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Pentimento
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In painting, a pentimento (Italian for 'repentance'; from the verb pentirsi, meaning 'to repent'; plural pentimenti) is "the presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over".[1] Sometimes the English form "pentiment" is used, especially in older sources.
Significance
[edit]Pentimenti may show that a composition originally had an element, for example, a head or a hand, in a slightly different place, or that an element no longer in the final painting was originally planned. The changes may have been done in the underdrawing of the painting, or by the visible layers of paint differing from the underdrawing, or by the first painted treatment of the element having been over-painted.
Some pentimenti have always been visible on the final painting with careful inspection; others are revealed by the increasing transparency that some paint acquires after several centuries. Others, especially in the underdrawing, can only be seen with modern methods such as X-rays and infrared reflectography and photographs. These are able to record photographically some pigments, depending on their chemical composition, which remain covered by later paint layers. For example, white lead, a common pigment, will be detected by X-ray, and carbon black underdrawings can often be seen with great clarity in infra-red reflectograms.[2] These methods have greatly expanded the number of pentimenti art historians are aware of, and confirmed that they are very common in the works of many old masters, from Jan van Eyck onwards.
Pentimenti are considered especially important when considering whether a particular painting is the first version by the original artist, or a second version by the artist himself, or his workshop, or a later copyist. Normally, secondary versions or copies will have few if any pentimenti, although this will not always be the case, as in The Lute Player by Caravaggio. Like Rembrandt, Titian and many other masters, Caravaggio seems rarely to have made preliminary drawings but to have composed straight onto the canvas. The number of pentimenti found in the work of such masters naturally tends to be higher.
Marks revealing a totally different subject, for example in The Old Guitarist by Picasso, are not usually described as pentimenti – the artist has abandoned his "earlier composition" to begin a new one. In cases where a composition has been changed by a later painter or restorer, marks showing the original composition would not be described as pentimenti either; it must be the original painter who has changed his mind.
Evidence of pentimenti may also help experts determine that the work was not created by a copier or forger since they are more likely to reproduce the original without making changes.[3]
Usage in English
[edit]
The term is usually treated as an Italian word and therefore written in italics, depending on the style used in the individual context. The fully anglicised word pentiment (plural pentiments) is much rarer, though included in the Grove Dictionary of Art. The distinction between singular and plural is also rather flexible; some writers refer to a change of just one outline as pentimenti, whilst others treat each area that has been changed as a single pentimento. The word pentimento is occasionally used synonymously with palimpsest, but strictly the latter is used for documents and parchments which, due to fading, have been reused.
Examples
[edit]A portrait of Jacques de Norvins was painted by Ingres in 1811–12, when the sitter was Napoleon's Chief of Police in Rome. Originally, instead of the curtain at the left, there was a fully painted bust of a boy's head on top of a small column. Probably this was a bust of Napoleon II, Napoleon's son, who was known as the King of Rome. The presumption is that this was overpainted with the curtain after the fall of Napoleon, either by Ingres himself, or another artist.[4] The bust can just be made out in the enlarged online photo, with its chin level with the sitter's hair-line; the top of the column was level with the middle of the sitter's ear. These may always have been (just) visible, or have become so by the paint becoming transparent with age. Few viewers of the painting would notice the bust without it being pointed out. Strictly speaking, these alterations might not be described as pentimenti, because of the presumed lapse of time, and because another artist may have made the change.[5]
Several examples by Leonardo da Vinci can be found in his Salvator Mundi, which was sold to a private collector for more than $450 million at Christie's.[6] In particular the pose of Christ's right thumb was altered.
