Nude found in Michelangelo’s home laid bare using X-rays
ITALIAN art experts using X-rays have uncovered a previously censored 17th-century artwork of a nude woman in Michelangelo’s former home.
Allegory of Inclination depicts a young woman with lustrous hair and milky white skin gazing into the distance and holding a brass compass.
When it was painted in Florence in 1616 by Artemisia Gentileschi, the most celebrated female painter of the 17th century, the figure was naked.
The painting, on canvas, adorned the ceiling of a palazzo in Florence that had been owned by Michelangelo.
It was one of 15 works commissioned by his great-nephew, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, to celebrate the life of the artist. About 70 years after it was painted, the racy parts of the picture were concealed with painted drapery hiding the woman’s thighs and breasts.
Any attempt to strip back the additions would damage the painting so experts are using digital microscopes, infrared research, X-rays and multispectral imaging to “look” beneath the censored parts. They now want to create a digital version of the painting as it was before it was censored.
“We will be able to determine the exact technique Artemisia used, correctly map the work’s condition, and monitor our treatment plan,” said Elizabeth Wicks, an American conservator who heads the team of scientists.