The digital restoration should be completed by September 2023 and will be exhibited at Casa Buonarroti, where the painting is housed
Art conservators in Florence, Italy, are working to restore a 17th-century painting of a nude woman that has been edited to cover the bare breasts with a veil.
The “Allegory of the Inclination” was painted by the Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi (Artemisia Gentileschi) in 1616 and is believed to be a self-portrait. But some 70 years later, a descendant of the person who commissioned the painting found the nude disturbing and paid an artist to cover the woman with veils and blankets.
Conservators are now using UV light, diagnostic imaging and X-rays to examine the painting and figure out how to digitally restore it.
Censorship was done very soon after the painting was originally created to remove the veils and blankets, but conservators will produce a digital version showing what it would have looked like by carefully studying the painting’s touches. Gentileschi herself has a fascinating life story and is an important figure in the history of Italian art. She moved to Florence at the age of 17 from Rome, where her rapist had just been tried and sentenced to serve eight months in prison.
Gentileski was forced to testify at the gruesome trial, where she had ropes tied around her fingers that held her tight while she spoke to prove her honesty. She also had to undergo a physical examination to see if she was still a virgin.
Linda Falcone, co-ordinator of the Artemisia Up Close project, said: “Through this, we can talk about how important it is to restore artworks, how important it is to bring women’s stories back to the fore.”
Gentileschi was only 22 years old when she painted the Allegory of the Inclination.
“This is one of her first paintings. It was her first painting done in Florence, the same year she was accepted to the Academy of Design, which was the first design academy in Europe at the time,” Falcone said.
The digital restoration should be completed by September 2023 and will be exhibited at the Casa Buonarroti, where the painting is housed.
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