Ritrovamento di Vulcano, 1490-95
the earliest painting on a canvas with a complex woven pattern
Source: Kermes 111-112, 2018. Claudio Seccaroni.
x-ray image courtesy of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
thank you Allen Kosanovich, Paintings Conservator, for sharing the x-ray image
In a close up we can see lines of a pattern.
The pattern in the canvas has a basic draft but with discontinuity in different places in the canvas.
There is a horizontal seam in the canvas, probably the warp direction follows the selvedge but that cannot be confirmend in the x-ray image.
The pattern above the seam:
the weave draft for the canvas is a ‘hin und wieder Arbeit’ with the detail that 2 shafts are not tied-up to the treadles as in the draft below.
The pattern below the seam; I will try to see what happened…
…please find the similarity to the pattern in the tablecloth in Duccio di Buoninsegna ‘s The wedding at Cana, tempera on panel, 1308-11 ,
thank you Claudio Seccaroni for sharing the information on this painting.
