth, verdigris with green earth, and red
lead applied over red ochre, which are very simi-
lar to the ones observed in the paintings at Ver-
dala Palace.
Conclusion
The aims of this research study in the investigation
of the paintings’ original technique were achieved.
The approach and development, based on the study
of the physical history of both the paintings and
the building, and on their scientific investigation,
have helped reveal the main technological features
of these wall paintings such as the application of
one layer of plaster, the painting technique and
pigments used originally by the artist. This study
also drew attention to the current state of conser-
vation of these paintings, especially to the plaster
delamination present and pigment alteration.
Additional outcomes obtained were of historical
and art historical gain, as it is hoped that the origi-
nal technological features consolidated the attribu-
tion of these wall paintings to Filippo Paladini.
This study also showed the challenges that were
faced by fresco artists working in Malta, and how
they modified the traditional fresco buono tech-
nique to their situation.
N OTES
Acknowledgement to the Department of Conservation and Built
Heritage, University of Malta for supporting this study.
1 Between 1530 and 1798, the Maltese Islands were under the
rule of the Order of Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem.
2 The survey was carried out by two students, Theodora Fardi
and Méliné Miguirditchian in July 2007.
3 Freller 2009, pp. 40-46.
4 As described by Thomas MacGill’s Guide for Strangers Visiting
Malta (1839) (See: Freller 2009, p. 71).
5 Freller 2009, p. 73.
6 Lintorn Simmons 1895, pp. 108-109.
7 This painting is currently found at the Archbishop’s Palace in
Floriana.
8 Palermo 1967, p. 16; Sciberras, Stone 2001, pp. 139-148;
Freller 2009, p. 52.
9 Author’s emphasis.
10 Translation: Then, from the hall, (which carries on till the
south-west façade looking over the garden) one enters two comfortable
rooms, in which along with the main hall and entrance hall, are embel-
lished with excellent and pleasant paintings a fresco, the majority
of which were executed by Filippo Paladini, famous and ingenious
Florentine artist (Abela 1647, pp. 61-64).
11 Sciberras, Stone 2001, pp. 139-148; Sebastianelli, Alescio
2007; Freller 2009, p. 52.
12 This opposes the restoration interventions of the wall paint-
ings in the Main Hall of the same Verdala Palace which was thoroughly
documented in the correspondence dated 14 November 1911 between
the then Governor and the Superintendent of Public Works related to
the work that was going to be carried out by Maltese artist Giuseppe
Calì (1846-1930). Calì was asked to retouch the paintings. See: Fardi
2007.
13 Lintorn Simmons (1895, pp. 108-109) explains in detail the
difference between the open crown of the coat-of-arms (as depicted
for Grand Master Verdalle) and the closed shape adopted in the
eighteenth century (as depicted for Grand Master Pinto).
14 Author’s emphasis.
15 Cassar 2002.
16 The use of sea sand and vegetable fibres was also considered
possible (Tringham 2002, p. 6; Kakoulli 2000).
17 Tringham 2002, p. 6; Kakoulli 2000, pp. 1-44.
18 The paintings were faced using lottery tickets and glue in
1941-1942, which probably was one of the factors ensuring their
survival.
19 Tringham 2002, pp. 3-8.
20 Due to time and logistical limitations, the wall paintings on
the north-west side of the Entrance Hall were chosen for a detailed
non-invasive and invasive examination. These include the allegorical
figures of the Ordine di San Giovanni and Guerra and the north-west
lunette depicting Grand Master Verdalle at his Installation while
Kneeling in front of an Altar and Taking an Oath. The choice was
made after having visually examined all the paintings. The north-west
section showed more clearly than the south-east one original techno-
logical features.
21 These tests were carried out when the SEM-EDX analysis ter-
minated, thus the cross-sections were polished again to remove the
carbon coating.
22 Sample VEH07 extracted from a flesh tone, north-west
lunette, visually exhibiting black pigment alteration. Three layers:
Layer 01 (5μm): crystal-like black layer, bleeding into layer 02, identi-
fied as lead-based, probably red lead (minium) or lead white; Layer 02
(4μm): very thin light pink layer identified as red ochre particles in a
matrix of calcium carbonate; Layer 03 (6μm): plaster layer consisting of
large yellowish aggregates, seen in a crumbled state in both unmounted
 the technique of filippo paladini
and mounted samples. Acknowledgment to the Diagnostic Science
Laboratories of Heritage Malta for making their service available for
this study.
23 Probably the whole figure of the bishop in the central part
of the composition of the north-west lunette is a giornata inserita. An
embossed line located at the lower part of the area and overlapping of
the giornata from left to right (as opposed to the overlapping from right
to left in the other giornate) was observed.
24 This copper-based pigment has altered to copper chloride,
thus most probably it is either azurite or malachite.
25 This copper-bearing pigment has not altered to copper chlo-
ride, thus it may be either malachite or verdigris.
26 Matteini 1997, pp. 47-55. Such alterations were not observed
on the paintings being studied here.
199
27 It is particularly difficult to identify organic matter within a
wall painting since the amount of binding medium is very low. The
porous nature of wall paintings makes the process even more challeng-
ing. See: De Silva 1963. In fact, the HCT in this case stained also the
plaster.
28 Gordon, Stubbs 1991, pp. 49-56, 64-66.
29 As outlined by Cennino d’Andrea Cennini (c. 1360-1427)
in the fourteenth century in Il Libro dell’ Arte. See: Thompson 1960,
pp. 42-50.
30 Tringham 2002.
31 Matteini 1997, pp. 47-55.
32 Kakoulli 2000; Tringham 2002.
Ill. 16.1. Adam Elsheimer, Altarpiece of the True Cross, c. 1603-1605, copper, 134 x 107 cm (with modern frame),
Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum
 16
Elsheimer’s Creative Process:
New Research on the Frankfurt
Altarpiece of the True Cross
Mareike Gerken, Christiane Weber and Almut Pollmer-Schmidt
A BSTRACT : Adam Elsheimer (1578-1610) has long been
recognized as one of the most influential painters active
in Rome at the dawn of what was later called Baroque.
However, research on his painting technique has long
been lacking. In the past years, the collection of
Elsheimer’s paintings at the Städel Museum has been
extensively examined during the preparation of the
scholarly catalogue of German paintings from 1550-1725.
This paper focusses on the Frankfurt Altarpiece of the
True Cross, the most ambitious yet most complex work
by the artist. In all seven panels, iconographical changes
are to be noted in various steps of the working process:
figures had been slightly relocated, some underdrawn
but not executed, others added at a later stage. Only by
combining microscopy, IRR and μ-XRF scanning, the
work’s genesis could be grasped. The holistic examina-
tion enabled to gain a profound insight into Elsheimer’s
creative process, moreover shedding light on the com-
plex history of Elsheimer’s core work.
—o—
Adam Elsheimer (1578-1610) is considered a
decisive pioneer of what is now called Baroque
painting. Working in Rome at the same time as
Annibale Carracci (1560-1609), Caravaggio
(1571-1610), or Guido Reni (1575-1642), he
arrived at ambitious pictorial solutions in a small
format. These were praised not least by Rubens
(1577-1640), who had received significant impulses
from his encounter with the German artist in Italy.
‘Surely, after such a loss, our entire profession ought
to clothe itself in mourning. It will not easily succeed in
replacing him; in my opinion he had no equal in small
figures, in landscapes, and in many other subjects’,
the same-aged friend wrote in reaction to the news
of Elsheimer’s early death in December 1610.1
He left a rather small oeuvre. K. Andrews had
given a number of barely 30 copper plate paintings
to which three or four had been added to date,
and just as few drawings, gouaches, and prints.2
A major work from the earlier years of Elsheimer’s
overall short period of artistic activity is the Altar-
piece of the True Cross, generally dated c. 1603-
1605 (ill. 16.1). Together with three other paint-
ings it is part of the collection of the Städel
Museum located in the artist’s native city of
Frankfurt (inv. 2024, 2054, 2118, 2119, 2131,
2142). There, it had been subject of comprehen-
sive examination carried out for the recently
published scholarly catalogues on German paint-
ings 1550-1725.3 Thanks to both established
imaging techniques as well as spatial resolved
micro-X-ray fluorescence analysis (μ-XRF scan-
ning), we were able to describe Elsheimer’s
extremely creative working process for the first
time. In the following, we will highlight the most
important results that allow us to understand
Elsheimer’s way of working supplemented by
further details that have been published before.
202 mareike gerken, christiane weber and almut pollmer-schmidt
A complex ensemble: history and iconography
The Altarpiece of the True Cross is a complexly con-
ceived artistic ensemble.4 In 1612, the Florentine
ambassador Piero Guiccardini described the work
to Cosimo II de’ Medici in full detail: ‘These are the
seven small pictures, all joined in a frame of pear wood
of the shape that appears opposite’ and it is to be
added: After his more or less well-understood
model, today’s frame had been manufactured by
the famous London based Paul Levi after 1976
(ill. 16.1).5 Guiccardini continued, delivering the
devastating verdict of the painter Lodovico Cardi
(Il Cigoli) who was assigned to appraise the altar-
piece offered to the art-collecting Tuscan ruler:
‘the work is beautiful in itself, but it does not seem to
Mr. Lodovico Cigoli as unique as paintings should be
that end up in the hand of a great prince. The manner
is drier and more stunted rather than gallant, and
although it is made with much labour and great effort,
it is in oil, not illuminated, and the work of this master
is not one of his best, and in short, Signor Ludovico
does not consider it a work worthy of His Highness’.6
The altarpiece remained unsold but was never-
theless acquired by Cosimo II seven years later – for
the much lower but still considerable amount of
800 scudi instead of the exorbitant sum of 3000
scudi that was initially requested. Thanks to a closer
look at the related documents, the first owner
known to Guicchardini as the Spaniard Giovanni
Perez could finally been identified: it was the Arch-
deacon Juan Gastón Perez (1567-1644), who had
lived in Rome since 1597 before being designated
as co-adjutator in his home diocese Huesca in
1611.7 By 1620, he finally went back which would
explain the second, ultimately successful sales
attempt in 1619.
It is not entirely proven, but very likely that
Juan Perez was also the commissioner of the Altar-
piece of the True Cross. The Archdeacon, having
close ties with the Teresian Carmel, would eventu-
ally have bequeathed his property to a Colegio of
the Undiscalced Carmelites in Huesca. Of even
greater importance is that he also supported (or was
a member of?) a fraternity devoted to the Cross
that gathered there. At the time of assignment of
the work in or around 1603, the young German
painter Adam Elsheimer had already settled in
Rome for some years, where he was well-acquainted
with artists of Netherlandish origin, among them
Paul Bril and the already-mentioned Peter Paul
Rubens. His brother, the philologist Philip Rubens,
belonged to Elsheimer’s network, too, as did the
Germans Kaspar Schoppe and Johannes Faber.
Both, the erudite diplomate and the medical doctor
and scientist, were probably instrumental for the
artist’s ultimate conversion to Catholicism in
1606.8 They held close ties with Pope Clement
VIII, and it was within the curial networks, where
new congregations strove for spiritual renewal of
the Catholic Church that went along with aes-
thetic modernization. In this context, Elsheimer’s
patronage needs to be situated.
There is no place to elaborate on the impact of
these insights for the interpretation of Elsheimer’s
altarpiece, rather we should return to Guiccardini’s
description. It will help us get an idea of the diverse
subjects incorporated in this most complex work:
On the sketch that accompanied the letter, the
ambassador annotated each panel with a letter and
a legend, starting on the left side.9 The first is
a picture with several little figures showing Saint
Helena leaving from Rome to find the Cross. B is
how she arrives in Jerusalem where she summoned
the Hebrew [called Judas Cyriacus] who had infor-
mation on the whereabouts of the Cross, C when
they dug out the Cross, and D how the True Cross
out of the three crosses found was proved thanks to
a miracle of raising a dead. The final two narrative
pictures change the setting to the Byzantine
emperor Heraclius (c. 575-641) who has re-
captured the holy relic from the Persians. E shows
‘how Heraclius carried the Cross on horseback and
could not move in’, while ‘[w]hen he dismounted, he
entered [Jerusalem] with it on foot’.10 The central
panel shows a heavenly gathering of the saints
around the cross, dynamically leading to the high-
est realms. This was tersely, but aptly described
as ‘New and Old Testament with a lot of figures’. The
 elsheimer’s creative process
altarpiece thus combines the histories of two saints
whose cult was closely tied with the veneration of
the relics of the Cross,11 and an extemporal vision
of Heaven. Saints representing the different grades
of ordination – ranging from the deacons Lawrence
and Stephen, the Latin Church Fathers like (the
bishop) Ambrose, (the cardinal) Hieronymus, to
Pope Gregory the Great –, founders of spiritual
orders, among whom were Saint Francis and
Dominic, but perhaps also Filippo Neri and Teresa
of Ávila, as well as other saintly women and men
surround the Cross in the center. Starting with the
upward-looking Jonah on the fish (symbolizing
Resurrection), the assembly transcends to biblical
figures. The main compositional line runs through
the Old Testament King David and the prophet
pointing upward with a stick, Moses, Abraham
(with Isaac on his lap) and other Arch Fathers of
Israel to the apostles and evangelists. In the highest
realms, at the end of the angels’ procession, Mary is
being crowned by the Holy Trinity.12
The central panel not only differs in its dynamic
composition from exemplary models by Veronese
(Coronation of the Virgin, 1583, Venice, Gallerie
dell’Accademia, inv. 264), the Bassani (Paradise,
c. 1580, Bassano del Grappa, Museo Civico, inv.
18), or Rottenhammer (Coronation of the Virgin,
1596, London, National Gallery, NG 6481), it also
offers something entirely new. It embodies an
intensely sophisticated theological substance by
summarizing the entire history of Salvation cen-
tered around Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection in
one image. At the same time, it has a profound
ecclesiological message: through the veneration of
the Cross, the (Roman Catholic) Church, repre-
sented by the hierarchy of offices, duties and
religious orders, is transformed from the Ecclesia
Militans, suffering and struggling in the world, into
the Ecclesia Triumphans. The representation is
based on liturgy (on the feast of the Exaltation of
the Cross, on 14 September), perhaps even in
priestly practice and a specific spirituality. It
remains speculation whether Juan Gastón Perez
introduced or promoted the devotion to the Cross
203
in Huesca. In any case, thanks to his legacy, the
oratory of the aforementioned brotherhood was
adorned with a pictorial program dedicated to the
glorification of the Cross: it was equipped with
what has surprisingly been described as a small
retable made of ebony, consisting of seven images
depicting the finding of the Cross. The central and
largest one being ‘so well crafted’ that art experts
would probably value it at 3000 silver escudos13 –
presumably not by coincidence the sum Perez had
originally asked for Elsheimer’s Altarpiece of the
True Cross.
It is likely that the owner had commissioned a
copy of the work to take with him to Spain. After
all, the fact that it was indeed the original which he
sold to Florence and ended up in Frankfurt is
proven not least by the technical investigations
that follow here. At the Tuscan court, the altar-
piece was installed in the bedroom of Grand Duke
Cosimo. His son and successor Ferdinando II had it
re-framed in pietro duro before passing it to his
uncle Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici in 1625. Its subse-
quent history is less clear. The work made its way
to England, possibly to the Arundel Collection,
and was separated into several groups at some time
in the seventeenth or early eighteenth century.
Given the various provenances, it is a miracle of
its own that all of the seven panels of Elsheimer’s
masterpiece found their way to the collection of
the Städel Museum.14
A complex genesis: the technology
The seven (predominantly) small-format copper
plates of Adam Elsheimer’s Altarpiece of the True
Cross offer figure-rich depictions composed in
astonishing details especially in main characters.
The respective scenery appears thoughtfully com-
posed, the storyline is sharpened with the help of
lighting, consciously directing the viewer’s gaze to
the protagonists. Purposefully placed light reflec-
tions in the robes of the main figures support the
impression of their movements. Though small, a
closer glance reveals that all seven colourful paint-
ings are both convincing and confident in their
204 mareike gerken, christiane weber and almut pollmer-schmidt
execution. The depictions appear well thought out
and carefully prepared from the very beginning. All
the more surprising was the discovery of an astound-
ingly complex painterly structure including numer-
ous pentimenti, which testify to frequent changes
and re-decisions during the painting process.
During the art-technological examination, it
became increasingly clear, that the composition of
each panel was not at all finalized in detail before
the painting process itself. Larger parts of the rep-
resentations were sharpened or even newly
invented amidst the painting process. In order to
provide insights into this multi-layered and com-
plex pictorial genesis, the following section will
present and discuss the art-technological findings
and their assignment to specific working steps.
Methodology of the examination
For the purpose of getting a detailed overview of
the genesis of the altarpiece, all seven copper plate
paintings were examined with a holistic analytical
approach mainly based on non-destructive imaging
techniques such as infrared reflectography (IRR),15
X-ray radiography (XR, on selected plates),16 UV
fluorescence (UV),17 observations in visible light
(VIS) on macro- as well as microscopic scale18 and
spatially resolved micro-X-ray fluorescence analysis
(μ-XRF scanning).19 The interpretation of results
took previous analysis of the altarpiece into
account, that further included scanning electron
microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis
(SEM/EDX) and Fourier-transform infrared spec-
troscopy with focal plane array (FTIR/ATR) on
cross-sections.20
Preparation of the support
The seven panels were cut out of large copper
sheets of varying thicknesses in the desired for-
mat.21 Their surface appears carefully smoothed.
All panels have a silver-coloured metal coating on
their front side, which consists of a tin-lead-alloy
and was presumably intended to prevent chemical
reactions between copper and paint.22 A light gray
oil primer serves as a ground layer, containing lead
white and an organic black pigment (probably
charcoal).23 It was dabbed onto the copper plates
very thinly with a brush. Not only because of abra-
sions the dabbed surface structure shines through
thinly painted areas but in some cases has been
skillfully integrated into the design of hair or soil.24
Underdrawing
The underdrawing was created in several steps, and
it is not easy to grasp the chronology. Different
types of underdrawings can be traced, that were not
only executed with different drawing media but
can also be assigned to different stages of the work-
ing process. In the first phase, the main features of
the composition were applied by using a dry
medium, probably charcoal, as revealed by IRR
(ill. 16.2). This initial draft was performed in a
sketchy manner and without much commitment
for the painterly execution. Scarce indications
for the mouth and nose as well as round or triangu-
lar markings for the eyes are characteristic of
Elsheimer’s style and can be also found in his
drawings on paper.25 The same is true for shadow
hatchings seem to be absent with a few exceptions.
In a second step, charcoal lines were partly
reworked and defined more precisely by brush and
colour. The corresponding lines are difficult to
recognize. In some places, preparatory outlines in a
blue-gray tone shine through the upper layers of
paint, visible both under the microscope and in
the IRR image. The composition fixed by these
second-stage lines mostly overlap with the final
version of the depiction. Not identical but belong-
ing to the same work step is an underdrawing with
brown earth pigments that could only be unraveled
by applying μ-XRF scanning. Lines visible in iron
and manganese μ-XRF maps could be assigned to
brown lines visible under the microscope that show
characteristics of a fluid application with a brush,
thus indicating the use of an umber or brown ochre.
It is noteworthy, that these brown underdrawings
could only be detected on four panels,26 which did
not show any evidence of the before-mentioned
blue-gray underdrawing (e.g. ill. 16.3). While
 elsheimer’s creative process 205

Ill. 16.2. Adam Elsheimer, Altarpiece of the True Cross (ill. 16.1),
IRR, detail, Heraclius is Denied Entry to Jerusalem on Horseback revealing single charcoal lines of the initial composition
206 mareike gerken, christiane weber and almut pollmer-schmidt

A B C D

Ill. 16.3. Adam Elsheimer, Altarpiece of the True Cross (ill. 16.1), detail, Questioning of Judas Cyriacus.
A: visible light. B: IRR. C: micro-XRF map for Mn-Kα. D: detail of C

A B C

D E F

Ill. 16.4. Adam Elsheimer, Altarpiece of the True Cross (ill. 16.1), detail, Digging for the Cross. A: visible light.
B: IRR. C: micro-XRF map for Mn-Kα. D: micro-XRF map for Ni-Kα. E: micro-XRF map for Cu-Kα.
F: Mapping of the two blue underpaintings (azurite: light blue; smalt: dark blue
 elsheimer’s creative process
Adam Elsheimer appears to have changed his
medium during the second step of underdrawing, he
did not alter his general approach. Yet, to a certain
degree it remains unknown whether brown under-
drawing lines were also used on the three remaining
panels because their distribution in the elemental
maps of μ-XRF scanning may be easily shielded by
ochres and umbers applied within the painting pro-
cess. The drawn lines visible in iron and manganese
elemental maps provided a wealth of detail, reveal-
ing aspects of Elsheimer’s working practice that are
comparable to his sketching on paper. His charac-
teristic style in both drawing and underdrawing is
lively and free with outlines repeatedly traced and
specific characteristics used such as triangular
shapes for indicating eyes. Equally, the underdraw-
ing shows a clear differentiation between the
sketchy shapes of figural staffages and more impor-
tant figures. This becomes clearly apparent when
comparing the preliminary drawing of the Embarca-
tion of Helena with the underdrawing of the final
painting. Another very striking detail of the pre-
liminary drawing can be compared to the under-
drawing of the Questioning of Judas Cyriacus (ill. 16.3).
Like a preparatory drawing of Helena preserved
in Warsaw (Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, inv.
146565/200),27 the underdrawing of the skirt of
Helena does not indicate the drapery, but the legs of
Helena, probably to gain deeper knowledge on the
modelling of the skirt itself (ill. 16.3d).
The brown underdrawing of the Testing of the
Cross also shows major compositional changes that
become evident especially in the detail displayed
on the right side. The bishop, who is today depicted
over the entire height of the panel close to the
right edge, was initially planned as a small figure
located in the background of the scene, partly
covered by a first draft of Helena, who was initially
planned with an inclined head.
Underpainting
Not enough so far: the compositional process,
meticulous as it is, was even more complex. Next to
the multi-staged underdrawing process, different
207
underpaintings were used in various combinations
with each other, which likely had a compositional
function. Nonetheless, the coloured preparation of
larger image sections also marks the beginning of
the actual painting process. Under the microscope
and visible even to the naked eye, five of the seven
panels show a strong blue underpainting of the sky
and background landscape, which contains azurite
and lead white.28 When applying this layer, the
artist generously left out the main motifs in the
foreground. Horizontal brushstrokes and a distinc-
tive impasto are characteristic for this underpaint-
ing. In most of the cases, these horizontal structures
created by the brush contribute to the painterly
characterization of the sky.
Scenes with a deep pictorial space, concerning
four out of seven panels, have a second large-scale
underpainting in the middle ground based on
smalt as the main component.29 As both under-
paintings can be always distinctively assigned to
specific areas of the painting, we believe that both
underpaintings were used to consciously separate
different levels (ill. 16.4). In contrast to the bright
blue azurite underpainting, the smalt layer has
significantly altered due to degradation processes
of the pigment and today appears brown and
transparent. It was hence barely visible under the
microscope or in IRR image and could only be
detected by μ-XRF scanning. Like the azurite
underpainting (ill. 16.4e), the smalt layer was
executed with broad and coarsely applied brush-
strokes (ill. 16.4d), that only roughly leaves out
the figures depicted in the front (ill. 16.4f). It can
be assumed that these underpaintings were
(at least) partly further used to elaborate the
composition, which becomes especially clear
when taking into consideration the huge amount
of pentimenti discussed below (see: Pentimenti and
compositional changes).
Painterly execution
The palette comprises various red, yellow, and
brown earth pigments, vermilion, lead white, lead
tin yellow, copper-based blue and green pigments,
208 mareike gerken, christiane weber and almut pollmer-schmidt
smalt, ultramarine, carbon-blacks, as well as uni-
dentified lake pigments. From the surroundings to
the main motives, colour application and charac-
teristics of Elsheimer’s painterly execution are to be
briefly outlined. The landscape is prepared with
thinly spreading paint, which partly allows the
dabbed structure of the primer layer to show
through. Diagonal brush marks, always applied in
the same way, characterize the foliage of treetops.
Contrastingly divided into dark green shadows and
grey-green or yellow light areas, they give an
impression of spatially staggered trees (ill. 16.5b).
Cooler and lighter in colours, motifs located in the
background lose their local tones near the horizon
to capture distance (ill. 16.5a).
As a first layer of paint, robes in the foreground
usually show a dark version of the local tone. Above
this, folds and fabric were painted with intensive
colours and their related white mixtures. Finally,
Elsheimer placed bright light reflections on the
pleat heights, that elaborately supports the impres-
sion of movement or immobility of a person.30
Faces in the foreground mostly have an ochre-
grey base tone, partly covered with light and
colourful flesh tones that leave out the eye sockets
as well as shadows around the mouth and nose. The
painter often sharpened the lighting with hard shad-
ows and firm boundaries between light and shadow.
A B
Ill. 16.5. Adam Elsheimer, Altarpiece of the True Cross (ill. 16.1), details. A: Embarcation of Helena, background area.
B: Questioning of Judas Cyriacus, treetop. C: Testing of the Cross, flesh tone paint
This was further intensified by a contrasting paint-
erly treatment of both areas, specifying individual
forms and facial features in the light, while only
hinting at details in the shadows (ill. 16.5c).
Pentimenti and compositional changes
During the examination, numerous small and
extensive pentimenti could be detected, including
not only small displacements of a motif but also
extensive and complex changes in composition or
iconography. Selected examples discussed in the
following aim to give a small insight into Elsheimer’s
working approach and process of image creation.
The central group of figures in the Embarcation
of Helena, for which a preparatory drawing exists,
had in parts been executed when Elsheimer made
extensive corrections (ill. 16.6).31 Helena and her
companion were shifted to the right, whereas the
two women in the back were reworked on the
already painted landscape of the background and a
grazing donkey on the right was rotated. In this
specific case, these overpaintings caused early
shrinkage cracks because of an unfavourable thick
and multi-layered paint structure.
Another good example for significant composi-
tional changes in different working stages is the
Digging of the Cross (ill. 16.4a). In this case, smalt
as well as azurite underpaintings were used to colour
C
 elsheimer’s creative process 209

A B

Ill. 16.6. Adam Elsheimer, Altarpiece of the True Cross (ill. 16.1), IRR, details. A: Embarcation of Helena.
B: Exaltation of the True Cross, underdrawing of three discarded faces

the middle- and background respectively. Both
layers initially left out a large figure in the left fore-
ground that due to its shape was likely outlining a
figure with a miter-like headwear that was likely
intended to be the bishop now located in the right
background as a tiny figure (ill. 16.4d-f). Like all
other parts of the composition of the Digging of the
Cross, no indication of this bishop could be detected
within the underdrawing stage in IRR image
(ill. 16.4b). In this case, the brown ochre/umber
underdrawing was used for a detailed draft of the
scene. However, in this specific case, it was proba-
bly only applied after the bishop had been rejected,
as it shows the first draft of the figure visible today
with the shovel that was initially planned to be
depicted in the process of digging (ill. 16.4c).
The IRR image of the main panel, the Exaltation
of the True Cross, gives evidence of a large number
of pentimenti that result in extensive composi-
tional and iconographic changes. The face of Saint
Catherine, who has taken her place left of the cross
next to Mary Magdalene, appears twice in the IRR
image due to her deviating position in the under-
drawing. In the first version, her head was shifted
slightly to the lower right and her gaze, that today
meets the conversing Saints Sebastian and Gregory
on the left side, was previously fixed on Saint
Jerome who, on his term, was slightly shifted to
the right. Even more striking are three faces
which were originally planned around the figure of
Jonah but were not executed in the painting pro-
cess (ill. 16.6b). Jonah’s left arm superimposes the
face of a young woman, while between him and
the female saint on the right, rejected outlines of
an old woman become visible. A third face is now-
adays covered by the profile of the later added
knight saint on the far right. There, a face looking
at the viewer had initially been planned but was
eventually discarded.
Elsheimer thus made adjustments that inter-
connect the individual figures or groups in a more
precise way as well as modifications that must have
been motivated by content-related considerations.
The latter applies to changes that accentuate the
narrative (like in the Digging of the Cross) or, in
the central panel, the theological meaning. Plan-
ning, removing, or adding figures (like the three
children belonging to the iconography of Saint
Nicholas to the left or the knight saint to the
right) must have been coordinated in the process
of painting with the patron and/or with theologi-
cal consultants. By not executing the three figures
210 mareike gerken, christiane weber and almut pollmer-schmidt
near Jonah, the Old Testament prophet was given
decisive importance. The largely unobstructed
view of the fish and his exposed back now corre-
sponds to Jonah’s function as a bridge or hinge.
Prefigurating the resurrection, the prophet is posi-
tioned in between the representatives of the
church and those figuring in the biblical history of
salvation. Jonah takes the viewers with him in
looking at the cross (and thus emphasizing the
death and resurrection of Christ). Therefore,
Elsheimer’s modifications emphasize the signifi-
cance of the cross-connecting heaven and earth.
Conclusion
Only by combining various analytical methods,
Elsheimer’s sophisticated and complex painting
technique could be grasped. The artist used differ-
ent types of underdrawings and underpaintings to
develop the final depiction of the individual seven
panels of the Altarpiece of the True Cross, which
– despite their generally small size – are of high
compositional complexity. With respect to this,
the extent of corrections on nearly all panels is
also astonishing. The large number of pentimenti
suggests that Elsheimer repeatedly tried to optimize
and refine his compositions during the working
process. This relates not only to his artistic charac-
teristics but appears to have been at least partly
motivated by an intention to reinforce the theo-
logical substance of the altarpiece. Subsequent
investigations need to define in greater detail
the considerations on the part of the presumed
commissioner, Juan Gastón Perez, or of Elsheimer’s
other possible theological advisers that led to these
adjustments.
NOTES
1 Quoted after: Frankfurt/Edinburgh/London 2006, p. 9.
2 Andrews 1977. New additions are given by, among others:
Krämer 1978 (Saint Elizabeth Cares for the Sick); Klessmann 2010
(Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine); Seifert 2021 (Martyrdom of Saint
Lawrence). Most recently, Christ in the House of Mary and Martha came
to the art market, see: Rasmussen 1980.
3 Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, pp. 46-65 (Deluge), pp. 66-77
(Jacob’s Dream), pp. 78-99 (Conversion of Saul), pp. 100-157 (Altarpiece
of the True Cross).
4 Centre: Exaltation of the True Cross, 48.6 × 36/36.2 × 0.1 cm
(inv. no. 2024); left: Embarcation of Helena, 22.6 × 14.9 × 0.06/0.07 cm
(inv. 2131); bottom left: Questioning of Judas Cyriakus, 15 × 15.9/16 ×
0.03/0.04 cm (inv. 2142); bottom middle left: Digging for the Cross, 14.7
× 16.1/16.2 × 0.03/0.04 cm (inv. 2118); bottom middle right: Testing of
the Cross, 14.7/14.8 × 16.3 × 0.03/0.04 cm (inv. 2140); bottom right:
Heraclius is Denied Entry to Jerusalem on Horseback, 14.9/15 × 15.8/16 ×
0.03/0.04 cm (inv. 2119); right: Emperor Heraclius’ Entry into Jerusalem,
22.7 × 15.2/15.3 × 0.06/0.07 cm (inv. 2054).
5 Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, pp. 112-113.
6 Archivio di Stato di Firenze (ASF), Miscellanea Medicea 93/
III, ins., c. 192 (5 October 1612); verified and transcribed by: Fratini
2016; first published by: Crinò 1965.
7 Payment instruction by Piero Guiccardini, 28 December
1619, edited in: Corti 1989, p. 144, nr. 52. It calls the owner ‘Arcidia-
cono Giovan Gastone Perez’; identified in: Rudolf, Fratini 2016,
pp. 31-32; Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, pp. 149-150. For Perez’ biography,
see: Fontana Calvo 2011, esp. pp. 215-216, n. 23.
8 For the artist’s biography, see: Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 2,
pp. 724-725 (with references). For additional links to the Oratorians,
see: Von Henneberg 1999.
9 See note 6. Guicciardini elaborated his descriptions in a letter
dating 4 December 1619 (ASF, Mediceo del Principato, 3334, c. 751r;
transcribed by: Rudolf 2016), which I add in the following paraphrases
to clarify the narrative.
10 See note 6, also the following quotation.
11 For the sources, see: Drijvers 1992; Heussler 2006; with focus
on the altarpiece: Heussler 2018. The main, but not only tradition is
Legenda aurea, 68.307-309 and 137.606-607 (Jacobus de Voragine
2014, 1, pp. 958-965; 2, pp. 1778-1785).
12 For a detailed description, the summary of earlier interpreta-
tions, and additional thoughts on which the following is based, see:
Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, pp. 101, 139-149.
13 Quoted after: Fontana Calvo 2011, p. 251.
14 For the provenance, see: Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, pp. 130-
132; Pollmer-Schmidt 2023; and a lecture available online (Almut
Pollmer-Schmidt, Die sieben Leben des Kreuzaltars. Die bewegte
Geschichte von Adam Elsheimers Hauptwerk, held at the Art historical
Institute, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, 8 December 2020):
https://youtu.be/2EM1mbXzdjs.
15 Opus Instruments Osiris A1 with an InGaAs array (0.9-
1.7 μm) and a maximum image size of 4096 × 4096 pixel (see: Saunders
et al. 2006). For illumination, halogen-based Hedler® HT 19s lights
were used.
16 Digital X-ray imaging with an Art X-Ray Instrument NT3,
NTB X-ray GmbH, 30 kV, 19.40mA, 30 ms, 1pb.
17 UV 400W Flood Lamp (Deffner & Johann). Photographic
documentation with a Nikon D5100 in tiff format at 8000-9000 Kel-
vin.
18 Leica MZ 6 equipped with two Schott KL 1600 LED lights for
visible light (VIS) and raking light. UV conducted with an UV fluores-
cence Reskolux® UV 365 hand lamp, emitting a wavelength range of
360-370 nm with a peak at 365 nm. Photographic documentation was
performed with a Nikon D5100 in tiff format and photographs were
further processed with Photoshop CS5.1 for focus stacking, stitching,
etc.
19 μ-XRF scanning often referred to as macro-X-ray fluorescence
analysis or MA-XRF was conducted on all seven panels in overall and
detail scans with a Bruker M6 Jetstream (see: Alfeld et al. 2013), oper-
ated with a Rh-target X-ray tube at 50 kV and 600 μA. The instrument
is equipped with a 30 mm2 SDD spectrometer set to a maximum
throughput of 275 kcps in an energy range up to 40 keV. No filters
were used for primary radiation. A beam size of 100 μm was used for all
scans. Different acquisition parameters were used due to the different
 elsheimer’s creative process
requirements and scanning time assignable to each scan. Detailed
measurement conditions are documented at the Städel Museum. Data
was evaluated using Bruker M6 Software, PyMca (see: Cotte et al. 2016;
Solé et al. 2007) and datamuncher (see: Alfeld, Janssens 2015).
20 Schmid 2013; Schmid 2017.
21 See: Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, p. 111, figs. 6.1-6.7.
22 Schmid 2017, pp. 58-60; Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, p. 111,
fig. 6.8.
23 Schmid 2013, p. 78.
24 Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, p. 113, figs. 6.13-6.14.
25 See: Jacoby 2008, pp. 118-126, 137-147, 163-171, nrs. 5, 6, 9,
10, 14, 15. Also see: note 27 below.
26 Embarcation of the Empress Helena (inv. 2131), Questioning of
Judas Cyriacus (inv. 2142), Digging for the Cross (inv. 2118), and Testing
of the Cross (inv. 2140).
27 Figure Study for Helena and Two of her Companions, pen and
brown ink, light gray and light brown wash, 134 × 105 mm. See: Jacoby
2008, pp. 188-191, nr. 19.
28 On the Embarcation of Helena (inv. 2131), see: Pollmer-
Schmidt 2021, 1, p. 115, fig. 6.15 (IRR), fig. 6.16 (mapping of the two
blue underpaintings). On the Emperor Heraclius’ Entry into Jerusalem
(inv. 2054), see: Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, p. 115, fig. 6.17 (IRR),
211
fig. 6.18 (mapping of the azurite underpainting). On the Questioning of
Judas Cyriakus (inv. 2142), see: Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, p. 116,
fig. 6.23 (mapping of the two blue underpaintings), fig. 6.26 (micro
XRF Ni Kα elemental map). On the Digging for the Cross (inv. 2118),
see: Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, p. 116, fig. 6.24 (mapping of the two blue
underpaintings), fig. 6.27 (micro XRF Ni Kα elemental map). On the
Heraclius is Denied Entry to Jerusalem on Horseback (inv. 2119), see:
Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, p. 117, fig. 6.25 (mapping of the azurite
underpainting), fig. 6.28 (micro XRF Cu Kα elemental map).
29 On the Embarcation of Helena (inv. 2131), see: Pollmer-
Schmidt 2021, 1, p. 115, fig. 6.15 (IRR), fig. 6.16 (mapping of the two
blue underpaintings). On the Questioning of Judas Cyriakus (inv. 2142),
see: Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, p. 116, fig. 6.23 (mapping of the two
blue underpaintings), fig. 6.26 (micro XRF Ni Kα elemental map).
On the Digging for the Cross (inv. 2118), see: Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1,
p. 116, fig. 6.24 (mapping of the two blue underpaintings), fig. 6.27
(micro XRF Ni Kα elemental map). A smalt-based underlay was
also detected for the Testing of the Cross (inv. 2140), the micro-XRF
elemental map, however, is not shown in the catalogue (see: Pollmer-
Schmidt 2021, 1).
30 See: Pollmer-Schmidt 2021, 1, p. 121, figs. 6.39-41, 6.44.
31 See: note 27 above.
Ill. 17.1. Michele Desubleo, Self-portrait as Saint Luke, c. 1624-1625, oil on canvas, 124 x 93 cm, private collection
 17
Michele Desubleo’s Self-portrait as Saint Luke:
Technique in Context and the Creation
of a Maniera
Stefania Girometti and Claudio Seccaroni
ABSTRACT: The Maubeuge-born painter Michel Desoubleay,
called Michele Desubleo (1601-1676), left Flanders for
Rome before 1624. With the substantial help of his elder
stepbrother Nicolas Régnier, he was first introduced into
the flourishing Roman art market and then spent his
whole career working for prestigious patrons in Bologna,
Venice, and Parma. Recent technical analysis on Desubleo’s
paintings revealed for the first time consistent informa-
tion about his painting technique and style. The IR reflec-
tography of his Self-portrait as Saint Luke (c. 1624-1625)
shows how the Flemish painter organised this composi-
tion dated to the beginning of his Italian sojourn. By
analysing the results of the Saint Luke’s IRR, this paper has
two goals. Firstly, to understand Desubleo’s technique
and style in context. Secondly, to consider the visual and
material impact that Desubleo’s mobility had both on his
technical and stylistic choices and which ultimately led to
the creation of a specific maniera.
—o—
His portraits were so beautiful that one could not
discern ‘whether they were real or the living models
were fake’.1 Such enthusiasm had the Tuscan eru-
dite Pierfrancesco Rinuccini in 1641 for the
painter Michele Desubleo (1601-1676), today
little known outside specialist circles. Desubleo,
praised by Rinuccini as ‘pittore esquisitissimo’
(mostly distinguished painter) created his own
maniera, a hybrid style that secured himself impor-
tant commissions, including an altarpiece painted
for Pope Urban VIII Barberini.2
In this paper, we will discuss Desubleo’s first
known painting, the Self-portrait as Saint Luke
(ill. 17.1), in order to understand Desubleo’s tech-
nique and style in context and to consider the visual
and material impact that the painter’s mobility had
both on his technical and stylistic choices – which
ultimately led to the creation of a specific maniera.
Who was Michele Desubleo? Like many fellow
Flemish artists, Desubleo migrated to Italy and
never returned to Flanders. A native of Maubeuge,
where he was born in 1601, Desubleo shared the
same hometown and the same mother with his
stepbrother Nicolas Régnier (c. 1588-1667). His
first documented presence in Italy is in 1624, when
he is recorded as living with Régnier in Rome.3
The two brothers left Rome together some time
after spring 1625: Régnier settled down in Venice,
while Desubleo probably stopped off in Bologna,
even if archival evidence of his arrival in the town
is missing. At the beginning of the 1630s, Carlo
Cesare Malvasia mentioned Desubleo as ‘primo
pittore di Bologna’ among Guido Reni’s pupils in
the master’s studio. His Bolognese years lasted
until shortly before 1654, when he moved to
Venice.4 Ten years later, around 1664, after a yet
undocumented sojourn in Milan, Desubleo even-
tually settled down in Parma, where he was buried
on November 12th 1676.
214 stefania girometti and claudio seccaroni

