Fra Angelico (Fra Giovanni da Fiesole) The Virgin of Humility

Display types

Visible Light

The study using macro photography with visible light enables an in-depth, detailed look at the artist’s technique, and more precisely documents the conservation state of the pictorial layer.

Digital infrared photography

The study with infrared reflectography penetrates the surface of the picture and allows the layers in between to be analysed, revealing underlying drawings, composition modifications and hidden details that include signatures and inscriptions.

X-ray imaging

The study with x-rays provides information on the three-dimensional structure of the painting and more depth regarding the work’s strata, in particular the scope of certain abrasions.

Reverse

Allows the observation of information such as the date of the work or serial numbers, material and age of the canvas, origin and places where it has been, or determine restorations and state of the painting.

ca. 1425

Tempera on panel.

98,6 x 49,2 cm

DESCRIPTION

Image Under Visible Light
Infrared Reflectogram
X-Radiograph
Reverse

Image Under Visible Light

As can be seen, gold is powerfully present in the painting and serves both an aesthetic and a symbolic purpose as this rich material is a symbol of divinity.

Gilding is a very delicate procedure and requires a great deal of mastery and precision. Fra Angelico’s training as a manuscript illuminator may have furnished him with the experience needed to achieve his matchless skill as a gilder. This work combines two gilding techniques, oil gilding and water gilding. Water gilding is a much more complex technique and is found throughout almost the entire picture.

The most painstakingly decorated areas are the cloth of honour held by the angels, which is covered in a great variety of textures with linear floral patterns, the cushion on which the Virgin rests and the haloes of Mary and the Child. The haloes bear inscriptions in capital letters: Mary’s reads ‘Ave María Gratia Plena’ [Hail Mary full of grace] and her son’s ‘Alfa and Omega’ [I am the beginning and the end].

The painter employed an extremely rich variety of paint materials to create a beautiful result that inspired devotion. The medium used was tempera and the palette is extraordinary.

For the flesh tones, the masterful artist followed the Italian tradition of egg tempera over an underlayer of green earth, called verdaccio, which, as we have seen, is now visible to the naked eye in a few areas such as the corners of the mouth owing probably to wear in the uppermost paint layer. Over this underlayer he superimposed very fine, interlaced hatching lines in shades of white and pink tempera to create the velvety texture of the skin of the Virgin, the Child and the angels.

The master painted the robes of the five angels depicted in the work using the same tempera medium employed for the main figures. The angels’ clothing is decorated with oil-gilded plant motifs, like the lines forming a rectangle that embellish the soundbox of the lute.

This careful procedure and the plethora of details and hues found in the work were painstakingly executed by Fra Angelico to ensure its beauty and durability.

Infrared Reflectogram

Infrared reflectography identified different types of drawings in this work. An initial drawing serves as a guide, helping the artist establish the proportions and placement the elements of the composition. In this case studying the preparatory drawing provided information about the initial stages of Fra Angelico’s composition and how the scene was laid out.

In this painting he used charcoal and black chalk or carbon pencil, and there are even a few very fine lines executed in iron gall ink. Charcoal, in small chips or in powdered form, is a drawing instrument that allows the artist to create expressive lines, which can be easily adjusted or erased, as required. In this case, it enabled the artist to define the forms of the figures and decorative elements with precision.

In the case of The Virgin of Humility, this type of photography revealed the presence of incisions made by the master. The compositional incisions can in turn be divided into two kinds: the first, used for the contours of figures, mark the precise boundary between the painted and gilded areas; the second indicate important parts of the composition, chiefly drapery folds and facial features. These incisions complement the preparatory drawing and the first type also played an important technical role in helping the artist achieve an orderly and well-defined result during the application of the gold leaf. The incisions therefore mark the main points of the depictions and, together with the underdrawing, are a form of defining the overall composition.

Infrared reflectography and digital representation of drawing traces

Reddish or brown lines are visible throughout the work in the contours of the human figures, not only in the Virgin’s hand. In his paintings Fra Angelico paid great attention to the details and rendered human figures with great precision. The artist employed this type of outlining to emphasise the form and structure of the hands, as well to add depth and volume to the figures.

Finger outline with underdrawing, incisions and sanguine

X-Radiograph

The artist then made incisions using some kind of pointed instrument to mark the main lines of the composition. Details such as the contours of the figures, the main features of the faces, the perimeters of the haloes and the principal folds of the drapery can be viewed using two technical imaging procedures employed in the Restoration/Conservation Department: X-radiography and raking-light photography.

Detail in RX of the incisions of the face

The lines that appear white in the X-ray image are this colour because after being incised they were filled with an X-ray-absorbent material – that is, there is a thicker buildup of paint in them. The palest and most sharply defined white incisions visible in the X-ray are in the drapery and the figures’ faces, especially that of the Virgin, as the painter marked the position of her eyebrows, hair, nose and mouth in the ground layer and then covered them with paint.

X-radiography detected extensive damage to the support, ranging from woodworm tunnels to knots in the wood (a natural flaw) and very deep damage in the Virgin’s face. This damage extended to both the support and the paint film, and although Suhr reported on its restoration in 1950, X-radiography provides more information than his explanations, enabling us to put forward a hypothesis.

Two oval-shaped areas between 1 and 2 square centimetres in size are visible between the eyes and beneath the lips, where part of the paint was lost at some point. An orifice 6 millimetres in diameter running through the wooden support can also be seen in the lower loss. A piece of wood approximately 4 square centimetres in size and 1.5 centimetres thick had been inserted from the verso side, probably to repair it

Our hypothesis is that the painting was pierced from the recto side, possibly by a bullet 6 millimetres in diameter – a chance accident? – that caused greater damage to the wood on exiting the verso side due to the release of energy following the impact. This theory has been backed by police ballistic experts, who corroborated this possibility.

Reverse

Fra Angelico added wood strips to the reverse to lend the support greater stability and help prevent future warping. However, the panel was thinned in a recent undocumented intervention and different strips of wood were added to create a grid or cradle to protect the support.

The type of wood is typical of Renaissance Italy. The support consists of a single, radially cut board. This type of cut is ideal because the resulting planks are less prone to warping. Three horizontal wooden crosspieces were inserted into its reverse; two of them appear to be original and are held in place with dovetail joints. Their purpose was to keep the panel as stable as possible by preventing the movement of such a hygroscopic material as wood, or to prevent the planks from separating if the support was made up of several pieces. Wood can warp as a result of humidity or temperature changes, and this logically affects the paint because it can cause craquelure and the lifting of small fragments of the picture surface. The third bar displays different characteristics. This suggests that it may not be original, though the exact date it was fitted to the work is not documented.