Italian Painting Research Articles

Dye Analysis of a 17th-Century Mattens Workshop Tapestry Based on Raphael’s Drawing, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes

This paper describes the identification of dyes on fifty yarn samples from a tapestry created by the well-known 17th-century Flemish workshop of the Mattens family. The design of the tapestry is based on the first of ten drawings known as the Acts of the Apostles by the famed 16th-century Italian painter Raphael. The drawings were commissioned by Pope Leo X and translated into tapestries by Pieter van Aelst; these original tapestries are still in the collection of the Vatican Museums. The present work was reproduced over a century later from the original drawing and is one in a possible set of nearly fifty known copies of the original tapestry cycle. Most of the Mattens yarn samples were found to be dyed by weld, indigo, and madder, as well as a few using brazilwood and lichen, but no insect dyes were detected. A significant finding in the present study was the detection of the dye component pseudoindirubin 1, alongside indigotin and indirubin, as well as yarns that only yielded the latter two dyes. The implication of using this new marker as objective evidence of the use of both woad and most likely Asian indigo is explored. The historical and conservation significance of the dyestuffs identified is also discussed.

Franz Boas and the Primacy of Form

Abstract There is systematic epistemic asymmetry between different centers of art production: we know far more about some (e.g. fifteenth-century Italian paintings) than about others (e.g. fifteenth-century Inca textiles). As long as we are focusing on the social context of the artworks or the artist’s intention, this epistemic asymmetry remains, given that we have vastly more information about the social context of the artworks or the artist’s intention when it comes to ‘Western’ art—again, because of the historically contingent differences in record-keeping and the survival rate of such records. If we want to overcome the epistemic asymmetry between ‘Western’ and ‘Non-Western’ art, we need to look elsewhere. I will argue, using Franz Boas’s work, that we should look for formal features. In order to avoid the epistemic asymmetry that follows from the historically contingent fact that we have more information about some cultures than about others, we need to start our analysis with formal categories.

Rediscovering the Painting Technique of the 15th Century Panel Painting Depicting the Coronation of the Virgin by Michele di Matteo

The study concerned a diagnostic spectroscopic campaign carried out on the panel painting depicting the Coronation of the Virgin (first half of the 15th century) by the late-Gothic Italian painter Michele di Matteo. The main aims were the identification of the original painting materials and the characterization of the painter’s artistic technique. A combined approach based on non- and micro-invasive techniques was employed. Visible and ultraviolet-induced fluorescence photography was used to select the areas of interest for spectroscopic analyses; X-ray radiography assessed the state of conservation of the support, while X-ray fluorescence and external reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies allowed the chemical identification of pigments, binders, and varnishes. Attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy, optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were used to visualize and characterize the materials in the pictorial layers. The results highlighted the presence of pigments, possibly applied with an egg binder, consistent with the period of the production of the painting, as well as modern pigments used during subsequent restorations: an imprimitura with lead white and a gypsum-based ground layer. Concerning the gilding, the guazzo technique was confirmed by identifying a red bolo substrate and gold leaf.

Watery Imaginings: Exploring the Watercolor Odysseys of Alessandro Sanna

Abstract: Alessandro Sanna, an Italian painter and illustrator, is well known internationally for his bright watercolor odysseys and visual reinterpretations of great classics like Don Quixote, Moby Dick, and Pinocchio. Sanna, Italy’s first Children’s Laureate and three-time Italian Premio Andersen winner, frequently captivates young audiences with wordless visual narratives that use bright water-based inks in novel and creative ways. His most recent visual storytelling voyage, In canto (2023), in collaboration with Giusi Quarenghi’s evocative poetry, draws on past works such as Fiume Lento (2013)—a silent, visual historical account of il Po, Italy’s largest river, thereby establishing his definitive status in contemporary Italian children’s literature.

