Related Papers
Applied Sciences
Giovanni Santi’s Late 15th-Century Paintings: Microscopic, Spectroscopic and Chromatographic Investigations on Pigments, Powdered Glass and Binding Media
Antonella Casoli
After a huge non-invasive diagnostic campaign performed on the corpus of Giovanni Santi’s artworks, three paintings were selected and investigated: the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian panel, the Visitation altarpiece and the canvas with Tobias and the Archangel Raphael (c. 1487 and 1494). Micro-invasive investigations including optical microscopy, ESEM-EDX, micro-Raman spectroscopy, FTIR and FTIR-ATR spectroscopy and GC-MS were carried out on selected micro samples. The results of the integrated analyses confirmed the use of a Renaissance palette with oil and, only in a few cases, tempera techniques. Some significant peculiarities emerged in Santi’s practice, as he used localized off-white priming and colorless powdered glass with a siccative oil—in red, flesh, pinkish and green hues—confirming the influence of the Flemish painters in Urbino and, possibly, also in western central Italy. This innovative technical expedient compared to the traditional Italian painting technique was ident...
Technical Peculiarities in Giovanni Santi's Paintings on Canvas
2021 •
valeria mengacci, Maria Letizia Amadori
G iovanni Santi (Colbordolo ca. 1439-Urbino 1494) was one of the most important painters active in Urbino (Marche region, Italy) during the last decades of the fifteenth century, where he was employed at the court of the celebrated Federico da Montefeltro. He is known mainly as the father of Raphael, but he had a remarkable production of paintings, especially on wood but also on canvas and on wall. This paper focuses on technical peculiarities related to Santi's paintings on canvas, including some practices that have not yet been noted in relation to his panel paintings. In particular, two works painted on herringbone-weave linen canvases were investigated: Tobias and the Archangel Raphael and Saint Roch (both dated ca. 1490-94), in the collection of the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche. The results presented are a part of a large research project based on noninvasive and micro-invasive investigations carried out on twenty-eight works attributed to Giovanni Santi, only partially published in a recent exhibition catalog dedicated to the artist (Palazzo Ducale, Urbino, 2018). Black underdrawing, characterized by a thinly applied network of close hatching for some of the shadows, was observed and, regarding the different hues, a complex use of pigments. The binder detected is siccative oil, with the addition of a large amount of transparent glass particles, which would have been added both to give body to the pigment without using white fillers and to improve drying, a technique that Santi presumably learned from the Flemish painter Justus van Ghent (act. Urbino ca. 1473-1475) and something that he possibly transmitted to his son Raphael as a workshop practice. In fact, Giovanni Santi's workshop survived his death.
Materia: Journal of Technical Art History, Vol. 1, Issue 1
G. Poldi, M.L. Amadori, V. Mengacci, Technical Peculiarities in Giovanni Santi’s Paintings on Canvas, in “Materia: Journal of Technical Art History”, Vol. 1, Issue 1, 2021, pp. 28-42
2021 •
Gianluca Poldi
Giovanni Santi (Colbordolo ca. 1439–Urbino 1494) was one of the most important painters active in Urbino (Marche region, Italy) during the last decades of the fifteenth century, where he was employed at the court of the celebrated Federico da Montefeltro. He is known mainly as the father of Raphael, but he had a remarkable production of paintings, especially on wood but also on canvas and on wall. This paper focuses on technical peculiarities related to Santi’s paintings on canvas, including some practices that have not yet been noted in relation to his panel paintings. In particular, two works painted on herringbone-weave linen canvases were investigated: Tobias and the Archangel Raphael and Saint Roch (both dated ca. 1490–94), in the collection of the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche. The results presented are a part of a large research project based on noninvasive and micro-invasive investigations carried out on twenty-eight works attributed to Giovanni Santi, only partially published in a recent exhibition catalog dedicated to the artist (Palazzo Ducale, Urbino, 2018). Black underdrawing, characterized by a thinly applied network of close hatching for some of the shadows, was observed and, regarding the different hues, a complex use of pigments. The binder detected is siccative oil, with the addition of a large amount of transparent glass particles, which would have been added both to give body to the pigment without using white fillers and to improve drying, a technique that Santi presumably learned from the Flemish painter Justus van Ghent (act. Urbino ca. 1473–1475) and something that he possibly transmitted to his son Raphael as a workshop practice. In fact, Giovanni Santi’s workshop survived his death.
Studying Old Master Paintings: Technology and Practice. The National Gallery Technical Bulletin 30th Anniversary Conference, Postprints of the Conference (London, 16-18 September 2009), edited by M. Spring, London 2011, pp. 28-36
A new examination of Giovanni Bellini’s ‘Pesaro Altarpiece’: recent findings and comparisons with other works by Bellini
2011 •
Gianluca Poldi, Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa
New Studies on Lorenzo Lotto’s Pigments: Non-Invasive and Micro-Invasive Analyses
2012 •
Maria Letizia Amadori
In the frame of large research project, also related to the exhibition “Lorenzo Lotto” (Venezia, 1480 – Loreto, 1556-57) held at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome in spring 2011, more than 50 paintings of Lotto spanning from 1505 to around 1556 were studied by means of scientific examinations. The University of Bergamo coordinated and carried out non-invasive analyses using portable instruments: IR reflectography in different bands, false colour IR, reflectance spectrometry in the visible range (vis-RS), X-ray spectrometry (EDXRF), sometimes UV-induced fluorescence and X-ray radiography. On the basis of the obtained results some areas of four paintings undergoing restoration treatments were subjected to micro-sampling in order to be mounted in cross-sections and studied by optical microscopy (OM) and SEM/EDX by the University of Urbino e by microRaman spectroscopy by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Non invasive exams allowed to know the evolution of Lotto’s palette duri...
Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
Lorenzo Lotto's painting materials: an integrated diagnostic approach
2016 •
Maria Letizia Amadori
Technologische Studien: Konservierung, Restaurierung, Forschung, Technologie / Kunsthistorisches Museum, 6
Antonello da Messina between Sicily and Venice: the San Cassiano altarpiece. Technical examinations and comparisons
2009 •
Gianluca Poldi
'Masters' Secrets', in COLOUR: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts, ed. S. Panayotova, London and Turnhout: Harvey Miller / Brepols, 2016, 119-161
Stella Panayotova
The Rediscovery of Sublimated Arsenic Sulphide Pigments in Painting and Polychromy: Applications of Raman Microspectroscopy
2009 •
Mark Richter
Renaissance Quarterly
Giovanni Bellini and the Art of Devotion
2005 •
Ronda Kasl
