Restaurabits

Secrets and other curiosities

Detalle de la imagen visible de la obra de Caravaggio "Santa Catalina de Alejandría"

Saint Catherine’s enigmatic dress

Detail of the restoration process of the painting "Saint Catherine of Alexandria" by Caravaggio
Detalle de las micromuestras del estudio de los materiales de la obra de "Santa Catalina de Alejandría" de Caravaggio

Can you imagine Saint Catherine dressed in red? That is the colour we discovered during our research when the work’s materials were analysed. It would have been part of an initial version of the clothing of Caravaggio’s figure.

Visible in the lower part of the cross-section are some light areas which correspond to the imprimatura layer and the thin whitish layer applied on top of it. This is followed by the red layer corresponding to the first version of the dress, applied in two coats. Lastly, we can see the violet-blue layer, which corresponds to the final dress, composed of a mixture of lapis lazuli, grains of azurite, cochineal crimson, charcoal black, lead white and earth pigments.

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The face revealed

If you look at the reverse of the work, you will be surprised to see a design sketched in black. It is a face with the eyes, the line of the nose and the outline of the right side clearly marked. More curious still is that the same design is repeated on the front of the painting. Münter used a very similar type of stroke on both sides of the support, reproducing the forms and proportions, as if to create an identical design on the back and front of the painting.

 
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A mysterious horse

Did you know that there was more than one horse in Carpaccio’s painting? The study of Carpaccio’s Knight revealed unknown aspects of the work which show that his initial idea differed from what was finally executed.
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How the campanile in "The Piazza San Marco in Venice" was painted

Canaletto employed a compass to position the four arches in the upper tier of the campanile. The trace of the compass’s needle is visible at the centre of each semicircular arch. Although it was not unusual for painters to employ this instrument, it is striking to find it used over the paint layer.
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