Painting analysis is enabled through various technical photographic examinations. There are a range of methods used to investigate different aspects of an easel painting including methods for investigating the materials and techniques used to make paintings. A study of the painting as a physical object involves looking at the work out of its frame through the complete depth- from its support to the paint surface. The surface is examined using light microscopy, X radiography, reflected Infra-red and ultraviolet radiation are used to examine the changes made by the artist and their processes of painting, as well as later restorations and the painting's physical history. Analysis of the pigments and organic material can inform the individual working
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Reasons for partial cleaning may vary, however, often a restorer only cleans light (often white pigments) sections of a painting as the effects of deterioration on more visible areas have a larger impact on the painting than darker areas. Leonardo Da Vinci's 'virgin of the rocks' illustrates exactly this, two exist, one in the Louvre, Paris and the other in London's National Gallery. The version in the Louvre has remained mainly untouched in comparison to the National Gallery's version which tonally, appears almost jarring as a result of the removal of saturating varnishes and perhaps partial cleaning from previous decades or uneven original varnishes. The painting's cleaning process began in November 2008, which improved saturation of the darker tones, it was undertaken because the painting had become difficult to read due to severe degradation of the oil and varnish applied in 1949.8 Madonna's ultramarine blue garment appear incoherently bright in contrast to the overly brown background. Sassoferrato's Virgin and Child embracing (Fig.3), which also hangs in the National Gallery demonstrates a similar overly contrasted effect in the painting's bright use of cobalt blue which stand out from its near-black background as a result of the partial cleaning
Reasons for partial cleaning may vary, however, often a restorer only cleans light (often white pigments) sections of a painting as the effects of deterioration on more visible areas have a larger impact on the painting than darker areas. Leonardo Da Vinci's 'virgin of the rocks' illustrates exactly this, two exist, one in the Louvre, Paris and the other in London's National Gallery. The version in the Louvre has remained mainly untouched in comparison to the National Gallery's version which tonally, appears almost jarring as a result of the removal of saturating varnishes and perhaps partial cleaning from previous decades or uneven original varnishes. The painting's cleaning process began in November 2008, which improved saturation of the darker tones, it was undertaken because the painting had become difficult to read due to severe degradation of the oil and varnish applied in 1949.8 Madonna's ultramarine blue garment appear incoherently bright in contrast to the overly brown background. Sassoferrato's Virgin and Child embracing (Fig.3), which also hangs in the National Gallery demonstrates a similar overly contrasted effect in the painting's bright use of cobalt blue which stand out from its near-black background as a result of the partial cleaning