Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
volume 32
This edition of the Technical Bulletin has been funded by the American Friends of the National Gallery, London
with a generous donation from Mrs Charles Wrightsman
Photographic credits
BRISTOL
Photo The National Gallery, London / By Permission of Bristol City
Museum & Art Gallery: g. 1, p. 79.
FLORENCE
Galleria degli Ufzi, Florence
Galleria degli Ufzi, Florence / The Bridgeman Art Library: g. 29,
p. 100; g. 32, p. 102. Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale
Fiorentino, Gabinetto Fotograco, Ministero per i Beni e le Attivit
Culturali: g. 1, p. 5; g. 10, p. 11; g. 13, p. 12; g. 19, p. 14.
Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Fiorentino, Gabinetto
Fotograco, Ministero per i Beni e le Attivit Culturali / Photo Scala,
Florence: g. 7, p. 9; g. 8, p. 9; g. 9, p. 10; g. 31, p. 19; g. 48,
p. 27; g. 49, p. 27.
Galleria degli Ufzi, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Florence
Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Fiorentino, Gabinetto
Fotograco, Ministero per i Beni e le Attivit Culturali: g. 47, p. 26.
LONDON
Victoria and Albert Museum, London V&A Images / Victoria and
Albert Museum, London: g. 41, p. 108; Windsor Castle, Royal Library.
The Royal Collection 2011 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II: g. 35,
p. 105.
MILAN
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan courtesy of the Associazione Amici di
Brera: g. 10, p. 88.
MUNICH
Alte Pinakothek, Bayerische Staatsgemldesammlungen, Munich
2011. Photo Scala, Florence / BPK, Bildagentur fr Kunst, Kultur und
Geschichte, Berlin: g. 30, p. 18; g. 35, p. 21; Photo Cornelia
Tilenschi. Doerner Institut, Munich: g. 15, p. 13; Photo Sibylle
Forster. Bayerische Staatsgemldesammlungen, Munich: g. 36, p. 21.
NANTES
Muse des Beaux-Arts de Nantes RMN / Grard Blot: g. 41, p. 24;
g. 42, p. 25.
F RO N T C OV E R
Top left: Andrea del Verrocchio, The Virgin and Child with Two
Angels (NG 2508), c.14679 (detail).
Bottom left: Master of the Pala Sforzesca, The Virgin and Child
with Four Saints and Twelve Devotees (NG 4444), probably
c.14905 (detail).
Right: Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin of the Rocks (NG 1093),
c.1491/29 and 15068 (detail).
NEW YORK
Copyright All Rights Reserved. Photo courtesy of the Frick Art
Reference Library, New York: g. 21, p. 96.
PARIS
Muse du Louvre, Paris RMN / Franck Raux: g. 2, p. 34; RMN /
Grard Blot: g. 30, p. 100.
VATICAN CITY, ROME
Photo Vatican Museums: g. 14, p. 12.
WASHINGTON, DC
Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC.: g. 27, p. 17; g. 33, p. 20; g. 34, p. 20.
4 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
F I G . 1 Andrea del Verrocchio and workshop, completed by Leonardo da Vinci, The Baptism of Christ, c.146877. Tempera and oil on
poplar, 177 x 151 cm. Florence, Galleria degli Ufzi, inv. no. 8358.
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 5
Jill Dunkerton
6 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
FIG. 2
Andrea del Verrocchio, The Virgin and Child with Two Angels (NG 2508), c.14679. Tempera on wood, 69.2 x 49.8 cm.
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 7
Jill Dunkerton
FIG. 3
NG 2508, X-radiograph.
8 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
FIG. 4
FIG. 5
NG 2508, detail.
FIG. 6
NG 2508, detail.
FIG. 7
sculptural qualities would be very much more apparent were it not for the drastic fading of the red lake of
his cloak22 and the abrasion in past cleaning of the light
blue lining (perhaps never quite nished), changes which
have almost eliminated any sense of volume in the folds.
Their bulging curves were probably once very like those
of the Virgins mantle in the smaller painting.
Since close examination of the picture surface enables
the areas painted in tempera to be distinguished from
those added by Leonardo with his pastose, brush-marked
and blotted oil paint, it is now clear that the angel on
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 9
Jill Dunkerton
10 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
F I G . 11
NG 2508, detail.
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 11
Jill Dunkerton
F I G . 12 NG 2508,
detail of infrared
reectogram, before
restoration.
F I G . 13 Leonardo
da Vinci, The
Adoration of the Magi
(detail), unnished,
commissioned from
Leonardo in
about 14802.
Oil on panel,
243 x 246 cm.
Florence, Galleria degli
Ufzi, inv. 1594.