Desubleo’s Self-portrait as Saint Luke

There are no documented commissions from
Desubleo’s brief Roman phase. The only work
certainly painted in Rome, Susannah and the Elders,
is considered lost and documented only by an
engraving by Charlotte Louise Soyer (ill. 17.2).5
The canvas was painted for Vincenzo Giustiniani,
an aristocratic Italian banker, renowned patron of
Caravaggio as well as other Italian and foreign
painters, including Régnier himself.6 Nevertheless,
there is one painting whose features suggest a
Roman origin and even a connection with both the
Giustinani and the academic circle: Desubleo’s Self-
portrait as Saint Luke, now in a private collection.
Infrared Radiation images (IRR) provide important
information on his technique, which will be dis-
cussed after a brief iconographical analysis.7
In order to understand Desubleo’s Self-portrait,
we must first consider Régnier’s painting Saint Luke
Painting the Virgin (Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts), Ill. 17.2. Charlotte Louise Soyer after Michele Desubleo,
dated 1617-1622 (ill. 17.3). Régnier chose to repre- Susannah and the Elders, 1812, engraving [after the original
painting, formerly in Vincenzo Giustiniani Collection],
sent the saint sitting at a table and looking directly from Charles-Paul Landon, Galerie Giustiniani, ou Catalogue
at the viewer, still holding his brush and palette. He figuré des tableaux de cette célèbre galerie, transportée
has clearly been interrupted in his artistic activity, d’Italie en France, Paris, 1812, pl. 17
as his right hand holding the brush suggests. Saint
Luke is painting onto a small canvas resting on the Self-portrait (ill. 17.1). In the latter, Desubleo takes
book stand, a reference to the New Testament texts up the scheme of Régnier’s painting figure, but
he wrote. Behind the saint, an ox emerges from the changes it in some essential elements. Sitting in his
dark background in the right corner of the picture. chair, the painter looks directly at the viewer while
The painting was once part of a series of the four taking a break from painting. However, he was
evangelists now lost.8 The dating to the years not surprised in the middle of the action like in
between 1617 and 1622, during Régnier’s stay in Régnier’s painting, where the evangelist is still
Rome, is undisputed. There are some unmistakable holding brush and palette in his hand. Compared
similarities between Saint Luke and the Christ in to this painting, Desubleo’s tightly cropped compo-
the Supper at Emmaus (Postdam, Bildergalerie Sans- sition suggests a more intimate, almost contempla-
souci, Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten tive moment. On the table in front of him, leaned
Berlin-Brandenburg, inv. GK I 7639) – formerly in against some books, a grounded canvas reveals
the Giustiniani’s collection – such as the facial oval, a preliminary drawing of the Virgin and Child.
the hair and beard hairstyle, the well-proportioned Desubleo surely knew Régnier’s painting and yet
long nose and the deep dark eyes.9 For instance, in chose not to repeat the exact composition. He
the Supper at Emmaus the Bolognese features prevail depicted himself as Saint Luke, with the ox in the
over the Caravaggesque ones.10 background on the left. Nevertheless, by choosing
The similarities become even more striking when an evident portrait pose, he made the viewer aware
we compare Régnier’s Saint Luke with Desubleo’s of being looking at a self-portrait, not at a sacred or
 michele desubleo’s SELF - PORTRAIT AS SAINT LUKE 215

Ill. 17.3. Nicolas Régnier, Saint Luke Painting the Virgin, 1617-1622, oil on canvas, 148.5 x 120 cm,
Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts
216 stefania girometti and claudio seccaroni
historical painting. Furthermore, Desubleo pushed
the ox back in the background, where it is rather
hidden, especially if compared to the prominent
placement the animal has in Régnier’s composi-
tion. This additional feature stresses the self-
portrait nature of Desubleo’s painting. From an
anatomical point of view, a comparison between
Desubleo’s Self-portrait and the one by Régnier also
shows striking physical similarities between the
brothers.11
However, the intimate character of Desubleo’s
Self-portrait is combined with some features of a
guild image. Indeed, there is no doubt that in this
painting Desubleo is presenting himself to the
viewer as a painter, but unlike Régnier and many
other artists who represent the saint caught in the
painting act, Desubleo shows him drawing on the
canvas, and the preference given to the drawing
phase over painting, underlines an academic point
of view, since ‘drawing is the father of all arts’.12
In the archival records of the Roman Acca-
demia di San Luca there is no record of Desubleo’s
membership. Due to the lack of integration into such
prestigious official painters’ institution, Desubleo’s
will to assert himself could have determined
the subject of the painting. The Self-portrait would
thus have masked, at least iconically, the lack of
official affiliation to the Roman Accademia. The
subject of the painting is strongly influenced by the
northern tradition and the Flemish character of
this manifest portrait is particularly evident. By
adding an almost corporative and very northern
feature to the painting, Desubleo distances himself
from self-portraits of the Roman and Bolognese
schools. It is no coincidence, however, that he
leaves the Virgin out of the picture, stepping aside
from the direct line of tradition of the northern
iconography of the Guilds of Saint Luke. Another
feature that differs from these northern representa-
tions is the canvas support of the small painting in
Desubleo’s hand and the brown colour of the paint-
ing ground. Unlike the Flemish tradition, where
small votive representations were still painted on
panel in the seventeenth century, the Virgin image
is painted on a small canvas. This was a common
feature of votive painting in Italy at the time, even
for small paintings like these, and is also present in
Régnier’s Saint Luke. Furthermore, it is noteworthy
that Régnier placed a drop of the so-called ‘vernis-
gel’ in the palette centre – a common practice,
documented both in paintings by Flemish artists
and in Northern European written sources.13
Underdrawing
Together with its symbolical features, Desubleo’s
Self-portrait takes a prominent place in the artist’s
work for another important reason. Indeed, it is in
this very painting that the attentive viewer can
detect eminent details of Desubleo’s painting style.
Turning his gaze towards the viewer, the painter
invites him to discover the first steps of his painting
process (ill. 17.4). Instead of the grey ground – typ-
ical for Northern Europe –, the small canvas
features a red-brown ground, widely used in Italy.14
On this ground, Desubleo has drawn the contours
of the Virgin and Child with the white chalk he
still bears in his right hand.15 This gives us a unique
insight into the painter’s technique, especially in
his underdrawing. By using a dry medium such as
chalk, the very free sketch can be easily corrected.
Thus, he first drew the cross on Mary’s face to
determine the axis between the nose and the eyes.
The contours are then painted with a brush, mak-
ing the white traces of chalk disappear slightly. In
any case, due to the proximity of the refractive
index of white chalk and linseed oil, the sketch
would disappear once covered with paint layers.
The palette on the table shows the primary
colours with which the underdrawing will be
covered. Two brushes are placed on the table fore-
ground – one with blunted head for painting
larger areas, and a smaller one for the finer parts.
Desubleo cautiously placed the brushes heads
beyond the edge of the table, in order to protect the
brushes and keep the table clean. The palette also
provides further important information. A pasty
white is used for sketching, while the red – pre-
sumably a lake – is mixed with the pink consisting
 michele desubleo’s
A B
Ill. 17.4. Michele Desubleo, Self-portrait as Saint Luke (ill. 17.1), detail. A: visible light. B: X-radiograph. C: IRR
of vermilion and lead white for the flesh colour.
Green is also used for the skin, as evidenced by
his greenish, shadowed left cheek area. On his left
faceside, Desubleo probably left the painting
ground open in transition zones between lighter
and darker parts. Furthermore, he modelled shad-
ows using green paint. Equally interesting is the
three-dimensionality suggested by the translucency
of the painting ground on his left thumb.
Insights in Desubleo’s technique are also pro-
vided by IRR images, clearly showing that the
painter did not use a meticulous underdrawing
(ill. 17.5). At the same time, one must also con-
sider his use of an elusive underdrawing technique
such as white chalk. After a provisional sketch,
Desubleo first confirmed and reinforced the out-
lines with dark brushstrokes before painting the
figure directly on the ground, then contouring with
a dark colour the head outline, the so-called ‘dark
halo technique’.16 Desubleo used it in order to rein-
force the contrast with the red-brown ground in
the background, according to a very frequent prac-
tice in the seventeenth century. Italian painters
from the previous centuries also widely used this
technique – one think of Titian, to name only an
illustrious example.17 On his right hand, Desubleo
first sketched veins with black matter, enhanced by
SELF - PORTRAIT AS SAINT LUKE 217
C
the IRR images (ill. 17.4). Under the mantle flap,
we notice that, in order to achieve a correct ana-
tomical construction, he first drew the body con-
tour and then painted the swollen coat (ill. 17.6).
Conclusion
Several new elements can be identified in Desub-
leo’s Self-portrait. Firstly, the subject is clearly taken
from the northern tradition, but at the same time
executed with very Roman features. He explicitly
refers to Régnier’s Saint Luke Painting the Virgin, but
without copying his brother. Secondly, Desubleo
chooses a representation associated with the north-
ern painters’ guilds to demonstrate his status as
an artist. It has not yet been demonstrated if one
should consider this painting as a morceau de
réception. Yet, considering Régnier’s activity at the
Accademia di San Luca, this seems plausible.18
Thirdly, Desubleo’s Self-portrait shows clear evi-
dence for his own painting technique. As of today,
this is his first known painting. As shown, the com-
parison with Régnier’s Saint Luke helps us establish-
ing a chronology. Régnier’s painting has been dated
to the years between 1617 and 1622, consequently
Desubleo must have produced his composition
between 1624 and 1625, while living in Rome with
Régnier. Above all, Desubleo’s Self-portrait testifies
218 stefania girometti and claudio seccaroni

Ill. 17.5. Michele Desubleo, Self-portrait as Saint Luke (ill. 17.1), IRR
 michele desubleo’s
Ill. 17.6. Michele Desubleo, Self-portrait as Saint Luke
(ill. 17.1), IRR, detail
to his self-confidence: a northern painter inte-
grated into the Roman artistic milieu with contacts
to high-ranking personalities, establishing his own
maniera and whose career had already proven some
success (see Giustinani).
Recent technical analysis on Desubleo’s paint-
ings revealed for the first time consistent informa-
tion about materials, technique and style.19 The
IR reflectography of Desubleo’s Self-portrait,
painted right at the beginning of his Italian
sojourn in 1624-1625, shows how the Flemish
painter organised his composition. The analysis
proves how he skipped precisely drawn prepara-
tory studies, opting for a more versatile, directly
traced white chalk drawing on the warm red-
brown ground. This technique helped Desubleo
in establishing his own maniera by alluding to
Caravaggesque techniques and simultaneously
including Franco-Flemish elements.
SELF - PORTRAIT AS SAINT LUKE 219
NOTES
1 ‘Mentre d’ardor vivace colmi ritratti lumi / io non discerno se veri
questi / o se sian finti i vivi’. Pierfrancesco Rinuccini cited in: Grassi 2015,
pp. 217-220.
2 Asked by the Pope, Guido Reni chose three of his best pupils
to paint one altarpiece each for the Chiesa di Forte Urbano in Castel-
franco Emilia, near Modena. Together with Desubleo, Reni chose the
Pesaro-born Simone Cantarini (1612-1648) and the French Pietro
Lauri (?-1669). The altarpiece painted by Desubleo in 1637 featured
Urban VIII’s portrait and was placed on the main altar – a considerable
sign of appreciation for the Flemish artist both by Guido and the Pope.
Unfortunately, the painting went lost when Napoleonic troops attacked
the Castelfranco fortress on 19 June 1796. For a comprehensive, recent
survey on Desubleo’s oeuvre, see: Girometti 2022a. On the Castelf-
ranco commission, see specifically: Girometti 2022a, pp. 106-116; 406-
408 (with archival records transcription).
3 The reference monograph on Régnier is: Lemoine 2007. A
first archival survey can be found in: Lemoine 1997.
4 For Desubleo’s Bolognese and Venetian years, see: Girometti
2022b.
5 Landon 1812, pp. 41-42, pl. 17.
6 On Régnier’s stay in Palazzo Giustiniani, see: Lemoine 2007,
pp. 61-79.
7 For a further technical survey on Desubleo’s paintings from
his Bolognese years, see: Cauzzi, Girometti, Seccaroni 2016.
8 Nantes 2017, pp. 102-104, nr. 6.
9 1620-1622, oil on canvas, 124 × 93 cm.
10 Lemoine 2007, p. 236, nr. 33. An important previous example
of a painter’s self-portait as Jesus Christ is Albercht Dürer’s painting.
11 For instance, large, dark eyes and a dark brown, loose hairstyle
is a clear common feature of the Flemish siblings. See: Nicolas Régnier,
Self-portrait with an Easel, 1617-1622, oil on canvas, 110 × 137 cm,
Cambridge (Mass.), Fogg Art Museum, inv. 1982.116.
12 ‘Perché il disegno, padre delle tre arti nostre architettura, scultura
e pittura, procedendo dall’intelletto cava di molte cose un giudizio universale
[…]’. See: Barocchi, Bettarini 1966-1997, 1, p. 111.
13 Yvel 2003; Toussat 2020.
14 On the other hand, northern painters used red grounds when
in Italy. This implies that it was a geographical matter, rather than a
stylistic feature.
15 Traces of white chalk underdrawing are also to be found on
the canvas painted by Saint Luke in Régnier’s painting. On the other
hand, one must consider that white chalk was widely used on red
ground.
16 About this peculiar technique by northern painters, see also:
Derks, Youchaeva, Van der Snickt, Van der Stighelen and Janssens in
this volume.
17 An important example can be detected through naked eye
observation around the head of Titian’s so-called Portrait of Ariosto,
1510, oil on canvas, 81.2 × 66.3 cm, London, National Gallery,
NG1944.
18 Girometti 2022a, pp. 48-49.
19 See above, note 7.
Ill. 18.1. Antoon Van Dyck, A Genoese Noble Woman and Child, oil on canvas, 122 x 98 cm, Genoa, Palazzo Spinola
 18
In the Manner of… Genoese Antoon Van Dyck:
Technique, Design, Development
Michela Fasce
A BSTRACT : The author investigated Van Dyck’s Genoese
paintings using infrared, macro- and microphotography,
to understand and identify both the pictorial and design
development. Van Dyck’s use of canvas with different
weft/warp ratios is notable. In the early years, works
have a high density of strands, which then thin out over
time. Only in the Portrait of Ansaldo Pallavicino, do we see
a twill weave present. The ground is brown and, in some
areas, a grey-beige imprimatura has been applied. In
numerous cases, the underdrawing, carried out using a
dry medium, has also been brushed over with a liquid
medium. The application of colour is transparent, while
also providing adequate cover and is compact. At a
certain point in time, he begins to draw out the profiles
of the figures using red and brown colour that becomes
almost black in the transition to the shaded areas.
—o—
Introduction to Van Dyck’s painting technique
The pictorial and design development of the Ant-
werp and English period of Antoon van Dyck’s
work has been studied by museums and cultural
institutions for exhibitions, conferences, and resto-
rations. 1 For the Genoese productions, published
analyses of three works preserved in museums
abroad are currently available. During the 2018
exhibition on the works of Van Dyck in Genoa,2 it
became evident that the study of the design and
pictorial development of these works, preserved in
Genoese cultural institutions, with one exhibited
in the church of San Michele di Pagana, Rapallo,
had never been addressed.3
Works which presented the best state of preser-
vation were chosen to be analysed in order to
obtain results more reliable. The number of works
analysed totalled ten, and where displayed in
chronological order: Portrait of a Gentleman of the
Spinola Family (Filippo Spinola di Tassarolo?)4
(Genoa, Palazzo Rosso, inv. PR 115); Christ of the
Coin5 (Genoa, Palazzo Rosso, inv. PB 191); Portrait
of a Genoese Noble Woman and Child6 (Genoa,
Palazzo Spinola National Gallery, inv. GNL
26/1965) (ill. 18.1); Portrait of Ansaldo Pallavicino
as a Child7 (Genoa, Palazzo Spinola National Gal-
lery, inv. GNPS 54) (ill. 18.4a); Francesco Orero in
Adoration of the Crucifix in the Presence of Saints
Francis and Bernard8 (Rapallo, San Michele di
Pagano, Church Saint Michele Arcangelo); Por-
trait of the Jeweller Pucci with his Son Alberto9 (Genoa,
Palazzo Rosso, inv. PR 50); Dying Christ10 (Genoa,
Palazzo Reale Museum, inv. 947) (ill. 18.9a); Por-
trait of Geromina Sale Brignole with her Daughter
Maria Aurelia11 (Genoa, Palazzo Rosso, inv. PR
116); Portrait of Paolina Adorno Brignole Sale12
(Genoa, Palazzo Rosso, inv. PR 51); Portrait of
Anton Giulio Brignole Sale on Horseback13 (Genoa,
Palazzo Rosso, inv. PR 48). To develop the project,
it was necessary to use non-invasive investigation
techniques. This was achieved by counting the
warp and weft threads of the supports and by per-
forming imaging: macro,14 micro,15 infrared,16 infra-
red in false-colour.17 For two works, the Portrait of
222 michela fasce
Paolina Adorno Brignole Sale and the Portrait of
Anton Giulio Brignole Sale on Horseback, cross-
sections taken during the 1996 restoration were
available.18 Together with visible-light microscope
photographs and the results of chemical analysis,
this allowed for an interesting comparison with
some Genoese paintings analysed in museum col-
lections abroad. The works submitted for analysis
by museums abroad, such as the Portrait of the
Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo19, the Portrait of a
Genoese Noble Woman and her Son20, which are pre-
served at the National Gallery of Art in Washing-
ton (respectively acc. nr. 1942.9.92 and 1942.9.91),
and the Portrait of the Balbi Children21 from the
National Gallery in London (NG 6502), allowed a
broader comparison with the results of paintings
preserved in Genoa.
Canvas
All the works by Antoon van Dyck analysed to
date are produced on textile support.22 This can be
present from the canvas itself including the use of
a twill weave, as well as the use of different ratios
between warp and weft.23 Currently, the diversifica-
tion of supports cannot be attributed to specific
phases of execution of the works or to a preference
for a particular material. The sources seem to attest,
as well reported by S. Rinaldi’s study and that of the
National Gallery in London, that artists, in Italy,
often used canvases that were already prepared.24
It is therefore logical to think that the choice of
type of support was conditioned by this particular
way of working. Without a specific request from the
patron, this was probably a function developed
where the master stayed and painted or, perhaps, in
some cases, due to the imprimatura.
In the context of the analysed works, the results
of the analysis of the supports, carried out using
direct observation, infrared, transparency of the
paint film and X-rays, made it possible to verify the
regularity of the threads, the thickness of the yarns
and the possible presence of seams on the support.
Works by Van Dyck preserved in Genoa, in con-
trast to the analyses carried out abroad on Genoese
Ill. 18.2. Antoon Van Dyck, A Genoese Noble Woman and
Child (ill. 18.1), detail, macrophotograph
works,25 show a relationship between the high den-
sity of warp and weft and the use of regular yarns,
as opposed to coarse ones which can be observed
on ill. 18.2. During this period, Van Dyck uses,
for the most part, a canvas weave support with dif-
ferent ratios of warp and weft yarns, except in the
Portrait of Ansaldo Pallavicino, where a diagonal
weave is used (ill. 18.3a-b). Unfortunately, diffi-
culty in obtaining minimal sample fragments for
analysis has made it impossible to determine which
fibre type the artist preferred to use for the sup-
ports: whether this be linen, hemp or jute, which
were the most used materials at the time.26 The
lack of written sources describing the relationship
between the imprimitori, the patrons and the master
does not provide adequate information to under-
stand if the choice of different types of fabric was
due to the painter’s need or the request of the
patrons. Only in the Portrait of Agostino Pallavicino
in the J. Paul Getty’s Museum collection in Los
Angeles (nr. 68.PA.2), which is not included in the
study sample, do we know that the fibre used is
linen.27 However, it is noted that the most frequent
weft-to-warp ratio in the works analysed and pre-
served in Genoa is that of 13/13 threads per cm2
(Table 18.1).
The highest thread ratio is found in the works
from the very early period of Van Dyck’s Genoese
 i n the manner of… genoese antoon van dyck
A
Ill. 18.3. Antoon Van Dyck, Portrait of Ansaldo Pallavicino
as a Child, oil on canvas, 108 x 64 cm, Genoa, Palazzo
Spinola. A: visible light. B: detail, macrophotograph
stay. In comparison, those with a later date of exe-
cution, i.e. 1627, the Portrait of Paolina Adorno
Brignole Sale and the Portrait of Anton Giulio Brignole
Sale, have an identical weave/warp support of 8/10
threads per cm2, a rather wide weft.
Finally, as I have already reported, only one
work used a twill weave, the Portrait of Ansaldo
Pallavicino, with a 1:2 weft/warp ratio. The twill
weave is much sturdier than a canvas weave and
was sometimes selected to achieve specific pictorial
effects because the oblique course and the ribbing
produce a result similar to a hatch pattern; it is also
more expensive because the manufacturing proce-
dure is more complex than the canvas weave from
223
which it comes from.28 This may lead one to think
that the commissioner, Agostino Pallavicino, chose
a more expensive and durable support than those
identified so far from the Italian period, in order to
portray himself with his son29 in an exalted position
with his appointment as protector of the Banco di
San Giorgio. Thus, achieving this not only by using
the most talented Rubens pupil present in the city,
who had been elected ‘official portraitist of the ‘wide-
spread court’ constituted by the families of the Genoese
oligarchy’,30 but also by the use of qualitatively
better materials. It is worth noting that the Portrait
of Agostino Pallavicino, painted after Van Dyck’s
arrival in Genoa in 1621, has, unlike Ansaldo’s
1625 portrait, a canvas armature.31 Therefore, for
the double portrait with his son in 1625, the choice
is of higher quality and a much more expensive
textile support. For the first work commissioned
from the young Van Dyck, the fabric turns out to be
the one most used in Genoa.
Ground and priming32
For the Genoese period paintings, stratigraphic
analysis of the preparatory layers was carried out on
the works preserved in the National Gallery of Art
in Washington, the National Gallery in London,
and on two paintings from the Palazzo Rosso in
Genoa during the 1996 restorations: the Portrait of
224 michela fasce




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Table 18.1. Antoon Van Dyck. Canvas supports.

Paolina Adorno Brignole Sale and the Portrait of We find this type of construction of ground layers
Anton Giulio Brignole Sale (ill. 18.4a).33 For the in the Portrait of the Marchesas Elena Grimaldi
portrait of Paolina we have only the stratigraphic Cattaneo, 1623, preserved in Washington.35 The
images of the preparation without associated chem- cross-sections of this painting, which were painted
ical analysis. This was an investigation that was five years before the two works in the Palazzo Rosso,
carried out on the paint layer. In these two works, show a distribution of ground layers very similar to
on which we have already seen the same supports those of the portrait of Anton Brignole. The chem-
being used, we find a brownish-yellow preparation, ical analysis also shows the presence of the same
which, in the painting depicting Anton Giulio, materials with the only difference being that of a
also used a grey imprimatura on three of the five small addition of soil which, containing a slightly
cross-sections samples (ill. 18.4b). In the two cross- greater amount of iron, is reddish in colour, and
section samples of the portrait of Paolina, observed makes the tone of the imprimatura tend toward
under a microscope in visible light and ultraviolet, grey-beige.36 In the second work analysed in Wash-
there are two ground layers: an inner one of yellow- ington, A Genoese Noble Woman and her Son, 1626,
ish-brown colour and an upper one of grey colour, we see that the grey-brown ground layer of one
probably the imprimatura, as in the Anton Giulio sample has an overlying orange-coloured under-
portrait. The pictorial surface of both paintings, modeling, formed by lead white and red lake,
observed with a digital video microscope, shows detected beneath the paint film. Chemical-physi-
the same tone of grey priming colour, formed by a cal analysis recognised the film as red lake; there-
grey matrix, which includes grains of black and fore, rather than the imprimatura, it can be assumed
white pigment (ill. 18.5). The grey, chemically to be the tone of the paint undermodeling.37 A sin-
analysed in Anton Brignole’s samplings, is precisely gle grey-brown preparatory layer is present in the
the priming exploited as a paint-saving primer.34 Portrait of the Balbi Children. Chemical analysis
 i n the manner of… genoese antoon van dyck 225

Reale. The grey imprimatura, which is found in

many paintings of the Genoese period, is very
similar to that mentioned by De Mayerne when
he reports on the priming of oil canvases. For
De Mayerne, this layer consists of ‘lead white, char-
coal of well-chosen embers, smales coales and a little
shadow earth’.39

Underdrawing
A We have seen so far that many of the paintings
Ill. 18.4. Antoon Van Dyck, Portrait of Anton Giulio Brignole considered in this research have a clear imprima-
Sale on Horseback, oil on canvas, Genoa, Palazzo Rosso. tura or underpainting, which allows us to observe,
A: visible light. B: cross-section with the ground and priming where it is present, the underdrawing, through
investigative techniques of infrared imaging40.
identifies different materials than those used in the Images made on works preserved abroad, from the
Washington works.38 This preparation, however, is vandyckian corpus, show that the tracings were
exploited as a paint layer to obtain the architec-
tural backgrounds, as in the portraits of Antonio
and Paolina in the Palazzo Rosso.
The grey, grey-yellow, or reddish imprimatura
diversified on different parts of the paintings can
also be observed through micro-images made with
a digital microscope on the works preserved in
Liguria from the Genoese period (Table 18.2). The
Portrait of a Genoese Noble Woman and Child, exhib-
ited at the Galleria di Palazzo Spinola, shows a grey
layer under the white and a reddish-brown tone
under the browns, as do the Portrait of Ansaldo
Pallavicino, also at the Galleria Spinola, the Portrait
Ill. 18.5. Antoon Van Dyck, Portrait of Anton Giulio Brignole
of the Jeweller Pucci with his Son Alberto, preserved at Sale on Horseback (ill. 18.4a), microphotography of the
Palazzo Rosso, and the Dying Christ at Palazzo priming layer, magnification 150x
226 michela fasce




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Table 18.2. Antoon Van Dyck. Analysis of grounds.

