Van der Snickt Geert, Martins Ana, Delaney John, Janssens Koen, Zeibel Jason, Duffy Michael, McGlinchey Chris, Van Driel Birgit, Dik Joris
AXES Research Group, Department of Chemistry, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA.
Appl Spectrosc. 2016 Jan;70(1):57-67. doi: 10.1177/0003702815617123.
Two state-of-the-art methods for non-invasive visualization of subsurface (or overpainted) pictorial layers present in painted works of art are employed to study Le portrait, painted by Belgian artist René Magritte in 1935. X-ray radiography, a commonly used method for the nondestructive inspection of paintings, had revealed the presence of an underlying figurative composition, part of an earlier Magritte painting entitled La pose enchantée (1927) which originally depicted two full length nude female figures with exaggerated facial features. On the one hand, macroscopic X-ray fluorescence analysis (MA-XRF), a method capable of providing information on the distribution of the key chemical elements present in many artists' pigments, was employed. The ability of the X-rays to penetrate the upper layer of paint enabled the imaging of the facial features of the female figure and provided information on Magritte's palette for both surface and hidden composition. On the other hand, visible and near infrared hyperspectral imaging spectroscopies in transmission mode were also used, especially in the area of the table cloth in order to look through the upper representation and reveal the pictorial layer(s) below. MA-XRF provided elemental information on the pigment distributions in both the final painting and the prior whereas the transmission mode provided information related to preparatory sketches as well as revealing differences between the paints used in both compositions. These results illustrate very well the manner in which the two imaging methods complement each other, both in the sense of providing different types of information on the nature and presence of paint components/pigments and in the sense of being optimally suited to easily penetrate through different types of overpaint.
两种用于对绘画艺术品中存在的地下（或覆盖）图像层进行无创可视化的先进方法被用于研究比利时艺术家勒内·马格利特于1935年创作的《肖像》。X射线照相术是一种常用于绘画无损检测的方法，它揭示了一幅潜在的具象构图的存在，这是马格利特早期一幅名为《迷人的姿态》（1927年）的画作的一部分，该画作最初描绘了两个全身裸体女性形象，面部特征夸张。一方面，使用了宏观X射线荧光分析（MA-XRF），这是一种能够提供许多艺术家颜料中关键化学元素分布信息的方法。X射线穿透上层颜料的能力使得能够对女性形象的面部特征进行成像，并提供了马格利特在表面和隐藏构图中使用的调色板信息。另一方面，还使用了透射模式的可见和近红外高光谱成像光谱学，特别是在桌布区域，以便透过上层表现形式揭示下面的图像层。MA-XRF提供了最终画作和先前画作中颜料分布的元素信息，而透射模式提供了与预备草图相关的信息，同时揭示了两种构图中使用的颜料之间的差异。这些结果很好地说明了这两种成像方法相互补充的方式，既体现在提供关于颜料成分/颜料的性质和存在的不同类型信息方面，也体现在最适合轻松穿透不同类型的覆盖颜料方面。
