Autumn/Winter 2022

PLANS AND PULLEYS
Elizabeth Wicks, who heads the project’s state-ofthe
art team comprising expert technicians and
restoration scientists, under the supervision of
Casa Buonarroti Director Alessandro Cecchi and
Jennifer Celani, official for the Archaeological
Superintendence for the Fine Arts and Landscape
for the metropolitan city of Florence, shares
questions and insight about Artemisia’s veil, as
the project enters phase 1.
“Artemisia’s nude allegorical figure was covered
up by Baldassare Franceschini, the artist known
as ‘Il Volterrano’. With all due respect, to this
famous Baroque painter, some of the veil work
and drapery is surprisingly slapdash. This begs
the question: Was this sloppiness due to a hasty
commission, a deliberate affront to Artemisia’s
painting, or was Il Volterrano uncomfortable about
being tasked to cover the nude and, therefore,
simply did not put his heart into it?
From the outset, an important aspect of this
project has been to create a virtual image of
Artemisia’s original work, on the premise that
the over-painting will not be removed,” Wicks
explains. “The first reason is that Il Volteranno’s
repaints are considered historic and part of the
painting’s setting and life story. Secondly, there
is only a 70-year difference between Artemisia’s
painting and the ‘censoring’ draperies and veil.
It’s a thick layer of paint, with impasto. It may turn
out that the two artists’ layers are very strongly
bonded, and, if that is the case, we absolutely
cannot put the painting at risk.
Beyond the veils, as mentioned in the
description of the painting by contemporary
biographer Filippo Baldinucci, and shown in
a sketch by Michelangelo the Younger of his
original idea for The Inclination in the Casa
Buonarroti archives – he drew the iconographic
plan of the entire Buonarroti Gallery ceiling –
Artemisia’s allegorical figure originally had two
pulleys at her feet. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to
find those now-invisible pulleys, hiding under the
clouds! Again, it is all hypothetical at this point.
As the team makes discoveries and explores
the Inclination’s needs from a philosophical and
technical standpoint, we’ll gain the knowledge to
make informed decisions. For now, it’s early days.
I am still removing the paper and canvas layers
glued to the back of the stretcher, and once that
process is finished, we will be able to continue
with diagnostics and begin conservation work on
the front of the painting.
Through working photographs, diagnostic
imaging and analysis, we will be able to
determine the exact technique Artemisia used,
correctly map the work’s condition, and monitor
our treatment plan for the painting. Due to the
historic nature of the repaints, it is not possible
to remove them from the surface, but the scope
of our diagnostics will facilitate the creation of a
virtual image of the original that lies beneath the
surface of the painting, as we see it today,” Wicks
explains. “Next week, we start our virtual journey
‘beneath the veil’ under diffuse and raking light
sources, followed by UV and infrared research.
Hypercolormetric Multispectral Imaging and
examination by digital microscope will then help
us learn as much as possible about the condition
of the original painting technique and the later
repaints. X-ray and high-resolution reflectography
and other analytical techniques will follow.” RC
52 Restoration Conversations • Autumn / Winter 2022