Old Painting: Copy, Pictorial Reconstruction, Reconstitution, or Forgery ?

What exactly are we discussing here?

In an era of "deconstruction" of numerous ideas, theories, and concepts, this post explores the opposite phenomenon: "reconstruction" within the field of historical painting.

1. Interest in the "appearance" and "Depth" of Historical painting

2. The precise focus of research into old paintings.

3. The illusion of "historically accurate" reproduction.

4. What can "pictorial reconstructions" teach us?

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1. Interest in the "Appearance" and "Depth" of Historical Painting

Detail from a copy by Phi-Artiste-Peintre after Michelangelo’s The Temptation of Saint Anthony.

Interest in the "appearance" and "depth" of historical painting isn’t new. Early testimonies from artists, their writings, and sketchbooks (Cennini, Vasari, Pacheco, Félibien, etc.), along with the first printed sources (recipes, treatises, artist journals), form a rich body of documentation. Art historians and scientists today continue to explore the origins of oil painting and the role of key artists (Van Eyck, Vermeer, El Greco) in developing various processes.

Since the 2000s, new technologies and instrumental analysis have greatly expanded our understanding of the material layers in historical paintings. These advancements, encouraging collaboration between the humanities and material sciences, have led to international progress focused on old materials and preparatory layers in oil painting. Well-established research groups, often attached to renowned institutions, laboratories (ICOM, The Rembrandt Research Project, the De Mayerne Programme), or major museums (National Gallery in London, Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Louvre), work on these inquiries with extensive databases (Pigment Compendium, Rembrandt Database, RCE's ARTES Database).

We encourage readers to explore the well-documented synthesis presented by Marie Julie Nicoline (Maartje) Stols-Witlox in her 2014 doctoral thesis at the University of Amsterdam, titled Historical Recipes for Oil Painting Preparatory Layers in Northwest Europe, 1550–1900: Analysis and Reconstruction. This work provides a precise overview and an extensive bibliography that helps identify the global specialists on oil painting substrates and techniques of certain painters: Jo Kirby, Leslie Carlyle, Jill Dunkerton, Ella Hendriks, etc. Publications today on this subject abound, whether as in-depth articles or synthesis books. Archetype Publications in London, established in 1987, also specialises in books on conservation and art history techniques.

Research teams often work on selected groups of artworks, focusing on specific contexts, moments, or regions (e.g., Florence, Antwerp, Seville) that flourished at particular times. Their studies aim to uncover the material identity of artworks. Not surprisingly, Renaissance Italians and Flemish artists, as well as 17th-century Dutch and Spanish artists, have received particular scientific attention.

2. What Exactly Do Studies on Historical Paintings Investigate? What is the Correct Term for This Field of Study?

Detail from a copy by Phi-Artiste-Peintre after Michelangelo’s The Temptation of Saint Anthony.

To support their theories, researchers and conservators in well-equipped laboratories increasingly recreate medieval or modern recipes to experiment directly with materials and their application. From stretcher making to canvas priming, adhesion layers, coloured grounds, and chromatic layers, they produce "copies" (broadly defined) to approach the original conception of paintings and understand the craftsmanship involved.

Their studies have generated classifications, "concepts," and general labels. Terms like “historically accurate materials,” "pictorial reconstruction" (Keune, 2011), "historically accurate reconstruction" (Keller 2012; Carlyle), and "historically informed reconstruction" (Bucklow, 2012) have emerged, as has the broader term "historically appropriate reconstitution" (Carlyle 2013).

The terms "reconstructions," "reconstitutions," and "recreations" are most often used, including in other disciplines (such as ceramics). "Copies" more simply refer to objects aiming to reproduce the painting's appearance, its "surface." As for "forgeries," while the term has been used in different ways historically (Duhem / Roffidal), in contemporary society it generally refers to counterfeits created for financial gain.

3. The Illusion of "Historically Accurate" Reproduction

Detail from a copy by Phi-Artiste-peintre after The Annunciation by Francesco Vanni

Didactic reconstructions primarily serve research by expanding knowledge of painters' techniques and materials. They also benefit museum restoration by helping to understand how paintings degrade, and indirectly serve the art market by refining the identification methods for artists and their works.

