X-radiograph(s) of "Jeannne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour" Possibly 1 - 95

Curator: Up next, we have an X-radiograph of François Boucher's portrait of Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, the Marquise de Pompadour, residing here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It looks like a ghostly impression. You can sense the original artwork, but it's veiled, revealing its layered construction. Curator: Exactly! An X-radiograph reveals secrets – the canvas weave, paint layers, and any alterations the artist made. It is a peek beneath the surface of Boucher's idealization. Editor: It puts me in mind of the materials—the linen, the pigments ground from minerals, and the labor involved in creating such a rarefied image of power. Curator: It certainly offers a different kind of intimacy, doesn't it? Not the seductive gaze of the Marquise, but the intimate process of creation, a dance between artist, materials, and, now, the revealing eye of technology. Editor: It reminds us that even these seemingly ethereal images are products of very real, earthly processes. I'm captivated by its transparency.