Paintings in the Laboratory: Scientific Examination for Art History and Conservation Dr
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UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Paintings in the laboratory: scientific examination for art history and conservation dr. Groen, C.M. Publication date 2011 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): dr. Groen, C. M. (2011). Paintings in the laboratory: scientific examination for art history and conservation. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:25 Sep 2021 @ President and Fellows of Harvard College r995 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shop talk : studies in honor of Seymour Slive : Presented on his sevenry-fi fth birthday. p. cm. Editors: Cynthia P. Schneider, Alice I. Davies, and'ST.illiam \7. Robinson. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-91 6724'85-9 (alk. paper) 1. Art. I. Slive, Seymour, 1920- II. Schneider, Cynthia P. \William'W. III. Davies, Alice I., 1943- IV. Robinson, N7 442.2.5597 r995 700--dc20 95-40406 CIP Designer:Julie Applebaum Copy editor: ElizabethK. Allen Producedby H.O. Zimman, Inc., Lynn, Massachusetts ISBN 0-916724-85-9 KARIN GROEN Halcyon Days for Art History ((T It is evenpossible that the patron supplied his own primed examination of the painting, which was published in 1991 in support for his portraits."' This inconspicuous remark in an a specialissue of the Rijksmuseum Bulletin,has prompted the essayby myself and Ella Hendriks in Seymour Slivet exhibition additional remarks made here.' catalogueFrans Hals ( 1989-90) could have useful implications In the Rembrandt rercentenaryyear of 1969, C. Benedict for art history. It was our possible explanation for the untypi- published an X-radiograph of the entire painting (fig. 2) in a cal grounds used in two portraits by Frans Hals: his Man rn Romanian art journal that showed another picture hidden the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and hts Man in a Slouch beneath the present one.a The underlying composition Hatin the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel.We suggest- appearedto representthe same scenewith three figures, but ed that, since the priming on the supports was so different from in different positions. In the RRP's third volume of the n Cor- other painting grounds used by Hals, the sitters themselves pus of Rembrandt Paintings (1989), the (top) painting was might have acquired the primed canvasesfrom somewhere placed in category B: that is, one in which Rembrandt's author- other than Haarlem. Indeed, according to contemporary ship cannot be positively either acceptedor rejected.sThe sup- sources,canvases were not alwaysprimed in painters' studios, posed date of execution of the picture was left vague, in the and, in fact, the practice of preparing supports for painting 1660s.The underlying picture, which was shown in the exam- existedas a separate industry during the seventeenthcentury in ination to be in an advancedstate of execution, was tentative- the Netherlands. ly dated from the X-radiograph to around 1635 and said to be Most grounds found in paintings by FransHals areof a possiblyby Rembrandt'sown hand. This was a surprising state- light pink or ocher color, made with lead white in an oil medi- ment to make about a picture that had been painted out. How- um together with an admixture of small amounts of red, ever,in this case,Van de Wetering basedhis verdict on the head brown, and/or black pigments. The Cambridge and Kassel of the underlying Esther (visible on the X-radiograph), which portraits were painted on a so-calleddouble ground, the lower was of a rype similar to that on four other works by Rembrandt. one being red and the next one gray.Such grounds were used, All four- Bathsheba in the National Gallery of Can ada, for instance,by Rembrandt during the 1630s in Amsterdam, Ottawa; Bellonain the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New and by Bloemaert and Ter Bruggen in Utrecht. \7hile the York; Florain the National Gallery, London; and Sophonisbarn analysisof the application and formulation of ground and the Museo del Prado, Madrid-were painted in the first half of paint layerswill point to a certain painter only in exceptional the 1630s. cases,it can indicate a particular regional school of painting, The presumption of the possibledate of execution and although a primed canvasor panel might have been brought the authenticity of the hidden composition in the Haman from a town other than the one in which the artist lived. beforeEsther (fig. 1) has been reinforced by subsequent -y Comparison ofgrounds has proved useful in the exam- detailed technical examination of the painting, especiallyof ination ofpendant pairs painted by Hals. Not only arethe can- the build-up and formulation of the ground layers.