Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

to prevent Adonis from leaving for the hunt, is considered one of the few of
Titian's autograph paintings on the subject (Plate 26). In addition to this work
and the Venus and Adonis in the Prado, another of Titian's paintings by the
same name is located at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.c.
(Plate 27).
Conservation work on the Getty Museum's recent acquisition of Venus and
Adonis gave the authors the opportunity to perform a technical examination
of the painting. It was examined with the use of the following: microscopic
methods, including polarized light microscopy (PLM) and scanning electron
microscopy (SEM); spectrometric methods, including ultraviolet visible spectroscopy
(UV Ivis), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, fluorescence
(FS) spectroscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF)
spectroscopy; and chromatographic methods, including gas chromatography
(GC) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and a
number of staining tests and microchemical tests were also used (2). The
cooperation between conservators and scientists proved instrumental in gaining
a better understanding of Titian's painting technique. This understanding
was greatly improved through the cooperation of David Bull of the Washington
National Gallery who gave us the opportunity to examine a later
version of the Venus and Adonis in the gallery's collection using a stereomicroscope.
This examination made it possible to compare Titian's execution
of the same theme at different stages in his career. Our study was greatly
facilitated by Joyce Plesters's pioneering publications on the examination of
Titian pieces in the London National Gallery. Her work served as an example
for our own research and as a continuing source for comparison, and helped
in the interpretation of the analytical results. It also helped the authors place
the technique of this particular painting in relation to that of other paintings
of the same period, as well as those of Titian's later and earlier periods.
Support
The painting measures 160 X 196.5 cm. The original canvas is a plain weave
linen, having 16 threads per centimeter in the warp direction and 18 threads
per centimeter in the weft direction. It is made of two strips of canvas, joined
by a vertical seam. The right strip measures 101 cm; the left-hand strip is
slightly smaller and measures 95.5 cm. The painting has been cut on all sides;
it is possible that the left side was cut by 5-9 cm. PI esters has found that the
loom width of sixteenth-century Venetian canvases tends to range between
1.06 and 1.10 cm (3).
The painting was first documented in the collection of the Queen Christina
of Sweden and then in that of the Duc d'Orleans. The French eighteenthcentury
engraver Delignon made prints of objects in the duke's collection
(4). One of these prints shows the Getty Venus and Adonis, in which it can
be seen that the original composition may have extended out a bit more on
the left side and that it was not originally cut off as close to Venus's fo ot as
it is now. Since the scalloping of the original canvas on the left side is clearly
still visible, the losses cannot have been too extensive.
In the Prado version, which measures 186 X 207 cm (as compared to the
National Gallery version, which measures 107 X 136 cm), the painting's
surface extends a bit further to the left. Comparison of the loss in the Getty
painting with corresponding areas in the print and in the Prado version leads
to the conclusion that the width of the loss may be accounted for by the
difference between the present 101 cm strip and the 106-1 1 0 cm width of
the average sixteenth-century Venetian loom. At the right of the Getty painting,
a relatively large section of the dog's tail, still complete in the Delignon
print, is cut off. The amount of the loss is difficult to estimate, but judging
from comparison with the print (the Prado version has suffered an even
greater loss), it is probably not more than 4-5 cm.
The loss at the upper side, again based on comparison with the Delignon
print, and the London and Prado versions, is more extensive. The shaft of the
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Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice