Italian Influence in a Portuguese Mannerist Painting (Part II): A Matter of Image or a Matter of Technique?

Abstract

The panel depictingThe Descent from the Cross, painted in 1620 by the Portuguese artist PedroNunes (1586-1637), shows a clear Italian formal influence. The painter’s colour palette wasidentified in another paper. The panel is now investigated from a technical perspective,discussing aspects related to the support, preparatory system, and paint layer build-up. Theresearch is based on the visual inspection of the painting’s surface with complementaryimaging techniques and on the analysis of the materials from the preparatory layers withmicroscopic and spectroscopic techniques. The characterisation of the painting techniquerevealed an ingenious use of colour that is based on the understanding of the optical andhandling properties of oil paint. This knowledge is illustrated by the painter’s ability toexploit and combine a range of different oil painting techniques, such as glazing, scumbling,wet-in-wet, or wet-in-dry painting; by his formulation of a wide variety of pigment mixtures;and by his use of diverse and often complex layering systems - some quite unconventionalfor Portuguese painting practice. The material and technical originality of this paintingclearly reflects Nunes’international Roman experience and his desire to update thePortuguese mainstream practice of his time.