Passion in Venice: Crivelli to Tintoretto and Veronese (New York, Museum of Biblical Art [MOBIA], 11 February–12 June 2011)

Non-Invasive Study of the Pigments of a Painting on Copper with the Inscription “Boceto di Pablo Veronese” on the Back

“…The identified color palette includes high-quality, high-priced pigments such as vermilion and ultramarine blue. These pigments are common in the palette used by P. Veronese and have already been identified in other studies [29][30][31][32]. These pigments are also common to painters of the Venetian school, along with lake red, lead white, lead-tin yellow (I), lead-tin yellow (II), orpiment, realgar, earth, azurite, enamel, and copper malachite resinate [33,34], although in this case study not all of these pigments are present, as it is a small painting with a reduced palette.…”

“…Regarding the use of a metallic support, artists working in Venice during the Italian Renaissance period, such as Federico Barocci, Carlo Saraceni, Veronese, and other contemporaries, all did so on occasion [20,25,29,30]. Although Veronese painted predominantly on canvas and in large sizes [29,31,32], he also experimented with different types of supports and sizes, as can be seen in the Pietá and Saints [30], one of very few altarpieces anywhere painted on a copper support.…”

“…Areas affected by copper oxidation degradation known as pitting were observed (Figure 2, points [30][31][32][33][34]. This degradation could have been caused by the loss of preparation and the pictorial layer that exposed the copper support, later being affected by humidity and oxygen.…”