Project: Study of the painting Lamentation on the dead Christ by

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MOLAB User Report
Project: Study of the painting Lamentation on the dead Christ by Agnolo di
Cosimo di Mariano, called Il Bronzino, 1545
User Group Leader: Claire Stoulig
Location : Musée des Beaux Arts et de Archeologie, Besançon, France
By about 1540 Bronzino alternated his production of smooth, almost crystalline portraits, with
noteworthy decorative schemes, such as the frescos in the Medici villas, the redecoration of the
private apartments in the Palazzo Vecchio or designing tapestries for the Grand Duke. From 1560
onward, he produced more religious paintings for altars in the major Florentine churches.
The Lamentation on the dead Christ altarpiece was executed for the Chapel of Eleonora in the
Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The chapel is located on the second floor of the palace and was the
private chapel of the duchess, Eleonora of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici and daughter of
the Viceroy of Naples. The painting occupied the end wall of the chapel.
The painting was finished in 1545 and was sent in the same year to Besançon to the private
secretary of the Emperor Charles V with whom Cosimo had important negotiations. Since 1553 a
replica by Bronzino replaces the altarpiece in Palazzo Vecchio.
The Lamentation on the dead Christ in Besançon has been studied, through MOLAB
equipments, using the following techniques:
-fiber-optic FT-IR
-fiber-optic Vis-NIR
-fiber-optic fluorescence
-fluorescence imaging
-IR-colour scanner reflectography
-laser micro-prophilometry
Fig. 1 – The high-resolution IR-colour scanner in operation. The IR image of an angel
(upper part of the painting).
The almost complete set of pigments used was identified. In the sky and the Vergin robe, the
presence of lapislazuli (by FT-IR), but also of azurite (XRF and FT-IR) was detected. Recent
repaintings by cobalt-blue were also evidenced (by XRF). For the yellows, the dress of St. John
was determined to be made mainly by lead-tin-yellow, while the hairs of the Magdalene and those
of the young boy close to her are made by yellow ochre. Red colours are essentially lakes with a
base of variable quantities of vermilion and/or red ochre. Green are all copper based pigments.
For a view of the points where measurements were carried out, see Fig.2.
A general image in fluorescence (excitation light 365 nm) has been recorded.
Two different types of lakes were identified by wavelength resolved Vis-fluorescence. Within
the mixtures of lakes and oil (as binder) the presence of glass powder was found (Mn signal by
XRF), indicating that Bronzino was used to follow a practice common to Florentine painters of
his period,using glass powder as siccative for the oil.
Fig. 2 The Lamentation on the dead Christ by Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano, called
Il Bronzino, 1545. Points were FT-IR measurements were carried out are indicated.
Squares refer to areas where the varnish was removed.
Points where fluorescence measurements were carried out are indicated by yellow numbers in
Fig.2 FT-IR spectra collected on whitish and yellowish lacunas present in the lower part of the
pinting showed particular absorptions at 2135, 2235, 2304, 2378 cm-1 together with a band at
1207 cm-1 characterized by a reststrahlen shape. They have been compared with the reflectance
spectrum of a typical protein, animal glue, presenting all the main features of this substances:
amide I-1670 cm-1, carbonyl stretching vibration; amide II-1580cm-1, combination of CN and NH
vibrations; amide III-1470 and 1406 cm-1, CH bending vibrations, even if a bit shifted towards
higher wavenumbers with respect to the standard (see the spectra of Fig.3).
1207
1794
2135
2304
2235
2514
3000
1670
1580
1470
1406
2378
log(1/R) (arbitr. units)
CaCO3
ν1 + ν3
CaCO 3
ν1 + ν4
#13_uncleaned area
#14_uncleaned area
#15_uncleaned area
animal glue
2500
2000
-1
wavenumber (cm )
1500
1000
Fig. 3 – The in-situ fiber-optic FT-IR spectra of areas 13-15, where lacunas were present
Hypothesis on the nature of the binders were possible, but this point needs further investigation
by stratigraphy.
Laser micro-prophilometry allowed a good documentation of flakes and detachments at the
micron level.
References
Maurice BROCK, “Bronzino”, Paris, Editions du Regard, 2002
Elizabeth PILLIOD, « Pontormo, Bronzino, Allori. A Genealogy of Florentine Art », New HavenLondon, Yale University Press, 2001
Sylvie BÉGUIN, « A propos du chef-d’oeuvre de Bronzino : la Déploration sur le Christ mort » in
Actes du Colloque international Les Granvelle et l’Italie au XVIe siècle : le mécénat d’une famille,
Besançon, Université de Franche-Comté, Ed. Cêtre (Besançon), 1996, p.129-149
Matthieu PINETTE, Philippe LAGRANGE, Françoise SOULIER-FRANÇOIS, Frédérique
THOMAS-MAURIN, « Le Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie de Besançon », Fondation
Paribas/ Ville de Besançon/ Réunion des musées nationaux, 1994, p.30-31
Janet COX-REARICK, “Bronzino’s Chapel of Eleonora in the Palazzo Vecchio”, Berkeley-Los
Angeles-Oxford, University of California Press, 1993
Matthieu PINETTE, Françoise SOULIER-FRANÇOIS, « De Bellini à Bonnard. Chefs-d’oeuvre
de la peinture du Musée des Beaux-Arts de Besançon », Paris, Pierre Zech Editeur, 1992
(Collection « Le Temps apprivoisé »), p.50 (notice par Matthieu Pinette), reprod. en coul.p.51
Janet COX-REARICK, “From Bandinelli to Bronzino : The genesis of the ‘Lamentation’ for the
Chapel of Eleonora di Toledo” in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 1989,
vol.3, n°1, p.37-84
« Le XVIe siècle Européen. Peintures et Dessins dans les collections publiques françaises », cat.
Exposition Paris, Petit Palais, 1965-1966, p.39-40, n°49 (notice rédigée par Germaine Barnaud)
« Besançon, le plus ancien Musée de France », cat. exposition Paris, Musée des Arts décoratifs,
1957, p.9-10, pl.IX (notice par Marie -Lucie Cornillot)