F I G . 14 Leonardo da
Vinci, Saint Jerome
(detail), unnished,
about 148890.
Oil on walnut,
103 x 75 cm.
Vatican City,
Vatican Museums,
inv. 40337.
12 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 13
Jill Dunkerton
F I G . 18 Andrea del Verrocchio and assistant (Lorenzo di Credi), The Virgin and Child with
Two Angels (NG 296), c.14768. Egg tempera on panel, 96.5 x 70.5 cm.
F I G . 19
Leonardo da Vinci, The Annunciation, about 14726. Oil and tempera on poplar, 100 x 221.5 cm. Florence, Galleria degli Ufzi, inv. 1618.
14 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
F I G . 22
F I G . 23
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 15
Jill Dunkerton
16 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
F I G . 26
F I G . 27
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 17
Jill Dunkerton
18 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
F I G . 32
NG 292, detail.
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 19
Jill Dunkerton
F I G . 34
20 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
F I G . 36
F I G . 38
NG 593, X-radiograph.
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 21
Jill Dunkerton
F I G . 39 Workshop
of Andrea del
Verrocchio, Tobias and
the Angel (NG 781),
c.14705.
Tempera on panel,
83.6 x 66 cm.
22 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
F I G . 40 NG 781,
infrared
reectogram.
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 23
Jill Dunkerton
and the uttering edges of his skirt and Tobiass cloak may
suggest movement, but they also form shapes that draw
attention to the picture surface rather than the volume
of the gures.
Infrared reectography has revealed an elaborate
underdrawing (F I G . 40), which is not noticeably like that
to be found in either of the National Gallerys panels by
Verrocchio. The simple schematic outlining, with a brush
and a liquid medium, of the heads, hands and feet (the
outlines not always followed in the painting) suggests that
these details were transferred, perhaps by tracing since
no pounce dots can be detected, or that they were scaled
up or down from detailed studies on paper. These studies
must have included a drawing for the hand with bent
ngers and protruding thumb which appears in other
products of the Verrocchio workshop67 and was perhaps
studied from a plaster model; here it is rather unintelligently used twice. The padded pleats of Tobiass tunic
are all carefully, if clumsily drawn, but the underdrawing
for Raphaels draperies where it can be detected through
the paint layers appears more improvised and indeed
somewhat chaotic. Some rough parallel hatching is
visible in the angels cloak where it is turned back over
his shoulder, and there is a suggestion of wash undermodelling which would not be surprising in this instance.
Most of the underdrawing is obscured, however, by the
black pigment used in the grey of the angels tunic and
also, more unusually, as a monochrome underpaint for
the pink outer side of his cloak. Presumably this was to
give it a purple cast.68
As in all products of the Verrocchio shop the execution of detail is rened, especially in the depiction of the
cloth-of-gold fabrics. It has been suggested that there
is a difference between the two gures in the application
of the gold highlights, and that the more broken and
ickering touch on the Tobias is indicative of Leonardos
handling.69 If there is a difference, it may be explained
by the greater complexity of the pattern on Tobiass
sleeve; moreover, the broken highlights on the sleeve of
Verrocchios angel in the early National Gallery panel
(F I G . 2) are equally Leonardesque. Also, the fact that
tempera paint has been used to represent the gold
trimming along the edge of the skirt of Tobiass tunic,
while the hem of Raphaels cloak is decorated with
mordant gilding, is not a signicant distinction, since
Verrocchio himself used yellow pigments for all the
golden trimmings on the early National Gallery Virgin
and Child with Two Angels and both yellow paint, mordant
gilding and mosaic gold on the later one.70
24 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
F I G . 42
F I G . 44
NG 2483, detail.
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 25
Jill Dunkerton
F I G . 45
NG 781, detail.
26 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
F I G . 46
NG 781, detail.
F I G . 50
NG 781, detail.
F I G . 51
NG 781, detail.
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 27
Jill Dunkerton
Acknowledgements
This is the last of three articles resulting from research
into Verrocchios work as a painter which has been
carried out with Luke Syson. Much of it is based on
shared observations and I am very grateful to him for his
input and for his comments on the text. In the previous
articles we acknowledged our indebtedness to a great
many scholars; their contributions remain applicable to
this article. However, I would particularly like to thank
Adeline Collanges at the Muse des Beaux-Arts, Nantes,
for making available for study the Muses panel attributed to the young Perugino, and Andrew Buttereld,
Cecilia Frosinini, Heike Stege and Elizabeth Walmsley
for comments on the text or help in obtaining images.
The infrared reectograms of the National Gallery
paintings were supplied by Rachel Billinge.
Notes
1
5
6
7
10
28 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
pp. 5701. For other suggestions see also Windt 2003 (cited in
note 1), pp. 11426.
