An art restoration team in Florence have embarked on a six-month long project, in which they will both clean and digitally de-robe a painting by late renaissance/early baroque master Artemisia Gentileschi.
The female figure that Allegory of Inclination depicts, believed by many to be a self portrait of Gentileschi, has long been censored, covered by with cascading veils of fabric which were added to its canvas roughly 70 years after the work was composed in 1616.
The project to return the work to its original state has undoubtedly come about thanks to a widespread, renewed interest in Gentileschi’s oeuvre in our post Me Too society; not only in the artist’s revolutionary contributions to a dizzyingly male dominated art world, but for her perseverance and success in the field after being sexually assaulted by her art teacher.
Perhaps most significantly the artist’s work was recently spotlighted in an exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2020.
The restoration team is using a combination of diagnostic imaging, ultraviolet light and X-rays to distinguish Gentileschi’s brush strokes from those of the artist who added the modesty cloth atop its female nude.
Unfortunately, the possibility of fully removing the painted fabric veil has been ruled out; because the cover-up was added so soon after the work’s original composition, this feat could risk seriously damaging the painting.
As an alternative, the team plans to create a digital version of the painting in its original state, which is set to be displayed in an exhibition centring on the project in September 2023.
Gentileschi was only 22-years old when she painted Allegory of Inclination, and it was future descendant within the Buonarroti family who eventually decided to have the work embellished, deeming it inappropriate for his wife and children.
Through the redemptive, feminist sensibilities of this project, the visionary artist’s work will finally be given the opportunity to be admired in all its original glory at the Casa Buonarroti Museum in Florence.