However, it’s unrealistic to think they bring us to a "truth" of the original creation, just as it’s futile to believe we can substitute the mind of an artist, regardless of their era, to fully grasp their concerns, aspirations, or hidden intentions. At best, we can grasp the “spirit of the time,” the zeitgeist as conceptualised by Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897).

These artefacts—whether termed “recreations,” “reconstructions,” or “reconstitutions” of old paintings—are above all replicas of our time, strongly inspired by recipes of the past but forever distant from their original models. They are, however, the product of an ever more rigorous and refined scientific approach.

4. Insights from "Pictorial Reconstructions"

The diversity of findings on the composition of oil painting preparatory layers reveals several points:

1. Chemical Influence: The "chemistry of the preparatory layers influences a painting’s visual characteristics and ageing behaviour," and materials within these layers continue to move over time (Stols-Witlox 2014).

2. Non-linear Development: Despite constants in certain materials (animal glue, gypsum, chalk) and processes, it would be unwise to construct a linear history of oil painting techniques across Europe, as progress was often localised in time and place.

3. Complex Terminology: Historical recipes’ terminology can vary significantly, even within the same territory or era.

4. Limits of Laboratory Analysis: Layer analysis, even under an electron microscope, remains complex, and understanding these layers in their full economic, social, and symbolic context is crucial.

5. Evolving Materials: Many materials are no longer accessible in their original historical form (e.g., wood, canvases, pigments, fillers, binders), and past transformations make them harder to identify. Toxic pigments, once common (e.g., lead white and yellow), are no longer available, and some pigments, such as the famed ancient purple from Stramonita haemastoma, have disappeared.

As Leslie Carlyle and Maartje Stols-Witlox remind us, we must acknowledge the difference between an artisan practising their craft centuries ago in their studio and a modern artist or researcher preparing samples in a chemistry lab. Today's methods require compromises, inevitably distancing them from 16th- or 17th-century realities.

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Notes

(1) Stols-Witlox, M. J. N. (2014). Historical recipes for preparatory layers for oil paintings in manuals, manuscripts and handbooks in North West Europe, 1550-1900: analysis and reconstructions. [Thesis, externally prepared, Universiteit van Amsterdam].

(2) Bibliographie générale indicative, par date de parution

• Clarke, Marc (dir.), Art of the Past: Sources and Reconstruction, Proceedings of the first symposium of the Art Technological Source Research study group, London: archetype publications Ltd, 2005.

• Carlyle, Leslie. The Artist's Assistant. Oil painting instruction manuals and handbooks in Britain 1800-1900. With reference to selected eighteenth-century sources. London: Archetype, 2001.

• Townend, J.H., et al. eds. Preparation for painting: the artist's choice and its consequences. [postprints] London: Archetype publication Ltd, 2008.

• Bomford, David / Dunkerton Jill / Wyld, Martin (dir.), A Closer Look: Conservation of Paintings, National Gallery Company Ltd, 1st ed. 2009.

• Van den Berg, Klaas Jan (dir.) / Bonaduce, Ilaria, et al., Conservation of Modern Oil Paintings, Springer, 1st ed. 2019, Reed. 2020

• Haack Christensen, Anne, Jager, Angela, Townsend Joyce H., Ground layers in European painting, 1550-1750, Archetypes publications, 2020.

(3) Carlyle, Leslie. ‘Historically accurate reconstructions of oil painters' materials. An overview of the HART Project 2002-2005’. In: Boon, Jaap, Esther Ferreira, eds. Reporting Highlights of the De Mayerne Programme: Research programme on molecular studies incConservation and technical studies in art history. The Hague: NWO, 2006: 63-76.

(4) Sophie Duhem et Émilie Roffidal, « Introduction au numéro « Vrai ou faux ? : qualifier les porcelaines de Chine (xve-xxie siècle) » dans Les Cahiers de Framespa, [En ligne] 31| 2019, URL  : http://journals.openedition.org/framespa/6511 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/framespa.6511

(5) En ces termes exacts :  "the difference between a practiced workman in the setting of a studio or factory and the modern paint researcher preparing small samples inside his chemical lab". In Stols-Witlox Maartje, op. cit., p. 39.