CAROLINE CARLSMITH CONSERVATION
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Bust Portrait of a Young Man in Black (1560s), Tintoretto
Date
2023
Location
Conservation Center at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU
Material
Oil on canvas
Project type
Painting Conservation Treatment
Role
Conservator: Caroline Carlsmith
Supervising Conservators: Dianne Modestini, Matthew Hayes, and Molly Hughes-Hallett
SUMMARY
2023 conservation of a painting attributed to Jacopo Tintoretto from the Kress Collection belonging to the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. The portrait depicts a young man in three-quarter profile, dressed in black and wearing a black flat cap or brimmed beret. The sitter appears to be in his late teens or early twenties, with a faint moustache, otherwise hairless chin, and short, wavy, brown hair. His deep black clothing, gesturally-rendered with barely visible highlights suggesting slashed fabric, gives the impression of velvet, and a small white ruffled edge appears at the neckline of his camicia.
TREATMENT
The painting was received having already been cleaned and with its previous retouching removed. Thus, filling, inpainting, and revarnishing were undertaken to return the picture to an appearance of wholeness.
ANALYSIS PERFORMED
Examination under a binocular microscope Olympus SZX9
Examination with UV (395 nm) illumination
X-radiography with Carestream HPX-1 digital system
Infrared reflectography (Apollo Camera Opus Instruments: InGaAs Camera with 0.9-1.7 µm range)
Cross-section microscopy (Leica DM400 B microscope and GRYPHAX camera & software)
SEM-EDS (Hitachi TM3000 Table scanning electron microscope and Bruker Nano XFlash MIN SVE and Quartex 70 software)