often laid down with a carbonaceous medium or his stay in Genoa, when, perhaps in order to exe-
pencil, re-primed with a brush by means of a liquid cute the paintings at speed, he created definitive
ink, and in some cases show changes from the drawing tracings. The Portrait of a Gentleman of the
initial project.41 If the painter confirms the tech- Spinola Family (Filippo Spinola di Tassarolo?) shows a
nique of executing the design lines, the changes dry and subtle drawing on the nose and mouth. The
contradict what he stated in his writings, preserved outline of the face, in the shadowed part at the
in Dr. Marshall’s manuscript, which indicate in the bottom of the hand, legs and floor were executed
first point that ‘it is important to sketch in the form, with a fluid medium, probably a black ink, applied
so perfectly, that afterwards there will be no reason to with a brush, which might hint at the construction
make a change’.42 of the ‘drawing-pictorial’, but not quite as evident
Diagnostic investigations carried out on the as it will be in the last period. Also on the face, it
works painted during the Genoese stay confirm the is noted that the area of the right eye, the one
changes not only on the underdrawings, but also on most in shadow, has a dark grey spot. It can be
the pictorial level. For Van Dyck, the constructive assumed, in this case, that a paint undermodeling
design lines are sketches useful for quickly setting containing black ink was created with the purpose
up the idea of the painting, but, in some cases, from of emphasizing the shaded part through the play of
what arises out of investigation and observation of the transparencies of the paint layer, or the more
the paintings, they are also functional for con- veiled complexion colour was spread in order to
structing the contour lines of the architectures and obtain the shadow. The construction lines of the
faces at the painting stage. Thus, one could venture floor are visible under the legs of young Spinola,
that they are ‘design-pictorial drawings’, that is to so it is possible that the architectural background
say, a black line suitable for both setting the design was designed before the insertion of the figure of
framework and pictorially defining the figures. This the boy.
can be seen in some of the works presented in this The Portrait of a Genoese Noble Woman and
study, especially in reference to the last period of Child, preserved in Palazzo Spinola, shows a change
 i n the manner of… genoese antoon van dyck
Ill. 18.6. Antoon Van Dyck, A Genoese Noble Woman and
Child (ill. 18.1), IR (830 nm), detail
in the position of the child’s little hand (ill. 18.6).
There is a dry charcoal tracing in the space between
the thumb and the beginning of the index finger of
the Lady and over the knuckles of the child’s fin-
gers which is also visible in the colour photograph
(ill. 18.7). While in contrast, the tracing is liquid
and light grey in the construction of the outline of
the thumb and in the positioning of the fingers of
the Lady which, in the colour image, appears to be
reddish-brown in tone and not black. The same
construction, with the use of a dry outline and
brush ones, is also present on the face, where the
charcoal line is visible in the sketch of the Lady’s
mouth, nose, and iris. Interestingly, the change of
tone on the two irises in the three-quarter portraits
after 1623, as M. Romanengo wrote in his article,43
is also identifiable in the infrared images. The dif-
ference in colour transparency between the right
and left irises, the latter being more veiled, can be
noticed in visible light.
227
Ill. 18.7. Antoon Van Dyck, A Genoese Noble Woman and
Child (ill. 18.1), visible light, detail: dry charcoal tracing
The Portrait of Ansaldo Pallavicino, the only
work with support with a twill weave, has an under-
drawing, where it is present, that is less linear and
compact but rougher and drier. This is probably due
to the surface of the canvas, which, in that type of
weave, is not perfectly smooth, as has been pointed
out in the study of supports. Unlike many other
works, the part that has come down to us shows no
signs of changes or modifications. However, on
the Christ of the Coin, executed probably in the
mid-1620s, there is a pencil drawing in a few places,
while the one laid down in brushwork prevails. The
infrared investigation allows to observe not only
the preparatory drawing but also the transparency
of the paint film,44 which, in this case, made it pos-
sible to see that the index finger of the Pharisee’s
hand in the foreground was added after the paint-
ing stage of the blue drapery of Christ. The blue
turns out to be very opaque in infrared and could be
identified with azurite.45
Of interest are the two Crucifixes, the one of
San Michele di Pagana (Francesco Orero in Adora-
tion of the Crucifix in the Presence of Saints Francis
and Bernard) and the Dying Christ preserved in the
Palazzo Reale. In both paintings, the drawing was
228 michela fasce
done by brush and, although the two works can be
said to share a common model, it is not possible to
state with certainty the primogeniture of one over
the other.46 In this regard, it is useful to point out,
beyond a series of changes and repositioning on
both projects, that the hands of the Christ are
almost identical on both works. The right hands
appear, in both works, to have been drawn as a ‘C’
formed by the thumb and forefinger. The one in the
Palazzo Reale work is shifted downward and on the
other work upward. The left hands do not show any
changes, although in the Palazzo Reale work there
is a restoration and therefore the drawing is not
very clear. However, they appear in both cases very
similar, with the shape of an elongated arch. Fur-
ther changes are identified within the two paint-
ings, affecting the arms of Christ: the right one was
originally drawn thinner and again graphically
redesigned, while the left one was enlarged in the
painting phase. Other changes are seen on the foot
of Saint Francis and the decrease in the volume of
Orero’s robe. On the painting in the Palazzo Reale,
however, the upward shift of the nails of the cross
and the cartouche is visible.
The next four paintings analysed in this research
are all dated around 1627: the Portrait of the Jeweller
Giacomo Pucci with his Son Alberto, the Portrait of
Geronima Sale Brignole with her Daughter Maria
Aurelia, the Portrait of Paolina Adorno Brignole Sale
and the Portrait of Anton Giulio Brignole Sale on
Horseback. The four works all show an underdraw-
ing executed in some parts with a dry brush and in
other areas with a brush. The portrait of the jewel-
ler shows an underdrawing in small traces on the
right hand, while the other drawing lines are exe-
cuted with a brush and the major changes are on
the collar and hat. The former is set back, while the
brim of the hat is shrunk. One also notices the con-
struction of the lines of the base of the column,
executed on a grey-brown background by means of
paint-saving, which indicate the ‘pictorial-draw-
ing’ also used for the next three works. The hair on
the left of the young Alberto shows a brush drawing
in the area closest to the face, which, pictorially,
has been made more voluminous; in fact, it does
not show a drawing, but a different transparency
and materiality to the rest of the hair. Like the
young Spinola, the eye most in shadow in infrared
has a dark grey tone, with the difference that in
Alberto the gap between the parts in light and
those in shadow is observable during painting.
The remaining three works reveal traces of dry
drawing repainted with a fluid medium, with a
brush, only on certain parts of the anatomies, as in
Paolina’s left hand and small strokes on Geronima’s
face. Micro-changes can be observed that are not,
however, substantial to the final composition, such
as a slight widening of the neck in Maria Aurelia.
The young girl also has a very free and flowing
brush drawing under her skirt, as if it were a sketch,
which is also visible on observation. This is due to
the ageing of the paint material, which becomes
more transparent. The pure black outline drawing
is present on these three works on the shaded areas
of the anatomies and the architecture, although
in Geronima a veiling of colour is visible on the
column, which is not identifiable in Paolina and
Anton Giulio, on which the grey background of
the imprimatura is preponderant, confirming the
trend of the ‘drawing-pictorial’ at speed.
Paint layers
Cross-section samples can only be produced for two
works in Genoa, the Portrait of Anton Giulio Brignole
Sale on Horseback and the Portrait of Paolina Adorno
Brignole Sale. By comparing these to the Genoese
paintings kept outside Italy which have also been
chemically analyzed, it allows to understand the
development of the paint layers and the materials
used by Van Dyck during his stay in Genoa. The
portrait of Antonio Giulio is actually the only one
with a sufficient number of cross-sections, five in
total, to allow this comparison to be made. Only
two samples of the portrait of Paolina are available,
but both taken in the flesh tones.47 The chemical-
physical investigations carried out at the National
Gallery in London48 and at the National Gallery
of Art in Washington,49 put in relation with the
 i n the manner of… genoese antoon van dyck
analyses on the portrait of Anton Giulio and, in
part, on the one of Paolina, make it possible to
identify the development of the colour layers and
the pigments used, alongside the non-invasive
analyses carried out on the remaining works con-
served in Genoa. The chemo-physical analyses on
Anton Giulio’s samples identified enamel as the
only blue pigment used. This is in line with what
is written in the De Mayerne’s manuscript, as S.
Rinaldi pointed out, where enamel blue is the most
cited pigment, followed by azurite, while ultrama-
rine ‘is used by painters very sparingly’.50 Smalt blue
is also a pigment identified on the Portrait of the
Balbi Children51 and in the two Washington works:
the Portrait of a Genoese Noble Woman and her Son
and the Portrait of the Portrait of the Marchesa Elena
Grimaldi Cattaneo52. In the portrait of Elena, traces
of ultramarine have also been identified above the
enamel; azurite is present in the green leaves of
the Portrait of the Balbi Children, mixed with
yellow lake53. Additionally, indigo blue was found.54
This dye of vegetable origin has been found in
many of Van Dyck’s works. In ancient sources, it is
referred to as bagodetto55 or bagatello,56 due to its ori-
gin via the Baghdad route. It was a widely used dye,
especially for dyeing fabrics,57 but was also popular
in painting, with the problem, however, of being
slow in drying, so it was better to mix it with a
pigment that accelerated the drying of the oil, such
as lead white.
Regarding the Portrait of Paolina Adorno Brignole
Sale, it is not possible to say whether the blue of the
dress is lapis lazuli or smalt. Transparency in infra-
red does not discriminate the pigment, and in false-
colour infrared, it appears to be a burgundy tone.
According to the table proposed by Poldi-Villa,58
it could be either a dark ultramarine or smalt. In his
pendant, the only blue recognised is smalt and it
has been seen, from the point of view of material
use and paint development, that the two works are
practically identical. Therefore, it can be assumed
that the blue in Paolina is the same as in Anton
Giulio and not the more precious lapis lazuli, as
is the case in all paintings of the Genoese period
229
analysed so far, with the only exception of the
traces found on Elena.
The other pigments used are those most in use
in the seventeenth-century palette. For the whites,
lead white and calcium carbonate are present, also
used in the ground layer.59 The yellows come in
all the variations of the period: lead tin yellow,
unidentified if type I or II,60 antimony yellow,61
yellow lake 62 and ochres. Van Dyck obtained the
red colour with cinnabar, lakes and ochres, overlay-
ing the red pigment with lake in some cases, or
mixing them to achieve a brighter tone. Greens
can be found as a mixture of blue (azurite, indigo or
smalt) and yellow; or copper greens and copper
resins.63 Brown earths present the prevalence of
Cassel earth or Van Dyck brown. This, although we
call it a pigment, is an earth with much organic
material, humus and bituminous substances,64
which retard the drying of the oil.
Observing Anton Giulio’s construction, even if
the state of preservation slightly alters the interpre-
tation, we have seen in infrared that the painter
uses a black colour to outline the face, hand and
horse in shadow, which is also visible to the naked
eye (ill. 18.8). Van Dyck uses a grey underpainting,
as he calls it, for the background of the architec-
tural composition. The same grey is also used as a
base for the flesh tones, on which he spreads lighter
and lighter layers of colour, right up to the high-
lights, as a final touch. This way of working is the
one already noted in his article by M. Romanengo65
and also described in the Marshall manuscript.66
The method of exploiting the colour of the grey
background for the construction of the architecture
is found, as already noted, in the portraits of Pao-
lina, Geronima and the Balbi Children. In many
cases, the neutral colour of the underpainting is
left visible between the different colour fields and
when it has a reddish-brown tone, it is exploited
for the construction of the shaded areas of the flesh
tones, in a sort of paint-saving of Caravaggio-like
memory.
The reddish preparation in the Portrait of a
Genoese Noble Woman and Child in Palazzo Spinola
230
Ill. 18.8. Antoon Van Dyck, Portrait of Anton Giulio Brignole
Sale on Horseback (ill. 18.4a), IR, detail: black outline
is visible around the faces and in the shaded parts;
while the flesh tones are built up from a grey base,
as can be seen in the microphotograph (ill. 18.7),
on which lighter and shorter brushstrokes are
applied in the areas of maximum light flare. This
way of working can also be seen in the portrait of
the Pucci jeweller, even though the material with
which the flesh tones are made is more compact
and opaque. On the Portrait of Ansaldo Pallavicino,
the reddish-brown ground is visible on the profile
of the face, in the area of the hairline, and the com-
plexion has an almost porcelain-like appearance,
which does not allow the texture of the support to
show through, unlike the areas of the background,
the gaiters and the feet, where there is a liquid,
transparent colour, outlined in black.
The opaque brushstrokes are visible throughout
the Christ of the Coin. The colour presents a thick
paint layer, which leaves neither the texture of the
support nor the preparation visible. Instead, a dark
michela fasce
outline is evident in some areas of the bodies’ anat-
omies, but without discriminating to identify the
parts in light and in shadow, as can be seen in the
detail of the hands, unlike in other vandyckian
works. The painting, executed in Genoa around
1625,67 deriving from Titian in both colour and
composition,68 should be contemporary with the
Portrait of a Genoese Noble Woman and Child in
Palazzo Spinola and the Portrait of Ansaldo Pallavi-
cino. There are, however, clear differences in the
drafting of the paint material and the construction
of the outlines, compared to the two paintings in
the Spinola Gallery. Looking at the high-resolution
image of Titian’s prototype, on the website of the
National Gallery in London,69 one not only realises
the Flemish artist’s reinterpretation of the subject,
as well described by S.J. Barnes,70 but also that the
paint construction does not derive from the artist
from Cadore. Titian spreads a pulled colour from
which the texture of the underlying canvas appears
through and black outlines on the anatomies are
not present. Van Dyck applies a thick, opaque paint
material with black outlines, not functional to
create the areas of shadow, not conforming to his
usual modus operandi, as seen in works of roughly
the same date. The paintings that come closest to
the pictorial construction of Christ of the Coin are
the Portrait of Geronima Sale Brignole with her
Daughter Maria Aurelia and those in Washington:
the Portrait of Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo
and the Portrait of a Genoese Noble Woman with her
Son. Although the dating of the four paintings is, as
of today, different, there are similarities in the
thickness of the colour and the covering effect, but
not in the outlines, which are absent in the portrait
of Geronima. Whereas, in the two works kept in
America, a subtle tracing of the shaded area of the
child’s face and on Elena’s right cheekbone can be
observed. Another peculiarity of these three paint-
ings, to which the portrait of Paolina must also be
added, is the lack of shadow construction, apart
from a hint on the child’s face, on the faces of
the four Ladies, as in Ansaldo, which leads to
hypothesise a kind of paint construction in full
 i n the manner of… genoese antoon van dyck
A
Ill. 18.9. Antoon Van Dyck, Dying Christ, oil on canvas,
124 x 93 cm, Genoa, Palazzo Reale. A: visible light.
B: detail, reddish-black outline
light. It was pointed out in the Prado study71 that
Van Dyck constructed the complexions: differently
for male or female and children’ figures. For women
and children, he creates a luminous paint film
made of lead white and a small amount of red
pigment, finely ground. In contrast, the flesh tone
in the male characters is darker and earth and
smoke black are present in addition to red. The dif-
ference in the construction of the flesh tones
between male and female figures is what probably
emerges from this research, with the only variant
on the two faces of the Portrait of a Genoese Noble
Woman and Child preserved in Palazzo Spinola.
In this case, we see the ground, creating shadowed
parts, and a greater characterisation in the chiaro-
scuro passages.
The use of a drawn colour and outlining of
the figures are two of the particularities of other
231
Vandyckian works from the Genoese period, with
some variations, depending on the period of execu-
tion. We have seen, in fact, that at the beginning
of his stay in Genoa, he only applies a black outline
to certain shaded areas of the anatomies and also
outlines the robes, gaiters and feet with this tone.
The young Spinola and Ansaldo present this type
of painting, with the variant that on Ansaldo the
black outline on the face is absent. Looking at
the hands of both the young boy and Palazzo
Spinola’s Portrait of a Genoese Noble Woman and
Child, a reddish tone outline is evident on the boy,
while, on the lady, the stroke is absent in the areas
in light, while, on the other hand, it changes from
brown to black brown, in the half-shadow and
totally shadowed parts.
The method of loading or unloading the con-
tours of the figure can also be observed on the
Dying Christ (ill. 18.9), on Francesco Orero in
Adoration of the Crucifix in the Presence of Saints
Francis and Bernard of San Michele di Pagano and
on the Portrait of the Balbi Children. The two cruci-
fixes, which we have already had the opportunity
to compare in the section on underdrawing and to
see some similarities, show, however, a different
pictorial drafting. The one in Palazzo Reale has the
loincloth and the complexion formed by an opaque
and compact colour; in contrast, the work in
San Michele shows a grey tone construction of the
folds and a sparing painting on the loincloth.
232 michela fasce
Conclusion
During his career, Van Dyck went from the use of
a clear preparation with a grey imprint, to a
pigmented preparation with a layer of gray priming
from the Italian period onwards. The paint film
takes advantage of this tone, with some areas of the
pairing displaying a marked brightness. In addition,
in order to tone some colours, an application of
undermodeling has been used, which, in some
paintings, is a different tone from the final result.
This is demonstrated in the case of the Portrait of
the Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo. The paint-
ing, often executed at speed, is evident in the
Genoese works studied and is especially present in
those painted in the last period of his stay in the
city. This approach, which partly exploits grey
imprint and the pictorial preparatory drawing along
the edges of the figures, is, however, already present
in examples from his first years in Italy. To this
approach, which maintained the way of building
the profiles of the figures, he applied diverse tones
between the shadow and the light parts of the work.
He also changed the way of painting the faces of
women and children, without the use of shadows,
when compared to those of the men, where he
exploited a brown preparation.
In conclusion, the approach of Van Dyck during
his Genoese period does not present many varia-
tions compared to the period before his arrival in
Genoa. He demonstrated a diversity in the prepara-
tion that, in some cases, turns to brown. This, prob-
ably, is due to the purchase of canvases already
prepared by the imprinters and not from a design
choice; although he has taken advantage of this
brown tone to create the shadows or to saturate the
final tone of the dark colours.
N OTES
1 See the table of works analysed and of Van Dyck’s production
in: Harth et al. 2017; and works in: Munich 2019.
2 Genoa 2018.
3 For the dating of Van Dyck’s stay in Italy, and in particular
Genoa, see: Bellori 1672, pp. 253-264; Soprani 1674, pp. 305-306;
Sanguineti 2012, p. 7; Rangoni, 2018.
4 Genoa 1997, p. 225.
5 Besta 2010, pp. 76-77.
6 Zanelli 2016, pp. 73-89.
7 Simonetti 2016, pp. 57-71.
8 Sanguineti 2005; Sanguineti 2012.
9 Santamaria 2018, pp. 202-205.
10 Leoncini 2012; Sanguineti 2012; Leoncini, 2018.
11 Boccardo 2018, pp. 223-224.
12 Besta 2010, pp. 72-75.
13 Ibidem
14 Macro-images have a magnification of at least 5x, taken with
a camera with a macro lens.
15 Micro-images were taken of the paint film with a Dino-Lite
hand-held video microscope at 150x magnification to observe the
layers.
16 Infrared images are taken using near infrared (NIR) with a
special filter camera that cuts at different wavelengths. See: Poldi, Villa
2007.
17 Buzzegoli, Keller 2009, pp. 200-203.
18 Franca Carbone restored the paintings, housed in the Palazzo
Rosso Museum in Genoa.
19 Libby 2018.
20 Milan 2004, pp. 164-165.
21 Boccardo, Di Fabio 1997.
22 Kirby 1999, pp. 22-26; Fend 2001; Grießer 2001; Oberthaler
2001; Strolz 2001; Wald 2001; Alba, Jover, Gayo 2013.
23 Ibidem
24 Rinaldi 1995, p. 77; Kirby 1999, p. 28.
25 Kirby 1999, pp. 24-25.
26 Coldagelli, Torrioli 1990b, p. 80.
27 Obermeier et al. 2019, p. 352. On Getty’s work, the com-
munication was kindly provided to me by Ulrich Birkmaier, Senior
Conservator of Paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Ange-
les.
28 Coldagelli, Torrioli 1990a, p. 36.
29 Moretti 2016.
30 Moretti 2016.
31 The author would like to thank Ulrich Birkmaier, Senior
Conservator of Paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles,
who also kindly provided me with a detail of the X-ray of the painting.
32 For the difference between ground and priming, see: Marconi
1993; Fasce 2020a, pp. 17-30; Fasce 2020b.
33 Thanks to Franca Carbone for providing the author with
images of the samples.
34 The cross-section analyses and final report were carried out in
1996 by Prof. Paolo Bensi who kindly provided the author with these
from the Palazzo Bianco Museum.
 i n the manner of… genoese antoon van dyck 233

35 Christensen, Palmer, Swicklik 1990. 50 Rinaldi 1995, pp. 32-33.

36 Christensen, Palmer, Swicklik 1990, p. 47.
37 Hall 1994, pp. 54-56.
38 For the work in Washington, the preparation consists of lead
white, carbon black and calcium carbonate; the work in the National
Gallery in London has calcium carbonate, silica, small amounts of
brown earth and lead white.
39 Rinaldi 1995, p. 79.
40 For this type of investigation, a Sony DSC-F828 digital cam-
era with both 830 and 1000 nm filters was used. After acquisition,
photographs were processed on a PC with image software and, in some
cases, false colour infrared (IR-FC) investigations were also carried out
to identify the surface pigments used by the painter.
41 Christensen, Palmer, Swicklik 1990; Kirby 1999, pp. 29-31;
Verloo 2001-2002; Lammertse, Fryklund, Boersma 2009; Alba, Jover,
Gayo 2013; Harth et al. 2017.
42 Christensen, Palmer, Swicklik 1990, p. 45. The writings are
four pages, which have possibly been autographed by Anton Van Dyck
in old Dutch, from 1640. This is part of the collection of Dr. Thomas
Marshall and kept at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, translated into
English.
43 Romanengo 2002, p. 109.
44 Poldi, Villa 2007.
45 Poldi, Villa 2007.
46 Leoncini 2012; Sanguineti 2012.
47 The purpose of taking two samples on the same colour, during
the 1996 restoration, was to identify which area had been repainted and
with which material retouching had been done. This was in order to
optimise the cleaning operation.
48 Roy 1999, pp. 59-63.
49 Christensen, Palmer, Swicklik 1990.
51 Roy 1999, p. 49.
52 Christensen, Palmer, Swicklik 1990.
53 Roy 1999, p. 62.
54 Roy 1999, p. 62.
55 Bensi 2020, p. 52.
56 Compared to the enamel, the Variana list of 1617 shows that
indigo costs twice as much, i.e. 2 liras. See: Galassi 2019, p. 41.
57 For example, the Cloths of the Passion of Christ kept in the
Diocesan Museum in Genoa are a linen fibre fabric dyed with indigo.
58 Poldi, Villa 2007, p. 131.
59 Roy 1999, pp. 60-63.
60 For the differences between the two types of detective stories,
see: Bensi 2020, p. 53. In addition, also see: Bevilacqua, Borgioli,
Gracia 2010, pp. 87-110.
61 Ciatti, Benassai, Sartiani 2016.
62 Roy 1999.
63 Roy 1999.
64 Bevilacqua, Borgioli, Gracia 2010, pp. 150-152.
65 Romanengo 2002, p. 109.
66 Christensen, Palmer, Swicklik 1990, p. 45.
67 Barnes 1997; Besta 2010, pp. 76-77.
68 Titian’s work is housed in the National Gallery in London
(NG 224) and is a mirror image of Van Dyck’s painting. It is assumed
that the painter executed it by observing an engraving and altering the
distances between Christ and the Pharisees. See: Barnes 1997.
69 www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/titian-the-tribute-
money.
70 Barnes 1997, p. 324.
71 Alba, Jover, Gayo 2013, p. 340.
A

B C D

Ill. 19.1. A: After Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Sermon of Saint John the Baptist, oil on panel, 108.9 x 154.8 cm, unsigned,
Arbroath Art Gallery. B: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Sermon of Saint John the Baptist, oil on panel, 95.1 x 161.7 cm,
signed and dated 1566, Budapest, Szepmüvészeti Múzeum. C: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Massacre of the Innocents, oil on panel,
109.2 x 158.1 cm, partial signature, London, Hampton Court, The Royal Collection. D: Pieter Bruegel the Elder,
Conversion of Saul, oil on panel, 108 x 156.3 cm, signed and dated 1576, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
 19
The Arbroath Sermon of Saint John the Baptist
after Pieter Bruegel the Elder:
A Rare Pastiche
Christina Currie
A BSTRACT : The Sermon of Saint John the Baptist in the
Arbroath Art Gallery is an ingenious interweaving of
three works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder: the Sermon of
Saint John the Baptist, the Massacre of the Innocents and
the Conversion of Saul. It was conceived as a pastiche
from the start and presents a stylistically unified painting.
Although it has features in common with Brueghel the
Younger’s production, several factors make this unlikely.
Most striking is the use of a liquid underdrawing for
the foreground figures, never seen in Brueghel’s work.
There are also no known copies of the Conversion of
Saul by Brueghel the Younger. Nonetheless, technical
and stylistic similarities suggest that the pasticheur might
have trained in Bruegel’s studio. He had firsthand knowl-
edge of one of the latter’s versions of the Sermon of
Saint John and either the original or a Brueghel the
Younger copy of the Massacre of the Innocents.
—o—
Introduction
A remarkable painting in the Arbroath Art Gal-
lery, Scotland,1 gives cause for a double take
(ill. 19.1a). While at first glance it appears to be
another copy by Pieter Brueghel the Younger of his
father’s Sermon of Saint John the Baptist (Budapest,
Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, inv. 51.2829) (ill. 19.1b),
there are some strangely familiar intruders.
Although the background is derived from the
Sermon, the foreground figures have been replaced
by characters from the Conversion of Saul (Vienna,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. no. 3690) and
the Massacre of the Innocents (London, Hampton
Court, The Royal Collection, His Majesty King
Charles III, RCIN 405787) (ill. 19.1c-d). Indeed, it
is a striking homage to three of Bruegel the Elder’s
most successful compositions.
This paper will examine the new imagery
and analysis resulting from a Royal Institute for
Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) (Brussels) study trip
to Arbroath and compare it to Brueghel the Young-
er’s production. It will explore the painting’s sources
and possible models and consider whether it could
be a rare pastiche by Brueghel the Younger, a work-
shop production, an unfinished painting completed
after his death, or the work of an imitator.
The Bruegel family and the pastiche in the
seventeenth century
As M. Loh wrote on the seventeenth-century inter-
est in pastiche, ‘the taste for pastiche appealed to a
specific aspect of a visually literate culture in which
erudition and insight were highly esteemed. This culture
fed on allusion, quotation, and the pleasure of esoteric
jokes’.2 There are just a few cases of genuine pas-
tiche in the work of Brueghel the Younger. An
example is the use of the landscape vista from the
Sermon of Saint John the Baptist3 as a backdrop
for his Dance around the Maypole composition
236 christina currie

A B

C D

Ill. 19.2. A: Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Dance around the Maypole, oil on panel transferred to canvas, 51 x 75 cm,
signed and dated 16[--], London, Sotheby’s, 8 December 2010, lot 8. B: Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Summer, oil on panel,
72.4 x 104.8 cm, signed and dated 1624, London, Christie’s, 11 December 1981, lot 126. C: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Harvesters,
oil on panel, 119 x 162 cm, signed and dated 1565, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. D: Pieter van der Heyden
after Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Summer, from the series The Seasons, engraving, 22.5 x 28.7 cm, 1570, New York,
Metropolitan Museum of Art

(ill. 19.2a). He reuses the same vista in an atypical
version of Summer (London, Christie’s, 11 Decem-
ber 1981, lot 126),4 signed and dated 1624 (ill.
19.2b), which sets the peasant group from Bruegel
the Elder’s Harvesters (New York, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, acc. nr. 19.164) into
Pieter Van der Heyden’s engraving of Summer,
itself taken after a Bruegel design (ill. 19.2c-d).
Jan Brueghel the Elder frequently incorporated
his father’s motifs in his early work. For example,
in the Sermon on the Mount, 1598 (Los Angeles,
J.P. Getty Museum, 84.PC.71), he reused the gypsy
family from the Sermon of Saint John the Baptist but
inverted the figures and changed the colours,5 and
in a small landscape on copper (private collec-
tion),6 he referenced the hunters from the Return
of the Herd (Vienna, Kunsthistortisches Museum,
inv. 1018) and the background from the Magpie on
the Gallows (Darmstadt, Hessisches Landes-
museum, inv. GK 165) but re-imagined the colour
scheme.
The desire to imitate and reinvent Bruegel went
beyond the immediate family. An anonymous
seventeenth-century Conversion of Saul in the
Bonnenfanten museum in Maastricht (inv. no.
10-03761) partially based on a Lucas van Leyden
 the arbroath SERMON OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST after pieter bruegel the elder 237

A B

C D

Ill. 19.3. A: Anonymous, Conversion of Saul, 123 x 144.5 cm, oil on panel, Maastricht, Bonnefantenmuseum.
B: Lucas van der Leyden, Conversion of Saul, engraving, 28.3 x 40.7 cm, 1509, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
C: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Massacre of the Innocents (ill. 19.1c). D: Pieter Brueghel the Younger (after Pieter Bruegel the Elder),
Adoration of the Magi, oil on panel, 118.6 x 164.6 cm, signed and dated 1618, Arbroath Art Gallery

print also includes motifs taken from Bruegel’s
Massacre of the Innocents and large-format Adora-
tion of the Magi (ill. 19.3a-d).7 Another anonymous
pastiche primarily inspired by Bruegel the Elder’s
Conversion of Saul will be discussed below in view
of its possible links to the Arbroath painting (see
below, ill. 19.13c).
Two important gifts to Arbroath
Nothing is known of the Sermon of Saint John the
Baptist prior to its presentation to Arbroath by
James Renny Jr of Edinburgh in 1876.8 The gift is
listed in the Old Arbroath Register, where it is
described as ‘1. St John preaching in the wilder-
ness; by Brughele’.9 Renny gifted many other
paintings by both Scottish and European artists,
with the aim of starting a picture gallery in
Arbroath. Saint John Preaching in the Wilderness was
given by Renny during his lifetime and was not
part of his will.10 Clues as to the painting’s previous
history may be contained in two hand painted
inscriptions on the reverse of the panel, ‘N.6’ and
‘77’, but these remain unexplained. There are no
such markings on Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s
large-format Adoration of the Magi (Arbroath Art
Gallery, acc. no. A1978.25),11 signed and dated
238 christina currie

1618, given to Arbroath prior to 1867 by another
donor, James Rait, and which hangs beside the
Sermon (ill. 19.3d). These two imposing paintings,
whose acquisitions were unrelated to each other,
are the jewels in the collection of the Arbroath
Art Gallery.
The Arbroath Sermon of Saint John the Bap-
tist: Technique and materials
The painting is on oak panel made up of four
horizontally laid boards, which increase in width
from the bottom upwards.12 The exceptionally
wide top plank has a pronounced warp, which has
led to the development of splits. On the reverse,
saw marks, probably original, can be seen in the
three upper planks. There are generous bevels to
left and right, which would have facilitated fram-
ing. Unlike most large format panels by Brueghel
the Younger, there are no signs that the panel was
initially fitted with temporary channel edge sup-
ports.13 These would have been applied to prevent
warping during painting.
The preparation layers are typical for Brueghel’s
workshop and indeed for sixteenth- and early sev-
enteenth-century northern panel painting, as seen
in two cross-sections (ill. 19.4a-b).14 There is a
chalk ground (layer 1), followed by a thin layer of
medium (layer 2) and then a vigorously applied
streaky grey imprimatura (layer 3). The imprima-
tura is visible in places in raking light and in infra-

UV 8
6 7
7 5
4
6 3
5 2
4
3 1b
2
1
ȝP 1a ȝP
A B

C D

Ill. 19.4. After Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Sermon of Saint John the Baptist (ill. 19.1a). A: cross-section, green translucent leaf in sky,
top right edge, reflected light. B: cross-section, highlight on fern, lower edge, UV illumination. C: Raking light detail showing
texture of imprimatura. D: IRR, detail showing streaky imprimatura and underdrawing
 the arbroath SERMON OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST
red (ill. 19.4c-d). The paint surface displays ran-
dom areas of granularity, with protruding black and
white particles, probably from the imprimatura.
There is a detailed underdrawing with occa-
sional hatching for tone.15 This is mostly executed
in a dry, scratchy medium such as black chalk, as
would be expected for Brueghel the Younger, who
used either black chalk or graphite (ills. 19.4d,
19.5b, 19.16a, 19.16e). Most of the large fore-
ground motifs, on the other hand, are underdrawn
in black paint or ink, which is atypical (ills. 19.5a-
b, 19.7b, 19.14a). These outlines vary in blackness
due to periodic reloading of the brush.
There is no clear-cut separation in terms of
underdrawing technique between the Saint John
composition and the Saul and Massacre figures. For
example, although most of the Saint John composi-
tion is underdrawn in a dry medium (ills. 19.4d,
19.6a, 19.16a, 19.16e), the man in a pink robe and
the boy with a dead bird are drawn in with a brush
(ill. 19.5a). From the Conversion of Saul, the boy
and dog are drawn in a dry medium, but the
mounted official in yellow is drawn in a liquid
medium (ill. 19.5b). The figures from the Massacre,
however, are all drawn with a brush (ill. 19.7b).
The painting is painted from back to front, fol-
lowing the underdrawing, leaving reserves for the
forms still to be painted. This conforms to Brueghel
the Younger’s usual technique16 – and indeed to
that of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Jan Brueghel
the Elder – and ensures that the colours retain their
intensity over time. Examples of motifs painted in
reserve include faces, hats, a straw basket and even
a tree root (ill. 19.6a).
The Massacre and Saul motifs are also painted in
reserve, for example the hand of the horseman in
red, reserved in the dark coat of the man to the far
right (ill. 19.6a), and the herald’s plumed hat,
which is reserved in the landscape and river paint
(ill. 19.7a). In infrared we can see that the artist
mistakenly dissolved parts of the underdrawing
while he was painting in the landscape, suggesting
that the former’s medium may be oil rather than
water based (ill. 19.7b).
after pieter bruegel the elder 239
The careful underdrawing, with no changes along
the way, and the use of reserves for the entire com-
position shows that this pastiche was indeed planned
from the start and did not simply evolve from
an unfinished Sermon of Saint John composition.
The paint layer structure and style are compati-
ble with Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s workshop.
The graphic style is closer to Brueghel the Younger
than to Bruegel the Elder or Jan Brueghel. In the
faces, for instance, eye sockets are defined with typ-
ical fine white hatching strokes (ills. 19.4c, 19.16c).
Blue caps are dabbed on in azurite blended with
white to suggest a woolly material. This was origi-
nally inspired by Pieter the Elder’s treatment of the
motif, which both his sons imitated in their ver-
sions of the Saint John composition (ill. 19.8a-d).
Another Bruegelian trait is the use of a blunt point,
probably the back of the brush, into soft paint to
mark in seams of garments or a stripy texture.
The artist’s palette is typical of Brueghel the
Younger, but also of the period. The sky paint, seen
in the cross-section of the green leaf, contains lead
white with a little faded smalt and chalk (ill. 19.4a,
layers 4-5). The leaf itself is painted in azurite, large
quantities of chalk and a little iron and red ochre
(layer 6). The high chalk content probably indi-
cates the presence of a yellow dye, which would
have given the leaf its greenish colour. The high-
light on a fern at the bottom edge is painted in lead-
tin yellow, azurite, chalk, and iron-based pigments
(ill. 19.4b, layer 5). The presence of lead-tin yellow
suggests the painting was produced before 1750,
as this pigment fell out of use around that time.17
The degradation of certain colours follows the
same path as that in paintings by Pieter Brueghel
the Younger. Vermilion reds in both Saint John
and Massacre of the Innocents motifs are afflicted
by the formation of mauve patches, like those in
just over a third of Brueghel’s paintings examined
by the author (ills. 19.7a, 19.12a).18
Garments painted with the blue cobalt glass
pigment smalt also display typical signs of degra-
dation. Smalt is most notable in the tunic of the
herald in the plumed hat (ill. 19.7a), where it is
A

Ill. 19.5. After Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Sermon of Saint John the Baptist (ill. 19.1a), IRR, details. A: boy and bird. B: horseman, boy and dog. C: horseman
 the arbroath SERMON OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST
identifiable on appearance: glassy, semi-translu-
cent, faintly bluish, and beset by drying cracks.
Smalt was commonly used by both Pieter Brueg(h)
els.19 In the oriental hats to left and centre, decora-
tive lines in a greenish paint have started to turn
brown. This is probably a form of copper resinate
and is common in paintings of the period.
In certain places, for example in the reds, there
are protrusions and burst bubbles that suggest the
formation of lead soaps, which can develop over
time as part of the ageing process of oil paint
(ill. 19.9a-b). Lead soaps are not a regular occur-
rence in Brueghel the Younger but are found in
contemporary paintings and in later periods.20
The paint layer is affected by drying cracks in
places, particularly in blacks, azurite and smalt
blues, vermilion reds and in the yellow robe of the
mounted official. These cracks, which are more
extensive than in most paintings by Brueghel the
Younger, seem to be related to the thickness of
the paint layer as well as to colour. The blue robe
of the gypsy in the centre foreground, which is
crisscrossed with drying cracks, is unusually thick.
Key points on technique in relation to Brueghel
the Younger’s production
The painting’s format and use of an oak support
conforms to Brueghel’s workshop, but the panel’s
extremely wide, warped, top plank and lack of
unpainted lateral edges and corresponding rebates
are not typical. Most unusual is the presence of a
freely applied, liquid underdrawing in several
important motifs. The paint layer structure, brush-
work, and pigments, on the other hand, are broadly
in line with Brueghel’s techniques and materials.
Minor differences include thicker paint and a more
extensive network of drying cracks.
The three sources
Source 1: the Sermon of Saint John the Baptist
The Arbroath Saint John composition appears to
follow the Bruegel model quite closely. We know
that Brueghel the Younger and his brother Jan
after pieter bruegel the elder 241
used pricked cartoons to transfer the design to
panel in their respective versions, so we investi-
gated whether the Arbroath pasticheur could have
used these self-same, now-lost, documents.21 A
tracing of the painted composition of the Arbroath
version was overlaid with tracings from the
Brueghel brothers’ versions to see how closely they
correspond. There is a good match for the figures
to the far left, corresponding to one of the
presumed cartoon sheets used by the Brueghels
(ill. 19.10a). There is also a reasonable match for
the crowd, corresponding to the presumed centre-
left cartoon (ill. 19.10b). This suggests that either
the pasticheur had access to the same cartoons as
the Brueghels or that he made his own tracing
from one of the many copies, which he would
have then converted into a cartoon(s).
However, there is no match to the right. The
figures below the landscape vista are rearranged
and there are deliberate omissions to make space
for new motifs from the Massacre. There is no
match either for the distant castle. In fact, the
castle has been enlarged, the relative position of
the buildings shifted, the distant landscape
extended leftwards, and the vista moved higher up
relative to the forest scene. The boldest change is
the cropping of the upper right and lower right
figure groups, focusing the attention on the new
additions. Such major adjustments and rearrange-
ments would be atypical for Brueghel the Younger’s
workshop.
The two figures from the Saint John composi-
tion drawn in a liquid medium – the man in a pink
robe in the centre foreground and the boy with a
dead bird in the lower right – are far larger in scale
than their counterparts in the Brueghels’ versions
of Saint John (ill. 19.10a-b). These figures are also
displaced to fit around the new horsemen from
Saul and the Massacre. Why a brush was used to
draw these figures rather than graphite or black
chalk remains unexplained. Another displaced
Saint John figure, the man with the red, fez-style
hat, is also larger in size than usual and has no
underdrawing at all. Given their larger format,
 242 christina currie

B
 the arbroath SERMON OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST after pieter bruegel the elder 243