A work by Caravaggio, The Cardsharps, has a number of typical minor pentimenti, altering the position of the figure on the right, which are revealed by infra-red reflectograms. These are used in discussing the painting and comparing it to another version of the subject in Bari.[7]
Zurbarán's Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth shows that the size of a white cloth was expanded after the dark background underpainting had been applied; the expanded area is a darker white.[8]
An example by Rembrandt can be found in his 1654 portrait Flora.[9][10] The painting depicts the Roman goddess of spring, thought to be modelled on his deceased wife Saskia, and has elements of pentimento, in a double hat brim where the artist overpainted.[11]
In 2016, as a result of the discovery of pentimenti after conservation and cleaning, the Courtauld Institute changed its opinion on its version of Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l'herbe from that of it being a copy to it being a preparatory painting that predates the version in the Louvre. Pentimenti were visible once the old varnish was removed, including alterations to the curve of the back of the female nude and the cap of one of the male figures, suggesting that the Courtauld picture is a preparatory work.[12]
Other uses
[edit]The term has sometimes been used in a modern sense to describe the appearance of the sides of buildings with painted advertising. Often old ads are painted over with newer ads and the paint wears away to reveal the older layers. Examples in Amsterdam, New York City and elsewhere have been photographed.[13][14]
The 2022 role-playing video game Pentiment, a murder mystery set in the early Renaissance, is named after the term. Pentimenti feature heavily in the plot of the game and its main theme of history being written and rewritten via art.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "pentimento". Dictionary.com.
- ^ "Using infrared reflectography". The Cleveland Museum of Art. 19 January 2004. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
- ^ "Lost Caravaggio painting found in attic could fetch $171 million at auction".
- ^ The National Gallery, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, National Gallery Publications, 1995, ISBN 1-85709-050-0
- ^ "Monsieur de Norvins". The National Gallery. 17 November 2000. Archived from the original on 6 January 2007.
- ^ Crow, Kelly (16 November 2017). "Leonardo da Vinci Painting 'Salvator Mundi' Smashes Records With $450.3 Million Sale" – via www.wsj.com.
- ^ "Kimbell Art Museum - Conservation Information". Archived from the original on 2006-10-01. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
- ^ "CMA Exhibition Feature : The Pentimenti". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
- ^ "Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) 'Flora'". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
- ^ the painting; this is not to be confused with Rembrandt's other Floras.
- ^ "Pentimento". Britannica. 20 July 1998. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
- ^ Martin Baily, "London version of Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe predates the bigger picture in Paris", The Art Newspaper, 26 Nov 2016.
- ^ Jump, Frank H. (2008-02-28). "Amsterdam Ediglyph". www.fadingad.com. Retrieved 2017-11-17.
- ^ "Fading Ad Campaign". www.frankjump.com. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
Sources
[edit]- National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings by Lorne Campbell, 1998, ISBN 1-85709-171-X
External links
[edit]
Look up pentimento in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Pentimento
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Etymology and Definition
Etymology
The term pentimento derives from the Italian verb pentirsi, meaning "to repent" or "to change one's mind," and literally translates to "repentance." This etymology originates from the Latin paenitēre, the infinitive form of paeniteō, connoting regret or sorrow.[5][6] In English, the word first appeared in 1823, specifically in reference to the reemergence of an original drawn or painted element in a work that the artist had subsequently overpainted.[5] The term gained prominence in the 20th century with advancements in art examination techniques, such as X-rays, which allowed for the detection of underlayers in paintings.[7]Definition in Art
In art, particularly in painting, a pentimento (pronounced /ˌpɛn.tɪˈmɛn.toʊ/, or pen-tee-MEN-toh) refers to the visible or emergent trace of an earlier image, form, or stroke that has been altered and painted over during the artist's creative process, often revealing a change in composition or intention.[5][8] The term derives from the Italian word for "repentance," reflecting the notion of an artistic reconsideration.[8] The plural form is pentimenti.[5] Pentimenti differ from underdrawings, which are preliminary sketches executed on the painting's support prior to the main application of paint layers; instead, pentimenti arise as modifications made while the work is actively in progress, becoming detectable through transparency, cracking, or aging of the overlying paint.[9][10] These traces provide evidence of the artist's evolving decisions, such as repositioning figures or adjusting proportions, without constituting mere preparatory work.[9]Formation and Detection
