Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 97. (Budapest, 2002)
FORRAI, KORNÉLIA HOÓS, MARIANNA-SOMOS, ÉVA: The Research and Restoration of a Painting on Panel, Transferred to Canvas, by Domenico Puligo. Madonna and Child with Saint Sebastian and Saint Roch
and more reddish in the tinted photograph than the usual starch-glue paste. All these features appear to point at its being glue. If so, the paint beneath the glue layer must be the original one, whereas that above must be the overpainting applied subsequent to the transfer. The original paint constitutes two distinct layers, which can be observed in the stereomicroscopic images of the samples: there is a rose-hued one below and a light blue one atop. The main components of the former are natural rose madder, white and, in small amounts, azurite grains. The latter can be a result of their sinking to the yet not hardened nether layer from the superimposed one, which consists of azurite and white. A layer of varnish also belongs to the original paint: in the photograph taken under ultraviolet light, it is firmly distinguishable from the jagged spots of the cracked glue atop. The substance that fluoresces in yellow and leaked into the cracks of the glue may have been applied after the transferring of the paint and the removal of the protective coating, in order to "regenerate" the picture. The superimposed pigmented layer that had run into the one beneath may have been painted at the same time, as retouching. The exact time of the application of the separate layer of varnish on the top of it can not be determined, nevertheless, it is clear that it was applied over the dried-up paint. The photographs taken under UV light shows that, apart from the above, the painting had been retouched one more time, and varnished two or three times. The samples taken from the garment of the Virgin and the gown of Saint Roch demonstrate the same sequence. The one from Roch's gown (figs. 36-37) shows that a crack had developed in the painting after the transfer and the subsequent retouching. The surface has apparently refracted and the layers have moved away from one another. The second retouching was applied on this broken surface, and leaked into the crack right until the priming. The three layers of varnish that have been distinguished earlier can be observed here as well. The photographs taken under UV light at the receipt and during the treatment as well as the microscopic investigations 26 in the layers of samples taken from the original paint, using polarisation and fluorescence methods, have revealed that the pigments are the following: Blue: It proved to be azurite in the majority of the samples (the gown of the Virgin, the hose of Saint Roch, the waistcloth of Saint Sebastian), however, in the lighter parts of Mary's gown we have also found some grains of lapis lazuli, which indicates that mixed colours had been used. Green: Copper resinate was used in painting the baldachin, while the upper layer of the floor is, upon a rosy ground, green earth. Red: The gown of Saint Sebastian may have been painted, after an undeipainting in red peroxide of iron, with vermilion, mingled with white and, perhaps, minium, and modelled with natural rose madder. Red was added to the paints used in the waistcloth 26 Samples were taken and sections were polished and tinted by the authors. Éva Galambos woodcarverrestorer helped in the microscopic pigment analyses, while András Czinege woodcarver-restorer helped in the computer processing.