C
244 christina currie

A B C D

Ill. 19.6. Reserve for tree root in man’s coat in versions of the Sermon of Saint John the Baptist, IRR.
A: After Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1a). B: Pieter Brueghel the Younger, oil on panel, 118.7 x 168 cm,
Bruges, Groeningemuseum, unsigned. C: Jan Brueghel the Elder, oil on panel, 114.6 x 165.4 cm, unsigned, Basel, Kunstmuseum.
D: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1b)

none of these figures can have been based on the
Brueghel brothers’ cartoons.
The Brueghel sons’ copies of Saint John can be
broadly split into two groups, based on colour and
motif.22 Group 1, which includes Jan Brueghel’s
two versions, is the most faithful to Bruegel the
Elder’s original prototype whereas group 2 shows
some simplifications and small omissions. The
sailing boat below the castle, for instance, is miss-
ing in group 2 versions. The Arbroath painting
corresponds to group 2, which means its model
must have been a painted version by Brueghel the
Younger and not the original version by Bruegel
the Elder or one of Jan’s versions.
However, two motifs in the Arbroath version
are painted in different colours to those in group 2
and to the original prototype. These comprise the
garment worn by the man to the left of the oriental,
which is red rather than blue (ill. 19.11a-d), and
a woolly cap in the centre foreground, which is
blue rather than straw-coloured (ill. 19.11e-h).
This would be atypical of Brueghel’s workshop,
where copies of a group tend to conform in terms of
colour. In the case of the cap there is perhaps an
aesthetic explanation: a light-coloured cap might
compete for attention with the yellow robe of the
horseman, which is only present in the Arbroath
version. But the choice of red for the garment to
the left of the oriental seems to have been made on
a personal whim of the pasticheur.
Source 2: the Massacre of the Innocents
The imposing horsemen to the right in the
Arbroath painting are an ingenious reworking of
motifs from Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Massacre
of the Innocents in the British Royal Collection
(ill. 19.1c). The pasticheur has taken a herald from
the right of the scene and one of the officials in
red from the left and set them in contrapposto
(ill. 19.1a). The figures are transposed in a much
larger in scale than in their original setting and the
herald shows some logical adaptations. His head,
for instance, turns right towards the scene rather
than the other way (ill. 19.12a-c). He has a beard,
making him seem older and less naïve than the
herald in the Massacre, and the subdued colours of
the plumed hat have been switched for yellows
and pinks, helping him stand out against the dark
 the arbroath SERMON OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST
landscape. The skewbald horse has brown splotches
on a white background rather than the grey
splotches in Bruegel’s original. Brueghel the Young-
er’s copies, on the other hand, imitate the proto-
type precisely in motif and colour.23
Notwithstanding these adjustments, the colours
and decorations in the riders’ clothing and horses’
coats are identical to those in the original proto-
type. This means that the model for the Arbroath
painting must have been either the original version,
which was in Rudolf II of Hapsburg’s (1552-1612)
collection in Prague in the early seventeenth cen-
tury24 or, more likely, one of the many replicas pro-
duced by Brueghel the Younger from 1593 onwards.25
Source 3: the Conversion of Saul
The two borrowings from the Conversion of Saul
are transposed in the same format as they appear
in Bruegel the Elder’s prototype in the Kunst-
historisches Museum, Vienna (ill. 19.13a-b). But
there are differences in colour and detail that
suggest that the original version was not the model.
In this case, there are no known copies of the
Conversion of Saul by Brueghel the Younger. This
is important, as it is hard to believe that Bruegel’s
elder son would not have made a series of copies
had he been aware of this magnificent composition.
The Arbroath pasticheur most likely sourced his
model from outside Brueghel the Younger’s studio.
There are just two known copies of Bruegel the
Elder’s Conversion of Saul, both anonymous, one in
the Villa Vauban, Luxembourg (inv. no. 1691), the
other in a private collection (ill. 19.13c-d).26 The
former is also a clever pastiche of three sources by
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, but is largely based on the
figural scene from the Conversion. The other copy
is by an anonymous artist working in a Joos de
Momper style, but it gives the most accurate render-
ing of the appearance of the original prototype prior
to the latter’s cropping at top and left. Neither
reflects the painting style of the Arbroath painting,
but this does not eliminate them as possible models.
The Arbroath painting’s official in yellow cor-
responds almost precisely in scale and outline with
after pieter bruegel the elder 245
the same motif in the Vauban version, which in
turn corresponds to Bruegel the Elder’s original.
Possible traces of pouncing under the paint layer of
the horse in the Arbroath painting could indicate
the use of a pricked cartoon to transfer the design to
panel (ill. 19.14a-b). The dots – if they are indeed
pouncing dots – have been joined up with a brush.
Although Brueghel the Younger also used pouncing
for the transfer of designs to panel, he always joined
the dots with black chalk or graphite, so this is
a further clue that the painting probably did not
originate in his studio.27 The second borrowing,
the boy with a dog, does not give quite as good
a match and no traces of pouncing were observed.
Comparing colour and detail establishes further
links between the Arbroath version and the Vauban
version. The legs of the skewbald horse, for instance,
display the same grey and white patches in these
two versions, but they differ from those in the origi-
nal and De Momper-style copy (ill. 19.15a-d). Sim-
ilarly, the Arbroath and Vauban versions lack the
water bottle on the boy’s back and the studs on the
dog’s collar (ill. 19.15e-h).28 There are nonetheless
a few differences between the Arbroath and Vauban
versions: the dog’s tail is straight in the former, but
curly in the latter, the boy’s coat differs in colour
and he has a collar in the Arbroath version as
opposed to a hood in the Vauban version. We know
though from examination of the Vauban painting
that the dog’s tail was initially straight in an under-
layer, which could suggest that pasticheur saw the
painting during execution. We can therefore specu-
late that the model for the ‘Saul’ elements in the
Arbroath painting was either the Vauban version, a
cartoon, drawing, or sketch made for the latter, or a
lost version that inspired them both.
Key points on the three sources
For the John the Baptist composition, the pasticheur
must have had access to one of Brueghel the Young-
er’s many copies, from which he copied the colours
and motifs. This model was from Brueghel’s less
faithful group 2, which eliminates Bruegel the
Elder’s original version as possible source. The
246 christina currie

Ill. 19.7. After Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Sermon of Saint John the Baptist (ill. 19.1a), detail, plumed hat of the herald
reserved in background landscape. A: raking light. B: IRR
 the arbroath SERMON OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST after pieter bruegel the elder 247

B
248 christina currie

A B C D

Ill. 19.8. Woolly hat in versions of the Sermon of Saint John the Baptist. A: After Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1a).
B: Pieter Brueghel the Younger (ill. 19.6b). C: Jan Brueghel the Elder (ill. 19.6c). D: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1b)

pasticheur largely respected the original scale but Attribution

made significant adaptations. For the Massacre of
the Innocents motifs, the source was either the orig-
inal version or, more likely, a Brueghel the Younger
copy, but in this case the motifs were adapted and
transposed in a larger scale. For the Conversion of
Saul motifs, the direct inspiration cannot have
been Bruegel’s original version or a painting by
Brueghel the Younger. In fact, the closest possible
model is the anonymous Villa Vauban version
although we cannot rule out a now-lost common
source.
The attribution of the Arbroath pastiche has
not been considered in depth by art historians. G.
Marlier, author of the first in-depth monograph on
Pieter Brueghel the Younger, cites the painting as
an exceptional case of the Sermon of Saint John the
Baptist due to the suppression of certain elements
and the addition of the Conversion motifs. The
fact that he did not include it in his list of auto-
graph versions by the artist and that he discusses
it after the section entitled ‘A Sermon by Pieter
Balten’ rather than in the section on the Brueghel

A B

Ill. 19.9. A-B: After Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Sermon of Saint John the Baptist (ill. 19.1a).
Details, background figure with protrusions and burst bubbles typical of lead soap formation
 the arbroath SERMON OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST after pieter bruegel the elder 249

Ill. 19.10. A: Tracings of Arbroath version (ill. 19.1a) in red and Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s Groeningemuseum version
(ill. 19.6b) in black, aligned far left. B: Tracings aligned centre left
250 christina currie

A B C D

E F G H

Ill. 19.11. A-D: Figure behind turban, dressed in red in Arbroath version but in blue in the others.
A: After Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1a). B: Pieter Brueghel the Younger (ill. 19.6b). C: Jan Brueghel the Elder (ill. 19.6c).
D: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1b). E-H: Woolly hat is blue in the Arbroath version but straw-coloured in all the others.
E: After Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1a). F: Pieter Brueghel the Younger (ill. 19.6b). G: Jan Brueghel the Elder (ill. 19.6c).
H: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1b)

A B C

Ill. 19.12. Detail of herald. A: After Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1a). B: Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Massacre of the Innocents,
oil on panel, 115.2 x 163.7 cm, signed, Sibiu, Muzeul National Brukenthal (inv. no. MB148). C: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1c)
 the arbroath SERMON OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST after pieter bruegel the elder 251

A B

C D

Ill. 19.13. A: After Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Sermon of Saint John the Baptist (ill. 19.1a). B: Pieter Bruegel the Elder,
Conversion of Saul (ill. 19.1d). C: Anonymous, Conversion of Saul, oil on canvas, 119.8 x 158.3 cm, Luxembourg, Villa Vauban,
Musées de la Ville de Luxembourg. D: Anonymous, Conversion of Saul, oil on panel, 123 x 180 cm, UK, private collection

A B

Ill. 19.14. After Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Sermon of Saint John the Baptist (ill. 19.1a). Detail of skewbald horse. A: showing
possible pouncing dots in IRR. B: same detail in normal light
252 christina currie

A B

C D

Ill. 19.15. A-D: Horseman from Conversion of Saul. A: After Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1a). B: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1d)
C: Anonymous (ill. 19.13c). D: Anonymous (ill. 19.13d). E-H: Boy and dog from Conversion of Saul.
E: After Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1a). F: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ill. 19.1d). G: Anonymous (ill. 19.13c).
H: Anonymous (ill. 19.13d)
 the arbroath SERMON OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST after pieter bruegel the elder 253

E F

G H
254 christina currie

A B

C D

Ill. 19.16. The Arbroath painting (ill. 19.1a) (details A, C, E, G) closely imitates Brueghel the Younger’s underdrawing
and brushwork (ill. 19.6b) (details B, D, F, H), but the result is somewhat stiffer and the underdrawing less assured,
IRR and normal light

versions may, however, reveal his ambivalence
on the attribution.29 K. Ertz, in the second, most
complete, monograph to date, places the painting
in his ‘F’ (fraglich=questionable) category, adding
that as he had not seen an illustration of it, he
could not comment on authorship.30
The underdrawing seems to offer evidence of
two hands at work, although it is hard to compare
the style of the underdrawing in the two very dif-
ferent mediums (see above, ill. 19.5a-b). The
drawing is looser and bolder in those areas where a
liquid medium has been used, even in the horse
where pouncing is suspected (ill. 19.14a). How-
ever, even if these differences could be put down to
the medium, it defies logic that an artist would
change his underdrawing technique halfway
through execution. Large figures would have been
just as easy to draw using black chalk as with a brush.
 the arbroath SERMON OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST after pieter bruegel the elder 255

E F

G H

No areas of the underdrawing reflect Pieter
Brueghel the Younger’s own personal touch, which
is best exemplified by the Groeningemuseum version
of the Sermon of Saint John the Baptist (ill. 19.16b,
19.16f). The underdrawing, whether in black chalk
or a liquid medium, lacks the artist’s precision as well
as the confidence resulting from an intimate knowl-
edge of the much-reproduced composition.
The paint layer on the other hand displays a
unity of style and similar handling of paint in all
areas of the pastiche, revealing the work of a single
hand. In faces, the brushwork, contours, high-
lights, and laugher lines are all comparable (ill.
19.17a-d). Hands have equivalent reddish-brown
outlines and thickly blended paint (ill. 19.17e-f).
Still-life details are uniformly fashioned with shad-
ows, midtones and highlights to create an illusion
of volume (ill. 19.17g-h). As with the underdraw-
ing, this painting style does not recall the touch of
Brueghel the Younger, although it is inspired by it
(ill. 19.16). The brushwork is stiffer, more notice-
ably stylized and the paint is denser and less trans-
lucent than in Brueghel’s autograph paintings.31
The background landscape, although polished,
256
A B
E F
Ill. 19.17. A-H: After Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Sermon of Saint John the Baptist (ill. 19.1a), Faces, hands and still-life details
in the Arbroath painting, comprising Saint John, Massacre and Saul motifs, showing unity of style
shows less nuance and precision than in works by
Brueghel himself.
The pasticheur was a highly accomplished artist
with an intimate knowledge of Brueghel’s tech-
niques and style, although not bound by them. He
could have been a former apprentice, former assis-
tant or even a family member.
Conclusions
Arbroath’s Sermon of Saint John the Baptist is a deli-
cate balancing act on the part of its creator-
pasticheur, skillfully juxtaposing the main parts of
Bruegel the Elder’s eponymous painting with eye-
catching new additions from the Massacre of the
Innocents and Conversion of Saul. It was conceived
as a pastiche right from the start and presents a
stylistically unified composition.
The painting has many technical features in
common with Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s pro-
duction. Although the oak support is somewhat
atypical, the white ground, grey streaky imprima-
tura, probable use of cartoons, dry-medium under-
drawing, use of reserves, and range of pigments are
what we would expect from his workshop. The
painting style imitates closely Brueghel’s graphic
way of modelling and high level of artistic finish.
christina currie
C D
G H
There are several characteristics, however, that
make it unlikely that the painting originated in
Brueghel the Younger’s studio or even under his
direction. Most striking is the use of a liquid under-
drawing medium for the foreground figures, perhaps
drawn in by a different hand to the rest of the com-
position. The many liberties taken by the pasti-
cheur in the way the various sources were incorpo-
rated also diverges from Brueghel’s workshop
practice. While the Sermon may be partly based on
his cartoons, there were adaptations to make way
for the new additions, figures were enlarged and
drawn in freehand, and colours were changed.
The fact that there are no known copies of the
Conversion of Saul by Brueghel the Younger makes it
unlikely that he had any drawings or painted mod-
els of this composition in his possession, which in
turn also suggests that the Arbroath painting was
not carried out in his studio. The pasticheur must
have had access to an independent source for the
‘Saul’ motifs, possibly the Villa Vauban copy or a
lost common model. Like the author of the Vauban
painting, he must have had an intimate familiarity
with Brueghel’s work and perhaps trained with him
or been a family member. His identity will probably
never be revealed.
 the arbroath SERMON OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST
We cannot be certain as to when the Arbroath
Sermon was produced. The most likely period is the
first half of the seventeenth century, when there
was a great demand from collectors for copies of
Bruegel the Elder’s work. The materials and tech-
niques are indeed typical for the late sixteenth
century and first half of the seventeenth century,
and the presence of lead-tin yellow excludes an
execution date after 1750. This was also a time
when the pastiche was in fashion, when collectors
and connoisseurs would have delighted in spotting
sources and reading hidden meanings into paint-
ings. Three Bruegels in one must have given them
a particular frisson or sense of déjà vu.
N OTES
I thank Gill Ross, Visual Arts Lead at ANGUSalive, for welcoming me
twice to the Arbroath Art Gallery, first in 2017 and then with the KIK-
IRPA imagery team in 2019. I would also like to thank John Johnston,
also of ANGUSalive, for locating the original documents relating to the
provenance of the Sermon of Saint John the Baptist, and the staff at the
Arbroath Art Gallery who made our time there so fruitful. I am grateful
to conservator-restorers Gail Egan and Henry Matthews who unframed,
checked and prepared the painting prior to our visit. I also thank Lorne
Campbell for drawing my attention to this painting, which is not well-
known outside of Scotland. Finally, I thank the Royal Institute for Cul-
tural Heritage in Brussels for sponsoring the mission in 2019 and to my
colleagues Sophie De Potter (infrared reflectography), Katrien Van
Acker (photography) and Said Amrani (assistant) for their work on-site.
1 Pieter Bruegel the Elder, after [present author’s attribution],
Sermon of Saint John the Baptist [Arbroath Art Gallery title: Saint John
Preaching in the Wilderness], Arbroath Art Gallery.
2 Loh 2006.
3 On pastiches and later variations in Brueghel the Younger’s
production, see: Currie, Allart 2012, 3, pp. 825-826.
4 See: Marlier 1969, p. 231, fig. 140; Ertz 1998-2000, nr. E632;
Mori 2021, fig. 8.21.
5 See: Currie, Allart 2017, p. 203, fig. 5.
6 Unsigned, 20.5 × 27.5 cm, Georges De Jonckheere collection.
See: Currie, Allart 2012, 2, p. 548, fig. 364. On Jan Brueghel’s use of his
father’s motifs in new compositions, see: Honig 2016, chapter 4.
7 The painting was examined by the KIK-IRPA in infrared
reflectography in 2013 with the kind permission of Lars Hendrikman,
former Curator of Old Master Painting, Sculpture and Applied Arts at
the Bonnefanten. The underdrawing and painting techniques are com-
pletely different to those seen in paintings from Brueghel or his studio.
Glück attributed the work to Brueghel the Younger, Marlier gave it
tentatively to Pieter Balten, and the Bonnefanten lists it on their
website as as ‘omgeving’ (circle) Pieter Brueghel the Younger. See:
Marlier 1969, pp. 327-329; www.bonnefanten.nl/nl/collectie/1003761-
bekering-van-saulus.
8 In the Arbroath Herald, 16 July 1965, Mrs Matthew, convener
of the Arbroath Library’s Art Committee, is quoted as saying: ‘How this
painting [the Adoration of the Magi], and our other Breughel, ‘St John
Preaching in the Wilderness’ came originally to Scotland is not known …
Our first information about ‘St John Preaching in the Wilderness’ appears
in the Museum’s list of acquisitions on August 28, 1876. The donor was
Mr. James Renny, Edinburgh’.
9 Entry nr. 608, dated 28 August 1876.
after pieter bruegel the elder 257
10 Will of James Renny Junior, dated 1 May 1877, Wills and
testaments Reference SC70/4/167, Edinburgh Sheriff Court Wills,
National Records of Scotland.
11 Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Adoration of the Magi, Arbroath
Art Gallery. The Old Arbroath Register, item number 311, records the
donation of ‘a picture’ by Colonel Rait.
12 Planks measured from the bottom, going upwards: left edge:
15.3 cm; 27.5 cm; 31 cm; 35.5 cm; right edge: 17 cm; 26 cm; 28.5 cm;
37.4 cm.
13 On channel edge supports in Brueghel’s work, see: Currie,
Allart 2012, 3, pp. 732-733. Occasionally, large-format panels did
not have such supports, e.g. Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s Sermon of
Saint John the Baptist, signed and dated 1624, from the Stedeljk Museum
Wuyts-Van Campen en Baron Caroly, Lier. See: Currie, Allart 2012, 2,
pp. 446-483 (case study 3).
14 I thank Steven Saverwyns and Alexia Coudray from the KIK-
IRPA Painting Analysis Laboratory for analysing the two cross-sections
and discussing the results with me. I am also grateful to Steven for his
insightful comments on this paper.
15 The underdrawing was recorded by Sophie De Potter using
a Lion Systems S.A. near infrared camera with an InGaAs captor
(640 × 512 array), 55mm Nikkor lens, and a 1.5-1.73 μ filter. The
images were assembled using Adobe Photoshop. The painting was
photographed in high resolution in raking light, normal light and
infrared photography by Katrien Van Acker using a Hasselblad H6D-
100c.
16 See: Currie, Allart 2012, 2, pp. 446-483 (case study 3).
17 I thank Steven Saverwyns and Alexia Coudray for all pig-
ment analysis, carried out on two cross-sections.
18 On the discoloration of vermilion red in Brueghel’s paintings,
see: Currie, Allart 2012, 3, pp. 762-763.
19 On smalt in Brueghel the Younger, see: Currie, Allart 2012, 3,
pp. 761-762. On smalt in Bruegel the Elder’s Sermon of Saint John the
Baptist, see: Currie, Allart 2012, 1, pp. 160-163.
20 On metal soaps, see: Izzo et al 2021. See also: Saverwyns,
Currie 2016.
21 Currie, Allart 2017. See also: Currie, Allart 2012, 2,
pp. 447-483. Bruegel the Elder did not use these same sheets for the
original version, although he probably also employed cartoons to
transfer his design to panel. See: Currie, Allart 2012, 1, pp. 148-160.
For Bruegel the Elder’s use of preparatory cartoons, see also: Currie
2021.
22 For identification and description of these groups, see: Currie,
Allart 2012, 2, pp. 472-474.
23 Currie, Allart, Saverywns 2012; Currie, Allart 2012, 3, pp. 820-
823.
24 For the provenance of Bruegel the Elder’s original version,
see: Campbell 1985, pp. 14, 17.
25 The earliest known signed and dated version by Pieter
Brueghel the Younger is the version in the Musée des Beaux-Arts,
Lons-le-Saunier, France, dated 1593.
26 For discussion of these two versions of the Conversion of Saul,
their attribution, the question of the model, and their relationship to
Bruegel’s original prototype, see: Currie, Allart 2019.
27 For examples of pouncing joined up with liquid underdraw-
ing, see: Currie, Allart 2012, 3, pp. 939-947 (Appendix II, Historical
Copying Techniques).
28 For the original version’s underdrawing, which includes the
water bottle, see: www.InsideBruegel.net. For the dog’s tail and its under-
drawing in the Villa Vauban version, See: Currie, Allart 2019, fig. 8.
29 Marlier 1969, p. 59.
30 Ertz 1998-2000, p. 376, nr. F344.
31 It was only after cleaning that the exceptional quality of the
Bruges version was revealed, and the painting given to Brueghel the
Younger’s own hand. See: Currie, Allart 2017. The previous categoriza-
tion of the painting as workshop was therefore revised. See: Currie,
Allart 2012, 3, p. 1020.
Ill. 20.1. Michael Sweerts, Peasant Family with a Man Defleaing Himself, c. 1646-1652, oil on canvas, 66.5 x 50 cm,
The Hague, Mauritshuis
 20
Reconstructing Sweerts: Practical Insights
into the Historical Dark Halo Technique
based on Paint Reconstructions
Kirsten Derks, Markha Youchaeva, Geert Van der Snickt,
Katlijne Van der Stighelen and Koen Janssens
A BSTRACT : This paper deals with the historical dark halo
technique, a painting technique often encountered in
seventeenth-century painting. In his Pictorial Museum and
Optical Scale, Palomino described that in portrait painting
a dark local underpaint should be added around the
sitter’s head, in order to blend the contours softly. This
suggests that artists used the technique to create soft
lines in portraits. However, artists may have had different
reasons for using the dark halo technique, such as dimin-
ishing the simultaneous contrast effect caused by strongly
colored grounds. In order to gain a better understanding
of this, paint reconstructions of Michael Sweerts’ Peasant
Family with a Man Defleaing Himself were carried out.
One with, the other without the dark halo. This showed
that by adding a dark halo in the early painting stages,
it was easier for the painter to establish the right skin
tones, as the dark halo served as a tonal benchmark and
helped reduce the simultaneous contrast effect.
—o—
Introduction
Making reconstructions can help in the under-
standing of historical painting techniques. In our
2022 article on the dark halo technique and its
application in the oeuvre of Michael Sweerts, we
proposed a hypothesis as to the function of the dark
halo technique.1 We argued that the dark halo
technique may have been a resourceful response to
optical effects challenging seventeenth-century
painters, but that were only later described in
modern studies of visual perception, such as the
simultaneous contrast effect and the crispening effect.
In the seventeenth century, artists started working
from foreground to background. Fifteenth- and
sixteenth-century artists generally worked from
background to foreground, leaving reserves in
anticipation of the main figures that were painted
later. This way, artists applied plenty of colours to
hold on to from the beginning: they had a tonal
benchmark when painting the main figures. Add-
ing a dark halo around the main figures in the early
painting stages helped the artist to create the
right tonality of skin tones, for instance in portrait
painting. In the case of Michael Sweerts, he may
have used this painting technique to deal with the
impact of a different colour of ground when he
moved from Brussels to Rome, where a warm
reddish-brown preparation was preferred over
the more neutral grey-over-brown ground of the
Southern Netherlandish painting tradition. This
strongly colored ground had a big visual impact in
the early painting stage, when Sweerts applied
the paint for the main figures in the composition.
The dark halo helped to reduce or even diminish
the simultaneous contrast effect.
This paper presents a more nuanced hypothesis
as to the function of the dark halo technique in
260 kirsten derks et al.
seventeenth-century painting. Since our 2022 pub-
lication, new insights were gained, and it was found
that the dark halo technique was mentioned in one
historical art technological source dealing with
portrait painting. Additionally, two reconstruc-
tions of Michael Sweerts’ Peasant Family with a
Man Defleaing Himself (The Hague, Mauritshuis,
inv. 886)2 were made to test our hypothesis pre-
sented in our 2022 article. More in particular, a
well-chosen detail of the composition was painted:
once with and once without the dark halo.3 The
goal of this hands-on experiment was to understand
if the dark halos in the underpainting stage would
make it easier for the artist to apply the right col-
ours, and more specifically flesh tones, right away.
The reconstructions helped in our understanding of
the optical effects in the early painting stages either
with or without dark halos present and gave us new
insights into the possible function of the dark halo
technique within the oeuvre of Michael Sweerts.
The dark halo technique and its function
Although rarely discussed in (technical) art his-
torical literature, dark halo-like shapes are present
around the main figures in a significant number of
seventeenth-century Dutch, Flemish and Spanish
paintings,4 including works by Peter Paul Rubens,
Jan Steen, Anthony Van Dyck, Diego Velázquez
and Michael Sweerts. They can be seen with the
naked eye in unfinished works, but also in finished
paintings. In our 2022 article on this topic,5 we
have shown that this peculiar painting technique
can be made visible with imaging techniques, such
as infrared reflectography and MA-XRF scanning.
In particular the latter research method has proven
to be useful for revealing dark halos in the oeuvre
of Michael Sweerts. Because he worked on strongly
coloured grounds, infrared reflectography was not
always capable of revealing the halos, while MA-
XRF scanning revealed that the paint used for dark
halos did not consist exclusively of carbon blacks.
Halos were sometimes painted with a mixture of
different pigments, including earth pigments and
lead white, some of which are not responsive to IR.
In our previous study we also discussed the func-
tion of the dark halo technique.6 Over the last
thirty years, a handful of authors have proposed a
hypothesis as to this function. However, none of
these were entirely satisfactory. Some of these
authors argued that dark halos may have been used
as compositional tools, to determine the exact
placement of the figures.7 Others argued that the
dark halos are actually pentimenti, mistakes
covered up by the artist,8 or a way to make the
figures stand out against the background.9
The dark halo technique may have had a specific
function in portrait painting. Since the Renais-
sance, the main goal of painting was mimesis.10
Artists were mainly concerned with how to depict
the world on a canvas or panel in the most con-
vincing and life-like manner. This was also the
case for portrait painting, a genre in which artists
relatively often made use of the dark halo tech-
nique. A convincing and life-like portrait is
dependent of several factors, such as likeness, but
also skin colour and soft lines. The skill of painting
live-coloured flesh was very much praised in six-
teenth-, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
artistic literature.11 Authors such as Karel van
Mander (1548-1606)12 and Gerard de Lairesse
(1640-1711)13 stressed the importance of an artist’s
skill to depict flesh colour. Painting skin is difficult
for many reasons. Firstly, people deduct important
information about a person by just looking at him/
her (such as age, health, emotional state). Flaws
in the skin will be easily noticed by the viewer.
Secondly, skin is a very complex substance. It seems
monochrome, yet it consists of many subtle
nuances. The texture of skin is not smooth, but
rather both soft and rough, wrinkled and even.14
Painting live-coloured flesh was in the seventeenth
century the way to demonstrate your skills as an
artist. This is represented by the many self-portraits
in which artists depicted themselves holding a
palette upon which colours and ready-made grade
of mixtures to paint flesh tones were displayed.15
The dark halo technique may have been a tool
for artists to achieve the right tints for incarnates
 reconstructing sweerts: practical insights
in the early painting stages. This had already been
argued by E. Hendriks in 1998, when she proposed
that the technique was a way to provide ‘a foil
against which the tones of the portrait could be estab-
lished’.16 Before the laying in of the background
colour was started, the dark halo served as a tonal
benchmark for the incarnate, which may have
been the most important part of a painting.
Another important aspect of portrait painting
is the use of soft and hard lines. When painting a
life-like portrait, the artist needs to mimic what our
eyes see: some parts of the sitter’s face are in focus,
while others are out of focus. The artist can differ-
entiate between these areas with so-called hard and
soft lines: areas out of focus ought to be painted
with soft edges, while areas in focus need to be
painted with hard lines.17 The effect of soft lines
can be achieved by blending the different patches
of skin colour after application with a (dry)
broad and soft brush. In sixteenth-century recipes,
recommendations for soft brushes can be found,
specifically for this purpose of blending or ver-
drijven. Appropriate brushes are for instance a
vispenseel (fish brush) or a brush made of dashaar
(badger’s hair).18 Precisely this is described by
Antonio Palomino y Velasco (1655-1726) in
his 1715-1724 treatise: The Pictorial Museum and
Optical Scale.19 In this treatise, he described how an
artist should paint a portrait. One should mix all
the different skin tones on the palette, starting
with the darkest skin tones to delineate the face of
the sitter. Using the darkest shade, the artist should
apply that in all the places of that dark tint, ‘spread-
ing it just far enough to be able to blend it with the
following tint’. Again, the second tint should be
applied there where it needs to go and a little bit
further, in order to be able to blend it with the
next. When all the skin tones are applied, the artist
should take a soft brush and blend all the areas of
the head, ‘leaving it soft, sweet and lovely’.20 Then,
Palomino adds an important sentence: ‘It is a good
idea to apply the background touching the head before
the blending is done, so that the contour21 of the head
can be softened against it’.22 This sentence shows that
261
by adding a local underpaint, i.e. the halo, directly
adjacent to the sitter’s face, the artist is able to
blend the colours of the face well and create soft
edges. As in the background in portraits is often
dark in colour, the local underpaint would have a
similar dark colour. This means that a dark halo is
painted around the sitter’s face in the early paint-
ing stages. In this context, it is important to
note that this background colour mentioned by
Palomino should be applied simultaneously with
the skin tones, as it is needed for both paints to be
wet in order to be able to blend them nicely. Inter-
estingly, Palomino does not mention the use of
dark halos for achieving the right skin tones. For
him, the dark halo is solely applied to be able to
blend the soft lines of the portrait.
Michael Sweerts
Michael Sweerts (1618-1664) is one of the artists
who regularly employed the dark halo technique.
Sweerts, born in Brussels in 1618, is known to be
active in Italy and the Netherlands. Between 1646
and 1652, he was in Rome, where he was associated
with the Accademia di San Luca and the Schilders-
bent. He worked for both Italian and Netherlandish
patrons, including Camillo Pamphilj and the Deutz
family.23 Circa 1652, Sweerts returned to the Low
Countries, where he founded his own ‘Academy of
life drawing’.24 Sweerts left for Amsterdam in 1659,
when he presented a self-portrait to the painters’
guild of Brussels as a ‘farewell gift’. In 1661, Sweerts
left the Low Countries with the Société des Missions
Étrangères. He traveled to the Near East, Palestine
and further to India.
Sweerts thus worked both in Italy and in the
Low Countries. Works made during his Italian
sojourn are generally distinguished from his Neth-
erlandish paintings based on the weave of the
canvas as well as the ground layers used to prepare
the canvas. His Italian works are generally painted
on twill weave canvas prepared with a strongly
coloured, reddish-brown ground, while his work
dated to his Netherlandish period usually is
painted on a double, grey over red ground.25 In this
262 kirsten derks et al.
paper, one of Sweerts’ works will be discussed in-
depth: Peasant Family with a Man Defleaing Himself
(ill. 20.1). This painting is generally dated to
Sweerts’ Italian period (1646- c. 1652).26 This dat-
ing is based on the twill weave canvas support,
which is prepared with a reddish-brown ground,
both of which are typical of Italian paintings of the
period. Moreover, the composition also shows clear
Italian influences. The iconography of the painting
shows clear associations with the Bamboccianti.27
Peasant Family with a Man Defleaing Himself
shows six figures in an Italianate landscape. The
dominant figures in the scene are a woman and her
child, entering the picture diagonally and seen
from the back. On the left side of the composition,
a man is searching for fleas, a motif that is also
included in other paintings by Sweerts. In the
background, three additional figures are depicted,
of which one is wielding a pitchfork. Around the
figure of the woman, a halo-like pale shape is visi-
ble. The paint of the blue sky directly adjacent to
this figure has a slightly lighter tone (ill. 20.2b).
Infrared reflectography (IRR) (ill. 20.2c) revealed
that a carbon rich, and thus dark, paint layer is pre-
sent below the surface. This dark paint layer, or
dark halo, has a grey color and consists of lead
white and carbon black (most likely charcoal).28
Michael Sweerts and the dark halo technique
Sweerts also used the dark halo technique to cre-
ate the right colours and tonality for the main fig-
ures in his Peasant Family. However, his reason to
use this technique was different: he rather seemed
to have used it to deal with a different coloured
ground. The technique has only been found in his
paintings attributed to his Italian sojourn (c. 1646-
c. 1652), which are painted on canvas prepared
with a strongly coloured, reddish-brown ground.
So far, no halos have been found in his Nether-
landish paintings, made on a double, grey over red
ground. Thus, we suggested that Sweerts may have
used the dark grey halos to deal with these differ-
ently coloured grounds, commonly used in Italy
at that time. In this manner, the dark halo could
have served as a solution to an optical pheno-
menon that was only described much later: the
simultaneous contrast effect. In 1839, Michel
Eugène Chevreul introduced the term simulta-
neous contrast: he demonstrated that our eye will
exaggerate the difference between two colours
when we look at them simultaneously.29 The two
colours appear to us as dissimilar as possible. This
is a way for our brain to perceive colours better.
Although the term was introduced only in the
nineteenth century, sixteenth- and seventeenth-
century artists must have been familiar with this
optical effect too. In fact, in the introduction to
his Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architet-
tori, Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) already described
the simultaneous contrast effect. In his chapter
On Colouring, he stated the importance of using
beautiful colours in the foreground, while restrict-
ing less beautiful colours to the background of the
composition. He then added: ‘A sallow colour
makes another which is placed beside it appear the
more lively and melancholy and pallid colours make
those near them very cheerful and almost of a certain
flaming beauty’.30 He expressed how colours influ-
ence each other and their appearances when
placed next to each other, or in other words: he
described the simultaneous contrast effect.
The concept of simultaneous contrast, although
not defined as such, was thus already known to
Vasari and his contemporaries. Therefore, it seems
more than likely that artists in the seventeenth
century must have been aware of this optical effect
too. Sweerts must have known about the influence
colours have on each other, either through his
practical experience as an artist, his own education
and/or through his interest in artistic instruction.
Sweerts had a deep passion for the education of
artists. Besides establishing his own drawing acad-
emy, he also published a series of prints, Diversae
facies in vsvm iuvenvm et aliorvm delineatae (1656),
which show his desire to participate in didactic
culture and artistic instruction.31 In this context,
he may well be interested in and aware of theories
of colour, such as the simultaneous contrast effect.32
 reconstructing sweerts: practical insights 263

A B C

D E F

Ill. 20.2. Michael Sweerts, Peasant Family with a Man Defleaing Himself (ill. 20.1). A: visible light. B: detail showing a shape applied
with lighter paint around the mother figure (red rectangle on A). C: IRR revealing the presence of a carbon-based (thus dark)
halo-like underpainting in the area of the light shape. D: MA-XRF map for PbL. E: detail (white circle on A) with a view to the
underlying dark grey paint of the halo along the neck. F: paint sample (red dot on A), with three layers

As no historical texts mention dark halos as a Paint reconstructions as a research method

painting technique specifically for dealing with the
simultaneous contrast effect, our hypothesis
remains just that – a hypothesis. The exact func-
tion of the dark halo technique in the oeuvre of
Sweerts remains unclear. To learn more about the
function of dark halos in the paintings by Sweerts,
paint reconstructions were carried out, which
helped in our understanding of the visual effect of
the dark halo technique in the underpainting stage
and all subsequent stages of the creative process.
Making a reconstruction33 of an old master’s paint-
ing is not merely making a copy of said work. A
copy generally imitates the surface appearance of
a painting, while in making reconstructions the
use of materials and layer build-up is also taken
into account. This type of research – making recon-
structions to answer (technical) art historical ques-
tions – has become more popular over the last
years. Conservators and art historians have increas-
ingly become aware of the value of this research
264 kirsten derks et al.
method. The earliest reported example of recon-
structions, however, dates from the eighteenth cen-
tury, when French art lover and connoisseur Count
Caylus experimented with different methods for
encaustic painting, based on historical recipes
combined with results from scientific analysis.34
Making reconstructions continued in the nine-
teenth century, when M.P. Merrifield and C.L.
Eastlake tested the artistic working methods
described in historical textual sources through
reconstructions.35 In the twentieth century, D.V.
Thompson emphasized the role of craftmanship in
arts in his Materials and Techniques of Medieval
Painting. He too made reconstructions of medieval
painting techniques on the basis of historical reci-
pes and the study of paintings.36 A few years earlier,
M. Doerner published his Materials of the Artist and
their Use in Painting, in which he brings together a
vast amount of technical information on pigments,
binding media and materials used by Old Masters.
In this book, he also discusses the painting tech-
niques of Jan van Eyck, Titian and Peter Paul
Rubens for example. In more recent years, the
interest in making reconstructions as a research
tool has not dwindled. In the early 1990s, it was
L. Carlyle who published groundbreaking work on
reconstructions in the context of the ‘Historically
Accurate oil painting Reconstruction Techniques’,
or in short HART, research project. Carlyle placed
the emphasis on sourcing materials that are deemed
appropriate for the time period studied and intro-
duced the terms historically accurate and historically
appropriate.37 The ‘Impact of Oil’ research project
(2007-2015) employed reconstructions based on
historical recipes as well as on scientific data
from historical painting investigations.38 In 2021,
I. Kneepkens defended her doctoral dissertation,
for which she experimented with raw and processed
linseed oils and made reconstructions to under-
stand its working properties.39 Currently, making
reconstructions is often a set part of the curriculum
within universities.40 Moreover, students are also
stimulated to include reconstructions in their
master’s thesis research.41 This interest in historical
reconstructions also grew with the general public.
A popular tv program in the Netherlands, called
Het Geheim van de Meester (‘The Master’s Secret’),
was broadcasted between 2016 and 2022. In this
tv show, a panel of four experts work together to
come as close to the technique, style and zeitgeist of
the work of art chosen for reconstruction. Their
main question is: how did the artist do it?42
By making reconstructions, it is possible to learn
more about the way that seventeenth-century
artists created their work. Through experiencing
the production process of a painting from start to
finish, one gains tacit knowledge, which is so
important in understanding the historical working
methods used by old masters. One learns about the
affordances and properties of the materials, and the
way these materials can be used and manipulated to
create certain effects, including the limitations of
the materials.43 This knowledge complements the
results of analysis and documentary research.44
Another advantage of making reconstructions is
that one may develop their skills in interpreting
the scientific data used as a basis for the reconstruc-
tion. Favorably, before commencing the recon-
struction process, substantial technical examina-
tions into the original painting and/or the artist’s
work more generally is carried out. In that way, the
endeavour can be based on the current scientific
knowledge of the artwork’s composition and the
general working practice of the artist.
Additionally, working with historically appro-
priate materials is also preferred. This means that it
is favoured to use materials that were available to
the artist of the original work that is being recon-
structed, in this case Michael Sweerts. It must be
recognized that no reconstruction is ever truly
historically accurate: concessions must be made
based on the materials, time and expertise avail-
able. In the context of the reconstruction of Sweerts’
Peasant Family, the exact materials used by the artist
were not of paramount importance. Rather, the
focus of the reconstruction was on the influence
of colours on each other in the early painting
stages. It was chosen to work with historically
 reconstructing sweerts: practical insights
appropriate materials as much as possible, but toxic,
dangerous or very rare pigments used in the original
painting were replaced with a safer or more widely
available alternative. For instance, lead white was
replaced with ‘flake white’ by Blockx. This paint
contains a mixture of lead white and zinc white
pigments.45 Natural ultramarine was replaced by
the synthetic variant.46
Reconstructing Sweerts and his dark halo
technique
Peasant Family with a Man Defleaing Himself was
chosen as a case study for reconstructions because
a wealth of technical information was at hand,
as well as of availability reasons.47 A relevant detail
of the composition, that included the dark halo,
was chosen to reconstruct. Two reconstructions
were made of this detail: one including the dark
halo, the other without. The entire process was
filmed and each stage was photographed. Before
the reconstruction process commenced, the painter
made a copy of the detail of Peasant Family to get
familiar with the topic, composition and the paint-
ing materials. Through this first painting exercise,
the learning curve would be reduced. It was decided
to work on the two reconstructions in sequence,
not simultaneously: Markha Youchaeva started
with the second reconstruction only when the first
one was finished. This was done in order to avoid
using the same paint mixtures for both reconstruc-
tions. The flesh tones as well as the colours of
the figures’ garments thus needed to be mixed
separately for each reconstruction. This was impor-
tant, as the goal of the reconstructions was to
understand how the dark halo would influence the
initial skin colours applied in the early painting
stage, and how these skin tones appeared in the
final painting. Between the completion of the
first reconstruction and the commencement on the
second reconstruction, a couple of weeks passed.
By taking this small break, it was thought that
the results of the first reconstruction would not
influence the second reconstruction. Moreover,
the break would also allow for Markha to start
265
the second reconstruction with a clean slate, as she
forgot about the combinations and ratios in the
paint mixtures used in the first reconstruction.
First, the canvas was prepared with a double
ground, of which the second, upper ground layer
was reddish-brown in colour. The colour of the
ground was determined after examination of the
painting with a microscope and examination of
cross-sections (ill. 20.2f). Sweerts’ Peasant Family is
prepared with a double ground. The first, lower
ground has a more yellowish-brown colour, and
probably consists of lead white, yellow earth and
chalk. The second, upper ground contains mostly
red earth pigments, carbon black and a little lead
white. For the reconstruction, a similar build-up of
the preparation layers was used: the canvas was first
prepared with a ground consisting of chalk, red
ochre, bone black and yellow ochre. Then a second
ground, consisting of the same pigments in a
different ratio was applied. For the second ground,
relatively more red and yellow ochre were added to
achieve the reddish-brown ground.48 After the
ground had dried, the canvas was cut up in pieces:
each piece was used for one of the reconstructions.
This way, it was certain that both reconstructions
were made on the same colour ground. This was
important, as it was thought that the dark halo
would reduce the simultaneous contrast effect
caused by the strongly coloured ground in the early
painting stage. By using the exact same ground
colour, it would be easier to determine if the halo
would indeed help establishing the correct tonality
of the skin tones and drapery of the figures.
The reconstruction was started with a painted
sketch, using a dark brown paint (ill. 20.3). With
this sketch the composition was laid out on the
canvas. Then the blue garments of the woman
(including the white collar) were painted, followed
by her skin tones. First, the darkest shades of skin
colour were applied; later continuing with the
lighter shades of skin. After the mother and daugh-
ter were finished, the blue background sky was
filled in, and the figures and trees in the back-
ground were painted.
266 kirsten derks et al.