The Aesthetic Value of Caravaggio’s Light and Shadow Technique from a Geometric Perspective

Abstract Caravaggio was an influential Italian painter of the 17th century who made important contributions to the development of later European art, both in terms of light and shadow techniques and in terms of ideas. This study first explores the characteristics of Caravaggio’s paintings and briefly explains Caravaggio’s painting style, light and shadow processing techniques, and their significant influence. Secondly, based on the visual perception art understanding method and aesthetic law, the curvelet geometric transformation is utilized to interpret the characteristics of different styles of Caravaggio’s light and shadow techniques in terms of three geometric features: multi-scale amplitude, coefficient distribution curve, and image non-smoothness. Finally, the aesthetic value of Caravaggio’s light and shadow techniques is interpreted from the geometric point of view by using six works from different periods: Caravaggio’s The Doubt of St. Thomas, The Supper at Emmaus, The Basket of Fruits, The Diviner, Narcasus and Judith Cutting down Hierophant as the research materials. The results show that Caravaggio’s light and shadow technique in the early stage of his creative career is characterized by a high low-scale coefficient and a low high-scaled coefficient, which indicates that there are more thick lines and fewer details. The maximum smoothness value of the works is 0.4035 respectively. The light and shadow technique in the later stage of his creative career is characterized by a low scale coefficient and a high scale coefficient, which means that he uses more fine lines to depict the details and less thick lines, reflecting the fact that the light and shadow technique in the later stage of his creative career is characterized by a low scale coefficient and a high high scale coefficient. Caravaggio’s light and shadow technique is characterized by a low scale factor, a high scale factor, and the use of fine lines to depict details and fewer thick lines, reflecting the light and shadow characteristics of Caravaggio’s light and shadow technique, which is depicted by the use of brushes and mineral pigments, and highly demonstrating the aesthetic value of his realist painting.

Художественные «дагерротипы» семьи Майковых: повесть И. А. Гончарова «Лихая болесть» и дружеский шарж В. А. Солоницына «Так они наняли дачу!»

The article is devoted to the study of two parody literary texts – Evil Illness by Ivan Goncharov and So They Rented a Dacha! by Vladimir Solonitsyn. Both texts relate to the creation of the image of the Maikov family and its members. Both Goncharov and Solonitsyn were closely connected with a family where advanced aesthetic problems of the transitional period of the 1840s, these reflecting the struggle between romanticism and realism, were discussed and embodied in works of art and literature. The friendly parodies by Goncharov and Solonitsyn are united by focus on the romantic worldview of the heroes, the prototypes of which were the members of the Maikov family (Ekaterina Maikova, Nikolai Maikov, etc.). In his first story, Goncharov addressed the main aesthetic conflict of the era using the aesthetics of the Flemish school of painting, since ‘Flemishism’, along with the traditions of High Italian painting, embodies the essence of Goncharov’s aesthetic category zhivopisaniye (which can be translated as depiction, vivid depiction). Goncharov’s ‘Flemishism’ as his style feature manifested itself already at the beginning of his literary path (Evil Illness) in the form of extreme penchant for details, attention to the beauty of everyday life, humorous elements in the description of everyday scenes. Sketches of everyday life in Goncharov’s first story are consonant with the theme of the painting by Adriaen van Ostade Tavern Scene. In addition to the parodic, ironic content, Goncharov’s story is associated with the synthesis of the ‘sophisticated’ and the ‘everyday’, and not a one-sided manifestation of life in art. In this regard, Flemish painters were extremely important for the novice writer Goncharov, who later became close to the ‘natural school’ of Vissarion Belinsky that proclaimed depiction of ‘the beautiful in the ordinary’ to be the main task of Russian literature.

En plein air: Light, space and fashion in Filippo de Pisis’s aesthetics

This article addresses the concept of en plein air regarding men’s fashion in early twentieth-century Italy. The act of painting outdoors has been addressed at length in the field of art history as one of the most radical practices of nineteenth-century avantgardes. It focused on the changing appearance of light and weather conditions, as in the case of the renowned French Impressionist painters, who often represented women and their clothing in the natural environment. However, en plein air can also provide an opportunity to reframe men’s fashion in its relationship with the environment. The Italian painter and dandy Filippo de Pisis (1896–56) relied on en plein air to constitute his peculiar vision of ‘pictorial elegance’, connecting painting skills with the experience of wearing clothes in open spaces, for instance, during a stroll in the Mediterranean sunshine. This article analyses de Pisis’s artworks and writings on male elegance and its pictorial qualities, aiming to explore the under-investigated invisibility of men’s fashion in the early twentieth century. By doing so, it challenges the misogyny of the antifashion rhetoric of Modernist aesthetics. The case of de Pisis is particularly interesting in this regard because it provides an illuminating pictorial and textual affective interpretation of the interdependences between men’s bodies, the colours and fabrics of their clothes and the qualities of the open-air environment in which they were experienced. This contribution intends to shed light on the concept of ‘pictorial elegance’ that was for de Pisis a queer, destabilizing and poetic transfiguration of masculinity in the context of European Modernism.