\7hat fol- vaseson which they were painted identical, but the priming is lows here is a brief account of this examination, with an aswell.' Supports for pendants were obviously made by cut- emphasison the necessiryofmaintaining certain standardcon- ting cloth from alarge, single piece of canvasthat was pre- ditions for this rype of investigation. stretchedand primed. Small paint sampleswere taken from the HamAn before Close comparison of grounds has alsoyielded interest- Est/ter,cross-sections ofwhich were then examined under the ing resultsin the caseof a picture attributed to Rembrandt. microscope. These showed that the underlying painting was During the "revolution" in Romania during December of in an advanced state of execution with the figures already in 1992, the painting representing Haman beforeEsther (fig. 1) color. It was sometimes difficult to decide which Iayerbelonged was damaged while it was being rushed to a place of safety. to the first picture andwhich to the second,since parts of the After this incident, it was brought to the Netherlands for first composition were retained in the final picture. Also, the restoration.Another reasonfor bringing the painting to the two compositions were not separatedby a newly applied Netherlands was that extensivescientific investigation could be preparatory Iayer.For thesereasons, it seemedmost useful to undertaken there to determine its authenticity. This was done analyzethe formulation and the build-up of the ground l^y- in the context of the work of the Rembrandt ResearchProject ers,that is, the paint layerslying directly on the canvas,in order (RRP) basedin Amsterdam. The report on the restoration and to try to date the underlying composition more precisely. FIGURES,pp. 315-316 GROEN 89 PAINTINGS IN THE LABORATORY: Scientific Examination for Art History and Conservation 25 The ground consistedof two layers.Judging from their photographed (lighting, magnification, type of film used,and color and formulation, theselayers were very similar to the so forth) are unlikely to be identical to the circumstancesunder preparatory layersused by Rembrandt for pictures in the first which the examination was made. ten yearsof his life in Amsterdam, after he had left Leiden. The For the comparison of the ground layersof Estherbefore double, colored grounds usedby Rembrandt in this period are Hamanwith thoseof other pictures by Rembrandt, paint sam- comprised of a red paint layer with a gray one over it. Red plesfrom the Metropolitan Museum ofArt in NewYorkwere earth, an inexpensivesubstance, was probably usedfor the first available,among them paint cross-sectionsfrom Bellona.These layer since a lot of it was needed to fill the interstices in the sampleshad been taken earlier for the purpose of evaluating canvasweave before painting could begin. The second layer, the technique of neutron activation analysis(autoradiogra- which servedas the ground on which to paint, consistedof the phy) of paintings.6Althou gh Bellonaand Estherbefore Haman much more expensivelead white tinted with a little black, red, both have double grounds (first, orange-red; second, gray), and yellow pigment. the grounds turned out not to be identical when scrutinized By lucky coincidence, the underlying picture can be in the way describedabove. A comparison with the London ^ dated more preciselythan "from around 1635." Over the years, Florawas possibleby consulting the 1988 National Gallery the RRP has examined and analyzedmany paint samples of publication, Rembrandt,Art in theMakingwhich statesthat the Rembrandt paintings from different collections.Some of these upper ground Iayer in Florahas wood charcoal mixed in with samplesare still in the Amsterdam laboratorft and were avail- the lead white.t In Estherbefore Haman, the black mixed in is a able to compare with those taken from the Hamtn before very fine soot. No sampleswere availablefor comparison with Esther.To make such a comparison is more difficult than it Bathsh eb a and Sop h onisb a. would seem,since the number ofpigments usedby artistsin the Further comparative investigation revealed that the seventeenthcentury is not very extensiveand those employed application and formulation of the ground layers in Haman for grounds is smaller still. Therefore, not only were the types beforeEstherare entirely identical to those used for the authen- of pigments examined and compared, but also their relative tic Rembrandt picture Pornait of a Woman in an Armchair of concentrationsin the paint mixture, their sizes,and the pres- 1633 in the Metropolitan Museum (fig.