X-Ray Reveals Secret Portrait Within A Degas Painting
- 8 years ago
Researchers have been able to uncover the portrait of a woman’s face hidden underneath an existing work by renowned artist Edgar Degas by scanning the painting with an advanced X-ray machine.
Art experts have long suspected that a portrait by renowned artist Edgar Degas contained a hidden painting underneath, and now, they know what that earlier work looks like.
As The Guardian reports, his 140-year-old piece called Portrait of a Woman appears to cover the rendering of a young woman’s face, believed to belong to a popular subject at the time, French model Emma Dobigny.
The discovery was made by scanning the painting using X-ray fluorescence mapping technique.
According to ABC News, the high-powered X-ray was able to detect the different metallic components in the underlying paints.
Once all these individual pigments were collected, mapped, and layered, researchers with the Australian Synchrotron and National Gallery of Victoria ended up with a rendering of the work which shows a fair-skinned woman with reddish hair.
A look through Degas’ catalog appeared to indicate other examples of a similar looking woman, identified as Dobigny.
Additional research is being done to confirm the subject, notes the BBC.
Meanwhile, officials with the National Gallery of Victoria, in Melbourne, Australia which currently houses the portrait, have confirmed that the painting will be left as is.
Art experts have long suspected that a portrait by renowned artist Edgar Degas contained a hidden painting underneath, and now, they know what that earlier work looks like.
As The Guardian reports, his 140-year-old piece called Portrait of a Woman appears to cover the rendering of a young woman’s face, believed to belong to a popular subject at the time, French model Emma Dobigny.
The discovery was made by scanning the painting using X-ray fluorescence mapping technique.
According to ABC News, the high-powered X-ray was able to detect the different metallic components in the underlying paints.
Once all these individual pigments were collected, mapped, and layered, researchers with the Australian Synchrotron and National Gallery of Victoria ended up with a rendering of the work which shows a fair-skinned woman with reddish hair.
A look through Degas’ catalog appeared to indicate other examples of a similar looking woman, identified as Dobigny.
Additional research is being done to confirm the subject, notes the BBC.
Meanwhile, officials with the National Gallery of Victoria, in Melbourne, Australia which currently houses the portrait, have confirmed that the painting will be left as is.