A Heritage Digital Twin ontology-based description of Giovanni Baronzio's “Crucifixion of Christ” analytical investigation

The methodologies of Cultural Heritage research and in particular those related to conservation and the analytical study of heritage assets and works of art, recently grouped under the term Heritage Sciences, engage a broad range of disciplines, each with its own characteristic workflows for generating data. Consequently, an emerging challenge is the need to define a digital framework for multi-source data integration, associated with a single heritage asset, but generated by various tools and methods which are often pursued by different research groups and at different times. This digital framework is discussed in this essay as the digital twin of a heritage asset, comprising of the documentation data associated with a heritage asset and its virtual representation. To best describe and define a Heritage Digital Twin ontology and its associated knowledge graph, we use a specific example drawing from art historical and analytical investigation of a 13th century Italian painting masterpiece, the Crucifixion of Christ, by Giovanni Baronzio, one of the leaders of the so-called Rimini School of painting which was greatly influenced by the work of the famous Renaissance master Giotto di Bondone.

The Poetry and Music of Science: Comparing Creativity in Science and Art

The Poetry and Music of Science: Comparing Creativity in Science and Art

Giovanni Santi’s Late 15th-Century Paintings: Microscopic, Spectroscopic and Chromatographic Investigations on Pigments, Powdered Glass and Binding Media

After a huge non-invasive diagnostic campaign performed on the corpus of Giovanni Santi’s artworks, three paintings were selected and investigated: the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian panel, the Visitation altarpiece and the canvas with Tobias and the Archangel Raphael (c. 1487 and 1494). Micro-invasive investigations including optical microscopy, ESEM-EDX, micro-Raman spectroscopy, FTIR and FTIR-ATR spectroscopy and GC-MS were carried out on selected micro samples. The results of the integrated analyses confirmed the use of a Renaissance palette with oil and, only in a few cases, tempera techniques. Some significant peculiarities emerged in Santi’s practice, as he used localized off-white priming and colorless powdered glass with a siccative oil—in red, flesh, pinkish and green hues—confirming the influence of the Flemish painters in Urbino and, possibly, also in western central Italy. This innovative technical expedient compared to the traditional Italian painting technique was identified also in red and bluish samples collected from the Communion of the Apostles panel painted by Justus of Ghent around 1473–1474 for Urbino Corpus Domini Confraternity. The Flemish master was called to the court of Duke Federico to paint in oil and his presence at the ‘Urbino workshop’ probably contributed to the diffusion of this technique. Both in Giovanni Santi’s paintings and the Communion of the Apostles, the glass particles are related to a soda-lime glass typical of the Italian area, widely detected in Italian paintings from the late 15th and 16th centuries.

Characterization of Pigments and Materials of the Original Body and Additions of the Book of Hours 50,1,1 from the Brazilian National Library

The Brazilian National Library has in its collection a luxurious book of hours from the Royal Library of Portugal. For a long time, it was believed to have been made by the Italian painter Spinello Spinelli for King Fernando I (1345-1383) in 1378. This is due to the information in its colophon and the presence of a coat of arms of the Portuguese crown on the opening folio. According to recent studies, this is an example of a rare group of Flemish books of hours from ca. 1460 to English use – raising questions about the codex origin, dating, recipient, and route. To collaborate in this investigation, a material characterization study was proposed using non-invasive analyses, such as optical microscopy (OM), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and fiber optics reflectance spectroscopy (FORS). The following pigments and materials were identified: lead white, minium, vermilion, lead-tin yellow, azurite, malachite, brazilwood lake, iron gall inks of different compositions and metals in foil or powder, namely gold and silver; moreover, the identification of lapis lazuli, Armenian bole and a different red organic lake in the colophon was decisive in corroborating the thesis of art historians, confirming the production period of the original body of the manuscript to the 15th century and that the colophon and coat of arms are later additions. Additionally, it was revealed that the coat of arms was superimposed on a previous shield.

