The picture Ruins of a Roman Villa by Henryk Siemiradzki in the light of the recent examination

Henryk Siemiradzki is well known to a wide audience mainly for his biblical and genre scenes from the ancient Rome depicted against Italian sunny landscapes, as well as for his leading masterpiece, Nero’s Torches. The romantic and nocturne sceneries are present in his pictures quite rarely. These kind of paintings gained less popularity among buyers as they were not so easy and nice in perception. The picture Ruins of a Roman Villa belongs to this group. From the very beginning, this painting was important for the artist and his work. The precise examination of the picture based on the use of modern analytical spectroscopic techniques, analytical photography, visual analysis and the investigation in the archives shed new light on the creation process and allowed us to complete the quest for the comprehensive knowledge of the painting’s technology and technique. Thanks to the analytical photography in the X-ray and infrared radiation, some significant changes of the author’s concept have been discovered. The content and the character of the initial painting’s layer turned out to be analogous to some other Siemiradzki’s works, which allowed us to determine with more certainty the time of the creation of this unsigned and undated painting. The palette used by the painter in this work has been identified. We have also determined the method of binding paints in the picture. The performed analysis of the painting’s technique and of the method of preparing the support and the remaining evidence of the picture’s history contribute to the data base which supports authentication of other, (sometimes uncertain) works attributed to Siemiradzki

The use of XRPD for the investigation of historic pigments and painting materials in works by Henryk Siemiradzki

Precise knowledge of the chemical composition of the pigments used by Henryk Siemiradzki, one of the greatest Polish artists, is important for the enrichment of knowledge concerning his workshop and is essential in choosing the right strategies for the conservation and preservation of his works. An examination of powdered pigments inherited from Siemiradzki, along with an examination of samples taken from his paintings, was part of a research project carried out in the National Museum in Krakow. The aim of the project is to identify the artist's painting methods and the palette he used. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) technique, along with other methods of examination, supplemented non-invasive XRF spectroscopy, the starting point of the analyses. None of the applied methods identifies pigments as unequivocally as XRPD analysis, provided the studied material is crystalline. In this article we will present the results of the application of XRPD to investigations of powdered pigments from the collection of historic pigments inherited from Henryk Siemiradzki. We will also present the results of XRPD investigations of paint from several of Siemiradzki's paintings