Caravaggio – Stratigraphy

Caravaggio Madonna dei Palafrenieri

Caravaggio Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Dei Palafrenieri)

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Support
Roman linen canvas with a simple, regular medium weave, of about 12 × 15 threads per square centimeter (Caravaggio has rarely also used “twill” weave, with a diagonal pattern, called “olona canvas”).

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Animal glue

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Preparation
light and flexible, reddish-brown in color, based on earths dissolved in oil (mestica).

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Incision drawing
that fixed the cardinal points of the compositional system, performed freehand with the handle of the brush or with an awl.

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Draft
quick and loose brushstrokes of oil color that define the composition in every detail. The painting is built with color paste and not by layers (“impasto a corpo” technique).

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Paint layer

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Final layers
egg tempera highlights, finishing layers and light brown or black glazes.

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Varnish
thick layer of natural resin mixed with bitumen.

Caravaggio – Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Dei Palafrenieri)  – 1605 – 1606 – Oil on canvas, 292 cm × 211 cm – Galleria Borghese, Rome