Causes of Pentimenti
Pentimenti arise primarily from an artist's deliberate changes during the creation process, such as repositioning figures, adjusting outlines, or modifying compositional elements through overpainting rather than complete erasure.[11] These alterations often stem from evolving artistic intentions, where initial sketches or forms are covered with new layers to refine the work.[3] Such revisions are a natural part of the creative workflow, particularly in oil painting, where the medium allows for fluid adjustments without starting anew.[12] Material properties of oil-based paints contribute significantly to the visibility of pentimenti over time. The semi-transparency of glazes and certain pigments permits light to penetrate and reveal underlying layers, especially when thin applications are used.[13] As oil paints age, they tend to become more translucent, allowing previously concealed forms to emerge.[13] Additionally, age-related changes, such as the increased translucency of paint layers and cracking, can further expose these hidden traces by allowing light to penetrate and highlight subsurface differences.[12] Historical painting techniques, notably the alla prima method developed in the Venetian school, encouraged such visible revisions by emphasizing direct, wet-on-wet application of paint on the canvas. This approach, which avoided extensive preliminary drawings or scraping away errors, allowed artists to build and modify compositions spontaneously, often resulting in layered overpainting that later becomes apparent.[14] The technique's reliance on the optical effects of oil layers, combined with minimal intervention in earlier stages, inherently preserved traces of decision-making in the final work.[15]Methods of Detection
Visual inspection remains the most accessible method for detecting pentimenti, relying on naked-eye observation of subtle outlines, color discrepancies, or ghost-like forms that emerge as upper paint layers become transparent over time due to aging or pigment properties such as transparency.[11][16] This technique is often the initial step in art conservation, allowing experts to identify surface-level changes without equipment, though it is limited to visible manifestations and may miss deeper alterations.[17] Imaging technologies provide non-invasive means to reveal hidden pentimenti by exploiting differences in material absorption and reflection of electromagnetic radiation. X-radiography detects density variations between paint layers, as X-rays are absorbed differently by pigments like lead white, highlighting revisions through contrasts in the resulting radiograph; multiple images are often stitched into mosaics and processed to isolate mismatches with the visible surface.[18] Infrared reflectography (IRR) uses wavelengths from 900 nm to 2500 nm to penetrate opaque upper layers, rendering carbon-based underdrawings and alterations visible since many pigments are transparent in this range while carbon absorbs infrared light.[19] Ultraviolet (UV) light, typically in the 300–400 nm range, induces fluorescence that differentiates varnishes, retouchings, and overpaints from original layers, aiding in the identification of surface modifications related to pentimenti.[20] Advanced methods like multispectral imaging capture reflectance across UV, visible, and infrared bands (e.g., 300–1000 nm) to non-invasively map underdrawings and pentimenti by analyzing spectral differences in pigments, often combined with digital enhancement techniques such as principal component analysis or false-color imaging for clearer visualization.[21] These approaches enable detailed, layered analysis without sampling, improving detection accuracy for conservation purposes.[22] Recent developments as of 2025 incorporate machine learning algorithms to analyze and enhance imaging data, improving the detection and visualization of pentimenti in conservation efforts.[23]Significance in Art History
Insights into Artistic Process