B C D E

F G H I

Ill. 20.3. Process of the reconstruction of ill. 20.1 without dark halo. A: Schematic overview of the build-up of
the reconstruction. B: First lay in of the composition using a dark brown paint. C: First painting stage, laying in the first colors of
the woman’s blue dress. In this stage, the darkest skin tones were applied as well. D: Working up of the skin tones and the hair.
In this stage, the little girl was painted too. E: Application of the blue background sky. F: Reworking the blue sky to make it
smooth. G: More reworking of the blue sky. H: The figures in the background were painted. I: The composition was finished
by adding the final details in the background figures and by painting the tree
 reconstructing sweerts: practical insights
The findings of the first reconstruction – with-
out the dark halo – were discussed immediately
after its completion. During this discussion Markha
Youchaeva mentioned difficulties with determin-
ing the right flesh tones and the correct blue color
of the woman’s dress. These difficulties were in line
with our hypothesis concerning the simultaneous
contrast effect: due to the strong reddish-brown
colour of the ground layer, the highlights in the
skin tones were initially painted too pale, while the
shaded areas of skin colour were painted too dark.
This was noticed after completion of the skin tones.
Moreover, after the blue sky was filled in, the skin
tones also appeared too orange. This too is in line
with the simultaneous contrast effect: next to the
reddish brown ground the skin tones seemed right,
but the blue sky changed the visual appearance of
the skin tones. The simultaneous contrast effects
make the latter appear more orangey, as orange is
the complementary colour to blue.
Although these results are based on a recon-
struction made by an amateur artist, it should
be noted that the simultaneous contrast effect is
difficult to anticipate, even for professional artists.
It is hard to imagine that seventeenth-century art-
ists would not have difficulties with anticipating
the simultaneous contrast effect of a strongly col-
oured ground. The darkest skin tones of the first
reconstruction were slightly reworked by Markha
at a later stage, when the blue sky was painted in:
they were made slightly lighter. However, it should
be noted that the orangey colour of the skin tones
is still visible.
The second reconstruction included the dark halo
technique (ill. 20.4): a mixture of carbon black and
cremser white was used for the halo. This mixture
was deemed appropriate as a paint sample taken
near the face of the woman in Sweerts’ Peasant
Family showed that the paint used for the dark halo
consists of carbon black and lead white (ill. 20.2e).
The cool grey colour of the halo turned blue once
applied over the reddish-brown ground. This is a
common optical effect, that is again related to the
267
simultaneous contrast effect.49 The warm reddish-
brown ground makes the cool grey appear even
cooler than it is, making it seem blue in our eyes.
The dark halo, even though it was dark grey in
colour, seemed close to the final colour of the blue
sky. This way, the dark halo serves as a good colour
reference for the artist in the early painting stages.
The blue sky was painted using a mixture of ultra-
marine blue, ‘flake white’, and a little vine black.
The painter noted that with a halo, it was easier for
her to mix paint for the dress, the skin tones and
the hair of the woman with a similar tonality and
hue as perceived in the original painting. The halo
served as a benchmark for the darkest shades in the
figure, while the white collar of the woman’s dress
was a reference point for the lightest shades. With
these two benchmarks, the painter experienced
that it was easier to achieve the right colours from
the first application. This was already noted during
the first painting stage, in which the skin colours
were applied. Yet it should be mentioned that after
the application of the blue background sky, the
skin tones still appeared darker and more orangey
than they did against the dark halo. The difference
in appearance was significantly less, however, than
in the first reconstruction without the dark halo.
This corroborates that the dark halo does help with
diminishing the simultaneous contrast effect caused
by the strongly coloured ground layer.
Other advantages of the dark halo technique
were also noticed. Firstly, it was easier to apply the
paint of the background sky around the figure, as
the dark halo was close in colour to the final back-
ground colour. This meant that during the applica-
tion of the blue sky, the dark halo acted as a
buffer or margin directly adjacent to the figures.
This made it unnecessary to apply the blue paint of
the sky up to the contours of the woman and child.
Leaving a small strip of the dark halo exposed is
not distracting, while leaving a small strip of the
reddish-brown ground exposed does result in a
more disturbing image.
Moreover, when applying the dark halo paint,
it was possible to make small corrections to the
 268 kirsten derks et al.

B C D E

F G H I

Ill. 20.4. Process of the reconstruction of ill. 20.1 with dark halo. A: Schematic overview of the build-up of the reconstruction.
B: First lay in of the composition using a dark brown paint. C: Application of the dark halo, using a grey paint.
D: First painting stage, in which the woman’s blue dress and the first skin tones were applied. E: The little girl was painted.
F: The blue background sky was added. G: The blue sky was reworked to make it smooth. H: The figures in the background
were painted. I: The composition was finished by adding the final details in the background figures and by painting the trees.
 reconstructing sweerts: practical insights 269

A B

Ill. 20.5. The two reconstructions of ill. 20.1 after completion side by side. A: without the dark halo. B: with the dark halo.

outline of the figure when needed. Small mistakes
made during the painting process can be covered
with a dark grey paint. Lastly, the dark halo also
helped in making sharp and crisp contours. When
comparing the two finished reconstructions, it was
clear that the woman stood out against the blue sky
in the reconstruction with the dark halo (ill. 20.5b).
In the other reconstruction (ill. 20.5a), without the
dark halo, the reddish-brown ground remained
visible between the outline of the figure and the
blue background sky, which is rather distracting.
The dark halo results in a more sharply defined
contour of the figure. The woman seems more ‘in
focus’. This latter additional advantage of the dark
halo technique, may also explain why in Peasant
Family Sweerts applied dark halos solely around the
figures in the foreground, and did not add halos
around the two figures in the far background (ill.
20.6). With the dark halos, Sweerts was able to
draw the eye of the beholder to the mother, painted
‘in focus’, while the other figures are painted with
less detail, making them appear further in the back-
ground. The result is more depth and sense of three
dimensionality in the composition.
Conclusion
Since our 2022 article on the dark halo technique,
we have gained new insights into this specific
painting technique. First, in an eighteenth-century
art technological manuscript, Antonio Palomino y
Velasco’s Pictorial Museum and Optical Scale, a refer-
ence to the dark halo technique was found. This is
the first mention of the technique known so far.
From this source, it is clear that in a portrait the
(dark) halo should be added around the sitter’s
head to be able to blend the contours softly. Yet, as
we have seen in Sweerts’ Peasant Family and the
reconstructions, the technique could also be used
to create crisp contours. The dark halo technique
may have had several functions. It was proposed in
our 2022 article that artists may have used dark
halos to serve as a benchmark to apply the right
270 kirsten derks et al.
A B
Ill. 20.6. Detail of the woman’s head. A: Reconstruction without the dark halo. B: Reconstruction with the dark halo.
C: Michael Sweerts, Peasant Family with a Man Defleaing Himself (ill. 20.1).
colours in their compositions in the early painting
stages, be it either a portrait or a different kind of
composition. Sweerts may have used the dark halo
technique to deal with the strongly coloured, red-
dish-brown ground common in Italy during the
seventeenth century. For him, the dark halo tech-
nique may have been a tool to diminish the simul-
taneous contrast effect caused by the strongly col-
oured ground. In order to test this hypothesis, two
reconstructions of his Peasant Family with a Man
Defleaing Himself were carried out, one with and
the other without the dark halo. It was found that
by adding a dark grey halo in the underpainting
stage, it was easier to establish the right skin tones,
as the halo acted as a benchmark for the darkest
shades in the painting. In this context, the wom-
an’s white collar also served as a benchmark for the
lightest shades in the composition. The dark halo
together with the white collar helped the painter to
achieve the right skin tones in the early painting
stages. The dark halo also had other advantages,
such as making it easier to correct the contours of
the figure, as well as the increased ease of applying
the background sky after the figure of the woman
was finished.
While it should be noted that in reconstruction-
based art-technological research, a certain degree
of subjectivity should always be taken into account,
making reconstructions helped in our understand-
C
ing of practical aspects of the seventeenth-century
painting process that are rarely described in his-
torical sources, nor in modern literature. Even
though the exact function of the dark halo tech-
nique is still prone to debate, we have increased our
understanding of the possible factors that were
important in an artist’s choice to use it.
NOTES
The authors would like to thank the Mauritshuis Conservation Depart-
ment for the opportunity to examine Michael Sweerts’ Peasant Family
with a Man Defleaing Himself. We’d like to thank in particular Abbie
Vandivere, Sabrina Meloni and Carol Pottasch. We would also like to
thank Sven Van Dorst and Niek Hendrix for the fruitful discussions
on the dark halo technique.
1 Derks et al. 2022.
2 Michael Sweerts, Peasant Family with a Man Defleaing Himself,
c. 1646-1652. Oil on canvas, 66.5 x 50 cm. See also: www.mauritshuis.
nl/ontdek-collectie/kunstwerken/886-boerenfamilie-met-een-een-
man-die-zich-vlooit.
3 These reconstructions were made by Markha Youchaeva, in
the context of her master’s thesis in Conservation-Restoration at the
University of Antwerp (Reconstructies als onderzoeksmethodologie voor
kunsthistorisch onderzoek: de case van de donkere halo techniek uit de zeven-
tiende-eeuwse Vlaamse en Nederlandse schilderkunst).
4 Dark halos can also be found in Italian painting. More on dark
halos in Italian painting is discussed in-depth in Derks 2023.
5 Derks et al. 2022.
6 Derks et al. 2022.
7 Roy 1999, p. 80.
8 Wadum 1996, pp. 393-394; Lopez-Rey 2020, pp. 134, 352.
9 Van Hout, Balis 2010, p. 65.
10 Jonckheere 2020, p. 181.
11 This is explored by: Lehmann 2008; Talon 2019.
12 Van Mander 1604, fol. 49r.
13 De Lairesse 1707, Chapter 10: ‘Van de Koleur der Naakten’
(pp. 35-38).
14 Lehmann 2008, p. 88.
15 Talon 2019, pp. 49-50.
 reconstructing sweerts: practical insights
16 Hendriks 1998, p. 246.
17 This is already described by Karel van Mander, see: Van
Mander 1604, fol. 49r-49v.
18 Lehmann 2008, p. 96.
19 Veliz 1986, pp. 141-198.
20 Veliz 1986, p. 160.
21 The word contour is used by Palomino, meaning the outline
or shape of the sitter’s head. By adding a local dark underpainting
around the head, the outlines of the head can be blended and softened
against it.
22 Veliz 1986, p. 160.
23 Bikker 2002; Sutton 2002.
24 Yeager-Crasselt 2015.
25 Wallert, De Ridder 2002.
26 Yeager-Crasselt 2015, p. 17.
27 The Bamboccianti were a group of painters active in Rome
from about 1625 until the end of the seventeenth century. Most of the
members were Dutch or Flemish. The artists associated with this group
generally created small paintings, showing everyday life of the lower
classes in Rome and the Italian countryside.
28 MA-XRF scanning revealed the presence of lead in the dark
halo. A cross-section taken from the area of the dark halo showed that
it indeed consisted of lead white and a carbon black pigment. Based on
the visual appearance of the pigment particles, the black pigment is
most likely charcoal.
29 Chevreul 1855.
30 Vasari 1960, p. 219.
31 Yeager-Crasselt 2015, pp. 14, 104, 119-120.
32 Colour theory is a field of study developed in the nineteenth
century. However, a few seventeenth-century texts deal with the theory
of colour, such as Franciscus Aguilonius’ Opticorum Libri Sex (or Six
Books of Optics) of 1613 and Isaac Newton’s Opticks. See: Aguilonius
1613; Newton 1704.
33 The term reconstruction is the term of choice in Conserva-
tion-Restoration. Other terms often used in this context are mockup,
replica or reproduction. However, like a copy, replicas and reproduc-
tions often focus solely on the (final) surface appearance, while a recon-
271
struction takes the use of appropriate materials and layer build-up into
account.
34 Nadolny et al. 2012, p. 6.
35 Merrifield 2003.
36 Thompson 2003.
37 Carlyle 2020.
38 See: www.nwo.nl/en/projects/260-55-060. Consulted 27-09-
2022.
39 Kneepkens 2021.
40 At the University of Antwerp, making reconstructions is
part of the course Techniekgeschiedenis, taught in the second year of the
bachelor program Conservation-Restoration of Cultural Heritage.
At the University of Amsterdam, students in Technical Art History
(part of the master’s program of Conservation-Restoration) are required
to take the course ‘Historical Reconstructions’.
41 Youchaeva 2023; Ibrahim 2020.
42 See: www.avrotros.nl/hetgeheimvandemeester.
43 Vandivere, Pottasch, Kneepkens 2022; Ibrahim 2020.
44 Dupré et al. 2020; Vandivere 2013.
45 See: www.e-artstore.net/tag/1-brands/value/34-blockx.
46 Youchaeva 2023, p. 27.
47 Earlier (technical) research carried out at the Mauritshuis
included examination of paint samples and cross-sections; and infrared
reflectography. Technical examinations carried out in the context of
a research project into the working methods of Sweerts included
MA-XRF scanning, microscopic examination of the painting and
additional paint sample and cross-section analysis.
48 Youchaeva 2023, p. 26.
49 This is also a colour theory taught in art school: students are
taught that a painter can achieve all colours by just using black, white,
red and yellow paints. This is the so-called Zorn palette. This name
derives from Anders Zorn (1860-1920), a Swedish painter. It is also
called the Apelles palette. A blue colour is achieved by mixing white
and black. In the warm Zorn palette, the cool grey appears to be blue.
This effect can be exaggerated by placing the cool grey close to more
chromatic yellows and/or reds. See: Nyholm 1914. www.madridacade
myofart.com/blog/zorns-palette.
A

Ill. 21.1. A: Jan Steen, Peasants Dancing

at an Inn, c. 1646-1648, oil on panel,
38.5 × 56.5 cm, The Hague, Mauritshuis.
B: detail, IRR. C: Jan van Goyen, Sketch-
book (1644), page 81, The Hague,
Bredius Museum

C
 21
The Versatile Style of Jan Steen:
How he Varies the Preparations of
his Composition during his Career
and according to the Subject
Sabrina Meloni and Marya Albrecht
A BSTRACT : With over 400 paintings, Dutch seventeenth-
century painter Jan Steen’s oeuvre is broad. Around 50
paintings (both on panel and canvas supports) were
analysed with IRR. This has led to new insights on Steen’s
methods for preparing the composition. Different types
of underdrawing have been found throughout his career,
sometimes even within a single painting. Though in
previous studies it’s often mentioned that Steen didn’t
use underdrawing in a dry material, several examples of
this have been found. The types of underdrawing range
from sketchy, scribbly lines indicating landscapes, to geo-
metric lines to create a convincing illusion of space, to
loosely painted monochrome sketches in a wet medium.
The underdrawings are as versatile as the artist himself.
—o—
Introduction
Jan Steen (1616-1679) was a prolific and versatile
artist. Presently his oeuvre is estimated to contain
c. 450 paintings. The Mauritshuis in The Hague
has been carrying out a research project into Steen’s
painting technique since 2012, aiming to obtain a
thorough overview of the materials and techniques
used. This included supports, ground layers, green
and blue pigments, but also underdrawing and
undermodelling. The research builds on earlier
studies into Steen’s techniques, as published by
M. Gifford and M. Palmer, M. Bijl, and M. Butler.1
The fifteen paintings by Steen in the collection of
the Mauritshuis formed the starting point for the
project. This was complemented with paintings
from other museums, institutions and private
collections in The Netherlands and abroad. A goal
of the research project was to establish a chronol-
ogy in Steen’s oeuvre based on the materials he
used. Steen was born in Leiden, but moved several
times during his career and has been active in The
Hague, Delft, Leiden, Warmond and Haarlem.
Dated paintings that are securely attributed to a
certain city served as a framework for undated
paintings. Several analytical techniques were used,
such as optical microscopy, XRF point-measure-
ments, MA-XRF scanning, X-radiography, infrared
reflectography, dendrochronology, canvas analysis
and thread counting, and cross-section analysis.
This led to a wealth of information on Steen’s
working methods.2
Since infrared reflectography (IRR) was first
applied to paintings by J.R.J van Asperen de Boer
in the 1970s, it has seen a rapid development and
has become a staple in technical analysis of paint-
ings. Many insights were gained into the under-
drawings by different artists. It is generally accepted
that underdrawings in a dry medium gradually
274 sabrina meloni and marya albrecht
became less common as the seventeenth century
progressed. Previous studies into Steen’s techniques
mention his use of painted sketches. In his 1996
study Bijl writes that it had been impossible to
make underdrawings visible in Steen’s paintings
using infrared reflectography, but in all analysed
paintings a painted sketch was found. The sketch
was applied in dark brown or black paint and can
be seen through the paint surface in many cases.
It often serves as a shadow in the final composi-
tion.3 Similar conclusions were drawn by Palmer
and Gifford: though a painted sketch was found in
almost all paintings analysed, a drawing in a dry
medium had not been observed (using infrared
reflectography and optical microscopy).4 This
image of Steen being a painter more than a
draughtsman is further substantiated by the few
autograph drawings that are extant.5
The research presented here provides an over-
view of Steen’s underdrawings as they were found
in the 48 paintings analysed (Table 21.1). Several
cameras were used for infrared reflectography, as
the development of the cameras continued during
the project. From 2012 to 2016 the Artist camera
was used (Art Innovation, Oldenzaal), mounted
with a Progressive scan 1/1.8" CCD (1628x1236
pixels) and a Schneider Kreuznach Xenoplan
1.4/23 mm CCTV-lens in NI2 with a long wave
pass filter 1000 nm. The images were captured with
Artist Software (release 1.9) and stitched with
PanaVue ImageAssembler. From 2016 onwards
the Osiris camera (Opus Infrared Imaging Systems)
was used, operating at a wavelength of 900-1700
nm with an InGaAs array sensor. The images were
captured with Osiris software and stitched and/or
improved with panaview stitching software and/or
Adobe Photoshop.
Early paintings
The Peasants Dancing at an Inn (c. 1646-1648, B5,
The Hague, Mauritshuis, inv. 553) is the earliest
painting analysed in this study.6 The panel painting
shows a group of dancing and merry-making people
in front of a stone building. In the background,
towards the right edge of the painting, a townscape
is visible. IRR revealed an extensive underdrawing
under the townscape, while for the figures in the
foreground no underdrawn lines seem to have been
used. The sketch shows fine lines in a dry medium,
used to outline the church and some buildings in
the background as well as foliage and trees. The
bridge is drawn as well, though the drawing is not
followed very closely there. The style of drawing
resembles the drawings by Jan van Goyen. Page
80-81 in Van Goyen’s sketchbook, dated around
1644 and currently in the Bredius-Kronig Collec-
tion, shows a remarkably similar composition
(ill. 21.1).7 According to early biographers Steen
was a pupil of Van Goyen. No archival documents
exist to confirm this, but in 1649 Steen did marry
van Goyen’s daughter Margriet, so there was a
close connection between the two.8 The influence
of his father-in-law seems clear when looking at
this underdrawing.
Steen painted an extensive cityscape in another
early painting, the Fresh-Water Fishmarket in
The Hague (c. 1650-1654, B47, The Hague, Haags
Historisch Museum, inv. 1926-0013-SCH). It
shows the side of the Saint Jacob’s Church in the
city centre of The Hague, with the fishmarket in
front of it and a view through to the Westeinde.
Prior to painting this scene, Steen drew the archi-
tecture of the church and the market stalls in front
of it using a dry medium (ill.21. 2). Some of the
figures are indicated with lines as well, most nota-
bly the man in the foreground walking with a
wheelbarrow. Shorter, wavy lines are used to indi-
cate the pavement in the foreground. Similar lines
are used to indicate the position of some of the
trees. It is remarkable to see that even though
Steen made an extensive drawing, he did not fol-
low it very closely. The position of architectural
elements has shifted during painting.
The wavy, sketchy lines drawn to indicate the
positions of trees are also visible in the Fortune-
Teller (c. 1650-1654, B52, The Hague, Mauritshuis,
inv. 1111), another painting from Steen’s The
Hague period. Here a large tree in the centre forms
 the versatile style of jan steen 275

A B

Ill. 21.2. Jan Steen, The Freshwater Fish Market in The Hague, c. 1650-1654, oil on panel, 59.5 × 71,5 cm, The Hague,
Haags Historisch Museum. A: visible light. B: IRR

a focal point in the composition. Dry medium lines
are drawn that crudely indicate the position of
branches and the size of the tree’s canopy. The
drawing is very sketchy and does not resemble the
finished tree very much. The figures are not drawn,
neither are the tower and architecture. Again, Van
Goyen’s influence is visible, as he sometimes draws
trees in a similar way. A few wavy lines are drawn
to indicate the position and shape of the tree’s
canopy, instead of drawing out all the individual
branches.9 This is for instance the case in Van
Goyen’s View of Dordrecht from Papendrecht (1633,
inv. 551) and Dilapidated Farmhouse with Peasants
(1631, inv. 1081) both from the collection of the
Mauritshuis, The Hague.
Struggling with perspective
Jan Steen is well-known for his bustling interior
scenes filled with humour. Many of these scenes are
set in convincing spaces, though when studying
them more closely it often becomes clear that the
perspective is not quite correct. Analysis of these
paintings with IRR revealed that in many cases,
elements were drawn out several times, showing
that Steen in fact struggled with perspective. This
is most notable in elements of the composition
with a strong linear character, such as tiled floors
and architectural elements. In As the Old People
Sing, the Children Squeal from the Musée Fabre in
Montpellier (c. 1660-1662, B202, inv. 836-4-56),
both the floor tiles and the planks in the ceiling
were drawn, but their position is slightly shifted in
the final painted composition. Something similar
was found in a smaller panel painting: A Twelfth
Night’s Feast (‘The King Drinks’) (c. 1661, B149,
London, Royal Collection Trust, inv. RCIN
407489). The floor tiles were drawn, but their
position was changed during painting. No under-
drawing in a dry medium was detected in the
large fireplace on the right side of the composition,
but it was changed rather significantly. It was origi-
nally higher and receding into the background
more sharply.
A Woman at her Toilet (1663, B178, London,
Royal Collection Trust, inv. RCIN 404804) (ill.
21.3) shows an ornamented stone doorway, through
which we look into a bedroom where a woman is
taking off her stocking. As in the other examples
mentioned above, Steen seemed to have difficul-
ties getting the perspective right. The tiled floor
was drawn out several times before being painted.
It is remarkable that even after drawing it numer-
ous times, the perspective in the final composition
is still not quite correct. When extending the lines
276 sabrina meloni and marya albrecht

A B

Ill. 21.3. Jan Steen, A Woman at her Toilet, 1663, oil on panel, 65.8 × 53 cm, London, Royal Collections Trust.
A: visible light. B: IRR, detail

of the floor tiles outwards they do not end up in two
vanishing points on either side of the composition,
neither is there a central vanishing point. Several
lines coincide, forming different vanishing points
near the centre of the composition. In paintings
with a strong linear perspective by other artists,
physical evidence of a vanishing point can some-
times be found, such as a dent or hole. In paintings
by Pieter de Hooch and Johannes Vermeer, often a
pinpoint hole is found in the vanishing point. The
presence of a hole like this shows that the artist
used a nail or pin with strings attached to it to
aid him in drawing the perspective and central
vanishing point.10 So far this has not been found in
Steen’s paintings. Apart from the floor tiles in
A Woman at her Toilet, some drawn lines are present
in the woman as well, to indicate the position of
her legs. The slightly off perspective in Steen’s
paintings is not immediately noticeable. Jan Steen
focuses on the people and the interaction between
them and on the rendering of fabrics, like here in
A Woman at her Toilet. In other occasions he will
place certain objects on the floor in the foreground,
as a little trick of the eye. In the Sick Girl (c. 1660,
B203, The Hague, Mauritshuis, inv. 167) a small
dog on a pillow is taking attention away from the
wooden floor that seems to tilt forward slightly.
Painted sketch
In previous studies Steen’s way of painting is
described as being effective and economic. Accord-
ing to Bijl, the use of a painted sketch was an essen-
tial step in his technique. In a dilute dark brown or
black paint, the most important parts of a composi-
tion were sketched. The sketch is left more or less
visible in many cases. Where the sketch is left
exposed, it functions as a shadow.11 In A Village
Revel (1672, B354, London, Royal Collection
Trust, inv. RCIN 405611) the use of this type of
painted sketch is very clear (ill. 21.4). Sketchy
strokes are used to outline some figures and to indi-
cate the position of certain other elements. The
outlines of the open door to the left of the inn
are sketched (ill. 21.4b), as is the position of the
canopy in front of the inn (ill. 21.4c). The figures
in the boat on the foreground are also crudely
 the versatile style of jan steen 277

A C

Ill. 21.4. Jan Steen, A Village Revel, 1672, oil on canvas, 110.4 × 147 cm, London, Royal Collections Trust.
A: visible light. B-C: IRR, details

sketched. The dark brown outlines are left visible
and used as shadows in the final composition.
The painted sketch is not always easily dis-
cerned in infrared reflectograms, especially when
it’s followed quite precisely in later painting stages.
There are many examples of paintings where the
sketch can only be seen in certain areas when stu-
dying the infrared reflectogram. This is for instance
the case for the Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1660,
B118, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. SK-A-3509)
where the sketch is most clearly visible in Mary’s
dress. By studying the paintings with the micro-
scope, the painted sketch is found more often, both
in brown and black paint.
In some paintings, a combination of lines drawn
in a dry medium and a painted sketch seems to be
present. In Fiddling the Fiddler (c. 1670-1672, B340,
private collection on loan at Museum de Lakenhal,
Leiden, inv. B.1502) for instance, where thin lines
in a dry medium can be discerned under the wom-
an’s hands and arms, indicating their position
vaguely. Thicker lines of a painted sketch are
present under the young woman’s dress, outlining
the dress and its folds (ill. 21.5). The sketch also
seems to outline something that is not worked
up in the final composition, as a horizontal and
vertical line unrelated to any modelling run straight
through the woman. It is not quite clear in which
order the preparatory drawings were applied,
but it is assumed the drawing in a dry medium was
applied first. A similar way of working has been
reported for the Sacrifice of Iphigenia (1671, B342,
The Leiden Collection), where a dry medium
was used first in specific locations and a painted
sketch was applied later to sketch out the entire
composition.12
Steen painted two versions of the Marriage of
Tobias and Sara (c. 1667-1672). Both versions are
on canvas, one is larger in size than the other. Both
versions show the moment after the marriage of
Tobias and Sara, when the wedding contracts
are signed. The smaller version (B309, private col-
lection) (ill. 21.6) seems to show both lines drawn
in a dry medium and a painted sketch. In the upper
right corner, many drawn lines are present. It is not
quite clear what was planned here, possibly an
278 sabrina meloni and marya albrecht

B C

Ill. 21.5. Jan Steen, Fiddling the Fiddler, c. 1670-1672, oil on panel, 38 × 49.4 cm, private collection, on long-term loan to the
Museum de Lakenhal, Leiden. A: visible light. B-C: IR, details

A B

Ill. 21.6. Jan Steen, Marriage of Tobias and Sarah, c. 1667-1672, oil on canvas, 80 × 103.2 cm, private collection.
A: visible light. B: IRR

architectural setting. It has not been worked up in
the final composition though, as a red curtain is
covering this corner of the painting. The painted
sketch is most clearly visible where it has not been
followed. In the upper right corner, a couple of
sketched circles are visible, outlining the position
of the wreath (ill. 21.6b). In the final composition
the wreath is painted closer to the centre of
the composition. Further towards the left of the
composition, certain shapes are sketched that are
not worked out in the final composition. In the
larger version from the collection of the Herzog-
Anton-Ulrich-Museum in Braunschweig (B281,
inv. 313) (ill. 21.7) no underdrawing was detected,
but there is a number of significant pentimenti. In
the background on the left side, the architecture
was changed from open arches with pillars, like in
the version from the private collection, to a closed
 the versatile style of jan steen 279

A B

Ill. 21.7. Jan Steen, Marriage of Tobias and Sarah¸ c. 1667-1668, oil on canvas, 131 × 172 cm,
Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum. A: visible light. B: IRR

wall with an arched niche. The red curtain hanging
over the edge of the painting is smaller in this
version and in the upper right corner an interior
setting is seen, where a woman is setting a table.
Is this what Steen had indicated in the underdraw-
ing in the other version? The most significant
change however, is smaller: the wing of the angel
Raphael, present in the smaller version, is covered
in the Braunschweig version (but visible in the
infrared reflectogram) (ill. 21.7b). In doing so,
Steen made the identification of the figure as the
angel Raphael less explicit. He also left out the
wreath with its wedding connotations. Both
changes make the identification of the scene more
ambiguous and contemporary.13
Underdrawings in figures
Besides the painted sketch mentioned above, sev-
eral examples of an underdrawing in a dry medium
used specifically for figures were found. The level
of detail differs per painting. As mentioned previ-
ously, in A Woman at her Toilet (1663, B178) the
position of the woman’s legs was indicated. In
highly detailed compositions with a single figure,
such as A Woman Playing the Cittern (c. 1662, The
Hague, Mauritshuis, inv. 779, B132), only certain
elements of the figure seem to have been drawn.
In this example, the woman’s proper right hand is
drawn with very fine lines in a dry medium. The
lines are so fine that they are easily missed. Fine
lines are also used to indicate certain details in the
woman’s face. These paintings by Steen can be
seen as his attempts at fine painting. Research into
Frans van Mieris’s painting technique, one of the
most famous Leidse fijnschilders, has shown that
he too used very fine lines to draw his composi-
tions. A similarity can be found in the Duet (1658,
Schwerin, Staatliches Museum, inv. G82), where
Van Mieris drew the contours of the lady’s hand
before painting it.14 Houbraken writes that Steen
and Van Mieris were good friends. Though some
artistic liberty was probably used in the description
of their friendship, their work clearly shows signs of
artistic interaction.
In genre paintings with multiple figures a dry
underdrawing was sometimes found as well. In
these compositions the underdrawing seems to
outline the shape and position of certain figures in
a sketchy way. Details such as faces and folds in
clothing are not drawn, which contrasts with the
paintings focusing on one person where the under-
drawing is only used for details. In the Peasant
Wedding from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
(1672, B349, inv. SK-A-388) the man inviting the
seated woman to dance is drawn in a dry medium
(ill. 21.8). The woman’s feet and arms have been
280 sabrina meloni and marya albrecht

