Underdrawing
In some cases, underdrawing can be clearly visualized using infrared reflectography because carbon black pigments absorb infrared light, whereas opaque pigments such as lead white are transparent with infrared light. Underdrawing in many works, for example, the Annunciation (van Eyck, Washington) or the Arnolfini Portrait, reveals that artists made alterations, sometimes radical ones, to their compositions.
The underdrawing can reveal changes, sometimes radical, made by the painter as the painting develops. For example, one of the five versions of the Madonna by Edvard Munch has underdrawings showing the arms conventionally hanging down, before the final version has one arm behind the subject's head, and the other behind her back.[2]
References
- Infrared reflectography and spectroscopic analysis of paintings
- from the original on 2020-11-25. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
- ^ Alberge, Dalya (3 October 2021). "Strike a pose: infrared scans reveal the method in Munch's Madonna". The Observer. Archived from the original on 3 October 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
External links
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