Pentimenti serve as tangible evidence of artists' deliberation, illustrating shifts in pose, scale, or perspective that underscore a trial-and-error approach to composition. These revisions, often uncovered through technical examinations such as X-radiography, demonstrate how painters iteratively refined their designs, balancing initial conceptions with emerging ideas to achieve a cohesive final form. Such changes highlight the dynamic nature of artistic decision-making, where initial sketches or underlayers were modified to enhance spatial relationships or figural proportions.[24][25] Historically, pentimenti illuminate evolving artistic methodologies across periods, particularly contrasting the systematic preparatory underdrawings and structured planning of Renaissance painters with the greater improvisational freedom and spontaneous adjustments in Baroque practices. In the Renaissance, especially among Venetian artists like Titian, the adoption of oil painting facilitated a layered technique that encouraged extensive on-canvas revisions, allowing for spontaneous adjustments that reflected an adaptive, exploratory process. Titian's method, involving multiple stages of underpainting and overpainting, exemplifies this, as seen in works where early compositional elements were substantially reworked to align with his maturing vision. By the Baroque era, artists frequently relied on sketchy or optional underdrawings and alla prima techniques to enable flexible execution, increasing overt alterations and pentimenti, though preparatory studies persisted in areas requiring fine-tuning, revealing a blend of premeditation and responsiveness.[26][27] From a psychological perspective, pentimenti embody "regrets" or evolutions in the artist's vision, capturing moments of doubt, reconsideration, and growth during creation. These traces disclose the internal creative effort, including the artist's intellectual and emotional negotiations with their medium, and contribute to an understanding of their stylistic individuality. By preserving these underlayers, pentimenti offer a window into the cognitive processes behind artistic innovation, where initial impulses were tempered or transformed to realize a more refined intent.[24]Role in Authentication and Conservation
Pentimenti play a crucial role in authenticating artworks by providing evidence of an artist's working methods and revisions, which can be matched against known patterns in their oeuvre. For instance, in attributing works to Leonardo da Vinci, the presence of specific pentimenti, such as alterations in drapery folds or figure proportions, has been used to support attributions by aligning with documented techniques in his authenticated paintings. This approach is particularly evident in the ongoing debates surrounding the Salvator Mundi, where infrared reflectography revealed pentimenti consistent with Leonardo's iterative style, bolstering claims of his authorship despite controversies over later restorations.[28] Such analysis helps distinguish genuine pieces from copies or forgeries, as inconsistent or anachronistic revisions—or the absence of expected pentimenti—can indicate inauthenticity.[29] In forensic art history, pentimenti serve as a tool for detecting forgeries by highlighting revisions that deviate from an artist's typical process. Modern examinations using advanced imaging often uncover mismatched underlayers or abrupt changes that suggest fabrication, as seen in cases where purported Old Master works fail to exhibit the organic evolution characteristic of authentic creations. This evidentiary role underscores pentimenti's value in legal and scholarly authentication, where patterns of alteration provide quantifiable stylistic fingerprints without invasive testing.[29] For conservation, pentimenti inform decisions on cleaning and restoration to prevent damage to underlying layers while preserving the artwork's historical integrity. Conservators assess visible traces through non-destructive techniques to determine safe removal of overpaints, ensuring that original revisions are not inadvertently erased. Ethical considerations arise in balancing revelation—such as gently exposing pentimenti to enhance understanding—with the principle of retaining overpaints that may reflect intentional artistic or historical modifications, as guided by international standards from bodies like the International Institute for Conservation. In practice, this approach prioritizes minimal intervention, using pentimenti as markers to guide targeted treatments that respect the layered narrative of the work.[24][30]Notable Examples
Renaissance and Earlier Works
Pentimenti in pre-modern European art are most prominently documented in Renaissance paintings, where artists like Leonardo da Vinci employed oil techniques that allowed underlayers to become visible over time through transparency and aging. In Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine (c. 1489–1490), technical examinations, including radiography, have revealed that the painting was executed in multiple stages with alterations to the composition, illustrating the artist's iterative process in refining spatial elements. Similarly, in the Mona Lisa (c. 1503–1519), technical examinations confirm background alterations, such as changes to the landscape horizon and the outline of the bust and veil, which were replicated in contemporary studio copies, providing evidence of Leonardo's evolving vision for the distant vista.[31] The Venetian school, exemplified by Titian, frequently utilized layered glazing techniques that facilitated figure adjustments, with pentimenti emerging as glazes thinned or cracked. In Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–1523), infrared reflectography and restoration analyses show compositional revisions, including shifts in the figures' poses and the integration of mythological elements through successive opaque and transparent layers, characteristic of the school's emphasis on luminous depth and dynamic narrative.