X-radiograph(s) of "Madonna and Child" 

Curator: This X-radiograph unveils hidden layers of "Madonna and Child," originally by Bartolomeo Montagna and housed right here at the Harvard Art Museums. What strikes you first? Editor: Eerily beautiful, like peering into a ghost. I wonder about the panel itself – what's beneath the visible paint? How was it constructed? Curator: Precisely! The X-ray reveals underdrawings, pentimenti—the artist's own revisions. It’s like witnessing Montagna's creative process, the very materiality of his choices, laid bare! Editor: And the repairs! You see the added lead white filling in cracks and losses. A reminder that artworks are not static; they're material objects undergoing constant change. Curator: It adds a certain… vulnerability, doesn't it? Seeing the work beneath the work, all the layers that make up a moment of inspired clarity. Editor: Indeed, from pigments to panels, paintings like this are palimpsests of labor and artistry. I look at this and then think about all the unseen work in Art! Curator: A profound observation indeed. I'll never view a painting the same way again.