A C

Ill. 21.8. Jan Steen, Peasant Wedding, 1672, oil on panel, 38.5 × 50 cm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum.
A: visible light. B: IRR, details

drawn in a similar way, indicating their position
and shape in a sketchy manner. The position of
the man’s legs has shifted slightly from the drawn
outline. The elegant couple seen from the back on
the left side of the painting is an element encoun-
tered more often in Steen’s paintings. Here too the
woman’s feet and outlines of her dress are drawn in
a dry medium.
In A Tavern Interior with People Drinking and
Music-Making of the Chimei Museum Tainan (Tai-
wan) (c. 1650-1674, B159, inv. 12655) figures are
drawn in a similar way. Like the Peasant Wedding,
this is an interior scene with many figures, some of
which have been drawn prior to painting. This is
the case for the woman leaning on the table in
the centre of the composition, but also the seated
woman leaning backwards. Thin lines in a dry
medium are used to outline their positions. Like
Peasant Wedding, the quality of the figures in
this painting varies. The faces and depicted materi-
als are painted in a less refined manner in both
paintings. This has sometimes been explained as
being the work of studio assistants. Though there
are no archival sources to document this, it is
assumed Steen must have had some assistants work-
ing with him based on the large number of paint-
ings he produced. The presence of the underdraw-
ing seems to suggest the paintings are not copies
after originals. Perhaps both paintings were started
by Steen himself but finished by studio assistants.
Conclusions
Analysing a large number of paintings by Jan Steen
with IRR has led to a wealth of information regard-
ing his working methods. It has shown that he used
different materials and methods to plan his compo-
sitions. Contrary to earlier findings many examples
of underdrawing in a dry medium were discovered.
Though the findings are very diverse, some general
conclusions can be drawn. Underdrawings in a dry
medium were used more extensively early in his
career. These early examples show the influence of
 the versatile style of jan steen
Jan van Goyen. Several examples were found were
Steen struggled with perspective and drew difficult
areas in great detail before painting them. In later
works a painted sketch was more common, though
occasionally both are found in the same painting.
Figures were usually drawn in less detail: when
an underdrawing in a dry material was found, it is
often very sketchy and a mere indication of
the position of the figure. Sometimes the lines are
very thin and hard to detect. Besides all the exam-
ples mentioned here, there were also many paint-
ings in which no underdrawing or sketch could
be discerned.
NOTES
The following institutions are acknowledged for providing technical
information or giving us access to their paintings for this research:
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen; Amsterdam, Rijks-
museum; Washington, National Gallery of Art; London, Royal Collec-
tion Trust; Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum; Cultural
Heritage Agency of the Netherlands; Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de
Lakenhal; Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen; Tainan
(Taiwan), Chimei Museum; Georg-August-Universität Göttingen;
281
Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Raleigh, North Carolina Museum
of Art; Montpellier, Musée Fabre; Salomon Lilian Dutch Old Master
Paintings; Jan Six Fine Art; London, Matthiesen Gallery and several
private collections. The authors want to thank the following people for
their help during the project: Bob van Wingerden, Ariane van
Suchtelen, Edwin Buijsen, Melanie Gifford, Marika Spring, Annetje
Boersma, Klaas-Jan van den Berg, Gwen Tauber, Rosanna de Sancha,
Verena Herwig, Hildegard Kaul, Annelies van Loon. Part of this
research was done in the scope of the Partners in Science collaboration
between Mauritshuis and Shell Technology Centre Amsterdam.
1 Butler 1982; Bijl 1996; Palmer, Gifford 1997.
2 Albrecht et al. 2019; Albrecht et al. 2020; Albrecht et al.
2021.
3 Bijl 1996, pp. 86-87.
4 Palmer, Gifford 1997, p. 131.
5 There are two drawings that are securely attributed to Jan
Steen: Moses and the Crown of the Pharaoh, Oxford, Ashmolean
Museum, WA1863.282; and two figure studies drawn on both sides of
one sheet of paper, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, RP-T-1888-A-1514(R).
Some other drawings are contested, see also: Turner 2009.
6 B-Numbers refer to the catalogue by K. Braun (1980) and are
used in order to distinguish between paintings with the same or similar
titles.
7 Buijsen 1993, p. 97.
8 Bok 1996, p. 28.
9 Gifford 1996, p. 70-78.
10 Krekeler 2019, pp. 63-66.
11 Bijl 1996, pp. 86-87.
12 Kloek 2017.
13 The Hague 2018, pp. 122-129, nrs. 11-12.
14 Pottasch 2005, p. 65.
 Table 21.1. Overview of analysed paintings with infrared imaging (dates in bold means that the painting is dated by the artist)
282

Title, date support Dimensions Braun Collection Equipment used Type of underdrawing
(h × w, cm) number

Intoxicated People Outside Panel 26 × 35 3 The Hague, Museum Artist None detected
Voorschoten Bredius, inv. 109-1946
c. 1646-1648

Peasants Dancing at an Inn Panel 38,5 × 56,5 5 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Osiris Extensive underdrawing in dry medium
c. 1646-1648 inv. 553 in view of the town, bridge and trees in
the background

The Tooth-Puller Canvas 32,5 × 26,7 32 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Artist None detected
1651 inv. 165

The Death of Ananias Panel 45,7 × 37,8 33 Private Collection Sony DSC -F828 None detected
1651 digital IR

The Village Wedding Canvas 64 × 81 56 Rotterdam, Museum Artist None detected

1653 Boijmans van Beuningen,
inv. 2314

Village Fair Panel 47,2 × 66 81 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Osiris Painted sketch visible in some of the
c. 1650-1651 inv. 664 figures

The Freshwater Fish Market Panel 59,5 × 71,5 47 The Hague, Haags Osiris Extensive underdrawing in dry medium
in The Hague Historisch Museum, inv. present under the architecture and some
c. 1650-1654 1926-0013-SCH of the figures
sabrina meloni and marya albrecht

The Fortune Teller Canvas 73 × 59,3 B52 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Artist Wavy lines in a dry medium present
c. 1650-1654 inv. 1111 to outline canopy of tree, position of boy
on foreground sketched in dry medium

A Tavern Interior with People Panel 39,8 × 48,8 B159 Tainan (Taiwan), Chimei Osiris Lines in dry medium to sketch position of
Drinking and Music-Making Museum, inv. 012655 multiple figures in the composition
c. 1650-1674

A Visit to the Village Lawyer
c. 1650-1679
Panel 62 × 52 305 Tainan (Taiwan), Chimei Osiris No underdrawing detected, but painted
Museum, inv. 0005514 on a reused panel. The underlying
composition shows strong similarities with
the Pleasures of Fatherhood (Hamburger
Kunsthalle, Inv. HK-169)
Title, date support Dimensions Braun Collection Equipment used Type of underdrawing
(h × w, cm) number

Adolf en Catharina Croeser, Canvas 106 × 96 78 Amsterdam, Rijkmuseum, Osiris None detected
known as ‘The Burgomaster of inv. SK-A-4981
Delft and his Daughter’
1655

Portrait of Jacoba Maria van Canvas 106,6 × 80,8 113 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Artist None detected
Wassenaer (1654-1683), inv. 166
known as ‘The Poultry Yard’
1660

Girl Eating Oysters Panel 20,5 × 15,1 92 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Artist None detected
c. 1658-1660 (rounded top) inv. 818

The Sick Girl Panel 58,0 × 46,5 203 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Artist, Osiris Some lines in dry medium visible in floor,
c. 1660 inv. 167 painted sketch visible in table cloth
and figures

The Adoration of the Shepherds Canvas 53 × 64 118 Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Osiris Painted sketch in figures, most notable
c. 1660 inv. SK-A-3509 in Mary’s dress

The Tired Traveller Panel 31,7 × 24,8 123 Banbury, Upton House, Osiris Painted sketch in the figures. A face is
c. 1660-1661 inv. 446735 visible in the IRR next to the woman’s
face. This face is larger in scale and part
of a different composition that was not
worked up further
the versatile style of jan steen

The Fable of the Satyr and Canvas 113,5 × 84 146 The Hague, Museum Osiris None detected
the Peasant Bredius, inv. 111-1946
c. 1660-1662

The Satyr and the Peasant Canvas 50,8 × 46 125 Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Osiris Both a painted sketch and a drawing
Family Museum, acc. nr. 69.PA.15 in a dry medium is present, many small
c. 1660-1662 changes were made to the composition

As the Old People Sing, Canvas 94,5 × 81 202 Montpellier, Musée Fabre, Artist Underdrawing in dry medium present
the Children Squeal inv. 836-4-56 in tiled floor and ceiling
c. 1660-1662
283
Title, date support Dimensions Braun Collection Equipment used Type of underdrawing
284

(h × w, cm) number

‘Easy Come, Easy Go’ Canvas 79 × 104 143 Rotterdam, Museum Artist None detected. Pentimento in feet
1661 Boijmans van Beuningen, of chair on the foreground
inv. 2527

A Twelfth Night’s Feast: Panel 40,4 × 54,5 149 London, Royal Collection Osiris Underdrawing, possibly in a dry medium,
‘The King Drinks’ Trust, inv. RCIN 407489 in the tiled floor. Several pentimenti:
c. 1661 position of the fireplace, windows in upper
left corner

Woman Playing the Cittern Panel 31,1 × 27,5 132 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Artist, Osiris Fine lines in a dry medium are visible
c. 1662 inv. 779 in the woman’s hand and face

A Woman at her Toilet Panel 65,8 × 53,0 178 London, Royal Collection Osiris Extensive underdrawing in dry medium
1663 Trust, inv. RCIN 404804 to draw out the tiled floor. Some lines in
figure to indicate position of the legs

The Dancing Couple Canvas 102,5 × 142,5 180 Washington, National Santa Barbara None
1663 Gallery of Art, Focalplane InSb
acc. nr. 1942.9.81 camera. Two
separate images
were captured,
one filtered to
1.1–1.4 microns
(J filter) and the
other filtered to
1.5–1.8 microns
sabrina meloni and marya albrecht

(H filter. The
final image was
mathematically
calculated using
both the J and H
filtered images.

‘As the Old Sing, Canvas 84 × 92,5 200 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Artist None detected
So Pipe the Young’ inv. 169
c. 1663-1665

Self-Portrait Playing the Lute Panel 55,3 × 43,8 136 Madrid, Museo Thyssen- Artist None detected
c. 1663-1665 Bornemisza, inv. 373
Title, date support Dimensions Braun Collection Equipment used Type of underdrawing
(h × w, cm) number

The Life of Man Canvas 68,2 × 82 261 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Artist Underdrawing, possibly in a dry medium,
c. 1665 inv. 170 in the ceiling. Painted sketch visible in
some of the figures

Interior of a Tavern, with Canvas 81,9 × 70,6 278 London, Royal Collection Osiris Painted sketch visible in the figures,
Cardplayers and a Violin Player Trust, inv. RCIN 405825 large pentimento in the table
c. 1665

The Doctor’s Visit Panel 60,5 × 48,5 318 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Artist, Osiris Painted on reused panel. Underlying
c. 1665-1668 inv. 168 composition, partially visible with IRR,
shows a tree in front of a house and
a pergola overgrown with vine leaves,
multiple figures. Some underdrawing
visible, probably in a dry medium, both
for underlying and current composition

Supper at Emmaus Canvas 134 × 140 122 Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Osiris None detected
c. 1665-1668 inv. SK-A-1932

The Caudle Makers Panel 41,0 × 31,5 95 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Artist, Osiris None detected
c. 1665-1670 inv. 920

The Banquet of Antony Canvas 67,9 × 56 283 Georg-August-Universität Osiris Painted sketch visible in the figures
and Cleopatra (adhered Göttingen, inv. GG080
1667 to panel)
the versatile style of jan steen

The Marriage of Tobias Canvas 131 × 172 281 Braunschweig, Herzog Osiris No underdrawing, but painted sketch and
and Sara Anton Ulrich Museum, several pentimenti: angel behind Tobias
c. 1667-1668 inv. 313 had wings in an underpainting stage,
not in final composition

The Marriage of Tobias and Canvas 80 × 103,2 309 Private Collection Artist, Osiris Underdrawing in dry medium in upper
Sara right corner, also painted sketch that
c. 1667-1672 wasn’t followed like upper left corner in
architecture. More underdrawing/painted
sketch than in larger version from
Braunschweig
285
Title, date support Dimensions Braun Collection Equipment used Type of underdrawing
286

(h × w, cm) number

Samson and Delilah Canvas 67,5 × 82 297 Los Angeles County Osiris Sketchy lines present in the background
1668 Museum of Art, for the architecture and drapery
acc. nr. M87.64

‘As the Old Sing, So Pipe Canvas 133,7 × 162,5 201 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Artist (details) Some sketchy lines in dry medium visible
the Young’ inv. 742 around jug in foreground. Possibly more,
c. 1668-1670 but only some details were captured
in IRR

Moses and the Pharaoh’s Crown Canvas 86 × 72 328 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Artist Painted sketch visible in the figures
c. 1670 inv. 1167

Merrymaking in a Tavern with Canvas 61,7 × 75,1 277 London, Royal Collection Osiris Combination of underdrawing in dry
a Couple Dancing Trust, inv. RCIN 404813 medium and painted sketch. Some
c. 1670 changes compared to underpainting, like
hat of the man walking up the stairs

Fiddling the Fiddler Panel 38 × 49,4 340 Private Collection, on Artist Thin lines in dry medium present in
c. 1670-1672 long-term loan at Museum woman on the foreground. And broad
de Lakenhal, Leiden, painted sketchlines in a wet medium
inv. B.1502

The Mocking of Ceres Canvas 73,2 × 61,2 A30 Private Collection Osiris None, but change in position of boy in
c. 1670-1675 lower left corner. His proper left leg was
positioned differently and his stance was
turned more
sabrina meloni and marya albrecht

Fighting Cardplayers (‘Het Panel 51,7 × 71,0 345 Rijksdienst voor Cultureel Artist Painted sketch visible in some of the
Geweldig Krakeel’) Erfgoed, inv. NK2167 figures
1671

Laban Searching for the Idols Canvas 109,5 × 144,5 347 Leiden, Museum de Osiris Some underdrawing visible in Rachel’s
Stolen by Rachel Lakenhal, inv. S404 clothes
c. 1671

Peasant Wedding Panel 38,5 × 50,0 349 Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Osiris Relatively extensive underdrawing in dry
1672 inv. SK-A-388 medium, used to indicate position of
figures and folds in draperies
Title, date support Dimensions Braun Collection Equipment used Type of underdrawing
(h × w, cm) number

A Village Revel Canvas 110,4 × 147 354 London, Royal Collection Osiris No underdrawing in dry medium, but
1672 Trust, inv. RCIN 405611 painted sketch

‘A Pig Belongs in the Sty’
c. 1674-1678
Canvas 86 × 72 362 The Hague, Mauritshuis, Osiris No underdrawing detected, but several
inv. 0736 pentimenti: the barrel on the foreground is
painted over a dog, the boy standing right
of the barrel had longer pants and his
position is changed somewhat

The Worship of the Golden Calf Canvas 178,4 × 155,6 351 Raleigh, North Carolina Osiris None detected
c. 1674-1677 Museum of Art,
acc. nr. 52.9.58

Christ Expelling the Traders Canvas 79,5 × 109 363 Leiden, Museum de Osiris None detected
from the Temple Lakenhal, inv. B667
1675

The Mocking of Samson
c. 1675-1676
Canvas 65 × 82 365 Antwerp, Koninklijk Osiris Underdrawing in dry medium and
Museum voor Schone hatching to indicate folds, this is only
Kunsten Antwerpen, visible in the sleeping soldier in the centre
inv. 338 of the composition. A painted sketch is
also present
the versatile style of jan steen
287
 Ill. 22.1. Jan Davidsz. de Heem, Festoon of Fruits and Flowers, 1660-1670, oil on canvas, 74 x 60 cm,
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, with recipes by Willem Beurs from The Big World Painted Small, Amsterdam, 1692
 22
Painting by Numbers:
Evolution and Standardization of Colouring
in the Seventeenth Century
Lisa Wiersma
A BSTRACT : Skilful material depiction is one of the main
stylistic features of seventeenth-century Netherlandish
art. Where sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century
painters were experimenting with colour combinations
for material depiction, Dutch artist and teacher Willem
Beurs could write a book containing standardized reci-
pes for marvelously animated surfaces and ideal appear-
ances in 1692, The Big World Painted Small. His method
corresponds with the techniques of the best artists of
his time. This paper demonstrates the development of
successful colour combinations, juxtapositions and layer-
ing. The depiction of grapes serves as an example to
contribute to our understanding of the ‘tangible style’:
paintings showing convincing material depiction, which
emerged from technical abilities and practice, and which
was achieved in the course of the seventeenth century
through standardization of complex painting techniques.
—o—
From approximately the 1650s onward, the paint-
ing of grapes exceeded filling the object’s contours
with a lit side, shade and highlights. Painter Jan
Davidsz. de Heem, who worked in Leiden, Ant-
werp and Utrecht, added an inner reflection, glaze
and bloom to enhance the translucent and juicy
appearance of the fruit and assembled colour
variations within the bunches. His peers and
followers did the same. Their seventeenth-century
grapes are painted according to standardized paint-
ing methods, which were developed to suggest
three-dimensional shape and to demonstrate the
material at its best.
Pupils of the 1650s
Where sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century
painters were experimenting with colour combi-
nations for material depiction, Dutch artist and
teacher Willem Beurs could write a book contain-
ing standardized recipes for marvelously animated
surfaces and ideal appearances in 1692, The Big
World Painted Small. His method corresponds with
the techniques of the best Netherlandish artists of
his time – this can be observed with the naked eye
and it has been evinced for several painters with
analytical data. C. Pottasch has shown that Beurs’
recipes for textiles resemble what Frans van Mieris
did in four of his paintings around 1660, regarding
both layering technique and choice of pigments.1
N. de Keyser demonstrated with macro-XRF and
cross-sections research that Jan Davidsz. de Heem
used a layering technique similar to Beurs’ method
in flowers and grapes in that period.2 Almost all
objects that De Heem depicted, are listed in Beurs’
treatise (ill. 22.1 shows some examples, but lemons,
plums, apricots, peaches and oranges are included
as well). A. Wallert was the first to technically
examine paintings looking for Beurs’ sources,
finding the De Heem resemblances and stating
290 lisa wiersma
that his recipes for skies and landscapes can be
found in paintings by Aelbert Cuyp (again 1660)
and Hendrick Avercamp (as early as 1608).3 Obvi-
ously, pigments and colourants could vary per
workshop, but from, say, approximately the 1650s,
the (number and type of) colour hues and layers
that master painters applied, were very similar
throughout the Southern and Northern Nether-
lands – and even Europe. Around that same
time, the number of books that offered painting
instructions for organisms’ skins, objects’ surfaces
and more ephemeral phenomena, such as different
types of clouds and waters, increased, especially
for watercolouring, and manuscripts including
colouring instructions, emerged.4 With the The
Big World Painted Small their equivalent in oil was
published. Altogether, these paintings and sources
demonstrate a standardization of material depic-
tion in the second half of the seventeenth cen-
tury.
Material depiction or colouring5 has received
little attention from a technical art history point of
view, let alone in connection with a more tradi-
tional approach in art history such as research into
style development. Emphatically that is, for mate-
rial depiction has always been part of stylistic
descriptions. Colouring or material depiction as a
field of study was perhaps overlooked due to the
present-day preference for studying light: today, we
might argue that painting is about showing grada-
tions of light, for after a well-drawn or well-designed
composition, appearance, readability and convinc-
ingness of a painting are all about lighting and con-
trasts between light and dark. However, to a seven-
teenth-century natural philosopher like Isaac
Beeckman, colour was not a property of light, but
he considered it part of the nature and properties of
materials.6 Johannes Kepler, René Descartes and
Robert Boyle would oppose this more Aristotelian
understanding of colour and argue that materials
modify light, but throughout the century parallel
theories about colours existed.7 Because the paint-
ers developing successful methods for material
depiction thought that the eye principally sees
colour, rather than light,8 they may have attended
to separating light’s colours so meticulously and
perfectly. After dead colouring, seventeenth-
century painters focused on all things and their
materials separately, rather than painting light
for the scene with uniformly coloured shades. For
clarification, a (classical) modern way of figurative
painting tends to apply the whitest white only once
and at the very end,9 which creates a still of a
moment in time, conceptually comparable with
a photograph. In seventeenth-century painting
one is encouraged to highlight several (brightly
lit) objects, which may not be physically realistic,
but it allows for the beholder to hover around
the foreground of the painting without losing
focus, as if you focus again and again, like one does
looking around.
Considering as well that from Giorgione and
Titian onwards, colour was regarded as the ‘anima’
of a being or body, the altogether focus on colour
must have yielded voluminous objects and tangible
art. The development of successful colour combi-
nations, juxtapositions and layering led to stylistic
changes in the (long) seventeenth century. Willem
Beurs’ recipes differ on significant points from
what was written before and his collection can be
considered a result of painting techniques that
evolved over the course of centuries. By demon-
strating which techniques were successful for the
material depiction of grapes, I hope to contribute
to our understanding of certain stylistic aspects and
how these could emerge from technical abilities
and practice.
Grapes versus drapes
In the history of painting, the bunch of grapes has
deceived birds, illustrated the happy and the unfor-
tunate drunk and it was put on display lusciously
between other edibles and luxury goods. As a
motive, the grape is an example and yet one of the
most interesting cases when studying material
depiction.10 Its convincing appearance was sought
after from Parrhasius and Zeuxis onward at least.
In the antique story, the fifth-century BC Greek
 painting by numbers
painter Zeuxis is said to have fooled birds as these
flew towards his painting in an attempt to pick
painted grapes. Parrhasius fooled Zeuxis, who asked
the former to remove a curtain in front of his
painting, not seeing that the curtain itself was the
painting.11 History was in favour of Parrhasius
and his curtain: because Parrhasius fooled another
artist, he was considered the winner of the painting
contest. Yet, when studying The Big World Painted
Small, we find that painting fabrics is one of the
initial exercises that are to be completed before
the aspiring painter starts working on skies and
landscapes, water, fish and birds, still-life objects,
fruits and vegetables, animals and human beings
– the latter considered the climax of the course
because of our multifarious complexions and facial
characteristics. Perhaps the antique contest was
not a fair game. In The Big World, a grape is built up
from an extensive number of specific layers: it is
the most elaborate recipe listed in the book. Grapes
are part of the still-life section, which can be under-
stood as being ‘most difficult’ to paint – albeit
ambiguously phrased.12 To arrange the colours in
such a way that their juiciness becomes appetizing,
is rather difficult and an achievement of the
Baroque, whereas draperies were depicted beauti-
fully from the Late Gothic period onward. Baroque
depictions of grapes are the earliest known to be
convincing, since no antique painting of such
quality has survived. Interestingly, Beurs’s contem-
porary artist-author Roger de Piles considered an
entire bunch of grapes (the ‘grappe de raisin’) to be
an advantageous exercise for learning how to
compose and light an entire painting – which
implies that many aspiring artists may have had
some basic experience painting this motive during
their training.13
Be it an exercise or advanced proficiency (or a
combination of both), the bunch of grapes can be
considered representational for painters’s colouring
abilities.14 Its manifold material features do not
reveal themselves by default, but only in a strong,
low light, like an evening sun in late summer,
albeit not from one viewpoint (in my experience)
291
(ill. 22.2a-c). It is very hard to imitate this effect
with a lantern or candlelight. Painters would aim
for depictions showing all possible material fea-
tures, idealizing the circumstances which a stan-
dardized recipe could provide.15
As a study object regarding material depiction,
a bunch of grapes is very convenient because of the
spherical shape of the berries. A reason to not treat
the depiction of human skin in this respect (which
has a far more extensive share in art history) is that
depicting skin requires a critical combination of
draughtsmanship and material depiction, which
makes it more difficult to judge the application of
coloured brushstrokes for material treatment alone.
Furthermore, because the material’s characteristics
result in discernable steps, these can be studied in
cross-sections, macro-XRF scanning, OCT analysis
and the naked eye. Vice versa, the extensive, yet
clearcut recipe that Willem Beurs wrote on the
grape, can be used to recreate and understand
the standardization and implications of this suc-
cessful painting method inside out.
Re-enactment
De Heem’s and Beurs’s most16 convincing render-
ing of grapes comprised the application of nine
different colours or colour mixtures per grape,
juxtaposed and layered. It is one of the most
complex and extensive recipes in The Big World
Painted Small:
‘White grapes are laid in with English ash, yellow lake,
and white for the lit side. But for the shadows, ash,
yellow lake, and black have to do the work. The reflec-
tions however, require only a little ash but somewhat
more yellow lake.
After white grapes have been painted in this way the
bloom can be created with ultramarine and white, or with
a little lake mixed into a white oil, which is scumbled over
the grapes. But to render the bloom in shadows, black,
lake, and white are needed. Once all this has been done,
the grapes have to be given a sheen on the lit side (where
there is no bloom) with white that is gently blended in,
and the reflections glazed with only yellow lake, as the
occasion demands.
292 lisa wiersma
A B
Ill. 22.2. A-C: Bunches of grapes (Boskoop Glory) lit (front and side) and with backlight
But the seeds in the grapes, which shine through in the
ripe ones as they are usually painted, must not be forgot-
ten. These are made visible by mixing light ochre with a
little ash and white into the yellow lake, and for the shad-
ows, black’.17
As can be read, the three-dimensional shape is sug-
gested first, by painting lit and shaded side of each
grape. Along their edges, internal reflections are
rendered to allow for light to enter the pulp and to
provide its translucent look. When this layer has
dried, an opaque bloom layer is scumbled on top
lightly, keeping the translucent peel visible. On
such deliberately reserved parts of peel, highlights
are placed opposing the reflections. Thereupon
glazes deepen, saturate and optically blend the
pulp’s shadow and reflection colour. With a seed,
convincing translucency is consolidated. For blue
and red (‘Spanish’) grapes different colours are
given, but similar instructions. Some extra colours
and mixtures allow for discerning between ripe and
less ripe grapes in red grapes.
Before re-enacting the recipe with oil paint, I
followed Beurs’s recipe for white grapes digitally,
giving each step its own (subtractable) layer. Ill.
22.3a-f shows the sequence, ill. 22.3g shows the
bearing and importance of the coloured ground18 by
subtracting it and, subsequently, the frugality of the
C
paint layers on top. In comparison, ill. 22.3h-i show
the grapes on a different ground and without two of
its features: the inner reflection that suggests light
entering the pulp and the highlight.
The Beurs recipe for red grapes was re-enacted in
oil colours copying two bunches from De Heem
paintings: Festoon of Fruits and Flowers (1660-1670,
oil on canvas, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.
SK-A-138) (ill. 22.1) and Garland of Fruit and Flow-
ers (1650-1660, oil on canvas, The Hague, Maurits-
huis, inv. 49) (ill. 22.4). The Beurs recipe deter-
mined pigments and colourants, and the working
order. Data from cross-sections published by
A. Wallert,19 MA-XRF scans (pigment distribution
maps) made by N. De Keyser20 and OCT scans (layer
stratigraphy) by T. Callewaert21 were consulted for
information about the distribution of paint in layers
underneath the surface. For completeness as regards
Beurs, his coloured ground was applied (by hand):
a mixture of umber in several layers, whereas
De Heem used a grey or a grey-brown on top of a red
ochre ground. The process was documented care-
fully, with high resolution photographs, taken at
intervals of 10 seconds. This documentation was
turned into a digital tool by F. Di Cicco in which
layers could be subtracted again, or intensified and
dimmed (ills. 22.5, 22.6a-b).22
 painting by numbers 293

A B C

D E F

G H I

Ill. 22.3. A-I: Sequence of the Willem Beurs recipe for white grapes. Digital reconstruction
294 lisa wiersma

Ill. 22.4. Jan Davidsz. de Heem, Garland of Fruit and Flowers, probably 1650-1660, oil on canvas, 60.2 x 74.7 cm,
The Hague, Mauritshuis

Ill. 22.5. Sequence of layers for red grapes, reconstruction of De Heem’s Festoon of Fruits and Flowers (ill. 22.1)
 painting by numbers 295

The process of standardization translucence in and juicy appearance of grapes. A

From sources like Cennino Cennini’s Libro dell’Arte
onwards, recipe books and manuscripts demon-
strate the search for successful standardization by
giving every thinkable object its own colour con-
version in paint. In the seventeenth century, for-
mulas for colouring were increasingly complex and
standardised, following colouring methods that
were interchanged and taught amongst artists.
As regards grapes, this development is clearly
seen. After the De Heem and Beurs method was
carefully dissected, it becomes evident what (aspir-
ing) painters were looking to achieve. Fifteenth-
and sixteenth-century paintings show several of
these features, but often not enough to suggest
bunch by Carlo Crivelli on the Camerino Triptych
from 1482-1483 (tempera, Milan, Pinacoteca di
Brera, inv. 155/350/351) shows a base colour, a
dark, grey-brown shade that is used in the entire
painting and two highlights. The smaller highlight
in the shade might indicate either the translu-
cency of the fruit or the glossiness of its skin. The
same goes for the lit rim in the shade, created by
shading the object somewhat away from its con-
tour line: the base colour is left uncovered there
and depicts either the pulp that reflects light
within the grape, or light reflecting on its surface
– a trick that Crivelli employs everywhere in the
painting.