Brown 1998 (cited in note 1) and others.
See A. Bernacchioni, Le Botteghe di Pittura: Luoghi, Strutture
e Attivit, pp. 2333, and A. Padoa Rizzo, La Bottega come
Luogo di Formazione, pp. 539, in C. Acidini Luchinat (ed.),
Maestri e botteghe. Pittura a Firenze alla ne del Quattrocento, exh.
cat., Palazzo Strozzi, Florence 1992. For the uctuating stafng
levels and discussion of the nomenclature of various workshop
assistants in Neri di Biccis busy but far from prestigious bottega,
see A. Thomas, The Painters Practice in Renaissance Tuscany,
Cambridge 1995, pp. 8193.
For painters passing through Lippis workshop, see A. di Lorenzo,
Regesto orentino in M. Ceriana, K. Christensen, E. Daffra and
A. De Marchi (eds), Fra Carnevale. Un artista rinascimentale da
Filippo Lippi a Piero della Francesca, exh. cat., Pinacoteca di Brera,
Milan, and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 20045,
pp. 290302.
See L. Keith, In Pursuit of Perfection: Leonardos Painting
Technique in L. Syson et al. 2011 (cited in note 1), pp. 5477.
See also note 48 of this article.
See A. del Serra, Lincanto dellAnnuncio: rendiconto di
restauro; R. Bellucci, M. Cetica. E. Pampaloni, L. Pezzati and
P. Poggi, La prospettiva briglia e timone della pittura Analisi
agli infrarossi e ricostruzione geometrica; and O. Casazza, F.
Ciattini, M. Fioravanti and R. Rimaboschi, Indagini sul supporto
ligneo e osservazioni techniche sul colore, in LAnnunciazione
di Leonardo: La montagna sul mare, A. Natali (ed.), Florence
2000, pp. 95127; E. Gibson, Leonardos Ginevra di Benci:
The restoration of a renaissance masterpiece, Apollo, vol. 133,
1991, pp. 1615, and J. Schmidt and H. Stege, Wie man eine
gute Malerie erkennen soll, und welche Eigenschaften sie haben
muss, um gut zu sein. Zur maltechnischen Ausfhrung, pp.
12153; J. Koller and U. Baumer, Er {} erprobte die seltsamsten
Methoden, um le zum Malen [} zu nden. Leonardos Rolle
in der frhen italienischen lmalerie, pp. 15574; H. Stege,
Es ist nicht immer gut, was schn aussieht. Untersuchungen
zu den Farbmitteln, pp. 17597, in C. Syre, J. Schmidt and
H. Stege (eds) Leonardo da Vinci: Die Madonna mit der Nelke, Munich
2006.
Summarised by Covi 2005 (cited in note 2), pp. 173214. See
also J. Dunkerton and L. Syson, In Search of Verrocchio the
Painter: The Cleaning and Examination of The Virgin and
Child with Two Angels, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, 31,
2010, pp. 441, and www.nationalgallery.org.uk/upload/pdf/
Dunkerton_Syson_2010b.pdf.
A. Natali, Lo sguardo degli angeli, pp. 6194; A. Del Serra, Il
restauro, pp. 95118; O. Casazza, M. Noferi, R. Rimaboschi,
Studi sul supporto ligneo e osservazioni sul Battesimo di Christo,
pp. 11928, in A. Natali (ed.), Lo sguardo degli angeli. Verrocchio,
Leonardo e il Battesimo di Cristo, Milan 1998. See also A. Natali,
Leonardo: Il giardino di delizie, Milan 2002, pp. 1524.
L. Syson and J. Dunkerton, Andrea del Verrocchios rst surviving
panel painting and other early works, The Burlington Magazine,
CLIII, 1294, 2011, pp. 36878.
Further aids in distinguishing between the two phases of
execution are the newly available very high resolution digital
images of The Baptism (and also Leonardos Annunciation), which
allow for a degree of magnication of the paint surface previously
only achievable with a stereobinocular microscope:
www.haltadenizione.com/magnier.
See Syson and Dunkerton (cited in note 19). Indigo has been
reported as an underpaint for azurite in a Virgin and Child
attributed to Botticelli in the Muse Jacquemart-Andr, Paris, and
another Madonna by Neri di Bicci of about 145060 in Avignon;
see E. Martin and S. Bergeon, Des bleus profonds chez les Primitifs
italiens, Techne, 4, 1996, pp. 7489, esp. pp. 823.
Del Serra (cited in note 18), p. 99. Among paintings in the
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 29
Jill Dunkerton
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
30 | NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
NAT I O NA L G A L L E RY T E C H N I C A L B U L L E T I N VO L U M E 3 2 | 31