Diagnostic campaign with Publication of one of Artemisia’s best loved works, her ‘Madonna and Child’ and ‘Santa Cecilia’ paintings at the Spada Gallery, Rome.
A project to discover the secrets of these famous and much loved paintings. Funds are needed for the English translations and publication of this new volume. This project, curated by Artemisia Gold CIC and Emmebi Diagnostica Artistica, focuses on the execution of a diagnostic research campaign to document the technique, the materials used and its state of conservation. The interest that the figure of Artemisia Gentileschi has assumed in recent decades is demonstrated not only by the numerous exhibitions dedicated to her but also by the ever-increasing number of technical studies that enable us understand how she painted and, ultimately , why her style is so unique. The investigation proposed in this project is non-envasive, using different visible and non-visible radiation (ultraviolet, infrared, X-rays), which are able to provide images and data on the different constituent layers, from the support to the pictorial and finishing layers. Upon completion of the documentation campaign, it is hoped to be able to carry out a micro-sample, to analytically investigate the preparatory layers and some pictorial layers that may be more significant. Thanks to the goodwill of the Spada Gallery, these investigations took place within the gallery and the results of the investigation were illustrated to special guests in May 2023 during an exclusive private event at Museum. The investigations were sponosored by Artemisia Gold CIC and Caravaggio & Contemporary Ltd and were carried out and illustrated by Emmebi Diagnostica Artistica.
Carried out in 2023 Project included: Diagnostic investigations (including organization of live investigations) – Multispectral photographs (VIS-UV-IR) – Macrophotographs and microphotographs – Infrared reflectography – Radiography – X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF – Stratigraphy on polished section and SEM-EDS microanalysis – Private event at the Gallery Spada Planned for 2024 – A Publication with new findings The Madonna and Child and Saint Cecilia by Artemisia Gentileschi at the Spada Gallery The important findings, recently acquired on Artemisia Gentileschi’s Madonna and Child (Galleria Spada, Rome), thanks to the technical research project sponsored by Artemisia Gold cic and Caravaggio&Contemporary Ltd have given the impetus for the production of a monographic volume on the great painter’s two paintings, preserved in the Museum. Both the Madonna and Child and Saint Cecilia were subjected to an in-depth diagnostic campaign, curated by Emmebi Diagnostica Artistica s.r.l., aimed at characterizing their constituent materials and reconstructing the artist’s compositional processes. In the volume, which will be published in 2024 in Italian and English by the publisher De Luca, with essays by Francesco Solinas, Adriana Capriotti, Marco Cardinali and Maria Beatrice De Ruggieri, new light will be shed on the great artist and in particular on her two works in the Spada collection, thanks also to the contribution made to historical-critical studies by technical-scientific research. A rich set of images and technical data will accompany the publication of the studies.
