Restaurabits

Secrets and other curiosities

“La plaza de San Marco en Venecia” de Canaletto, después de la restauración

How the campanile in "The Piazza San Marco in Venice" was painted

Comparative of the raking light image and the radiographic image of Canaletto's painting "The Piazza San Marco in Venice"
Comparativa de la imagen rasante y la imagen radiográfica de la obra de Canaletto "La Plaza de San Marcos en Venecia"

Have you ever wondered how Canaletto constructed the arches of the campanile in his iconic Piazza San Marco in Venice? While conducting the technical study of the work we discovered some holes and incisions that are visible in the X-ray image.

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.

More restaurabits

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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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Saint Catherine’s enigmatic dress

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.

 
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The Golden Section and Giovanna Tornabuoni

In the study of the Portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi Tornabuoni, we applied the pattern of the spiral to Ghirlandaio’s work and noted how the figure is laid out in space. The artist structures the elements along an axis and arranges them in an orderly manner. All the geometric multiplications are reflected in a single whole, which is the work.
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