X-radiograph(s) of "Pieta" 

Curator: This is an x-radiograph of "Pieta", based on the work of Carlo Crivelli. It's held here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: What a ghostly image! It reminds me of peering into the soul of a painting. All those dark shapes... Curator: Exactly. The radiograph reveals the construction, the hidden joins in the wood panel, the preparatory layers. It’s like seeing the labor embedded in the work. Editor: Like an archaeological dig, but for art. It makes you think about the carpenter who prepared the panel, maybe just as important as Crivelli himself. Curator: Precisely! And how later interventions and repairs shaped the object we now see as “Crivelli’s Pieta”. Editor: It really shifts your perspective. You start to see the art object as this layered thing, a record of time and collaboration. Curator: That’s right. Beyond aesthetics, it’s about the whole life cycle of production and consumption. Editor: I’ll never look at a painting the same way again. It's like the painting whispered its secrets through this strange image. Curator: Indeed, the materiality speaks volumes.