STF NA MÍDIA

JUSTIÇA NO EXTERIOR •
THE GUARDIAN (LO) • CULTURE • 20/9/2011
X-rays uncover secret painting beneath Goya masterpiece
Earlier work found under artist s 1823 portrait of Madrid judge Don Ramón Satué may
depict Napoleon Bonaparte s brother• Interactive: see how one portrait covered the other
Dalya Alberge
Beneath a Goya masterpiece,
a second, hidden painting by
the Spanish painter has been
discovered, the Rijksmuseum
in Amsterdam has announced.
New technology has brought
the image to light for the first
time since Goya painted over
it, apparently for political
reasons.
Curators were aware of something
beneath the surface
of Goya s powerful 1823
portrait of Don Ramón Satué,
a judge in the Supreme
Court in Madrid, but it was
so faint they could not decipher
details, let alone the
composition.
High-intensity x-ray technology
developed by Joris Dik
of Delft University and Koen
Janssens of Antwerp University
means that the painting
can be seen for the first time
in great detail. It is thought to
be of a French general or
even Joseph Bonaparte, who
was briefly king of Spain and
brother of Napoleon. Everything
from the brushwork to
the precise medals worn on
the sitter s uniform can be
seen.
Dik told the Guardian the
technology allowed his team
"to visualise" a Goya painting
that had not been seen
before: "It is exciting." Scanning
macro x-ray fluorescence
spectrometry technology –
in which fluorescent x-rays
map the picture s pigments to
create a colour image of it –
was first tried out two years
ago on a Van Gogh painting.
It revealed his previously
unknown portrait of a peasant
woman, which the artist
painted over with the 1887
work Patch of Grass.
This time, however, thetechnology
has been developed
further in a mobile version
that can be used in museums
on paintings that are too delicate
to be moved.
The potential for uncovering
unknown works of art is e-
normous as so many artists
reused canvases, usually to
save money or to conceal an
earlier work with which they
were dissatisfied.
Dik said the medals worn by
the sitter can be identified as
linked to an order created by
Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon
s brother, during his short
reign as king of Spain, from
1808 to 1813.
The portrait probably dates
from between 1809 and
1813. However, having a
painting associated with Bonaparte
after the Napoleonic
forces had withdrawn from
Spain would not have gone
down well. Dik said: "Goya,
we know, managed to survive
both political situations –
the transfer of Spain to the
French and back to Spain …
After 1820, [such a portrait]
could have been dangerous.
That s when we believe the
portrait was overpainted with
the figure we can see now, as
that painting dates from
1823."
It was during the Napoleonic
wars that Francisco de Goya
(1746-1828) created masterpieces
such as his Disasters
of War etchings, in which he
responded to the occupying
French army s atrocities.
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