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4.1 METHODOLOGY

Scientific study occupied an important place in the current conservation
efforts. Technical investigations – particularly photography under visible
and ultraviolet light, infrared reflectography, and x-radiography – as well
as scientific analyses of pigments and binding media together with the
clarification of the paint stratigraphy, were indispensable prerequisites for
the subsequent, comprehensive conservation treatment. The application of
these methods also offered information on the development of the picture,
painting process, and conservation history. Although the results of these
analyses are best understood in the following sections, a selection are
presented separately here.
Through infrared reflectography (fig. 3), information on the creation of
paintings, sketches or ideas, and the composition can be

gained.23

For
Garofalo, for instance, it can be seen whether he prepared the motifs of his
painting in great detail or only as loose sketches.
In the Resurrection of Christ, it is notable that the underdrawing of the
landscape, figures, and textile passages appears largely executed freehand,
hence presumably not following a model, and that the thickness and intensity
of the (black chalk) lines vary slightly. These were not strictly followed in
the later, painterly execution. There are nonetheless a number of exceptions,
particularly in the group of figures at left, where detailed indications of
drapery folds and shadows with hatching are visible, exactly matching the
final painting (fig. 4).
Based on its size, it can be assumed that the altarpiece was painted vertically
with the aid of a ladder. As the contours of the figures show similarities
with depictions in other works by Garofalo, and because of the size and
complexity of the groups of figures, it is conceivable that Garofalo also
employed cartoon models for the basic composition. Corresponding traces,
such as pouncing points from the transfer of a design to the prepared panel,
are not present, however. The pouncing points were probably connected
to lines or wiped away.
The changes to the composition between the underdrawing and the painting
as executed, discovered using infrared reflectography and x-radiography, are
also largely visible in the relief of the paint surface. Examples include Jesus’s
weight leg and right arm (fig. 5). Some heads in the figure groups were also
reworked by the artist during the first phase of establishing the composition,
with strikingly broad and vigorous dark lines (fig. 6).

23	 Through infrared reflectography, lines of underdrawing can be made visible when

black, carbon-containing media were employed.

4.	PAINTING TECHNIQUE –  
	 PICTORIAL DEVELOPMENT –  
	 TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS

RESURRECTION

OF CHRIST