[32] These techniques allowed artists to modify forms without fully obscuring prior decisions, contributing to the vibrant, reworked surfaces seen in Venetian works. Earlier instances of pentimenti appear less frequently in surviving Byzantine icons and Gothic panels due to the durability of tempera on wood and frequent overpainting or restoration, but technical studies reveal traces in these media. In Byzantine icons, such as those using encaustic or egg tempera on panel, subtle corrections in facial features or drapery folds are analogous to later developments, though often obscured by metal revetments or iconoclastic damage.[27] Gothic panel paintings, particularly altarpieces from the 14th century, exhibit numerous pentimenti in underdrawings for figures and architectural elements, as seen in restorations of wall and panel works where artists adjusted proportions during execution on gesso-prepared surfaces.[33] These early examples underscore pentimenti as a fundamental aspect of artistic revision, predating the oil medium's prevalence in the Renaissance.Post-Renaissance Examples
In the post-Renaissance period, pentimenti continued to reveal artists' iterative processes as painting techniques evolved from the Baroque emphasis on drama and light to the more intimate domestic scenes of the Dutch Golden Age and beyond into Impressionism and modernism. These alterations, often detected through X-radiography and infrared reflectography, highlight how painters refined compositions to achieve greater dynamism or subtlety, reflecting changing artistic priorities from the 17th century onward.[34] Rembrandt van Rijn frequently incorporated pentimenti in his works, demonstrating his experimental approach to portraiture and group compositions during the Dutch Golden Age. In his Self-Portrait at the Age of 34 (1640, National Gallery, London), X-rays reveal that the artist originally included his left hand and more of the shirt at the bottom, which he later painted over to focus on a more dignified, three-quarter view emphasizing his beret and chain, underscoring his self-presentation as a successful master.[35] Similarly, in the monumental group portrait The Night Watch (1642, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), numerous pentimenti indicate adjustments to figure positions and gestures, such as shifts in arm extensions among the militiamen to enhance the scene's dramatic movement and depth; technical examinations have identified dozens of such modifications, including changes to the lieutenant's arm and the young girl's pose, revealing Rembrandt's on-the-spot revisions during execution.[34] Johannes Vermeer's subtle pentimenti in his intimate tronie portraits exemplify the precision of 17th-century Dutch genre painting. In Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665, Mauritshuis, The Hague), recent multispectral imaging uncovered alterations to the composition, including shifts in the position of the girl's ear—directly affecting the earring's placement—and adjustments to the headscarf's folds and the turban's edge, suggesting Vermeer refined the figure's turn of the head for a more engaging, direct gaze while maintaining his characteristic soft lighting and minimal brushwork.[36] These changes, visible under infrared reflectography, illustrate Vermeer's methodical process of balancing realism and idealization in domestic subjects.[37] In the 19th century, Edgar Degas's depictions of ballet dancers often feature pentimenti that capture the fluidity of movement in rehearsal settings. For instance, in Rehearsal of the Ballet (c. 1876, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City), X-radiographic analysis shows realignments of dancers' limbs and torsos, such as adjustments to a ballerina's raised arm and leg positions in the foreground, reflecting Degas's iterative efforts to convey the spontaneity of dance practice over multiple sessions using gouache and pastel layered on canvas.[38] These revisions highlight his interest in capturing ephemeral poses, bridging observation and artistic invention in Impressionist ballet scenes. Pablo Picasso's works from the 1920s demonstrate pentimenti as evidence of radical compositional experimentation, where fragmented forms were continually reworked. In paintings like The Three Dancers (1925, Tate Modern, London), raking light and technical studies reveal visible pentimenti in the figures' limbs and spatial overlaps, such as altered arm positions and mask-like faces, indicating Picasso's shifts toward greater abstraction and emotional intensity during the painting process.[39] Though not always subtle, these traces underscore the dynamic revisions central to his deconstruction of traditional perspective in early 20th-century modernism.Metaphorical and Cultural Uses
In Literature and Memoirs
