Special Investigation Corps: Art Detective

 As already announced in the last newsletter, Art-Test (devi prendere quella en)  will be teaching staff of the master NON-INVASIVE ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE: THE PICTORIAL WORKS organized by the Center for Criminological Studies.

Have you wondered how to discover if a painting is authentic or fake?

This is the master for you.

You will see things differently. When you go to an exhibition or a fair, the eye will fall on details that you had never notice before, which will take on different meanings.


 

The master will guide you to a different approach to art and the artwork, explaining which are the fundamental steps to achieve a thorough assessment. The journey will start from a correct Condition Report, where we will consider all the components of the artwork: the support (canvas, table, paper ), the frame and the pictorial materials (preparation, priming, pictorial film, possible retouches). Effectively drafting this type of documentation, together with correctly interpreting the problems that are proposed in investigating each specific artwork, will be the starting point of a well-designed diagnostic project.

Cutting-edge scientific instrumentation and knowledge of the limits and possibilities of each instrument will do the rest.

Great importance will be given to scientific sources and artistic literature, as indispensable tools for the correct reading of scientific data.

Taking inspiration from paintings  intriguing at the last edition of TEFAF here same example of what could be discussed at the master
 

 

 
 


 

ARTESTIAMO - seen, read, observed for you - A family ... torn to pieces (and then reunited ... or almost)
 
During our last trip to Belgium, we visited the exhibition DUTCH SPRING: Frans Hals Portraits A Family Reunion  at Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium.
Until May 19, it will be possible to enjoy this small exhibition that focuses on on the innovative approach to the "family portraits"  of the Flemish painter.

Beyond the excellent quality of the paintings, including a beautiful portrait by Rembrandt, what intrigued us the most, was the philological reconstruction of a painting, probably dismembered between the end of the 18th and the beginning from the nineteenth century, for unknown reasons , and now in different collections.

The idea of the exhibition was born as a consequence of the purchase by the Toledo Museum of Art (Ohio, USA), in 2011 of a painting by Frans Hals "Van Campen Family Portrait in a Landscape", and of the recent restoration of the painting, attributed to the same artist and kept at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, "Tree Children of the Van".

It was in fact made evident that these works were originally part of a single painting, to which a third, now in a private collection (not shown), also belongs.

Thanks to the restoration, but above all to the diagnostic campaign carried out during the restoration, it was possible to understand how the Belgian painting hid some figures, probably covered at the time when the painting was dismembered. And this prompted further research.
Using images and diagnostics performed during the restoration, this research was also aimed at highlighting the artist's characteristics of innovation in his contemporary landscape.

The news is that this research has not been left visible only to specialists. The multimedia installation accompanying the exhibition is excellent and fully demonstrates the educational potential of diagnostics. Thanks to an brilliant realization, very intuitive and rich in information and details, it becomes clear what the vicissitudes of a large format painting could be, its possible transformation over the centuries, because taste or exhibition necessity.  It also allows a clear reading of the "balances" within a representation that is intended at describing also the hidden dialogues between the protagonists.
Nothing has been left to chance, even the graphics are elegant and appealing, and the results are visible.
During the period in which we stayed in the room where the installation was, many people stopped to look at the whole 7 min video. An investment worth doing.