Scientific Analysis Reveals a Hidden Renaissance Masterpiece
A particularly gripping disclosure this month was an undefined painting in the maze of art history long suspected to be by Sandro Botticelli that turned out to have been hiding out all along at Saint Félix church in Champigny-en-Beauce, France. The painting of the Virgin Mary, baby Jesus and a young John the Baptist was previously believed to be 19th-century copy re-imagined as a 16th-century Renaissance work.
Scientific Breakthrough in Restoration
In a painstaking restoration process that French researchers undertook in 2023, they ventured down through the layers of paint. The team dated the piece to around 1510 with the help of micro-sampling, X-ray analysis and other scientific techniques. Experts think that while Botticelli’s studio was responsible for quite a bit of the work, electing his shop to execute certain parts of it, it was actually him who last painted significant areas like the face of Virgin Mary. The exact nature of his participation is unclear, largely due to the dieing of the artist in May 1510.
Scientists at France’s Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France, have burrowed into the generous terrain of Botticelli’s botanical studio. It united this newly acknowledged piece with its counternparts in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham and the original across form a similar version in Florence. The three paintings are united by their combination of egg tempera, oil paint and layers of gesso, compelling the viewer to travel through time and space to discern more than mere coincidence in this mosaic of Renaissance art.
A Crucible of Renaissance Influence
This identification involved more than mere surface similarities, the research showed. An X-ray further revealed Botticelli employing pouncing—a method by which a cartoon can be transferred to another surface through carbon powder, yet more proof of the esoteric studio techniques of Botticelli’s day. Art historian Matteo Gianeselli, who identified the painting’s importance in 2010, initiated further examination of its origins. Such was the case with his 2021 exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André, where he exhibited the newly attributed painting alongside its twin in Florence.
A Renaissance Reunion
The reimagined work will be shown alongside its parallel at the Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley, where they will participate in the exhibition “Botticelli: Two Madonnas at Chambord,” opening October 19. Viewers will be able to explore this intriguing reunion through educational videos, VR elements, and talks on the works.
“Our two new pieces are not only 30m high but as much a monumental resurrection of Renaissance figures on Charlemagne’s original pilgrimage, enthralled by the beacon of civilisation in Italy centuries ago that their setting beside the verdant Estuary del Loire proclaims easily once again against this Tuscan backdrop,” summed up Pierre Dubreuil, General Director at Domaine National de Chambord.
Feature Image: Studio of Sandro Botticelli: Virgin Mary, Infant Christ, and the young St. John the Baptist, ca. 1510.Champigny-en-Beauce ©Tony Querrec, GrandPalaisRmn
