Technical analysis of paintings can occasionally yield some unexpected results, none more so than the discovery of other images hidden beneath the surface. As part of the Making Art in Tudor Britain project a small portrait of Sir Francis Walsingham came into the Gallery’s conservation studio to be examined as a ‘reserve’. We weren’t expecting to spend much time on it, but simply to examine it using infrared photography and possibly to carry out an x-ray. However, when the infrared photograph revealed two shadowy forms beneath the skin in the sitter’s face it became apparent that this was a very unusual painting. The x-ray showed that the figure on the right was a seated woman with loose long hair, and possibly a child in her arms. Very surprisingly, particularly in the context of a portrait, we seemed to have found a small devotional image that featured the Virgin and Child.…
By
Charlotte Bolland, Project Curator (Making Art in Tudor Britain)
9 January 2013
