Rozzano, September 14 (askanews) – A painting that, in an instant, changes face. It is "The Greengrocer" by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, one of the Milanese artist's famous reversible heads, housed at the Pinacoteca Ala Ponzone in Cremona. A still life of vegetables that, when flipped 180 degrees, becomes a human face. But this time, what is observed is not just what appears on the canvas.
Scholars want to understand what lies beneath the surface. Mario Marubbi, Curator of the Pinacoteca Ala Ponzone, said: "We know from the reflectographs that have already been taken in the past that this painting has been constructed and modified. As often happens, a painter returns to his composition during the course of the work and modifies it.
The hope is to find evidence that can help us understand how he went from a still life to a reversible head." To find answers, the work was brought to Humanitas in Rozzano. Here, it was subjected to technology designed for medical diagnostics: a photon-counting CT scan, capable of seeing with extremely high precision through the painting's various layers.
A technology made available thanks to Humanitas University and ANTHEM funds, the project financed by the Ministry of University and Research as part of the National Complementary Plan to the PNRR. An interview with Andrea Laghi, professor at Humanitas University and Director of the Diagnostics Department at the IRCCS Istituto Clinico Humanitas: "Today we have the opportunity to scan a painting by Arcimboldo with our Photon Counting CT scan, an extremely innovative technology. This CT scan has two fundamental characteristics: extremely high resolution, in fact we scan this painting with slices of 0,2 mm, therefore of a fifth of a millimeter, to try to understand what is inside. The second is the analysis, so-called spectral, to understand the composition of the materials from which this painting is made. "The studies continue a path begun almost twenty years ago, with the investigations conducted in 2007 and 2008 on the occasion of the exhibitions dedicated to Arcimboldo in Paris and Vienna. A final thread that ties this research to the history of Humanitas. Since 2018, with "Care and Beauty," works and details from major Italian museums have entered hospitals to accompany patients, caregivers, and professionals throughout their treatment experience. Today, with Arcimboldo's Ortolano, that dialogue between art, science, and technology takes a further step.
Notizie.it editorial team