iCrag Lab TCD collaborates with National Gallery of Ireland to restore monumental oil painting.
March 2022
The Conservation department at the National Gallery of Ireland cares for and preserves the paintings in the National Collection. Analysis and characterization of the materials used by artists can inform the understanding and the preservation of these works.
In 2021, Lavinia Fontana’s’ The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon , a monumental oil on canvas, painted at the turn of the seventeenth century in Bologna was re-displayed after a painstaking conservation treatment. The analysis of samples from the painting using the TCD facilities at iCRAG Lab revealed, for the first time, the pigments used in the 400-year-old painting and the stratigraphy of the paint layers.
The materials and techniques of Fontana, as the earliest independent female artist to run her own workshop, are of great interest to art historians and conservators. The analysis revealed, for example, that Fontana used a layering system of the blue mineral pigment Azurite and the lower cost, ground blue potassium glass pigment Smalt. This particular layering system was recommended in Artists’ treatises at the time to prevent discolouration of the Smalt, demonstrating Fontana’s knowledge of the prevailing advice.
The facilities and expertise at iCRAG Lab allow the Gallery to make great leaps forward in our knowledge of the materials present in our collection, and complemented by art historical research this analysis leads to new discoveries and a greater understanding of these artworks.
Photo © National Gallery of Ireland - prohibited any form of reproduction, transmission, performance, display, rental, lending or storage in any retrieval system without the consent of the National Gallery of Ireland
Photo © National Gallery of Ireland - prohibited any form of reproduction, transmission, performance, display, rental, lending or storage in any retrieval system without the consent of the National Gallery of Ireland