Attribution of the painting "Madonna with the Christ Child, John the Baptist and the Archangel Gabriel" in the collection of the Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts

The article proposes an attribution for the previously unexplored painting «Madonna and Child with John the Baptist and the Archangel Gabriel», early 16th century, from the Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts. This attribution is based on the obvious commonality of the compositional solution of the painting under study with its replica, attributed to the brush of the Italian painter Domenico Puligo and found at one of the American auctions.Comparison of the artistic techniques in the works of D. Puligo and select paintings by Andrea del Sarto made it possible to reveal the closeness of the approaches of the two authors, which is confirmed by the biographical evidence of Giorgio Vasari about the direct influence of A. del Sarto on the work of D. Puligo in the 1500s - early 1510s and by the citing of certain details from the painting by A. del Sarto, one of which was identified in the work under study. An analysis of the results of technological and art studies of the artwork from the Nizhny Tagil museum and their correlation with the photographs of the Madonna from the Corsini Palace have made it possible to propose an attribution of the painting.

What’s in a Bottle? Morandi’s Art and Ordinary Aesthetics

Abstract This article’s assumption is that ordinary aesthetics does not necessarily imply a distancing from art and artists; rather, it can benefit from the input of creators when they use everyday scenes or objects as their theme. This approach focuses on the practice of twentieth-century Italian painter Giorgio Morandi, who depicted compositions of common objects such as bottles, jars, and vases. Through Morandi’s meditative and artistic search, these objects are given value and aesthetic elevation in his paintings. Thomas Leddy’s aesthetics of everyday life will also be called upon in my analysis, insofar as the author recognizes a continuity between the ordinary and the extraordinary, through auratic experiences. If Morandi discovers the extraordinary in the trivial, this is achieved through a gradual process of selection regarding the objects he favoured, which allows for the interaction of various levels of aesthetic intensity. Morandi’s objects and models and their preparation suggest a circulation between aesthetic degrees that, in turn, suggests a timeless “language of things” fixed through the discourse of the paintings. Along these lines, it will be necessary to address the enchantment related to common things, a mesmerizing presence of which we became more aware through Morandi compositions.

Non-Invasive Study of the Pigments of a Painting on Copper with the Inscription “Boceto di Pablo Veronese” on the Back

The palette used on a small painting on copper support, with the inscription “Boceto di Pablo Veronese” on the back, was characterized. Non-invasive techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) and hand-held X-ray fluorescence (XRF) were proven to be highly effective for this. The objectives of the proposed work were twofold. On the one hand, the objective was the study, in situ, of the pigments of a painting on a copper support. On the other hand, it was to enrich the literature related to the study of paintings on metal supports, since few related studies are available despite the relatively large number of such 16th and 17th century paintings from Italy and Northern Europe. The results of the analysis showed a copper support with a base layer of gypsum mixed with ochre earths. Atop this layer is a sketch with lead white in the lighter areas and bone black in the darker shadow areas, suggesting that the artist performed a preliminary study of the luminosity of the scene. Finally, the upper or pictorial layer consists of a mix of pigments with some lead white to lower saturation and increase lightness, particularly evident in the flesh tones. The resulting palette thus includes lead white, vermilion, bone black, Naples yellow, and lazurite pigments. These results are compared to Veronese’s other paintings, as well as to those of certain contemporary artists, and the use of the resulting pigments in 16th and 17th century Italian painting techniques is discussed.

