Analysis confirms artistic history

The Renaissance - a period in history largely attributed with the birth of modern science - and now, the most modern science has been able to settle an artistic debate by attributing a painting to that very period. 

The de Brecy Tondo

Molecular and elemental analyses of paint specimens from a Madonna and Child painting have been undertaken and support historical and stylistic conclusions that are consistent with the attribution of the work to the Renaissance period - lasting between the 14th and 16th centuries.

A method of non-destructive analysis - known as Raman spectroscopy - was used to examine the paint from the painting, known as the ‘de Brecy Tondo’.

Professor Howell Edwards, head of the Division of Chemical and Forensic Sciences at the University of Bradford, explained: “From these analytical findings, I am entirely confident that the Tondo painting is consistent with an early, pre-1700, Renaissance work.”

Professor Edwards applied the technique to the molecular characterisation of pigments and their binding media. Crucially, materials identified in the Raman spectroscopic study include the lead-based yellow pigment massicot, which was effectively superseded by other yellow pigments after 1700, and a vegetable-derived medium of a starch-based glue that was typical of Renaissance practice.

The painting depicts the central figures of Raphael's celebrated Sistine Madonna, displayed in Dresden, has been the subject of over twenty years’ academic research carried out in the UK and internationally.