X-radiograph(s) of "Harmen Hals" 

Curator: This is an x-radiograph of "Harmen Hals," presumably based on a painting by Frans Hals. What do you make of it? Editor: It feels like peering into a ghost. You get a faint sense of form, a skull beneath the skin, but everything’s so… ephemeral. Curator: Precisely! The x-ray reveals the artist's process, the underpainting—layers hidden beneath what we see on the surface. We can glimpse his initial ideas. Editor: It's strange, almost like archeology. Instead of digging in the earth, we're digging through paint. Stripping away the visible to find the hidden history. Curator: I agree. It makes you wonder about all the layers of meaning and intention that are often concealed in a finished work. Editor: It definitely offers a new appreciation, even reverence, for the artist's hand, for all those invisible decisions.