A new study has provided a deeper insight into how Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn planned and changed the artwork without harming the original.
Art historians and scientists use imaging methods to virtually "dig" under or scan various layers of paint and pencil.
This was how they decipher how a painter went about producing a masterpiece - without harming the original. A comparative study with a Rembrandt van Rijn painting as its subject found that the combined use of three imaging techniques provides valuable complementary information about what lies behind this artwork's complex step-by-step creation.
The painting contained a considerable amount of the artist's changes or so-called pentimenti (from the Italian verb pentire: "to repent") underneath the current composition.
This was revealed in the 1930s when the first X-ray radiography (XRR) was done on it. More hidden details about changes made with pigments other than lead white were discovered when the painting was investigated in 1994 using neutron activation autoradiography (NAAR).
Matthias Alfeld of the University of Antwerp in Belgium and his team chose to investigate Susana and the Elders not only because of its clearly visible pentimenti, but also because of its smaller size. Macro-X-ray fluorescence (MA-XRF) scans could thus be done in a single day using an in-house scanner at the museum in Berlin. These were then compared to existing radiographic images of the painting.
All three techniques (the early X-ray radiography, and the later neutron activation autoradiography and the recently developed macro-X-ray fluorescence scans) reveal considerable changes were made to the painting.
Alfeld's team found that the images of the elements used which were acquired by X-ray fluorescence scans are the easiest to interpret. This was because most of the individual elements are clearly separated.
The study is published in Springer's journal Applied Physics A: Materials Science and Processing.
