DESY reveals hidden paintings of Rembrandt
Underneath the “Old Man in Military Costume” painted by the Dutch artist Rembrandt in the years 1630/31, investigations spotted another portrait which was only faintly distinguishable with all applied technologies. An international team of scientists now used a detailed mock-up to test different methods to look beneath the original painting at DESYs X-ray source DORIS and at the National Synchrotron Light Source [NSLS] of the Brookhaven National Laboratory [BNL] in the United States, as well as with a mobile X-ray scanner. The results are published as the cover story of the “Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry” [JAAS] of the British Royal Society of Chemistry1.
With the use of X-ray radiation, the scientists excited elements to fluoresce, including calcium, iron, mercury and lead. The study shows that macro X-ray fluorescence analysis [MA-XRF] in all four areas already delivered considerably better impressions of the hidden painting than all methods used before. Especially the mercurial vermilion and lead white pigments in the area of the face give an impression of the concealed portrait. The best results were obtained at the large synchrotron radiation sources DORIS and NSLS.
Karen Trentelman, Head of the Collections Research Laboratory of the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, remarks: “The successful completion of these preliminary investigations on the mock-up painting was an important first step. The results of these studies will enable us determine the best possible approach to employ in our planned upcoming study of the real Rembrandt painting.”
- Matthias Alfeld et al. “Revealing hidden paint layers in oil paintings by means of scanning macro-XRF: a mock-up study based on Rembrandt’s ‘An old man in military costume’”. Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry (2013, 28, 40-51). DOI: 10.1039/C2JA30119A [↩]