In her 1973 memoir Pentimento: A Book of Portraits, Lillian Hellman employed the term "pentimento"—borrowed from the visual arts to describe underlying layers of paint becoming visible over time—as a central metaphor for the resurfacing of suppressed memories and revised perceptions of past relationships and events.[40] The book is structured as a series of vignettes or "portraits" focusing on influential figures from Hellman's life, including childhood friends, lovers, and political allies, allowing her to layer personal reflections with historical context in a non-linear narrative that reveals how earlier truths emerge beneath later interpretations.[41] One of the memoir's most prominent chapters, "Julia," recounts Hellman's alleged involvement in smuggling money to aid an anti-Nazi resistance fighter named Julia during a 1937 trip to Europe, portraying a tale of courage and sacrifice that blurred the boundaries between autobiography and dramatic invention.[42] This account inspired the 1977 film Julia, directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Jane Fonda as Hellman and Vanessa Redgrave as Julia, which won three Academy Awards and amplified the story's cultural resonance despite subsequent debates over its veracity.[43] The chapter sparked significant controversy when scholars, including psychoanalyst Muriel Gardiner, argued that Hellman's narrative borrowed heavily from Gardiner's real-life experiences as documented in her 1983 book Code Name "Mary", leading to accusations that Hellman fabricated or embellished details for emotional and ideological impact, thus questioning the reliability of memory in personal storytelling.[42] Beyond Hellman, the pentimento metaphor has served as a literary device in 20th-century memoirs and fiction to symbolize revision, regret, and the multiplicity of truth, where initial narratives yield to deeper, often conflicting layers of self-understanding.[44] This approach underscores how authors like Hellman and others navigate the tension between factual recall and imaginative reconstruction, treating autobiography as an ongoing process of uncovering hidden emotional undercurrents. Hellman's use of pentimento influenced subsequent autobiographical writing by encouraging authors to embrace the form's inherent subjectivity, prompting reflections on "hidden" personal histories and the ethical ambiguities of self-representation.[42] In this vein, the memoir highlighted theoretical issues in life writing, such as the interplay of memory and invention, inspiring later works to explore how past selves persist and alter present narratives without claiming absolute truth.[41]Broader Cultural Applications
In film and media, the concept of pentimento has been adapted into narrative structures that reveal underlying layers of truth or revision. The 1977 film Julia, directed by Fred Zinnemann, draws from a chapter in Lillian Hellman's memoir Pentimento, portraying the evolving friendship between Hellman and her anti-Nazi activist companion amid themes of hidden motives and resurfacing realities. Another direct engagement appears in the 1979 experimental film Pentimento by Dutch director Frans Zwartjes, which uses the term to explore obscured human experiences through layered, non-linear visuals of scientific experimentation and psychological depth.[45] Psychologically and philosophically, pentimento serves as a metaphor for the process of uncovering repressed memories or facilitating personal growth, akin to "seeing again" in therapeutic contexts. In dreamwork therapy, it describes multi-layered dreams where underlying images emerge, aiding clients in processing subconscious material for emotional integration.[46] Similarly, in relational therapy with couples, it illustrates how past relational patterns "seep through" current dynamics, promoting self-reflection and transformative insight.[47] This usage underscores pentimento's role in conceptualizing memory as a palimpsest, where revisions reveal evolving self-understanding without erasing prior iterations.[48] In other fields, pentimento functions primarily as a cultural idiom for iterative change and revelation, extending beyond visual arts. In music composition, it denotes revisions that trace an artist's evolving intent, as seen in Ludwig van Beethoven's multiple drafts of his opera Fidelio, where underlying sketches reveal the "repentance" of creative decisions.[49] Contemporary examples include Jon Hassell's 2018 album Listening to Pictures (Pentimento Volume One), which layers electronic revisions over trumpet improvisations to evoke historical echoes in sound.[50] In architecture, the term metaphorically describes redesigns that preserve traces of prior structures, such as the Hunter's Point South Waterfront Park in New York, where industrial remnants "peek through" new landscapes to honor layered histories.[51] These applications highlight pentimento's broader resonance as a symbol of adaptive revelation across creative disciplines.References
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pentimento