DOI Artikel:
Bastek, Grażyna: New research on Venetian painting based on a group of canvases from the workshop of Michele Marieschi
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18947#0098
pigments, while for the identification of organie substances (varnishes, bmders
and dyes) two mutually confirming methods were used.'’
Only such thorough examination could constitute the point of departure
for complete analysis of the paintings. The results obtained from the exammations,
the results of various investigative methods undertaken simultaneously in
several research centres, were subjected to further interpretation reąuiring
expertise about former materials and painting techmąues, their history, as well
as the previous methods and means of restoration.
The techmąues for specifying the origin of the paintings and thus deciphering
the order and method of applying indiyidual layers used X-ray and infrared
exammation, as well as neutron autoradiography.8 The accuracy and limits of
the first two methods are widely known. The neutron autoradiography
method, conducted for the first time in Poland in conjunction with the
Serenissima project, is nevertheless not a routine examination method, and is
currently used in only two other research centres world-wide.
The results of the research and conservation currently conducted^ will be
presented here through the examples of three pairs of paintings connected to
the workshop of the Venetian landscape painter Michele Marieschi. The
research has madę possible to connect precisely all the works attributed to him
in the National Museum in Warsaw with his workshop, although distmetion
of the exact hands at work within the workshop remains a task for stylistic
analysis, facilitated nonetheless by a views of the internal structure of the
• . • 10
paintings.
Marieschi was active in Venice sińce the early 3 Os of the 18th century. He
speciahsed in painting various caprices and views of Venice as well as in
designmg stage settmg and occasional decorations. He died in 1743 at the age
of 33, and thus his creative life was very brief. After Marieschbs death his 11 * * * * * *
11 Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (CG-MS) by Irmina Zadrożna; Fourier Transform
Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR) by Janina Zięba-Palus.
Conducted by Dr Jan Rutkowski (Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow).
s Conducted in the Research Reactor Centre in Świerk by a team of physicists lead by Dr Krzysztof
Pytel as well as a team of physicists from the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Techniąue
(exposure and development of X-ray film).
The method was first used at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the 1960s, and at the
Flahn-Meitner Institute in Berlin sińce the mid-1980s. This techniąue mvolves exposure of the
painting to thermal neutrons in a nuclear reactor, followed by registration on X-ray film of the
products from the decay of the radioactive isotopes remaining in the process of activation.
Depending on the structure of the painting the successive X-ray films, changed and applied in
specific separations of time on the surface of the canvas, can reveal the stages of the work’s
creation, yet this is possible only when the same pigment was used in each layer. In practice
however on each film applied every so often the structure of all the various pigments in all the
layers of paint are registered, and thus all the surfaces painted in for example vermillion, or all
the surfaces painted in Naples yellow, which is not however related to the order of application of
paint. Thus for a complete interpretation and confirmation of the order of construction of the
painting this method must be supplemented with a cross-section of individual parts of the work.
1(1 I am grateful to Grzegorz Janczarski for essential help in interpreting the technological analysis
of the group of MarieschPs works under discussion.
92
and dyes) two mutually confirming methods were used.'’
Only such thorough examination could constitute the point of departure
for complete analysis of the paintings. The results obtained from the exammations,
the results of various investigative methods undertaken simultaneously in
several research centres, were subjected to further interpretation reąuiring
expertise about former materials and painting techmąues, their history, as well
as the previous methods and means of restoration.
The techmąues for specifying the origin of the paintings and thus deciphering
the order and method of applying indiyidual layers used X-ray and infrared
exammation, as well as neutron autoradiography.8 The accuracy and limits of
the first two methods are widely known. The neutron autoradiography
method, conducted for the first time in Poland in conjunction with the
Serenissima project, is nevertheless not a routine examination method, and is
currently used in only two other research centres world-wide.
The results of the research and conservation currently conducted^ will be
presented here through the examples of three pairs of paintings connected to
the workshop of the Venetian landscape painter Michele Marieschi. The
research has madę possible to connect precisely all the works attributed to him
in the National Museum in Warsaw with his workshop, although distmetion
of the exact hands at work within the workshop remains a task for stylistic
analysis, facilitated nonetheless by a views of the internal structure of the
• . • 10
paintings.
Marieschi was active in Venice sińce the early 3 Os of the 18th century. He
speciahsed in painting various caprices and views of Venice as well as in
designmg stage settmg and occasional decorations. He died in 1743 at the age
of 33, and thus his creative life was very brief. After Marieschbs death his 11 * * * * * *
11 Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (CG-MS) by Irmina Zadrożna; Fourier Transform
Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR) by Janina Zięba-Palus.
Conducted by Dr Jan Rutkowski (Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow).
s Conducted in the Research Reactor Centre in Świerk by a team of physicists lead by Dr Krzysztof
Pytel as well as a team of physicists from the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Techniąue
(exposure and development of X-ray film).
The method was first used at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the 1960s, and at the
Flahn-Meitner Institute in Berlin sińce the mid-1980s. This techniąue mvolves exposure of the
painting to thermal neutrons in a nuclear reactor, followed by registration on X-ray film of the
products from the decay of the radioactive isotopes remaining in the process of activation.
Depending on the structure of the painting the successive X-ray films, changed and applied in
specific separations of time on the surface of the canvas, can reveal the stages of the work’s
creation, yet this is possible only when the same pigment was used in each layer. In practice
however on each film applied every so often the structure of all the various pigments in all the
layers of paint are registered, and thus all the surfaces painted in for example vermillion, or all
the surfaces painted in Naples yellow, which is not however related to the order of application of
paint. Thus for a complete interpretation and confirmation of the order of construction of the
painting this method must be supplemented with a cross-section of individual parts of the work.
1(1 I am grateful to Grzegorz Janczarski for essential help in interpreting the technological analysis
of the group of MarieschPs works under discussion.
92