A B

Ill. 22.6. A-B: Optical mixing interface for manipulation of the layers’ weights. A: The bunch without the internal reflections.
B: The grapes without bloom and the shade. Reconstruction superimposed on the original De Heem painting
296 lisa wiersma
In one of the earliest surviving independent
still-life paintings, an allegory of painting from
c. 1500-1510 in oil colours on canvas (New York,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. nr. L.2016.26),
Antonio Leonelli Da Crevalcore depicted a grey
shrike picking grapes that exceed merely shaded
volumes (by adding bloom and a separate colour
for reflection), but the grapes look very opaque:
the inner reflection is painted with a bright colour
that is different from the base tone, but because
highlights are omitted, light does not seem to enter
the pulp and, again and despite of its glowing
colour, the rim seems to be a reflection of light on
the skin within the shade.
In the second half of the sixteenth century,
depictions enhanced. In another painting that
refers to the Zeuxis story (Boy with a Basket of Fruit,
c. 1593, oil on canvas, Rome, Galleria Borghese,
inv. 136), Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio
seems to use only one base tone for the body colour
still (no distinction between lit and shade side),
but he adds a yellow inner reflection, a grey-blue
bloom, some stains suggesting discolouration of the
fruit, and highlights. Everything is laid in with
somewhat coarse brushstrokes.
In a somewhat earlier kitchen scene (Joachim
Bueckelaer, The Well-stocked Kitchen, with Jesus in
the House of Martha and Mary in the Background,
1566, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. SK-A-1451),
lit and shade side are discerned, or at least lit and
shade grapes in the bunch. The lit side blends in
with the bloom, which is less prominent, or not
depicted at all. Inner reflections are yellow com-
pared with the green of the grapes and light clearly
enters the shape, instead of bouncing on its skin.
Because the fruit shows many colours, translucency
and juiciness are well perceived.
Of course, not all painters succeeded or aimed
for the same amount of detail, but overall, increas-
ingly elaborate depictions were made during the
seventeenth century. In the first half of the cen-
tury, the 9-step approach emerges, although the
grapes by a young De Heem (Still Life with Nautilus
Cup, 1632, University of Birmingham, The Barber
Institute of Fine Arts, Acc. nr. 41.2) lack bloom like
Bueckelaer’s examples. From the 1640s onwards,
De Heem’s grapes have both the distinct inner
reflection and the bloom, painted with perfect, con-
cealed brushstrokes. And from at least the 1650s
onwards, most painters depicted bunches of grapes
that – also in close view – look highly appealing and
tasty to the viewer.
The recipes for grapes account for artists’ search
for tricks as well, showing increasing complexity.
In 1647, rendering bloom was put into writing by
Mary Beale, who must have been an (amateur)
pupil then:
‘To heighten grapes & plums
The white bur wch is about hte white speck must bee
white and pure faire Bice, though the rest of the meali-
nesse bee of vine black and white because the heighthning
is pfectly illuminated and so the meale must bee purer b
[? a one-letter word which I cannot read in the photo
of the transcript] then the white in the midst bf& it will
looke passing full of sperit’.23
Beale, then 13 or 14 years old, became a successful
portrait painter in London during the 1670s. As a
child, she lived close to Bury St Edmunds, where
painter Peter Lely, who was educated in the Low
Countries, worked from the beginning of the
1640s.24 An explicit connection with Dutch paint-
ing concerning this development is accounted for
by Daniel King, c. 1653-1657:
‘Grapes.
The hightening of grapes with that purplish mealie colour
is made with white lake, bise of each a little, and earth of
colon to divertion Mr Deheem’.25
A bloom layer is not mentioned by authors who
seem interested in watercolouring. During the
second half of the seventeenth century, Jacoba van
Veen wrote:
‘ROODE WYNDRUIVEN salmen aenleggen met een purper
ende diepent met een asblaeu, ende hoogent met wit.
WITTE WYNDRUIVEN samen aenleggen met een geheel dun
spaensgroen met een weijnig masticot daeronder, en
 painting by numbers
gediept met een dun sapgroen, ende gehoogt met masticot
en wit t samen gemenggt [?]’.26
And in 1675, William Salmon, described only basic
light, shade and highlight as well. He wrote about
limning and oil painting, but only included a grapes
recipe for the first category:
‘XI. Red and Blew Grapes with purple, shaded with
blew, and heightned with white.
XII. White Grapes with thin Verdegriese (called also
Spanish green) mixt with Masticot, shadow with thin
Verdegriese; and heighten with Masticot mixt with
white’.27
Obviously, a layer build-up in oil colours gains
much more effect than layering with – more opaque
and possibly dissolving – water colours. Seven-
teenth-century convincing material depiction is
a result of experimenting with oil paint and its
technical affordances for over two centuries.28 Oil
painters have several material advantages over
artists who use other binding mediums. Without
the translucency of oil and, thus, the possibility to
layer paint without losing (complete) sight of what
is painted underneath, far less complex visual
effects are possible. Oil cleverly combined with
pigments and colourants that result in either
opaque or translucent paint, allows for layering and
juxtaposing complex material properties.29 Glazes
and scumbles can help suggest slightly translucent
or not entirely opaque peel with pulp that seems to
shimmer through. A reflecting, glossy surface can
be suggested with an impervious highlight on top of
an overall translucent material to render convinc-
ing fruit pulp. When the right shade and reflections
are applied, convincing skins, volumes and con-
vincing suggestions of their inner structures are
made, making use of actual depth by layering. With
a glaze (either slightly or deeply coloured) pulp can
become very intense, using oil’s saturating power.
Remarkably, the treatise on watercolouring
that was inserted by Willem Goeree in 1697, but
written by Geerard Ter Brugge, does discuss bloom.
Goeree had planned (but never succeeded) to
297
publish on oil colouring30 and by then, the elabo-
rate oil method for painting grapes was common.
Beurs and Goeree may have been acquaintances
and transfer of knowledge may have taken place
upon the realization of The Big World Painted Small
five years earlier.31
‘DRUYVEN.
De Roode en Blaauwe Wijn-druyven, zalmen aanleggen
met Purper, en schaduwen die met Asblaauw, en hoogent
met wit.
De witte Wijn-druyven zalmen aanleggen met heel dun
Spaans-groen, met seer weynig Mastikot en Wit; ook wel
sommige met een stipken wit alleen, daar’t den dag mede
brengt: de blaauwigheid van den Daauw diemen aan
sommige siet, zalmen met Asch en Wit, en weynig
Spaans-groen daar onder beleggen, doch heel sacht en
dommelig’.32
After bloom, dead colouring or coloured grounds,
and glazes were added to the recipe. In 1692, these
additions appear in recipes by Willem Beurs and
Marshall Smith:
‘First Practise your Hand in Boylt Plate, not Burnish’d,
and other things of fewest Colours, then Fruits, Flowers,
&c. observing that in your Learning, you Dead Colour
things very well, and take care you do not Paint out your
Draught. Observe amongst Fruit, especiall Grapes to
finish well in the Dead Colour, or you will not obtain
their softness and roundness in Finishing, by Reason,
they must be Finisht with Glasing Colours’.33
Like William Salmon and possibly Mary Beale, the
Englishman Marshall Smith relied on information
gained from international sources, described as
‘Italian, French, and Germane Masters’, which
included painters from the Netherlands. It is hard
to pinpoint where grapes obtained their elaborate
depiction, but Netherlandish connections seem
present in its distribution in both writing and
paint, which should be studied more extensively.34
At any rate, from the 1650s, painted grapes dem-
onstrate blended body colours, inner reflections,
glazes, highlights, seeds, and different shades of
298 lisa wiersma
bloom. Focusing on a single motive demonstrates
that improvements of technique led to a standard-
ized method.
The tangible style
Skilful material depiction is one of the main stylis-
tic features of seventeenth-century Netherlandish
art. Flemish and Dutch painting is famous for its
simulated tangibility of translucent objects, furry
skins, opaque and glossy surfaces, and soft flower
petals. Colouring was mastered to perfection: it
meant rendering of surface effects which yielded
beautiful and convincing depictions of materials
to an extent which was achieved never again in
the history of art, although painters have tried to
imitate it for centuries since – often omitting one
of its essential technical achievements.
Convincing material depiction emerged together
with focused design of images. But this turn from
ornamented images towards genre paintings beared
convincing material depiction only partially. Mean-
while, painting for a market demanded recipes that
were workable and efficient. And when renewed
attention for observing the world emerged over the
course of the seventeenth century in the wake
of the Enlightenment, painters began noticing
and reproducing phenomena such as reflections and
refractions, clouded skies, and other minute details
systematically. Regarding still-life painting, C.
Grimm stated that studying the wonder of nature
itself, led to a higher standard of aesthetics in paint-
ing.35 At the time, painters and beholders appreci-
ated convincingness in painting as an invitation to
interact with art and its depictions.36 As with so
many things, several developments interlocked and
led to a style in which surface effects were highly
important. Technical advancements enabled this.
From the sixteenth century and up to the sec-
ond half of the seventeenth century, painters
experimented with extending colouring recipes,
relying on oil paints’s affordances. These recipes
were passed on and exchanged internationally.
The example of the grape has demonstrated that
material depiction was effectively standardized. It
required several technical developments, for reci-
pes for successful material depiction demanded a
coloured ground, clair-obscur lighting and varying
brushwork, smoothened to not distract beholders
with the materiality of the paint and to convince
them with the image. Altogether, these techniques
enabled frugal and efficient use of paint. And most
importantly, a formula which enabled convincing
material depiction, resulting in what could be
characterized as a tangible style.
N OTES
1 Pottasch 2020.
2 De Keyser 2016, pp. 69-76. An abridged version was pub-
lished as: De Keyser et al. 2017.
3 Wallert 1999b; Wallert 2012.
4 On the popularity of watercolouring and studying colours in
the seventeenth century, see: Goedings 2015.
5 For a study of contemporary terminology and discussion of
material depiction, see: Wiersma 2020.
6 Isaac Beeckman thought that materials revealed their colours
in light, rather than that light shows a colour by reflecting on materials
which absorb all other spectra. See: Dijksterhuis 2015, pp. 231, 234-
235.
7 Dijksterhuis 2015, esp. pp. 244-247.
8 See: Baker et al. 2015, p. 3.
9 With many thanks to oil painter and teacher Paul Versteeg,
who repeatedly stressed this principle during oil painting classes in
2016.
10 For comparisons of still-life motives, see also: Grimm 2001.
11 Pliny 1961-1968, 9, pp. 308-311 (Book XXXV-XXXVI, verses
65-66).
12 The fourth book is about ‘miscellaneous things, namely the most
difficult still-life’ and the fifth is about ‘The still-life of fruits and vegetables’.
Either painting metals, glass, pearls and fire are more difficult to paint
than fruits and vegetables or anything else, or all still-life painting is
most difficult.
13 Du Fresnoy 1673, p. 201.
14 We were not the first to see the relevance of grapes: Wallert
1999a.
15 On colouring and idealized depictions see: Wiersma 2020,
pp. 258-259, § 4; Di Cicco 2022; Wiersma 2024, § III.2b (Depicting
Summer in Years of Winter. Painting Flowers, Fruits and Vegetables, and
Horticultural Reality during the Little Ice Age).
16 In visual perception experiments, Francesca Di Cicco tested
the convincingness of seventeenth-century grapes depictions. See:
Di Cicco et al. 2020.
17 Beurs 1692, pp. 131-134. Note, the recipe is relatively long,
but the text is printed on two pages, not four: a mistake is made with
the pagination. Numbers 132 and 133 were skipped. Translation by
Myra Scholz for publication, forthcoming.
18 Currently, coloured grounds are studied more extensively in
the research project Down to the Ground, University of Amsterdam,
commenced January 2019.
19 Wallert 1999b.
20 De Keyser 2016.
21 Tom Callewaert has been so kind to show us the Mauritshuis
Jan de Heem OCT scans.
 painting by numbers
22 This tool was made for the Dutch research project Recipes and
realities (Utrecht University & TU Delft, from 2016), a project that
paired art historians and vision scientists. See: Di Cicco et al. 2019. The
tool was used for visual perception experiments, aiming to understand
the success of the procedure. See: Di Cicco et al. 2020. In this article,
the re-enactment process is described in detail as well.
23 Mary Beale, Observations by MB in her painting of Apricots in
August 1663, in Charles Beale, Experimentall Seacrets found out in the
way of painting (1647/8-1663), Glasgow University Library, Special
Collections, MS Ferguson 134, fol. 4v. I am grateful to Sander Karst for
giving me a transcript of this source.
24 See also: Karst 2021.
25 Via: Wallert 1999b, pp. 28-29.
26 Jacoba van Veen (1635-after 1687), Nemo artifex nascitur,
Omna autem probate: quod bonum est tenete, not dated, The Hague,
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Ms. KB 135 K 44, p. 150 (in ‘Boom Vruchten’).
I am very grateful to Marieke Hendriksen for referring me to this
manuscript.
27 Salmon 1675, p. 127 (in chap. XLV., ‘How to colour fruits’).
28 Its first benefit would entail the medium itself, which has
been studied in several dissertations over recent years. Bol 2012;
Vandivere 2013; Van Duijn 2013; Kneepkens 2021.
299
29 By training and practicing, painters obtained an intuitive
understanding of their paint’s refractive indices: combinations of
certain amounts of either opaque or translucent pigments and colour-
ants with translucent oil would result in varying degrees of saturation,
opacity and translucency of a paint layer. See: Bol 2012.
30 Goeree 1668, third and fourth page of the foreword (‘voor-
reden’). Goeree repeated his intention when issuing Inleydingh tot de
practijck der algemeene schilder-konst in 1670, saying on its title page
that it was to be the precursor of a work on painting practice, consisting
of ‘Teycken-kunde, Bouw-kunde, Doorsicht-kunde, Mensch-kunde, Ordi-
neringh en Coloreeringh, volkomen sal geleert warden’, see: Goeree 1670.
31 Wiersma 2024, paragraph I.1.c: ‘Willem Beurs’s anonymous
‘gentleman’ adviser: Willem Goeree?’
32 Ter Brugge, Goeree 1697, p. 34.
33 Smith 1692, p. 76 (in cap. XXVIII, ‘The art of colouring’).
34 The Italian development could be elaborated, as well as other
European tracks. And it would be interesting to study and contextualize
more writings and paintings of cross-cultural people, such as Juan van
der Hamen y León, a Spanish depicter of grapes with a Flemish connec-
tion, who depicted notably detailed grapes in the first half of the
seventeenth century.
35 Grimm 2001.
36 See: Wiersma 2020, for a study into aims and appreciation of
material depiction in the seventeenth century.
Ill. 23.1. Niklaus Manuel Deutsch, Saint Luke Painting the Virgin, 1515, oil on panel, 117 x 82 cm, Bern, Kunstmuseum
 23
Palettes as Indicators of Technique and Style
in Northern Self-Portraits
Céline Talon
A BSTRACT: The palette is the painter’s most emblematical
attribute. As a transitional item between the painter and
the painting in making, it is an inexhaustible source of
information on the evolution of painting technique. In a
way, the palette is one of the first places where the
painter’s ideas will come into material being. It concen-
trates concepts at the precise moment where they will
be transferred into practise. This paper considers a
chronological study of the palette’s depiction in various
iconographies and assesses how it echoes new trends in
painting technique and painting conceptualization. As a
material actor of the painting process, the palette may
speak about the silent theory dormant in practise even
before painters started to put into words the principles
that guided their hand.
—o—
If Northern Renaissance painting technique is
today a very well researched field, comparatively
few papers have been devoted to the study of
colour in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Neth-
erlandish painting. There are at least two obvious
reasons for that: first, the near absence of north-
ern artistic texts before Karel Van Mander’s
Schilderboek (1604), depriving us of the painters’
own views on their creations and second, the fact
that colour is a complex and polymorph topic
that travels across art technology and optics,
social codifications, commercial values, and much
more. Any colour study immediately brings the
scholar into a wide range of intertwined seman-
tics, which can impede rigorous research. Never-
theless, colour is a highly meaningful material, a
significant part of the painting process and the
way it is handled embodies many concepts. The
following pages will use the painter’s palette,
the very tool of colour, as a unifying thread, an
element to focus on while attempting to frame
– at least partially – the relationship of Nether-
landish artists to colour. As a transitional item
between the painter, his colours, his brushes and
the painting in making, the palette concentrates
concepts at the precise moment they are trans-
ferred into practice. In 1993 and 1995, two pio-
neering essays on the palette were published by
E. Van de Wetering, where the author discussed
mainly Rembrandt’s painting technique and drew
comparisons between palettes and seventeenth-
century artistic literature.1 Focusing on how the
palette is organized, Van de Wetering remarks
that prior to 1600 ‘the palette was ostensibly set with
relative freedom’.2 This article investigates what
else those early palettes can add to our knowledge
of Northern Renaissance painting technique. To
bypass methodological difficulties, the examina-
tion of palettes can be cross-checked with several
peripherical approaches, thus shaping a plausible
picture of the missing elements. In the present
case, iconographical research is combined with
scientific examination of paintings, the study of
the cultural context of colour and research in
technological written sources.
302 céline talon
Very few physical palettes survived until our
times. The oldest we preserve date from the late
eighteenth century like those of Joshua Reynolds
(c. 1760-1785, London, Royal Academy, inv. nr.
04/1342, 04/511) or William Blake (London,
Victoria & Albert Museum, c. 1780, inv. nr. P.57-
1927). Fortunately, earlier palettes are fairly well
documented by the iconography of the painter at
work, a theme present in book illumination since
c. 1400 and rapidly spreading to easel painting
during the course of the fifteenth century, first
through depictions of Saint Luke Painting the Virgin,
then artists’ self-portraits, and by the seventeenth
century in mythological scenes, views of artists’
studio, various allegories, etc.3 Naturally, paintings
are not a faithful photography of reality but rather
a ‘staged reality’ in which the surroundings, tools
and attitude of the painter were deliberately chosen
in order to create a certain discourse on the artistic
process. Details and emphasis of the composition
certainly differ according to the object (a prayer
book, a private devotional painting or a guild
altarpiece) and the aimed audience. It remains
nonetheless that the scene necessarily draws from
actual practise.
Throughout all medieval technological litera-
ture, no palette is mentioned before the sixteenth
century. Before that, it is as though this emblematic
painter’s tool was not deemed important enough
to be considered. In texts written between the
twelfth and the sixteenth century, the objects most
regularly mentioned in relation with colour are
containers: earthen, glazed, glass, tin, lead, even
stone vessels are abundantly described, either in
connexion with the making of pigments or with
their grinding, tempering (i.e. the addition of bind-
ing medium to the pigment) and storing. Jars (with
a lid) are used to store pigments after they were
ground in clear water but not yet tempered. Such
jars are clearly depicted in a box on the table next
to the Saint Luke Painting the Virgin by Niklaus
Manuel Deutsch (Bern, Kunstmuseum, 1515) (ill.
23.1). Shells are the favoured containers to temper
the pigments and to hold the paint as the artist is
about to start working. Their use is archaeologi-
cally attested since at least the eleventh century,
with a preference for mussel and oyster shells. The
shape of both types of shells were exploited differ-
ently: mussel shells, being smaller and hollower
were apparently favoured to contain only one
colour and were used to temper the pigment or pre-
viously made pigment mixtures. Oyster shells are
shallower and wider, with a fan shape that allows
the distribution of two or three pigments on the
shell’s edge, the hollow part receiving the liquid
binding medium.4 But the binding media found in
those oysters being aqueous-based and therefore
quick-drying, the advantage of working with
several pigments ready at hand remains quite lim-
ited and does not appear to have been a common
practice. However, we cannot escape noticing how
the fan-shape of these archaic ‘oyster palettes’ seem
a distant echo of the oval shape of later fully devel-
oped palettes. The use of shells and pots is con-
comitant with the medieval ‘systemic’ or ‘formu-
laic’ modelling technique using separate grades or
light values for each given colour. In this painting
process, one creates the illusion of volume by using
the pure colour as the deepest shadow, then pre-
pares progressively lighter grades by adding white
and finishes the highlights with pure white, as
described by Cennino Cennini in his Libro
dell’Arte:5 ‘[…] take up the dark colour […] take up the
mid-tone, […] take up the light colour […] joining them
together artfully so that they blend subtly’. When
working this way, each ground colour is stored in a
separate container and the artist works with only
one colour at a time: ‘And bear in mind that, just as
you made your colours shade by shade, so you put them
in your little pots shade by shade so that you do not
make the mistake of picking up one instead of the other.
And likewise, use this method for every colour with
which you want to paint, whether you want reds or
whites or yellows or greens’.6
The use of a palette in those circumstances
would be doubly superfluous: first, this modelling
method has been designed for quick-drying binding
medium such as glue or egg tempera and that kind
 palettes as indicators of technique and style in northern self-portraits
of paint would be too runny and too quick-drying
to be efficiently used on a flat surface where a lot of
precious paint could be spoiled.7 Secondly, the
technique is very specific about applying one grade
of colour at a time. Cennini even spells it out
that one has to thoroughly wash the brush – on the
singular! – between applying each grade: ‘[…] when
you have finished laying in thoroughly and joining the
three colours, from the lightest make another, lighter
one, always washing the brush between one colour
and another’.8 That would hardly justify the use of a
palette whose only advantage against individual
jars is to provide the painter with a quick access to
several colours at the same time. Small containers
such as shells remain the best option and indeed,
even throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
tury, they remain a popular feature of the painter’s
studio.9 Furthermore, it arises from the most
detailed depictions that diverse types of containers
(shells, dishes, pots) were used simultaneously,
each having its specific use.10 Shells were mani-
festly favoured to temper the pigment after grind-
ing whereas pots with lids were favoured for long-
term storage of pigments ground in water. To have
use of a palette, it was necessary to change the
binding medium for one whose texture and drying
properties would allow the paint to sit on a flat
surface for a while without getting spoilt. That
other medium is naturally oil.
It is in the embellishment of a dropped initial ‘P’
of the Bible of Jean Jennart, dated c. 1300-1325
(Reims, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 40, fol. 83v)
(ill. 23.2), that we find the earliest depiction of a
tool approaching a palette: a male figure is shown
colouring the surrounding flowers, holding a spade-
shaped instrument by the handle, on which two
dots of colour (pink and blue) are visible. Flat pal-
ettes indicate necessarily an artist working with oil
binding medium. Conversely, we cannot neverthe-
less assume that, in any given depiction of an artist
at work, shells and pots automatically depict
an aqueous painting technique for the formulaic
modelling technique was still in use even after the
introduction of oil as a medium. In his recipe 68,
303
Ill. 23.2. Initial P, 1300-1325, fol. 83v of the Bible
of Jean Jennart, Reims, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 40
the author of the Strasbourg Manuscript notes that
the same preparation of pigments in light grades
should be applied to colours bound in oil: ‘here note
that these colours should all be ground with this oil and,
before finishing, one should grind with each colour
three drops of varnish. Then forward put each colour
separately in a clean dish and work with them as you
want.’11 Technical literature mentions oil as a bind-
ing medium already in the twelfth century and oil
has been identified in several thirteenth-century
painted panels.12 Nevertheless, traditional ways of
painting endured and even after the introduction
of both oil and the palette, the iconography of the
painter at work shows that the tools used for the
systemic modelling technique remained common
in the studio. The transition between painting
from individual jars to using a palette actually helps
understanding the modalities of the passage from
pre-Eyckian to Eyckian art. It shows that the use of
oil did not imply at first a complete break from
medieval tradition and that ‘formulaic’ modelling
was still used in the fifteenth century, whatever the
binding medium. It seems that the slow-drying
properties of oil were first exploited for creating
more sophisticated versions of the traditional
paintings with subtler transitions between the
304
Ill. 23.3. Pre-Eyckian anonymous, Annunciation,
panel from the Antwerp-Baltimore Quadriptych, c. 1400,
oil on panel, 37.2 x 26.5 cm (with frame),
Baltimore, Walters Art Museum
separated light-grades, as it is visible in the Ant-
werp-Baltimore Quadriptych (Antwerp, Museum
Mayer Van den Bergh, inv. 1 and Baltimore,
Walters Art Museum, acc. nr. 37.1683, c. 1400)
(ill. 23.3). Indeed, the presence of oil (indicated
by the palette) does not at first necessarily imply
the use of glazes and of an Eyckian modelling
technique. The coexistence of palettes, shells and
pots in the studio points towards a more complex
painting process potentially combining a formulaic
modelling with local glazing, each implementation
of the paint being adapted according to the depicted
object: drapery is among the first compositional
area where glazing appears.13 The treatment of flesh
is much more variable whereas inanimate objects
and architecture can be painted with a formulaic
céline talon
modelling even well into the sixteenth century.14
The presence of a palette in the iconography is
certainly tantamount to saying ‘he/she is working
in oils’ for no other medium could be used with this
tool. Clearly the introduction of the palette detail
in the painter’s iconography indicates an awareness
that working in oil is something new and different.
Likewise, in early fifteenth-century depictions,
the artist is working with a palette, at an easel but
without a mahlstick. That would have been very
inconvenient, dragging your hand or sleeve in the
wet paint – except if you patiently wait for the
previously laid in colours to be thoroughly dried
before keeping on working, as recommended in
several medieval texts.15 In the documentation I
could gather, all depictions of a painter at work
with a mahlstick – except one – date from after
1470, at a time oil painting is fairly well-estab-
lished. Before that time, we have to assume that
the tool was either unknown or too anecdotical
to depict and its presence in later images could
indicate that the painter is now making full use
of the oil’s potential, for example working wet-in-
wet blending.
The spade-shape of the first palettes agrees with
the etymology of the word: of French origin, palecte
or palette, is a diminutive form of pale from Latin
pala, meaning ‘spade’ or ‘shovel’. In the fourteenth-
century collection of household recipes Le Ménagier
de Paris, the word ‘palette’ appears in the chapter
‘Avoir soin de son mari’ when describing how to kill
flies. Could the first ‘palette’ actually be a flyswat?16
In the sixteenth century, the word is also used for a
small handle-paddle to play a kind of shuttlecock
or for a flat wooden blade used by teachers to pun-
ish children (!).17 This kind of palette with a han-
dle is visible in numerous miniatures during the
whole duration of the fifteenth century as well as in
paintings such as the Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin
by a follower of Dieric Bouts (c.1440-1475,
Gwynedd, Penrhyn Castle, inv.1420363).18 Work-
ing with such a contraption must not have been
very handy since the painter finds him/herself
either holding the flat board vertically (with the
 palettes as indicators of technique and style in northern self-portraits
obvious risks of dripping) or was forced to badly
twist his/her wrist to keep the palette horizontal.
Really, both etymology and iconography indicate
that the palette was at first a domestic object,
designed neither by nor for painters, and that it was
at some point diverted towards the studio. Further-
more, early palette’s shapes were not at all fixed
and this variability also suggest that they were at
first recycled from other implementations.19 So far,
the earliest known textual mention of a palette in
written sources comes from the Liber Illuminis-
trarum pro Fundamentis Auri et Coloribus ac Consi-
milibus Collectus ex Diversis or Tegernsee Manu-
script, compiled in the Benedictine Abbey of
Tegernsee between 1480 and 1531: ‘All colours that
do not contain juice can be rubbed with oil. To paint,
you should rub them all individually and first mix them
on the palette. Dilute the oil paint with more oil’.20
Even then there is no specific name for the tool
and the original text uses the Old German term
‘schin tafel’, that is an elongated piece of wood or
metal. The contemporary Couronne Margaritique by
Jean Lemaire de Belges (1504) gives a striking
description of a painter’s studio mentioning ‘piles
of shells’ (Fr. ‘coquilles par monceaux’) but again no
palette.21 It is not before the late sixteenth century
that one finds the actual word ‘palette’ in an artis-
tic context: ‘For palettes to paint, ivory is excellent,
knots of the fir tree, the pear tree, & if it is a walnut
tree, make sure the grain of the wood runs lengthwise’
(Toulouse Manuscript).22
My hypothesis is that, for most of the fifteenth
century, the palette had become a handy tool-of-
the-trade, a useful help for the painter, but was not
instrumental to the painting process because the
formulaic modelling was still implemented. And
indeed, all palettes depicted in fifteenth-century
artworks (whether illuminations or easel paintings)
are notably small, displaying only a few dots of col-
our, and leaving no room whatsoever for mixing
purposes which would, to our modern understand-
ing of the palette’s use, be its first function. This
indicates that any required colour mixture would
have been prepared beforehand, i.e. during the
305
grinding, on a stone slab and only with water. That
is again a typically formulaic way of painting,
with various ready-made colour mixtures (such as
Cennini’s three colour grades for each hue, or
special mixtures for ‘flesh’, ‘hair’, ‘foliage’,…) that
were either stored in an individual jar or tempered
in a shell. When tempered with the binding
medium, the paint would then be transferred from
the shell to the palette and the artist would still
apply each single colour separately, including the
ready-made mixtures, here applied as if they were a
single colour. Significantly, mixture was not a part
of the painting process but belonged to the prepara-
tion of paint and, from the fourteenth-century ini-
tial of the Jean Jennart Bible to Hugo Van der Goes’
Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin (c. 1470-1480, Lis-
bon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antigua, inv. 1459)
showing a minute rectangular palette resting on
the easel in the background, the function of the
palette was not to mix colours on it. Rather, the
popularisation of the tool seems to have first gener-
ated with artists’ simple desire to have several
colours ready at hand. The recipe technology has
informed us that, unlike in aqueous binding media,
oil allows the pigments to be tempered and stored
after in their individual pots. The craftsmen had by
then realized that these paints dried slower and
would keep for several days. From there, it was only
a logical step to speed up the painting process by
applying different colours consecutively, without
the necessity to temper one colour at a time, chang-
ing the container every time. Further observation
of early palettes indicates that, not only do they
display a small number of colour dots, but in a large
majority, the dots do not show different colours but
different colour grades (i.e. a given colour with
increasing amount of white). This is well exempli-
fied in the illumination of Timarete Painting, in
the French translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s
De claris mulieribus offered to Jean de Berry in 1403
(Paris, BnF, fr. 598, fol. 86r), the Saint Luke Painting
the Virgin by the Master of the Augustine Altar-
piece (possibly Frueauf the Younger, Nuremberg,
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, inv. Gm 144,
306 céline talon
1487) (ill. 23.4) or Niklaus Manuel Deutsch’s Saint
Luke Painting the Virgin (Bern, Kunst Museum,
1515). In each case, the colour dots are kept well
separated and no room for mixing the pre-prepared
values is left on the palette. Again, a display of the
formulaic modelling’s endurance into the sixteenth
century.
The depiction of brushes in Saint Lukes or early
self-portraits also echoes the longevity of tradi-
tional modelling techniques and the use of sepa-
rated colours: during most of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, images of the artist at work
show the painter working with just one brush in
his/her hand, again an indication that he/she is
working one colour at a time. In the late fifteenth
and in the first half of the sixteenth century, it
becomes recurrent to see the painter, still with
a very small palette but holding in his left hand
several brushes. In Catharina Van Hemessen’s
Self-portrait dated 1548 (Basel, Öffentliche Kunst-
sammlung, inv. nr. 1361) (ill. 23.5), it is remarkable
that the tip of each brush has a distinctive colour,
corresponding to each of the colour values dis-
played on the palette.23 Actually, painting with one
brush per shade has several benefits: not only does
one save time and pigments by avoiding having to
clean the brush for every change of hue, but reserv-
ing a brush per colour also prevents unwanted
mixtures and contaminations. The colour set on
early palettes is generally composed of a few grades
of blue with white, a logical choice since the evan-
gelist Luke paints the Virgin’s mantle, traditionally
of a rich blue colour. The market value of the blue
lapis lazuli used for the most precious areas of the
painting probably contributed in adding some pres-
tige to the gentleman-artist at work. In a few cases,
like Niklaus Manuel Deutsch’s Saint Luke, a dark
red or crimson dot is added on the palette, which
is a very hands-on detail, reflecting the practise of
deepening the shadows of blue draperies with a
glaze of red lake.24
In the early sixteenth century, a new set of col-
ours appears, soon to replace the blue: the flesh
colour set. This choice is again highly significant
for the specific colouring of the human body is a
celebrated topos in artistic culture since late Antiq-
uity. Already in twelfth-century technological
texts, the mixture of pigments one has to prepare to
achieve a beautiful flesh colour receives a specific
name such as membrana, posc, carnation, … :25
‘Mettez avec simple membrane un poi de cynobre et un
poi de mine, vous avez la dicte couleur posc […]’
(Jehan Le Bègue).26 When the poet Jean Lemaire
de Belges (1473-1524) enumerates various colours
to be found in a painter’s studio, he quotes all sorts
of pigments and ‘well-prepared flesh-colour’ (‘carna-
tion faite bien proprement’).27 The shift in palettes’
colour set illustrates the advent of new artistic
goals, ebbing away from devotional and symbolic
values of costly materials such as blue pigments and
gold. The image of the ideal painter embodied by
Saint Luke is gradually replaced by another model:
the artist who masters the depiction of life, epito-
mized by flesh painting. The skill to create a seem-
ingly live-coloured flesh is among the first things
celebrated in written art theory – and here, in art
theory visualized. As Giorgio Vasari said about
Giorgione: ‘Many of the most skillful artists [...] agreed
he had been born [...] to reproduce the freshness of
living flesh more than any other artist who had ever
painted’.28 Apparently, there could be no higher
praise than that. In view of the rising prominence
of the human figure and body as the noblest subject
of painting, the ability to paint flesh became one of
the most – if not the most – important skill for a
painter. In this regard, Van Hemessen’s palette is
very traditional in size and shape, but at the same
time innovative in its content: a quite complex
flesh colour set of nine coloured dots, three of
which at least being pre-prepared flesh values.
This minute, detailed and organized palette also
mirrors the miniature portraits Van Hemessen was
celebrated for.29 Likewise, when the German artist
Ludger tom Ring the Younger (1522-1584),
renowned for his naturalistic works on still lives
and study of animals, paints his Self-portrait, he
depicts an even more rigidly organized palette with
eighteen, carefully arranged, colours covering the
 palettes as indicators of technique and style in northern self-portraits 307

Ill. 23.4. Master of the Augustine Altarpiece, Saint Luke Painting the Virgin from a wing of an altarpiece, 1487,
oil on panel, 271.8 x 89.5 cm, Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, detail: Saint Luke
308
Ill. 23.5. Catharina Van Hemessen, Self-portrait, 1548,
tempera on panel, 32 x 25 cm, Basel,
Öffentliche Kunstsammlung
entire surface of the palette, leaving no room to
believe that he would ever mix them. This scien-
tific, almost mathematical arrangement of colours
seems an excellent advertisement for his extremely
precise painting technique.30
From a small, secondary tool issuing from a
domestic recycled item, the palette has now
evolved to become an integral part of the artistic
process, an object the painter would use in his
staged views of an artist at work, to express values
characterizing him or to advertise a particular set
of skills. Furthermore, the way the palette is set
follows closely the evolution of painting practice
and painting theory. Two interesting examples are
Maerten van Heemskerck’s Saint Luke (Rennes,
Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. 1801-100, c. 1550) and
Sofonisba Anguissola’s Self-portrait (Lancut,
Museum Zamek, c. 1556). In Van Heemskerck’s
composition, his palette is an expanded version
of Van Hemessen’s: no less than thirteen heaps of
céline talon
colours including five values of ready-made flesh
tones, black, some browns, vermilion, ochre,
sienna, probably a red lake and white, with a very
small area for mixing. The most remarkable feature
is here the huge pile of white that takes an unprec-
edented prominence and reflects the importance
white had gradually taken in modelling volumes in
Northern Renaissance painting technique in the
beginning of the sixteenth century.31 Anguissola’s
palette is yet another variation displaying four large
dots of colour (a greyish tinge on the far-left side,
then black, brown and vermilion) arranged on a
top row and a long uninterrupted colour gradient
ranging from black to white, with a reddish (flesh)
pink in the middle. With this palette, the painter
demonstrates her full knowledge of Leon Battista
Alberti’s concepts of colour and modelling, accord-
ing to whom: ‘[...] white and black [are] the two
extremes of colour’ (De pictura).32 As a young pain-
teress eager to make a name for herself, it would
have been a good strategy to broadcast an image
emphasizing her theoretical understanding of
painting.
The second half of the sixteenth century sees
another development in the palette’s evolution
with the appearance of the oval shape, slightly
larger and more ergonomic, this time clearly
allowing room for mixtures directly on the palette.
This kind of palette is visible in Isaac Claesz. van
Swanenburg’s Self-portrait (Leiden, Museum De
Lakenhal, inv. S 1738, 1568) (ill. 23.6) or Frans
Floris de Vriendt’s Saint Luke Painting the Virgin
(Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kun-
sten Antwerpen, inv. 114, 1556) and it illustrates
yet another shift in technique, towards a quicker
and more spontaneous approach of the painting
process. And indeed, the speed and efficiency of
the painter are qualities abundantly discussed in
Italian art theory. The Dialogo di pittura by Paolo
Pino (1534-1565) for instance introduces the
notion of prontezza, a subtle combination of a
steady hand with a prompt gesture.33 Prontezza is a
painterly interpretation of Baldassare Castiglione’s
famous sprezzatura, an effortless and graceful
 palettes as indicators of technique and style in northern self-portraits
Ill. 23.6. Isaac Claesz. van Swanenburg, Self-portrait, 1568,
oil on panel, 94 x 72 cm, Leiden, Museum De Lakenhal
nonchalance any gentleman should adopt, as if
everything was accomplished without having to
think about it.34 And effectively, Frans Floris was
admired for his swift brushwork, i.a. by Karel Van
Mander, who praises him in his Schilderboeck
(1604) for having completed seven large figures
each day, in only seven hours of work, and that dur-
ing a period of five weeks, for the Entry of Charles
V in Antwerp.35 His rapid painting technique is
certainly observable in most of his works such as
the Fall of Rebel Angels (Antwerp, Koninklijk
Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, inv.
112, 1554) where the coloured areas leave the
brownish semi-transparent imprimatura under-
neath clearly visible. In another version of Saint
Luke Painting the Virgin (Ghent, Cathedral Saint
Bavo, c. 1550), where he most probably gave his
features to the saint, Floris shows the painter work-
ing over the imprimatura, sketching a broad under-
painting that could be the dead colouring stage.36
309
His palette displays large smudges of brown, black,
white and red, which are the colours of flesh paint-
ing but also those often found in dead colour under-
paintings. It is as though he used the palette to
illustrate aspects of his technique he was celebrated
for and that he deemed worth advertising.
When applying an imprimatura, painting the
dead colours or more generally working with a more
transparent paint, extra oil and/or a thinner may be
added during the painting process, not only during
the tempering of pigments. In the second half of the
sixteenth century, this technical feature makes its
appearance in portraits of artists at work with
the explicit depiction of a small jar containing a
yellowish liquid, placed directly on the easel. Such
a container is ostensibly depicted in Floris’ Saint
Luke from Saint Bavo Cathedral, Anthonis Mor’s
Self-portrait (Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, inv.
1637, 1558) and Maerten de Vos’ Saint Luke Paint-
ing the Virgin (Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum
voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, inv. 88, 1602)
(ill. 23.7) whereas in older images, references to oil
(or binder, or painting medium in general) – if
depicted – were kept to the background, among
Luke’s medical paraphernalia. It is worthwhile
noticing that the introduction of oil jars in these
compositions accompanies that of round-shaped
palettes. An interesting hypothesis to consider
is that the development of a quicker and more
spontaneous painting technique – responding both
to the increase of market production and to the
spreading Italian fashion of working with prontezza
– lead to the modification of the palette’s shape and
size in order to accommodate an evolving painting
process. Furthermore, this freer, quicker technique
also seems to have provoked a change in the shape
and size of brushes: as Lehmann remarked, in
Domenicus Lampsonius’ Pictorum aliquot celebrium
Germaniae inferioris effigies (1572), Jan Wierix shows
Frans Floris holding a thick ‘fish brush’ or vispenseel
that would – in Karel van Mander’s words – ‘set
down naked flesh with a swaying movement’. Indeed,
the painting process is gathering momentum and
the tools of the trade adapt to the new styles.37
310 céline talon

