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Scientists from the Rijksmuseum, CNRS, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of Antwerp made a rare discovery of lead formate in Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. This very first discovery of painting research offers a new understanding of the techniques of painting of the seventeenth century and of the history of the preservation of the work. The findings were published in the journal Angewandte Chemie – International Edition.
The Night Watch, an iconic masterpiece by Rembrandt is currently housed in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in The Netherlands. The painting, completed in 1642, was the subject of its most important research and preservation project in 2019, known as the night watch operation. An international research team studied chemical reactions and the ageing of materials in this project.
Crystalline phase distribution obtained via structural imaging on an area of The Night Watch (1642) by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). An international research team studied chemical reactions and the ageing of materials in this project.
The team of scientists combined multi-scale imaging methods in order to chemically study the materials used by Rembrandt in The Night Watch. An X-ray scanner developed at Antwerp University (Belgium) has been applied directly to the paint, while tiny fragments of paint have been studied using synchrotron micro-X-ray probes, to the background, European synchrotron technology (France), and petra-iii (Federal Republic of Germany). Both of these tests revealed the presence of an unexpected organometallic compound: lead formats.
This compound had never been detected before in historical paints: "in paints, lead formatters were only reported once in 2020. In model paintings (scale models, fresh paints). In paints, lead formats were only reported once in 2020.
In model paintings (scale models, fresh paints). And now, surprise: not only do we find lead trainers.
These are identified where there is no lead pigment, white, yellow. We believe they are likely to disappear quickly, therefore they have not been detected in the ancient paintings of the masters so far", says Victor Gonzalez, cnrs investigator in the laboratory of supramolecular and macromolecular photophysics and photochemistry (ppsm) (cnrs/ens paris-saclay) and first author of the fazlic document, a doctoral candidate in esrf and co-author, in the European synchrotron experiment on small paint samples. Ida Fazlic, PhD student at ESRF and co-author of the European Synchrotron experiment on small paint samples.
Photograph by ESRF / Stef Cande. For Katri Keune, scientific officer at the rijksmuseum and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), this observation is the key to better understand rembrandt: "in night operation, we concentrate on the technique of rembrandt painting, the status of the picture and how best to preserve it for generations to come. To answer these questions, the scientists studied fragments taken from The Night Watch and model samples prepared in the laboratory simulating the painter’s formulations.
Can it provide information about the recipes of the Rembrandt workshop, or illuminate the chemical mechanisms active in the layers of ancient paint? To answer these questions, the scientists investigated fragments of the night watch and modeled laboratory-prepared samples simulating the painter's formulations. They worked with the hypothesis according to which rembrandt used an organic medium (linseed oil) containing dissolved lead oxide (pbo litharge) to improve its drying properties.
"with the esrf's unique analysis performance, the lightest source of synchrotron light in the world, The presence of formatters could be mapped at a micrometric level, and learning through time", explanations of the sea, An esrf scientist.
Can it provide information about the recipes of the Rembrandt workshop, or illuminate the chemical mechanisms active in the layers of ancient paint?
Reference: “Lead(II) Formate in Rembrandt’s Night Watch: Detection and Distribution from the Macro- to the Micro-scale” by Dr. Victor Gonzalez, Ida Fazlic, Dr. Marine Cotte, Dr. Frederik Vanmeert, Arthur Gestels, Steven De Meyer, Frederique Broers, Dr. Joen Hermans, Dr. Annelies van Loon, Prof. The next step for the team is to take a closer look at the origin of these formats and see if they could also come from previous restorative treatments. Katrien Keune, 2 January 2023, Angewandte Chemie – International edition.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202216478
Note: Besides giving information about the pictorial techniques of Rembrandt, this research opens new ways on the responsiveness of historic pigments, and thus on preserving the heritage", says Mr Janssens, A teacher at Antwerp University.
