Madonna and Child with Angels,
tempera and oil on panel, 46 x 37 cm, in a tabernacle frame

Provenance:
Private European collection

Technical analysis by Gianluca Poldi:

Careful observation to the painted surface, suggest the use of a mixed binder, using both egg and oil, allowing a subtle glazing typical of a siccative oil, apparent for instance in the flesh tones, while the craquelure pattern and some highlights suggest a tempera technique.

IR reflectographic images do not reveal particular changes, indicating a probable transfer from a cartoon. If pouncing was used, it was cancelled after the outlines were drawn with a thin brush. An interesting and elaborate underdrawing, with a diffuse hatching, can be seen by IRR under the Virgin’s dress: the painter used it to study the folds and the shadows before glazing it with a red lake pigment. The folds are drawn freehand. In some details, the outline underdrawing is retraced over the painting, especially in the bodies, in order to improve the contrast, in a way that was used by Florentine painters.

Pigments, detected by vis-RS, include natural ultramarine blue (lapis lazuli) in the Madonna’s cloak, a copper-based green in her mantle’s lapel and in the leaves of the roses inside the transparent vase. A good quality coccid-based red lake (like kermes), is used for the Virgin’s dress. Among other pigments, yellow-brown ochre, lead white and vermillion were found.

The palette, limited to a few pigments, corresponds to the restricted number of colours of the painting, with a large use of grey in the angel’s clothes as well as in the Child’s dress. An austere chromatic choice that contributes to emphasise the figures in the foreground and their delicate and precious flesh tones, obtained with thin layers of lead white for the highlights and vermillion for the cheeks and reddish zones, painted over a mid-tone that includes grains of earth and ochre added to the lead white matrix, above the white ground.

The refined decorations made with gold, in the haloes and on the Virgin’s dress, are largely original.