New Insight on Medieval Painting in Sicily: The Virgin Hodegetria Panel in Monreale Cathedral (Palermo, Italy)

The Virgin Hodegetria, located in the Cathedral of Santa Maria Nuova in Monreale, near Palermo (Italy), probably dating the first half of the 13th century, is one of the earliest examples of medieval panel painting in Sicily. A diagnostic campaign was carried out on the panel aiming to identify the constituting materials and the executive technique, as well as to assess the state of conservation for supporting the methodological choice of the restoration intervention. Both non-invasive (X-ray radiography, digital microscope, multispectral imaging, ED-X-ray fluorescence) and micro-invasive (polarised light microscopy, ESEM-EDX, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy) analyses were performed. According to the results, the executive technique followed the 13th–14th-century Italian painting tradition. A complex structure was applied on the wooden support, consisting of a double layer of canvas and several ground layers of gypsum and glue-based binder. The underdrawing was made by a brush using carbonaceous black pigment. The original palette includes red ochre, red lead, azurite, carbon black and bone black. During the several restorations, mercury-based red, indigo, smalt blue, orpiment and synthetic mars were used. The original silver leaf of the frame was covered with red tin-based lake and subsequently regilded with gold leaf. Proteinaceous and oil binders were also detected.

Descent from the Cross and the Reception of the Byzantine Models in the Italian Painting in the Second Half of the 13th Century and the Beginning of the 14th Century

<i>Descent from the Cross</i> and the Reception of the Byzantine Models in the Italian Painting in the Second Half of the 13^th Century and the Beginning of the 14^th Century

"Get Your Own Stuff": The Colonial Canon and the Subversive Art of Appropriation

This article analyzes the various ways in which artists of color are using appropriation in their work as a subversive tactic to undermine the historically exclusionary white European or 'Western' canon that continues to permeate throughout various aspects of our globalized societies. Colonial tropes of the other versus the white body continue to affect many of the ways that we perceive not only art but one another. Acts of appropriative subversion make the socio-cultural power of the colonial canon redundant and shift the asymmetrical power relations held within it. By utilizing a blend of contemporary and historical case studies ranging from fifteenth-century Italian paintings to twentieth-century fascist colonial monuments, and to contemporary artists like Kara Walker, Titus Kaphar, and Harmonia Rosales, I examine the various hypocrisies that this art form identifies and subverts in the Eurocentric canon. To do so, I employ iconoclasm and mimicry as two theoretical approaches to distinguish between the various distinct forms of subversive appropriation in our contemporary world.

권훈칠과 마키아이올리: 안식과 치유의 공간으로서의 풍경화

Kwon Hoon-chill, who appeared in the 1970s with abstract paintings known for thick textures, suddenly left Korea to study in Italy in the late 1980s. While studying in Italy, he abandoned the texture-oriented abstract painting advocated by his master Jung Chang-seop and devoted himself to landscapes. He had consistently done landscapes before he came to Italy. His renewed passion for the genre was sparked when his studies in Rome led him to Ottocento, or 19th century painting in Italy. Ottocento was created by a group of Italian painters known as Macchiaioli, who wanted to capture the land and scenery of their homeland, an artistic movement that reflected a nationalist fervor for unification in Italy. Starting in Tuscany and Florence, the Macchiaoli developed a style that were often compared to that of the French Impressionists, which soon became internationally prominent. The Italian painters were, pursuing their own nationalist agenda; representing natural scenes of the homeland set in the composition reminiscent of the Italian Renaissance masters. Many of Kwon Hoon-chill’s domestic watercolor landscapes were clearly influenced by the Macchiaoli; full of space, individual rest, and love for his country and landscape.

CAPRICCIO IN THE WORKS OF FRANCESCO BORROMINI

Giovanni Battista Passeri (c.1610-1679) who was an Italian painter, a poet and a priest, wrote Italian baroque artist’s biographies that contain the life of Francesco Borromini who was a one of the greatest architect of Italian Baroque.

The Iconographic Type of the Coronation of the Virgin in the Renaissance Italian Painting in the Light of the Medieval Theology

This article highlights the artistic and conceptual relevance of the iconographic type of the Coronation of Mary in Italy during the Late Middle Ages and Early Modernity. We have analyzed 14 Italian Renaissance paintings, aiming to discover the possible doctrinal sources that inspire them. From a conceptual perspective, we have specified that the iconography of The Coronation of the Virgin in Italy is directly inspired by the comments of some Church Fathers and medieval theologians and hymnographers. From the formal perspective, we discover that three different iconographyc types complement each other as progressively more complex variants of a similar basic structure.