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Hidden in a painting for almost four centuries and visible for the first time in an image obtained with a special mobile scanner called LANDIS-X created by researchers of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and National Council for Research (CNR). We are speaking of a female figure painted and then covered, probably a member of the family depicted in the painting “The Paston Treasure”, an important painting of English art history commissioned by Sir William Paston to an itinerant Flemish painter in the seventeenth century. An exhibition dedicated to the painting will open on 23 June next at the Norwich Castle Museum, in England, to which the work belongs and where the analysis took place (www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk). The discovery was made by a team of researchers from the INFN National Laboratories of the South and from IBAM CNR who, flew to Norwich to study the work in preparation for its restoration, precisely because of the large size of the canvas and the consequent difficulty in moving it. "Despite the important dimensions of the painting, the real-time imaging technique of the LANDIS-X scanner (technique called realtime macro XRF imaging) has allowed us to fully document the work" comments Claudia Caliri of the Southern National Laboratories of INFN. "Through the images of the elemental distributions obtained during the measurements it was possible to know the nature of the pigments used by the artist and study his creative process." Dr Francesca Vanke, Keeper of Art and Curator of Decorative Art at Norwich Castle Museum, and curator of the exhibition at Norwich, added: “These extraordinary images provided by the Italian researchers made it possible for us to completely reconstruct all the pictorial layers and restore the work to its original composition. The images highlighted the pictorial details of the woman including her face, the fact that she was wearing a red dress and appears to have what seem to be leaves placed decoratively in her hair. The analyses The researchers photographed "The Paston Treasure" with the innovative LANDIS-X scanner designed and developed in the Laboratory of Non Destructive Analysis in situ (Landis) INFN National Laboratories of the South whose name it bears. The laboratory is part of the INFN network for cultural heritage CHNET. “LANDIS-X is the only ultra-rapid mobile X-ray fluorescence scanning system based on real-time technology (called real-time macro XRF imaging) able to provide restorers and art historians live images of the distribution of pigments on the pictorial surface at very high resolution (up to 30 microns). The results obtained made it possible to study the pictorial process of the Dutch itinerant artist and to verify the state of conservation of the work” comments Paolo Romano of IBAM CNR. The hidden lady In particular, for the first time it was possible to highlight the pictorial details (face, hairstyle and clothing) of a female figure, probably another member of the Paston family – previously painted, but not visible in the final pictorial composition. The images provided by the researchers made it possible to completely reconstruct all the pictorial layers and restore the work to its original composition. The hidden lady was painted under the diamond shaped clock in the upper right hand of the painting. The woman could have been the portrait of a real person, an allegorical figure, or a mixture of both. If she was meant to be, or was based upon, a real person, the most probable candidate is Lady Margaret Paston, (d. 1669) née Hewitt, William Paston’s second wife, whom he married in 1640. The pigment palette But the hidden face of a woman is not the only important detail that emerged from studying the painting. The X-ray images (corresponding to 6 million measurements taken on the painting in 16 hours) made it possible to identify the pigment palette typical of the Flemish period, based on the use of cobalt enamel, copper resin, vermilion red, tin yellow, orpiment and ochre. The work The painting, commissioned by Sir William Paston to an itinerant Flemish painter, is one of the first examples in the history of English art to represent the opulence and wealth accumulated by the noble families of the time, allegorically describing their very transience and fleetingness. The work, a large oil painting (240x165 cm), is a true socio-cultural narrative fresco of the seventeenth century and belongs to the permanent collection of the British Norwich Castle Museum. The documentary Thanks to the acquisition of these images, it was possible to film a short documentary entitled "The Paston Treasure: A Painting Like No Other" which, through a technical analysis and the images provided by our researchers, explains to the public how the work was created, helping to solve the fascinating enigmas and changes of mind that the artist's hand disseminated in the painting. Only in English https://britishart.yale.edu/paston-treasure-painting-no-other