Infrared Reflectogram Mosaic of the Master of the View of St Gudula, 'Portrait of a Young Man', probably early 1480s.
London, National Gallery.

Click on the image for an enlargement.

Art in the Making: Underdrawings in Renaissance Paintings

30 October 2002 - 16 February 2003
Sunley Room Admission free

Supported by

The latest in the National Gallery's award-winning 'Art in the Making' exhibitions looked at 'underdrawings' - the drawings with which artists sketched out their compositions on the prepared panel or canvas before painting. By their very nature, they are normally hidden from view under layers of paint, and special photographic techniques using infrared radiation are required to make them visible. The National Gallery has been at the forefront of this sort of research for many years and the exhibition revealed fascinating and spectacular images of the drawings beneath some familiar 15th- and 16th-century paintings.

Although only ever intended as preparatory sketches - and never intended to be seen - some of the underdrawings appear as brilliant creations in their own right, such as the extraordinarily free loops and whirls found beneath Altdorfer's 'Christ Taking Leave of his Mother' or the vivid delineation of the Master of the View of Saint Gudula's 'Portrait of a Young Man'. In other examples, dramatic changes of composition by the artist are revealed, such as the complete reversal of Pontormo's design for 'Joseph with Jacob in Egypt'.

There were around twenty works in the exhibition, accompanied by clear explanations and a detailed catalogue written by the Gallery's curators, conservators and scientists, which is available in the Gallery shops at £19.95.

Exhibition Catalogue

Back to Past Exhibitions