Ill. 23.7. Maerten de Vos, Saint Luke Painting the Virgin, 1602, oil on panel, 270 x 217 cm,
Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten
 palettes as indicators of technique and style in northern self-portraits
NOTES
1 Van De Wetering 1993; Van De Wetering 1995.
2 Van De Wetering 1995, pp. 196-199.
3 Because of the highly individualized features of nearly all
Saint Lukes’ faces in easel painting compositions, it has long been
accepted that these are often embedded (self-?)portraits. See i.a.:
Purtle 1998.
4 See: Howard 2006.
5 Broecke 2015, pp. 187-188 (chapter 157).
6 Broecke 2015, pp. 187-188 (chapter 157). In chapter 93,
Cennini describes a similar technique in three shades, this time for oil
painting. See: Broecke 2015, p. 129. A similar recipe can be found in
the De coloribus diversis modis tractator or Alcherius Manuscript, recipe
294: ‘if you do not want this colour for immediate use, but wish to keep it,
you must not add any egg or gum water to it when you grind it under stone,
but only mix it with pure and clean water ; […] And when you wish to use
it, take some of it and temper it in a shell or a horn, with white of egg not
mixed with water, or even with the said gum water […]’ (Merrifield 1849,
pp. 272-273).
7 For a detailed description of the film-forming process of egg
tempera versus oil medium, see: Peggie 2014.
8 Broecke 2015, pp. 187-188 (chapter 157).
9 See: Marcia Painting her Self-portrait, in Giovanni Boccaccio,
De claris mulieribus, French translation, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de
France (BnF), fr. 598, fol. 100v (1403); Follower of Dirk Bouts, Saint
Luke, Gwynedd, Penrhyn Castle, inv. 1420363 (c. 1440-1475); Hugo
van der Goes, Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin, Lisbon, Museu Nacional de
Arte Antigua, inv. 1459 Pint (c. 1470-1480); Colijn de Coter, Saint
Luke Painting the Virgin, Vieure, Church (c. 1500); Circle of Quinten
Metsys, Saint Luke Painting the Virgin, London, National Gallery, NG
3902 (c. 1520); Simon Bening, Self-portrait, New York, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, acc. nr. 1975.1.2487 (1558); Frans Floris de Vriendt,
Saint Luke Painting the Virgin, Ghent, Sint Baafskathedraal (c. 1560);
Theodore Galle after Johannes Stradanus, Color Olivi, San Francisco,
Fine Arts Museum, inv. 1966.80.73 (etching, c. 1580); Adriaen
Thomasz. Key, Portrait of an Artist, Private collection (c. 1593).
10 See: Marcia Painting, in Giovanni Boccaccio, Des cleres et
nobles femmes, Paris, BnF, fr. 12420, fol. 101v; or Saint Luke Painting, in
the Hours of Philip the Good, The Hague, KB, ms. 76 F 2, fol. 255r.
11 Neven 2016, pp. 122-123 (recipe 68).
12 See Theophilus’s quote on oil in: Theophilus 1979, pp. 27-28;
for the identification of oil in glazes in thirteenth-century Norwegian
altarpieces, see: Plahter et al. 2004, 2, p. 163.
13 A ‘partial glazing’ is for example observed on the Melchior
Broederlam’s painted wings for the Crucifixion Altarpiece by Jacques de
Baerze, c. 1399, Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. CA 1420 A. See:
Dunkerton et al. 1991, pp. 193-194.
14 See, for example, the important variations of paint handling
in several Netherlandish paintings observed by Nash. See especially:
Nash 2011, pp. 250-256, nr. 19; Nash 2016, pp. 250-291, nrs. 19-20.
15 See i.a. the recommendation to dry doors painted with oil
paint in the sun, in the Diversis Artibus by Theophilus (chapter XX).
See: Theophilus 1979, pp. 27-28. The same advice is repeated in the
Montpellier Manuscript. See: Clarke 2011, p. 140 (recipe §2.9.1C).
16 Pichon 1846, 2, p. 173.
17 On the definition of ‘palette’, see: De Bovelles 1533, p. 72
(see: Schmitt 1976, p. 146); Littré 1873-1877, 3, p. 911. See also:
Dictionnaire 1762, 2, p. 284: ‘PALETTE. s.f. Instrument de bois plat qui
a un manche, & avec lequel les enfans jouent au volant. Une palette pour
jouer au volant’.
18 See also i.a.: Master of the Cleres Femmes of the Duke of
Berry, Yrenes Painting, in Giovanni Boccaccio, De claris mulieribus,
French translation, Paris, BnF, fr. 598, fol. 92 (1403); Saint Luke Painting
the Virgin, in the Malet-Lannoy Hours, Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery,
W. 28, fol. 17r (c. 1420-1440).
311
19 In the Yrenes (Paris, Bnf, fr. 598, fol. 92) and the contempo-
rary Marcia (Paris, BnF, fr. 12420, fol. 101v) as well as in a woodcut
from the circle of Michael Wolgemut (1434-1519) showing Zeuxis and
Parrhasius, dated 1493 (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. RP-P-2016-49-
18-21), the palette has a distinctive pointed edge that would have been
quite bulky and cumbersome for a painter.
20 Personal translation from modern German. The Old German
text reads: ‘Item all die niet safft haben lassen sich vinder öl an reiben vnd
solt sÿ all besunder reiben zw dem malen vnd auf der schin tafel sol man sÿ
erst mischen dÿ öl farb mach dinner mit mer ols’ (fol. 107v, recipe 259).
See: Bartl et al. 2005, pp. 184-185.
21 Spaak 1922, p. 16.
22 Recueil de recettes et secrets concernant l’art du mouleur, de
l’artificier et du peintre (Toulouse Manuscript), Paris, BnF, fr. 640, fol. 56v
(c. 1580). The original text reads: ‘Pour palettes a paindre Lyvoire est
excellent Les nœuds de sapin Le poirier & si cest noyer prends garde que le
fil du boys viene de long’. See: www.edition640.makingandknowing.
org/#/folios/56v/f/56v/tl (last consulted on 09/06/2021).
23 For a detailed study on Catharina Van Hemessen’s Self-
Portrait, see: Talon 2019.
24 The practice of shading one colour with another to obtain a
deeper shadow has been identified in several fifteenth-century Nether-
landish paintings: a.o. red lake glaze to shade the fold of a blue drapery
in Robert Campin’s Virgin and Child before a Firescreen (London,
National Gallery, NG 2609) and Portrait of a Woman (c.1435) (Lon-
don, National Gallery, inv. NG 653.2); ultramarine in the red lake
glaze of a red/crimson drapery in Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait (1438)
(London, National Gallery, NG 186), Portrait of a Man (1433) (Lon-
don, National Gallery, NG 222). See: Bomford et al. 1994, pp. 30, 33;
Billinge et al. 1997, p. 38.
25 See: Lehmann 2008. The Latin membrana is found i.a. in:
Theophilus 1979, pp. 14-16 (book I, chapter 1); Clarke 2011, pp. 120-
122 (Montpellier Manuscript, §1.27.23, 1.27.27, 1.27.39, 1.28.3). It is
itself composed of a mixture of pigment such as lead white, lead yellow
(also known as massicot or litharge) and vermilion.
26 Merrifield 1849, p. 315.
27 Spaak 1922, p. 16.
28 Vasari 2008, p. 300: ‘[C]h’e’ fu cagione che molti di quegli che
erano allora eccellenti confessassino lui esser nato per metter lo spirito ne le
figure e per contraffar la freschezza de la carne viva più che nessuno che
dipignesse’ (edition of 1550).
29 Vasari mentions her in his 1568 edition, alongside other
women artist such as Clara Skeysers of Ghent (de Keysere, c.1470-
1545) and Susanna Horenbout (c.1503- before 1554), all renowned for
their work as miniaturists - the only genre then considered fitting for
women.
30 Further reading on this Self-portrait in: Braunschweig 2006.
31 The growing importance of white in Northern Renaissance
painting modelling technique was the result of a simplification of the
traditional Eyckian technique in order to accelerate the work speed
by reducing glazing in favor of a more direct, wet-in-wet modeling.
The transition was i.a. studied by: Périer-D’Ieteren 1985. See also:
Dunkerton et al. 1999, p. 237.
32 Sinisgalli 2011, p. 49.
33 See: Bouvrande 2016, esp. pp. 135-137.
34 ‘[…] fuggir quanto più si po, e come un asperissimo e pericoloso
scoglio, la affettazione, […] usar in ogni cos auna certa sprezzatura, che
nasconda l’arte e dimostri cio che si fa e dice venir fatta senza fatica e quasi
senza pensarvi’ (Baldassare Castiglione, Il libro del Cortegiano, Book I,
xxvi).
35 Van Mander 2002, 1, p. 225.
36 Dead colouring or doodverf refers to an early stage of painting
in which the figures and the composition are sketched out for the first
time using pale colours reminding one of the flesh colour of a corpse.
See: Van Hout 2008.
37 Lehmann 2008.
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 Contributors
Marya Albrecht graduated from the postgraduate programme in Con-
servation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage at the University of
Amsterdam in 2014, after receiving a master’s degree in Paintings
Conservation from the same university in 2012. During her postgraduate
studies she has interned at the Mauritshuis (The Hague), the Museo
Nacional del Prado (Madrid), and at the Stichting Restauratie Atelier
Limburg (Maastricht), where she carried out and published on the
structural treatment of two fifteenth-century Spanish panel paintings.
Since graduating she has worked at the Mauritshuis and as a freelance
painting conservator in The Hague.
Björn Blauensteiner studied Law and Art History in Vienna, Utrecht,
Berlin and Frankfurt/Main. From 2010 to 2015 he was research assis-
tant and curator at the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches
Museum in Vienna. Since 2016, he is curator of the Middle Ages and
Renaissance Collection at the Belvedere in Vienna, where he curated
the special exhibitions Rueland Frueauf the Elder and his Circle (2017)
and The Age of Dürer. Austria at the Gate of the Renaissance (2021).
His research focus is on European painting and sculpture of the late
medieval and early modern period.
Jan Bustin has worked as an independent lecturer in (technical) art
history, drawing and painting since 1988. He graduated with a BA in
Monumental design, painting and graphics and a BA in Art History
and Education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Maastricht. He special-
ised in reconstruction research on historical drawing- and painting
techniques, craftmanship and workshop practices, mainly on painting
methods from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth century, with
an emphasis on Van Eyck and the Flemish Primitives. As a guest lec-
turer, he taught at the universities of Oslo, Nijmegen and Amsterdam,
several museums and the Davidsfonds in Flanders.
Pedro Campos is a specialist in the imaging and analysis of Cultural
Heritage materials. He holds a BA in Physics from the University of
Campinas and MA and Ph. Diss. in Physics from the University of
Sao Paulo. He has been working in research on Heritage Science since
2005. He has participated in study projects for Brazilian museums’ col-
lections and developed new analytical techniques for Cultural Heritage.
He was a Laboratory Manager in the Department of Conservation and
Built Heritage at the University of Malta.
António Candeias is a Chemist specialized in Surface Chemistry and
Heritage Science. Professor at the University of Évora since 1992,
he was director of the HERCULES Laboratory from its creation in
January 2009 until February 2019. He is currently Director of the Insti-
tute for Research and Advanced Training of the University of Évora,
Director of the national infrastructure ERIHS.pt (Portuguese platform
of the European Infrastructure in Heritage Sciences) and Chairperson
of the CityUMacau Chair in “Sustainable Heritage”.
António João Cruz has a Ph. Diss. in Analytical Chemistry from the
University of Lisbon (1993). Between 1992 and 1997 he collaborated
with the Portuguese Institute of Conservation and Restoration. Since
1995 he has been teaching in several undergraduate, master and
doctoral courses on Conservation and Restoration or related areas.
Currently, he is Assistant Professor at Polytechnic Institute of Tomar
and director of the Master Course in Conservation and Restoration.
He was the founder of the journal Conservar Património (indexed in
Scopus and Web of Science) and its editor-in-chief from 2005 to 2019.
Member of the HERCULES Laboratory.
Christina Currie is Head of Documentation and Scientific Imagery at
the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) in Brussels, spe-
cializing in the technical examination of paintings. Her main field of
research is the Bruegel family, notably Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the
copies by Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder.
She has also published studies on paintings by Melchior Broederlam,
Jan van Eyck, Herri met de Bles, Tintoretto, Marten de Vos, Artemisia
Gentileschi, Thomas Eakins, and the Spanish Forger (for publications
and talks, see: www.orfeo.kbr.be).
John K. Delaney is Senior Imaging Scientist in the scientific research
department of the conservation division of the National Gallery of
Art, Washington (D.C.). He received his BS from the Worcester Poly-
technic Institute and his Ph. Diss. from the Rockefeller University.
His research focuses on the adaptation of remote sensing sensors and
processing methods for the study of paintings and works on paper.
Together with his colleagues, he has optimized hyperspectral visible
and infrared imaging cameras and image processing to visualize the
distribution of pigments and sub-surface paint layers.
After obtaining a BA in Art History at the Radboud University
(Nijmegen), Kirsten Derks pursued a MA in Technical Art History
(University of Amsterdam). During her master’s program, she interned
at several institutions and museums, such as the Mauritshuis, the
Royal Museum of Fine Arts (Antwerp) and the National Gallery of
Art in Washington (D.C.). Kirsten graduated in 2017. Her MA-thesis
on discolouration in the paintings of Joachim Beuckelaer was rewarded
the Rijksmuseum Migelien Gerritzen thesis award. She is currently
working on a Ph. Diss. project at the KU Leuven and the University
of Antwerp. This project focuses on the materials and techniques of
Brussels baroque artists, such as Michael Sweerts and Michaelina
Wautier.
Kathryn A. Dooley is a Research Scientist at the National Gallery of
Art, Washington (D.C.)., where she uses imaging spectroscopies based
on reflectance, fluorescence and X-ray fluorescence to investigate
works of art. She obtained her BS in Chemistry from Kansas State
University and her Ph. Diss. in Analytical Chemistry from the Uni-
versity of Michigan. Earlier she completed a post-doctoral fellowship
at the NGA, where a focus of her research was the identification and
mapping of organic binding media in works of art.
Elsa Espin is specialized on cultural exchanges between Northern and
Southern Europe, more particularly in the Iberian Peninsula. In 2019,
she created the academic blog Espagnes Médiévales, monthly review
dedicated to History and Culture of the Iberian Peninsula and her
Crowns. She obtained her Ph. Diss. in Medieval Art History at
Sorbonne Université and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
She cooperates to the investigation project La condición del artista en
334 contributors
Cataluña y Baleares durante los siglos XV al XVIII. Since October 2021,
she is Assistante de Conservation of Iberian paintings in the Louvre
Museum in Paris.
Over the years, Michela Fasce has been specialising in research relating
to pictorial techniques. Degree in Conservation of Cultural Heritage;
MA in History of Art; MA in Conservation Science; and Postgraduate
degree in the History of Art in Genoa. She works as a restorer.
Valter Felix holds a Chemistry BA from the Fluminense Federal Uni-
versity, a MA in Chemistry from the State University of Rio de
Janeiro, and a Ph. Diss. in Nuclear Engineering from the Federal Uni-
versity of Rio de Janeiro. He is a researcher at the Applied Scientific
Instrumentation and Computational Simulation Laboratory and an
exclusive professor at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and
Technology of Rio de Janeiro. He has experience in Nuclear Engineer-
ing, emphasising X-rays, Raman spectroscopy and FTIR applications,
in studying ceramic artefacts and paintings.
Ciprian Firea is a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Art
History of the Romanian Academy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He is
interested in medieval and early modern art and architecture; art and
liturgy; patronage; heraldry; memoria; altarpieces; scientific investiga-
tion of artworks. In 2016 he published his Ph. Diss. (Transylvanian
Medieval Altarpieces: Art, Liturgy, and Patronage).
Renato Freitas graduated in Physics from the State University of Rio
de Janeiro and Ph. Diss. in Nuclear Engineering from the Federal Uni-
versity of Rio de Janeiro. Renato is currently a professor of Physics
at the Federal Institute of Rio de Janeiro. He has expertise in X-Ray
Fluorescence, Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-Ray Diffraction,
Infrared and Raman Spectroscopy applied to cultural heritage. He per-
formed a fellowship at the Mobile Laboratory applied to the Cultural
Heritage of the Institute of Molecular Sciences and Technologies of
Italy, working on projects consisting of analysing artworks in situ using
by Macro X-ray fluorescence scanning technique.
Mareike Gerken is Applications Scientist for XRF in Heritage Science
at Bruker Nano Analytics. From 2019-2022 she has been a doctoral
candidate in the Department for Art-Technology and Conservation of
Paintings and Modern Sculpture at the Städel Museum Frankfurt,
working in an interdisciplinary project on micro XRF scanning. Dur-
ing her Ph. Diss., she conducted research on non-invasive analysis and
visualisation of non-carbon-black underdrawing materials in four-
teenth to seventeenth century European paintings. From 2014-2019
she studied conservation of paintings and polychrome sculptures at the
State Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart. During her studies she
worked in projects in Lebanon, Ireland and in various museums and
freelancer’s studios in Germany.
Stefania Girometti is Assistant Curator at the Department of Prints
and Drawings, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, where she is prepar-
ing the catalogue and the upcoming exhibition of seventeenth-century
Italian drawings (2024). Her research is funded by the Gabriele Busch-
Hauck Stiftung and the Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max-Planck-Institute
for Art History. Prior to this, she was Curatorial Fellow at the Staat-
liche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. In her Ph. Diss., she focused on
Michele Desubleo’s career as immigrant painter between Rome,
Bologna and Venice, investigating his works, the relations between
his hybrid style and the damnatio memoriae he experienced after his
death.
Sofia Hennen studied Art History at the Free University of Brussels
(ULB) and Conservation-Restoration of Easel Paintings at ENSAV La
Cambre, Brussels. She did diverse internships in cultural institutions
like the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC), The Prado
Museum, and the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA),
among others. From 2018 to 2021, she was the Head Conservator of
the Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), where she organised national
and international interdisciplinary projects and partnerships. Since
2022, she has worked in Belgium as a freelance conservator and con-
tinues collaborating with MASP as an Associate Conservator.
Koen Janssens is full professor of general and analytical chemistry at
the University of Antwerp in Belgium. He received his Ph. Diss. in
1989 on a thesis dealing with the use of Artificial Intelligence techniques
for automated treatment of X-ray analysis data. Since then, he has been
actively making use of strongly focused X-ray micro- and nano-beams,
for non-destructive material analysis. Janssens is (co)author of c. 300
scientific papers and has served as (co)editor of four scientific books,
dealing with non-destructive analysis in the cultural heritage area.
From 2015-2021 he was vice-dean of the Faculty of Science of the
University of Antwerp. In 2016, he was appointed ‘Senior Scientist’
(hon.) at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Elizabeth Kajiya is a specialist in imaging analysis for cultural heri-
tage. She holds a BA in Visual Communication from the Faculty of
Fine Arts of Sao Paulo. She specialises in artworks conservation (easel
paintings and polychrome sculptures) from the Instituto Paulista de
Restauro. She has contributed to developing imaging research using
non-destructive multispectral imaging techniques in collaboration
with several museums of Sao Paulo, at the Institute of Physics of the
University of Sao Paulo. She has been working on multispectral analysis
and X-Ray Fluorescence at the Sao Paulo Museum of Art.
Stephan Kemperdick studied Fine Arts at the Kunstakademie Düssel-
dorf (1983-1987), and Art History at the Free University Berlin.
Graduated in 1992; Ph. Diss. 1996. 1999-2002: Assistant Curator at
the Städel Museum, Frankfurt; 2003-2004: Researcher at the Gemälde-
galerie Berlin. 2005-2007: Curator of Old Masters, Kunstmuseum Basel.
Since 2008: Curator of Northern paintings before 1600, Gemäldegalerie,
Berlin. Curator and co-curator of several exhibitions, e.g. Hans Hol-
bein (Basel, 2006); The Master of Flémalle and Rogier van der Weyden
(Frankfurt/Berlin, 2008-2009); The Road to Van Eyck (Rotterdam,
2012-2013); The History of the Ghent Altarpiece (Berlin, 2014);
Holbein in Berlin (Berlin, 2016); Jean Fouquet, The Diptych of Melun
(Berlin, 2017); Hugo van der Goes (Berlin, 2023).
Joyce Klein Koerkamp completed a BA in Art History (2015) at the
Radboud University Nijmegen and a MA in Art History with a spe-
cialization in curatorial studies (2017) at the University of Groningen.
As part of her MA, she was an intern at the Musea Brugge assisting in
the preparation for the exhibition Pieter Pourbus and the Forgotten Mas-
ters. She subsequently was the Slifka Foundation Interdisciplinary Fel-
low at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York conducting
research on the Northern Renaissance paintings in the collection. She
is currently working at Musea Brugge as Expert Technical Imaging.
Sara Mateu is a freelance paintings conservator based in Brussels.
She holds a MA in Conservation of Easel Paintings with specialization
in structural conservation of panel paintings, as well as a degree in Art
History with specialization in Technical Art History of the Middle
Ages. She is part of the Panel Paintings Initiative and the Jordaens-
Van Dyck Panel Painting Project. She has worked as a conservator for
the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Kunsthistoriches Museum in
Wien, the Hamilton Kerr Institute and the Fine Art Museum of Ant-
werp until she opened her private conservation studio with a national
and international clientele of public and private collections.
Helena Pinheiro de Melo is conservator-restorer of easel paintings
(Escola Superior de Conservação e Restauro, Lisbon, 1989-1994), with
an internship at the Royal Institute of Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA),
Brussels (1994-1995) and a Ph. Diss. in Painting Conservation from
the Catholic University of Portugal (2008-2012). She worked as a pri-
 contributors
vate conservator (1997-2008) and regularly collaborated with the
Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève (2008-2014). Currently, she is a
researcher at the HERCULES Laboratory of the University of Évora,
dedicated to the material and technical study of Mannerist altarpieces
(1550-1620) in the Alentejo Region.
Sabrina Meloni is a paintings conservator working at the Mauritshuis
(The Hague) since 2002. She has a MA in Art History from Leiden
University. This was followed by a 5-years post-graduate program in
Conservation of Paintings and Painted objects at SRAL (Limburg
Conservation Institute) in Maastricht (Netherlands). After intern-
ships in the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum and the Maurits-
huis, she started working at The Mauritshuis in 2002. The focus of her
work is conservation and technical research of seventeenth-century
Dutch master paintings. She has published articles on Frans Hals, Jan
Steen and other Dutch genre painters.
André Pimenta is currently a Professor at the Federal Institute of Educa-
tion, Science and Technology of Rio de Janeiro, where he is the head of
the industrial mechanics’ technical course. Pimenta received his under-
graduate degree, MA and Ph. Diss. in Mechanical Engineering from the
State University of Rio de Janeiro. He is a member of the Brazilian
Physical Society and has experience in optical microscopy, scanning
electron microscopy, and X-ray fluorescence. He also works on projects
related to the conservation of cultural heritage and forensic science.
Almut Pollmer-Schmidt is Curator of postmedieval paintings, sculp-
tures and ceremonial sleighs at the Wurttemberg State Museum in
Stuttgart. Having gained her Ph. Diss. at Leiden University on a Dutch
seventeenth-century subject, she worked at the Städel Museum’s
department of Old Masters from 2010 to 2021. Among other duties,
she there co-curated an exhibition on Albrecht Dürer (2013-2014)
and managed a project dedicated to the museum’s history of collecting
and display in the nineteenth century. She is the main author of the
two volume scholarly catalogue of German paintings in the Städel
Museum, 1550-1725, published in 2021.
Carol Pottasch is Senior Paintings Conservator at the Royal Picture
Gallery Mauritshuis (The Hague, Netherlands). She obtained an MA
in Art History from the University of Groningen. She interned at the
Hamilton Kerr Institute. After working as a conservator at the Frans
Hals Museum in Haarlem she joined the Mauritshuis. Here she spe-
cialized in conservation and technical research of late Rembrandt
paintings, and other artists of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth
century, besides working on and studying several early paintings in the
collection.
Márcia Rizzutto has a Ph. Diss. in Physics and is a professor at the
Department of Nuclear Physics at the University of Sao Paulo. She works
in the Cultural Heritage area, mainly using physical and chemical
methods to study and characterise Cultural Heritage objects. She uses
particle accelerators and portable equipment to study cultural objects
in partnership with Sao Paulo Museums. She is the coordinator of the
Research Group on Physics Applied to the Study of Objects of Artistic
and Historical Heritage at the University of Sao Paulo. She is also the
coordinator of the Laboratory of Archeometry and Sciences Applied
to Cultural Heritage.
Claudio Seccaroni is Chemical Engineer and works at ENEA (Italian
National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable
Economic Development). For thirty years he has been working on the
diagnostics of artworks and on the characterisation of material and
painting techniques. He frequently collaborates with the Istituto
Centrale per il Restauro (ICR) in Rome and the Opificio delle Pietre
Dure (OPD) in Florence. He is the author of several publications on
pigments and painting techniques from the Middle Ages to the nine-
teenth century.
335
Cristina Serendan is a painting restorer and lecturer at the Depart-
ment for Conservation and Restoration of National University of Arts
in Bucharest, Romania. Her main research interest is technical art
history, with a special focus on panel paintings and gilding techniques.
Marcia Steele worked in the conservation department of the Cleve-
land Museum of Art from 1987-2020. After graduating with Honors
from Wellesley College, her conservation career began with an
apprenticeship training at a private studio in New York City. In 1985,
she began her museum career as an Assistant Painting Conservator at
the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. In Cleveland, she most
recently served as Senior Conservator of Paintings. Her treatment,
publications and research have focused on artists from all eras, including
Poussin, Picasso, Vincent van Gogh and Salvador Dali to name a few.
Most recently, her lengthy work and research on Gentileschi’s Danaë
painting from the early 1620s was the genesis for a focus exhibition at
the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2021.
Céline Talon has a MA in Painting Conservation (ENSAV. La Cam-
bre, Brussels) and a MA in Art History (Université Libre de Bruxelles).
She specialized in the conservation of Old Masters and in the study
of Late Medieval to Early Modern Northern painting. She works as a
private conservator, art history lecturer and is a 3rd-year Ph. Diss. can-
didate in ULB-UGent.
Sara Valadas has a Ph. Diss. in Chemistry from Évora University, in
the area of Chemistry applied to Cultural Heritage (2016). Since 2010,
she has been a scientific researcher at the HERCULES Laboratory,
participating in several projects, such as the study of the Funchal
cathedral, the Old Goa Revelations Project, the SCREAM Project for
the study of Edvard Munch’s drawings and the E-RIHS.pt infrastructure
project.
Geert Van der Snickt received his MA in Conservation-restoration
in 2003 at the University of Antwerp. Shortly after, he affiliated with
the Department of Chemistry of the same institute. In 2012, he suc-
cessfully defended a Ph. Diss. entitled: James Ensor’s Pigments Studied
by Means of portable and synchrotron radiation-based analysis: identifica-
tion, evolution and degradation guided by professor Koen Janssens, head
of the Antwerp X-ray analysis, Electrochemistry and Speciation
(AXES) group. From 2014 to 2018 he held a Chair on Chemical Imaging
for the Arts within the same group. In 2019, he returned to the Con-
servation-Restoration department by accepting a position as tenure
track professor.
Katlijne Van der Stighelen studied at the Katholieke Universiteit
Leuven (KU Leuven). In 1984, she became a Junior Research Fellow
at the Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (National
Fund for Scientific Research-NFWO) in order to write a Ph. Diss. on
the portraits of the Antwerp painter Cornelis de Vos. In 1995 she
became an Associate Professor at KU Leuven where she was appointed
Full Professor in 2007. Meanwhile she published widely on Flemish art
in general and Flemish portraiture in particular. In 2018 she curated an
exhibition on Michaelina Wautier in the MAS Museum in Antwerp.
Recently she completed volume XIX.3. of the Corpus Rubenianum Lud-
wig Burchard on Rubens’s Unidentified Portraits.
Abbie Vandivere has worked as a painting conservator at the Maurits-
huis (The Hague) since 2015. She graduated with a BA from Prince-
ton University (USA, 2001) and a Pg. Dip. Cons. from the Courtauld
Institute of Art (UK, 2005). She received her Ph. Diss. in 2013 from
the University of Amsterdam, within the Impact of Oil project. Her
dissertation was entitled From the Ground Up: Surface and sub-surface
effects in 15th- and 16th-century Netherlandish paintings. In 2018, Abbie was
the head researcher of the project The Girl in the Spotlight to examine the
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer.
336 contributors
Charlene Vella is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Art and Art
History at the University of Malta. She obtained her Undergraduate
degree and MA in Art History from the University of Malta and has
obtained her Ph. Diss. in Art History from the University of Warwick
in 2016 where she was awarded a full scholarship under the Chancel-
lor’s International Scholarship. Vella leads several research projects
that include the diagnostic testing, conservation and restoration inter-
ventions on Renaissance art works in Malta.
Christiane Weber (nee Haeseler), conservator for paintings and wooden
sculptures, works for the State Office for Monument Preservation
Hesse / Department of Building and Art Monument Preservation.
There, she focusses on the investigation and restoration of medieval
retables, the scientific evaluation of new test results and sample analy-
ses as well as the comparative evaluation of test reports. For many years
she worked freelance for the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, where she
carried out major restorations. In addition, she was involved in cata-
logue projects focussing on Dutch, Flemish and, recently, German
paintings in the Städel and, between 2014 and 2018, on medieval
paintings in the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt.
Lisa Wiersma researched theory and practice behind material depic-
tion for her dissertation Recipes and Realities, Willem Beurs’s The big
world painted small (1692) and material depiction in Dutch painting in the
2nd half of the 17th century (Utrecht University, 2023). The research
comprised studying sources and literature, testing old paint recipes,
reconstructing old masters’ paintings and, with a colleague at Delft
University of Technology, aiming to understand why seventeenth-cen-
tury material depiction is visually convincing. Within the scope of this
project, Beurs’ treatise was translated, contextualized and annotated.
Its publication is in preparation.
Sarah Yeomans Gafà obtained her BA in Conservation and Restora-
tion with a specialisation in Paintings from the University of Malta,
and later her MA in International Heritage Management from the
University of Birmingham. For the past sixteen years, she has been
very much involved in the conservation, preservation and research of
local and international cultural heritage. She is currently working as a
Heritage Researcher with Heritage Malta on the project of the Malta
Maritime Museum.
Markha Youchaeva obtained a BA and MA in Conservation-Restora-
tion at the University of Antwerp. During her studies, she interned
at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp and International
Platform for Art Research and Conservation (IPARC) in Leuven.
Markha graduated in 2023. Her Master’s thesis, titled Reconstructies als
onderzoeksmethodologie voor kunsthistorisch onderzoek, focused on the
use of (paint) reconstructions for art historical research purposes.
Joanna Zwinczak is an adjunct paintings conservator in the National
Museum in Krakow (2017-2023). She completed internships in the
KMSKA (Antwerp), Victoria & Albert Museum (London) and the
Wawel Castle (Krakow). She graduated from the Academy of Fine
Arts in Krakow (Conservation and restoration of paintings MA),
Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Art History - MA, New analytical
techniques for the conservation of works of art - postgraduate). Research:
Retouching of the paint layer. Physical and chemical changes of retouching
materials used in conservation ateliers in the MNK and Conservation and
technological research of the remaining wings of the polyptych from Lusina
(participation).
 Photo Credits
Unless otherwise specified, illustrations have been provided by the
owners of the works of art or by the authors of the different contribu-
tions. Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of
illustrations. Any copyright holders whom we have been unable to
reach or to whom inaccurate acknowledgment has been made are
invited to contact the publisher.
Aachen, Cathedral (Wikipedia): ill. 5.2b
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum: ills. 21.8, 22.1
Antwerp, AXIS, X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Laboratory: ill. 5.4b-c
Antwerp, Collection KMSKA - Flemish Community (public domain),
Hugo Maertens: ill. 23.7
Art in Flanders, Musea Brugge, Hugo Maertens, public domain: ills. 5.1,
5.2a, 5.3, 5.4a, 7.2, 7.6
Baltimore, Walters Art Museum: ill. 23.3
Barcelona, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya: ills. 10.3a, 10.4a,
10.5a, 10.6a, 10.7b
Bartolo, Andrea Luca: ill. 8.2
Basel, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung: ill. 23.5
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie: ills. 2.6c-f, 2.7a-b,
11.9
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Dietmar Gunne:
ills. 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Christoph Schmid:
ills. 1.4, 1.7, 1.9b
Bern, Kunstmuseum: ill. 23.1
Blauensteiner, Björn: ills. 11.3, 11.4, 11.5, 11.6, 11.7, 11.8, 11.10
Borg, Joe P.: ill. 8.3
Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum: ill. 21.7
Brugge, Musea Brugge/Flemish Research Centre for the Arts in the
Burgundian Netherlands, Anne van Oosterwijk and Guenevere Souf-
freau: ills. 7.3, 7.4a, 7.5a, 7.7
Brussels, KIK-IRPA: ills. 19.1a-b, 19.3a, 19.3d, 19.4c-d, 19.5, 19.6,
19.7, 19.8, 19.9, 19.10, 19.11, 19.12, 19.13a, 19.13c-d, 19.14, 19.15a-c,
19.15e-g, 19.16, 19.17
Brussels, KIK-IRPA, Painting Analysis Laboratory (Steven Saverwyns):
ill. 19.4a-b
Brussels, MRBAB: ill. 2.7f
Brussels, MRBAB, Freya Maes: ill. 2.7g
Bustin, Jan: ills. 5.2c, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8
Capron, Emma, London: ill. 1.6
Carbone, Franca: ill. 18.4b
Catania, Assessorato alla Cultura, Charlene Vella: ill. 8.6
Cleveland Museum of Art: ills. 9.1, 9.4, 9.6
Creative Commons, photo by Didier Descouen: ill. 10.8
Derks, Kirsten and Markha Youchaeva: ills. 20.3, 20.4
Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie: ills. 6.8, 9.3,
9.7
Espin, Elsa: ills. 10.1, 10.9
Fasce, Michela: ills. 18.2, 18.3b, 18.5, 18.6, 18.7, 18.8, 18.9b
Firea, Ciprian: ills. 13.1, 13.5, 13.6, 13.7, 13.8
Firea, Ciprian and Cristina Serendan: ills. 13.2, 13.3, 13.4
Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Gabinetto Fotografico: ills. 1.5, 2.7c-e
Frankfurt am Main, Goethe-Universität, Städel-Kooperations-
professur am Kunstgeschichtlichen Institut der Goethe-Universität
and Christiane Weber: ills. 16.2, 16.6
Frankfurt am Main, Goethe-Universität, Städel-Kooperations-
professur am Kunstgeschichtlichen Institut der Goethe-Universität
and Mareike Gerken: ills. 16.3b-d, 16.4b-e
Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum: ills. 16.1, 16.3a, 16.4a
Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum, Christiane Weber: ill. 16.5
Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum, Christiane Weber, Mareike Ger-
ken, Samuel Fickinger: ill. 16.4f
Genoa, Palazzo Spinola: ills. 18.1, 18.3a
Genoa, Palazzo Reale: ill. 18.9a
Genoa, Palazzo Rosso: ill. 18.4a
Hennen, Sofia: ill. 4.2
Krakow, National Museum, P. Gąsior: ill. 12.1
Krakow, National Museum, D. Tarsińska-Petruk: ill. 12.3
Krakow, National Museum, M. Obarzanowski and P. Wilkosz: ills. 12.4,
12.5, 12.6, 12.7, 12.8
Krakow, Jagiellonian University, Fototeka Instytut Historii Sztuki,
photos by I. Krieger, no later than 1900: ill. 12.2
338 photo credits
Leiden, Museum De Lakenhal: ill. 23.6
Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Archivo e Documentação
Fotografíca: ill. 1.12
Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Archivo e Documentação
Fotografíca, Luísa Oliveira: ill. 1.11
London, Christie’s: ill. 19.2b
London, Royal Collection Trust: ills. 19.1c, 19.3c, 21.3a, 21.4a
London, Sotheby’s: ill. 19.2a
Madrid, Museo del Prado: ills. 2.6a-b, 2.8c, 2.8g, 9.2, 9.5, 9.8
Mdina Cathedral Museum, Joe P. Borg: ills. 8.1, 8.4
Melo, Helena P.: ills. 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, 14.8
Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek:
ills. 1.8, 1.9a, 1.10, 2.8b, 2.8e
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: ill. 10.2
Munich, Doerner Institute, Jens Wagner: ill. 2.8i
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art: ills. 4.7b-d, 4.8b, 4.8d-e,
10.6b, 19.2c-d, 19.3b
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jack and Belle Linsky
Collection, Sophie Scully: ill. 7.1
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jack and Belle Linsky
Collection, Evan Read: ills. 7.4b-c, 7.5b-c
New York, Brooklyn Museum: ill. 10.4b
Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum: ill. 23.4
Paris, BnF: ill. 17.2
Paris Musées, Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris:
ills. 10.3b, 10.5b, 10.7a
Paris, Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre),
Tony Querrec: ill. 2.8a
Phoebus Foundation, Dominique Provost: ills. 3.1, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7,
3.8
Phoebus Foundation, Adri Verburg: ill. 3.3
PrevArti: ills. 8.5, 8.7, 8.8
Courtesy of the owner: ills. 17.1, 17.5, 21.5a
Private Collection, Visible radiografia xrf: ill. 17.6
Reims, Bibliothèque Municipale: ill. 23.2
Rio de Janeiro, Federal Institution of Education, Science and Technology
of Rio de Janeiro: ills. 4.3e-l, 6.2e-j
Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts: ill. 17.3
Salomon, Lilian: ill. 21.6a
Salzburg University, Institut für Realienkunde, Peter Böttcher: ills. 11.1,
11.2, 11.11
Sao Paulo, Institute of Physics of the University of Sao Paulo, Pedro
Campos, Elizabeth Kajiya and Márcia Rizzutto: ills. 4.1, 4.3a-d, 4.4,
4.5, 4.6, 4.7a, 4.8a, 4.8c, 6.1, 6.2a-d, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7
Seccaroni, Claudio: ill. 17.4
The Hague, Bredius-Kronig Collection: ill. 21.1c
The Hague, Haags Historisch Museum: ill. 21.2a
The Hague, Mauritshuis: ills. 2.1b, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.8d, 2.8h, 20.1,
20.2c-d, 21.1a-b, 21.2b, 21.3b, 21.4b, 21.5b, 21.6b, 22.3
The Hague, Mauritshuis, Kirsten Derks: ill. 20.2e
The Hague, Mauritshuis, Carol Pottasch: ill. 20.2f
The Hague, Mauritshuis, Margareta Svensson: ills. 2.1a, 20.2a-b, 20.2c (?)
The Hague, Mauritshuis, Conservation Department, Abbie Vandivere:
ill. 20.6c
The Hague, RKD, J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer: ill. 2.8j
Vienna, Belvedere: ill. 11.12
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, www.InsideBruegel.net: ills. 19.1d,
19.13b, 19.15d, 19.15h
Yeomans Gafà, Sarah: ills. 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5, 15.6, 15.7, 15.8
Youchaeva, Markha: ills. 20.5, 20.6a-b
Wiersma, Lisa: ills. 22.2, 22.4
Wiersma, Lisa and Francesca Di Cicco: ills. 22.5, 22.6
 Colophon
Scientific Committee
Till-Holger Borchert (Musea Brugge, Flemish Research Centre for the
Arts in the Burgundian Netherlands); Christina Currie (KIK/IRPA);
Anne Dubois (UCL); Bart Fransen (KIK/IRPA); Vanessa Paumen
(Musea Brugge, Flemish Research Centre for the Arts in the Burgundian
Netherlands); Guenevere Souffreau (Musea Brugge); Jan Van der Stock
(KU Leuven); Anne van Oosterwijk (Musea Brugge, Flemish Research
Centre for the Arts in the Burgundian Netherlands); Dominique
Vanwijnsberghe (KIK/IRPA); Lieve Watteeuw (KU Leuven); Honorary
member: Hélène Verougstraete (Emeritus Professor, UCL)
Organizing Committee
Till-Holger Borchert (Musea Brugge, Flemish Research Centre for the
Arts in the Burgundian Netherlands); Anne Dubois (UCL); Marijn
Everaarts (Musea Brugge); Vanessa Paumen (Musea Brugge, Flemish
Research Centre for the Arts in the Burgundian Netherlands); Ellen
Pollet (Musea Brugge); Guenevere Souffreau (Musea Brugge); Anne
van Oosterwijk (Musea Brugge, Flemish Research Centre for the Arts
in the Burgundian Netherlands)