Art in the Making: Italian Painting before 1400

Villers, Caroline; Bomford, David; Dunkerton, Jill; Gordon, Dillian; Roy, Ashok; Kirby, Jo

doi:10.2307/1506170

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Some blue pigments were detected in grey and black hues, such as the blue ultramarine in the armours of Count Oliva and Saint George (Sacred Conversation of Montefiorentino) or azurite both in the architecture and the black dress of the Buffi altarpiece. Probably, the precious blue pigments were used to obtain a particular grey: the use of ultramarine ashes is in fact attested in the greyish-blue hue of the horses' harness of the Jacopo di Cione Crucifixion (about 1360-1370) [36]. In the case of black hues, Cu-based pigments were also added to increase siccative properties [19,37].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectroscopic and Imaging Analyses on Easel Paintings by Giovanni Santi

et al. 2023

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The most important painter from Urbino in the last decades of the 15th century (1439 ab.–1494) was Giovanni Santi, the father of Raphael. The lack of scientific literature about Santi’s practice and the possible peculiar role of Urbino in the development of painting techniques in northern Italy suggested in-depth investigations of the entire corpus of his paintings. A well-established sequence of multispectral imaging, spectroscopic and microscopic investigations was performed on 24 wood panel paintings and 2 canvases attributed by most scholars to Giovanni Santi (1439 ab.–1494) to collect a large set of significant data. This systematic research allowed his painting technique to be defined, starting from the type of supports he used and from the features of the underdrawing, which quite frequently included characteristic regular hatching. The pigments used were widely investigated by means of ED-XRF and reflectance spectroscopy (vis-RS); a meaningful multivariate statistical method (PCA and HCA analysis) was also applied to the ED-XRF dataset acquired for representative hues. In particular, the vis-RS technique proved to be a simple and effective diagnostic tool to detect many pigments, including indigo, and to distinguish between two different types of red lakes, avoiding sampling and more complex analyses. Santi used lead white, Fe-Mn-based pigments, vermilion, red lake, natural blue ultramarine, azurite, copper-based green pigments (particularly verdigris), lead-tin yellow, scarcely ever orpiment and, in a few green mixtures, also indigo. Despite the palette being linked to tradition, the master appeared to introduce some peculiarities, such as the addition of glass powder, and mixing pigments both in a traditional way and using them to create chromatic effects unusual for his time. This research confirmed that the systematic use of the integrated non-invasive methods is highly representative, and the results of this wide diagnostic campaign provided a significant dataset which allowed the implementation of a scientific database related to central Italy Renaissance paintings and materials.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectroscopic and Imaging Analyses on Easel Paintings by Giovanni Santi

et al. 2023

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“…Filarete goes into a little more detail in a further part of his treatise in which he writes about linseed oil and mentions the methods of application [19]. The situation would change only after the mid-1480s when the mastery of the use of oil became part of the technical background of many Italian painters [20,21].…”

Section: Oil Painting and Italymentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Amadori,

Poldi,

Camaiti

et al. 2023

Applied Sciences

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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.

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Art in the Making: Italian Painting before 1400

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Spectroscopic and Imaging Analyses on Easel Paintings by Giovanni Santi

Spectroscopic and Imaging Analyses on Easel Paintings by Giovanni Santi

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

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