Le indagini nell'infrarosso al servizio della storia dell'arte: nuove prospettive di ricerca

Since the early 1970s, infrared reflectography has been the dominant method in the technical study of paintings. Providing new insights into the early stages of the creative process, it has had the fullest integration in art history. The power of IR radiations to penetrate the color layer makes it possible to reveal the underlying layers. This allows us to detect the underdrawing, i.e., the preliminary drawing made by the artist directly on the ground of the painting, before applying the color. Infrared reflectography, therefore, enables the art historian to gain insight into a very important phase of the artists’ creative process, which would otherwise remain hidden. After briefly describing the physical principle and history of reflectography, the paper illustrates the importance of the study of underdrawing for the establishment of a “technical connoisseurship”, able to overcome limitations of traditional connoisseurship. Looking at how painters planned and drew their pictures befo e coloring them adds new information that is very important for art historians. Underdrawings can assist in attributions; it can show how copies were made; it can provide a basis for investigating workshop collaboration.