NIR reflectography applied to the study of Marcello Venusti’s three panels

Near Infrared reflectography is a well known non-invasive technique enable to disclose the underdrawing present on paintings and to study the preparatory details used by the artists.With this aim three panels painted by Marcello Venusti, the most famous copyist of Michelangelo’s drawings have been investigated. With a camera equipped with a CCD detector it has been possible to reveal that Venusti used the splovero technique to copy the original Michelangelo drawing. On the three examined panels, a Pietà exhibited in Galleria Borghese in Rome and two very similar Crocifissione, exposed in Casa Buonarroti (Florence) and in Galleria Doria Pamphili (Rome) the characteristic marks used to copy the drawing have been detected. The analysis on the Pietà has shown that in some areas more than one line has been used to underline the marks. On the whole, the preparatory drawing is well defined in the details. The comparative study on the two Crocifissione paintings has detected the preparatory lines used to draw the Cross, well visible on both the panels, the well definite Madonna’s legs hidden under the dress, the marks used to develop with the pigments the musculature in the Christ’s body.