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.

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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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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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