X-radiograph(s) of "Landscape" 

Curator: This is an x-radiograph of "Landscape", attributed to Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, from the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It looks like an eerie ghost of a painting! All surface, all texture. Curator: The x-ray reveals so much about the process, doesn't it? We see the underpainting, the build-up of materials, the artist's hand almost… Editor: And how that process relates to its market life. Knowing it's a Corot, and held by Harvard, informs my understanding too. How institutions decide what's valuable. Curator: It highlights the layers of labor embedded within the artwork. We can even see where the canvas was attached to the support structure. Editor: A fascinating intersection of art production and art history, wouldn't you say? Revealing what lies beneath, literally and figuratively. Curator: Precisely, a material echo of a landscape, filtered through time and institutional context. Editor: Indeed, it makes you contemplate the layers of meaning we project onto images.