I have uploaded a proposal for the upcoming ICOM CC conference in Valencia 2023 !
The focus will be on the analyses of seven canvases of El Greco paintings and one of Alonso Sánchez Coello. Each with their unique weave draft that allows us to confirm identical patterns as well as distinguish subtle differences.
Contribution Title: Identifying historic textile weave patterns in painting supports
Working Group: PaintingsType: PaperAuthor: Helena Loermans
Co-Authors:
Comment: Lab O is a laboratory for handwoven canvas. It’s mission is to recover and share the knowledge of historic canvases. www.labo.pt Helena Loermans
…in Rome, El Greco painted “Portrait of a Man” in 1570, on a canvas with a woven pattern Find here an overview of the different patterns from 1570 till 1610… different- and exactly the same patterns
Marion F. Mecklenburg, Senior Research Scientist at the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute wrote this recommendation on the research and reconstructions at Lab O.
“When I first encountered Helena Loermans’ research on the reconstruction of historic canvases at Lab O I was somewhat taken aback. It was such an obvious method to merge the historic textile industry technology to the canvas supports used on paintings. Yet this connection is rarely discussed in the conservation community. It encouraged me to reassess my understanding of historical weaving and recognize that artists had access to textiles having rather complex weave geometries. Further her actual recreation of the sophisticated textiles early painters used as painting supports clearly shows what would otherwise be difficult for the average viewer to see.”
….the world is reaching out to Odemira !Requests for publishing about Lab O’s research and reconstructions of historic canvases came to Odemira from the Museum Conservation Institute; Smithsonian Institution and Princeton University.
Grateful that the Old Masters continue ‘knocking at the doorstep’ of a local workshop….
…’green light’ for analysing more textile fragments in cooperation with the Textile Conservation Department of the Metropolitan Museum.Weave drafts will be generated from high resolution- and micro photographs of these textiles to compare with patterns in historic canvases.
Saint Martin and the Beggar and Madonna and Child with Saint Martina and Saint Agnes are painted on a support canvas with a complex pattern.
Analyses of the X-ray images of both paintings show that the pattern of the canvases are identical.
Both canvases show a ‘mistake’ in the same spot!
The ‘mistake’ that shows up in the xray of the textile is the result of the fact that the first treadle of the loom has shaft six attached: this shaft should not be lifted in that weft pass.
It helped me to be more secure of the reconstruction of the pattern and to write the weave draft.
Another intersting aspect is that the weave draft is the same as for the support canvas of El Greco’s The Burial of the Count of Orgaz and Alonso Sánchez Coello’s Infanta Isabel and Magdalena Ruiz but the above mentioned ‘mistake’ does not appear in these canvases.
El Greco Saint Martin and the Beggar 1597-99 National Gallery of Art Washington
X-ray image of the canvas of El Greco’s Saint Martin and the Beggar 1597-99 Courtesy National gallery of Art Washington
weave draft of the pattern of El Greco’s Saint Martin and the Beggar
weave draft of El Greco’s Madonna and Child with Saint Martina and Saint Agnes 1597 -99
El Greco, Madonna and Child with Saint Martinaand Saint Agnes, 1597-99 National Gallery of Art Washington
source: Conservation Research Studies in the History of Art 41 , 1993
Another intersting aspect is that the weave draft is the same as for the support canvas of El Greco’s The Burial of the Count of Orgaz and Alonso Sánchez Coello’s Infanta Isabel and Magdalena Ruiz but the above mentioned ‘mistake’ does not appear in these canvases.
Another intersting aspect is that the weave draft is the same as for the support canvas of El Greco’s The Burial of the Count of Orgaz and Alonso Sánchez Coello’s Infanta Isabel and Magdalena Ruiz but the above mentioned ‘mistake’ does not appear in these canvases.
Vista y Plano de Toledo 1610detail of the support canvas x-ray image with pattern analyses on top , deciphering the pattern at Lab Oweave draft generated at Lab O :woven on a loom with 14 shafts and 14 threadles ; repeat of 50 warps and 50 wefts source: Carmen Garrido ; Cuad. Art. Gr., 40, 2009, 53-6
but may give information !
