TheRembrandtDatabase

Salzburg’s Rembrandt : beneath the paint

20 March 2017

We are happy to announce that today we have added art historical information and technical documentation on the painting 'Old woman praying' from the Land Salzburg’s collection of old master paintings in the Residenzgalerie (DomQuartier) in Salzburg to our database. This painting, that is also known as 'Rembrandt’s mother', is made on a gilded copper plate. It was purchased in 1980 for the collection of the Province of Salzburg from the old aristocratic Czernin collection in Vienna.

From 2015 to 2016 the painting was thoroughly studied during the research project 'Rembrandt : beneath the paint' ('Rembrandt : unter der Farbe'), which resulted in an exhibition with accompanying publication. During this project comprehensive technical examination was carried out using X-ray fluorescence analysis and infrared reflectography, with the support of the company XGLab. S.R.L.: Spinoff del Politecnico di Milano and the restoration studio and conservation science department of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The technical documents that derived from this research project are now accessible online through the Rembrandt Database.

XRF: capture, lead distribution PB Ma, 8 June 2016, Rembrandt, Old woman praying, c. 1629/1630, Residenzgalerie Salzburg, Salzburg, inv./cat. no. 549, © Results obtained with XGLab's ELIO Mapping

We are grateful to Gabriele Groschner (research officer Residenzgalerie, Salzburg) for providing us with the technical documentation and accompanying meta data.

raking light studies: capture (born digital), detail (front), 1 February 2013, Rembrandt, Old woman praying, c. 1629/1630, Residenzgalerie Salzburg, Salzburg, inv./cat. no. 549