Upside Down and Painted Over

  • Iris Leithold
  • India
  • Apr 18, 2014

 

 


Art historian Gero Seelig is using everyday technology to discover the secrets of paintings by the Old Masters - using a cheap webcam to see what’s below the layers of the centuries-old paint. He points the webcam at a scene of dice-playing soldiers painted by Benjamin Cuyp (1612-1652), one of many Dutch and Flemish Old Master paintings in the State Museum in Schwerin, northern Germany. This particular painting was recently received by the Museum as a gift from a Berlin collector. On the monitor something strange can be seen: across almost the whole width of the painting a large face can be spied, along with neck ruff, fur hat and doublet - all of them upside down. “Exciting,” mutters Seelig. Under the soldierly scene from the 17th century, a different picture, a portrait, was once there. Judging by the clothes of the person it was painted in the 16th century. It’s not an isolated case: under a farming scene by Jan Molenaer (1610-1668), Seelig has found a painting from the 16th century. The figure of a woman reading is probably a depiction of a biblical narrative. “The wooden board probably came from an altar and was painted over by Molenaer, more than a hundred years after its first use,” he says.

Seelig got the idea of using a cheap webcam as an art-research tool from Helmuth Groetzebauch, a physics lecturer at the Free University in Berlin. Groetzebauch demonstrated the technique during a Berlin Long Night of Science, a public-outreach event. Installing an infrared filter on a standard camera makes it sensitive to a part of the spectrum we cannot register with the naked eye. The resulting image in the display gives the illusion of us being able to ‘see’ through layers of oil paint. This summer Seelig, a staff curator at the Museum, will explain the possibilities of the low-cost technique at an international conference of art scholars in Boston. Infrared reflectography is nothing new in itself and has long been used in art history research to make artists’ signatures and over-painting visible. What is new and what excites Seelig is the discovery that it can be so simple and so cheap. Even though the Schwerin State Museum has one of the most important collections of 17th century Dutch paintings in Germany, its budget is tight and a professional infrared camera costing tens of thousands of euros is not an option it can afford. “A proper infrared or X-ray examination is only worthwhile when you have reason to suspect that something important is hidden under the visible layer of paint,” Seelig says. But with the cheap webcam solution, it’s now possible to survey every painting - just to see if there might be something there. Admittedly the quality is not as good as a professional instrument provides, “but the little camera shows at least enough to tell if there’s something there.”

An infrared inspection can also help to uncover mistakes. This happened with “The Liberation of St Peter,” a painting by Dutch artist Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629), which hangs in Schwerin. During restoration of the large painting a few years ago a long shadow was observed in the upper left-hand corner. After long discussion among art historians and conservators, it was interpreted as the hint of an architectural arch that had darkened over the centuries - and it was decided to make it more visible in the restoration. However, the infrared camera has revealed a different story: Terbrugghen had painted his work over an existing painting, which he had turned upside down. The architectural arch turned out to be the shinbone of a figure from the original painting!


Read More...


  • print
  • comnt
  • share

News from Communities

lowadd
  • Friday Gurgaon Seminar

    http://fridaygurgaon.com/arap_media_cms/gall_content/2014/8/2014_8$thumbimg129_Aug_2014_160822730.jpgOrange Fish
  • Gurgaon Speaks Up-Rest in Peace ''Damini''-Saturday Dec 29 @ Leisure Valley

    http://fridaygurgaon.com/arap_media_cms/gall_content/2013/1/2013_1$thumbimg104_Jan_2013_143656130.jpgOrange Fish
  • Genesis Foundation Fund Raiser

    http://fridaygurgaon.com/arap_media_cms/gall_content/2012/8/2012_8$thumbimg114_Aug_2012_091411630.jpgOrange Fish
  • Coca Cola Cricket trophy played in Gurgaon

    http://fridaygurgaon.com/arap_media_cms/gall_content/2012/3/2012_3$thumbimg117_Mar_2012_180857977.jpgOrange Fish
  • Union Budget 2012

    http://fridaygurgaon.com/arap_media_cms/gall_content/2012/3/2012_3$thumbimg116_Mar_2012_123404760.jpgOrange Fish
  • Union Budget 2012

    http://fridaygurgaon.com/arap_media_cms/gall_content/2012/3/2012_3$thumbimg116_Mar_2012_122004320.jpgOrange Fish
  • Renge Art Walk

    http://fridaygurgaon.com/arap_media_cms/gall_content/2012/3/2012_3$thumbimg102_Mar_2012_095312690.jpgOrange Fish
  • Friday Gurgaon Cricket team

    http://fridaygurgaon.com/arap_media_cms/gall_content/2012/2/2012_2$thumbimg119_Feb_2012_195202840.jpgOrange Fish
  • Genesis Fundraiser Gurgaon

    http://fridaygurgaon.com/arap_media_cms/gall_content/2012/1/2012_1$thumbimg129_Jan_2012_072409630.jpgOrange Fish
  • Gurgaon

    http://fridaygurgaon.com/arap_media_cms/gall_content/2012/1/2012_1$thumbimg102_Jan_2012_165747220.jpgOrange Fish

Latest Issue

Poll

Do you think government should reconsider its policy of promoting liquor vends in Gurgaon?



votebox View Results