Chicago
Grison, Marie-Noëlle, Robert G. Erdmann, Hendrik Hameeuw, David
Lainé, and Lieve Watteeuw. “V. Materiality of a Vision:
Unveiling the Complex Material Makeup of an Early Symbolist Work
with Friable Media by Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois (Belgian,
1875-1941).” In
Materia: Journal of Technical Art History (Issue
4), by Tetsuo Miyakoshi. San Diego: Materia, 2022.
https://netlify.app/essay_grison/.
MLA
Grison, Marie-Noëlle, et al. “V. Materiality of a Vision:
Unveiling the Complex Material Makeup of an Early Symbolist Work
with Friable Media by Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois (Belgian,
1875-1941).”
Materia: Journal of Technical Art History (Issue
4), by Tetsuo Miyakoshi, Materia, 2022,
https://netlify.app/essay_grison/. Accessed
DD Mon. YYYY.
V.
Materiality of a Vision: Unveiling the Complex Material Makeup
of an Early Symbolist Work with Friable Media by Alfred-Napoléon
Delaunois (Belgian, 1875-1941)
Marie-Noëlle Grison
Robert G. Erdmann
Hendrik Hameeuw
David Lainé
Lieve Watteeuw
Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois (1875–1941) was associated with
the Symbolists and the fin de siècle movement in
Belgium. He left a prolific output of paintings, drawings,
and prints, a large portion of which is preserved today in M
Leuven, the municipal museum in Leuven, his hometown in
Belgium. Within this ensemble, an 1897 mixed-media project
for a decorative cycle titled Vision de Moine (A Monk’s Vision) stands out through the complex combination of friable
drawing (specifically pastel) and painting techniques, and
also through its decorative qualities. The variety of
textures and visual effects sought by the artist, as well as
his experimental working method, explain the peculiar
materiality of this artwork—and also some of the degradation
patterns it displays.
In order to shed light on the artist’s material choices and
creative process, a methodology bringing together archival
research, advanced technical imaging and instrumental
methods, as well as innovative visualisation tools, was
employed. Damaged areas were investigated to pinpoint the
relationship between the layer buildup and resulting
fragility of these passages. Technical imaging also provided
insight into the ways in which Delaunois prepared his work
and his iterative working process throughout. With this
technical case study, we demonstrate the benefits of
noninvasive analytical techniques when it comes to tackling
research questions related to artworks with a complex
material makeup such as Delaunois’s
Vision de Moine.
Introduction
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century artistic movement that
aspired to a higher ideal in both aesthetics and spiritual
life, in reaction to the positivism and deep societal changes
brought about by the industrial revolution.1
Taking a step aside from reality and materialism, Symbolist
artists explored subjects drawn from literature, theology,
mythology, and music. Their works paved the way to later
twentieth-century abstraction and Expressionism, opening
gateways into imagination, spirituality, and the inner world.
It has been noted that the Symbolists achieved a remarkable
convergence of means, form, and content in their artworks.
Indeed, in their endeavour to “make visible the invisible,”
they crafted ways to embody intangible ideas in colours and
shapes, realised through careful choice and manipulation of
artistic (notably, drawing) techniques.2
Such techniques included friable media—chalk, charcoal,
pastel. With its inherently insubstantial nature, pastel
became a favourite medium with Symbolist artists. Through the
unique properties of this technique, they could materialise
their dreamlike visions, in subdued colours and with hazy
effects.3
Symbolism was particularly prominent in Belgium, with
champions such as Fernand Khnopff (1858–1921), Jean Delville
(1867–1953), and Léon Spilliaert (1881–1946). All of them used
pastel and other friable techniques to create drawings
intended as stand-alone artworks. Belgian Symbolism has
received sustained scholarly attention, at home and abroad,
for four decades, in the wake of the seminal
Belgian Art, 1880–1914 exhibition at the Brooklyn
Museum in 1980. Yet, while Khnopff, Delville, and Spilliaert
have been the focus of extensive art historical research
through several monographs,4
technical aspects of their works have not been covered so far
in the literature. More broadly, art technical studies of late
nineteenth- and early twentieth-century materials often remain
centred on a specific artist’s drawing materials and
practices—Edgar Degas (1834–1917), Odilon Redon (1840–1916),
Edvard Munch (1863–1944), and Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916) are
notable examples.5
Materials-based approaches in technical studies can be found
nonetheless, with important historical surveys of
nineteenth-century graphic techniques tackling wet and dry
media. More recently, the catalogue of the 2016 exhibition
Noir: The Romance of Black in Nineteenth-Century French
Drawings and Prints
offered a comprehensive investigation of black drawing media
integrating art historical and technical perspectives.6
As for nineteenth-century pastel, it was lately showcased in
two exhibitions,
L’Art du pastel de Degas à Redon (Paris,
Petit-Palais, 2017) and
Pastels, de Millet à Redon (Paris, Musée d’Orsay,
2023), evidencing the growing interest for this material and
this period. The present case study aims at bringing into
focus the specific intersection of Symbolist aesthetics and
friable media. It is set within the broader framework of the
multidisciplinary FRIABLE research project (2022–26), hosted
by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.7
ExpandFig. 1Fig. 1 Portrait of Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois in
L’Art belge, 31 January 1921.
Part of the fin de siècle generation, the Belgian
artist Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois (1875–1941) was born in
Brussels to a family originating from Ghent (Fig. 1). His
father, a decorative painter, was the head of a successful
atelier in Brussels at the time. Alfred was seven when the
family moved to Leuven, a city east of Brussels. According to
Crab and Van Buyten, he would have become a house painter if
not for the intercession of his elder brother Edgard-Séraphin
(1873–1949), a decorative arts teacher at the Academy of Fine
Arts in Leuven.8
Following his encouragement, the young Alfred enrolled at the
academy in 1891. His remarkable talent was also noted by the
famous painter and sculptor Constantin Meunier (1831–1905),
who was teaching there at the time.9More recent writing on Meunier has tended to focus on his
social realism—namely, his depictions of the industrial
world—neglecting the part of his oeuvre that reflects his
religiosity, as expressed in his scenes of monastic
life.10
Meunier’s inspiration, together with a general trend seen in
the subject matter favoured by the Symbolists, could explain
the fact that religious subjects feature so prominently in
Delaunois’s entire output. Vision de Moine (A Monk’s Vision), preserved in M Leuven, is no exception (Fig. 2). In line
with Symbolist aesthetic ideas,
Vision de Moine displays the otherworldly qualities
of a mystical experience.
ExpandFig. 2Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois, Vision de Moine,
1897, pastel, black and red crayon or chalk,
watercolour, gouache, oil paint, and metal leaf, on
toned paper, laid down on grey cardboard, 670 x 480
mm; M Leuven, inv. no. G/968/D (even illumination
photography; recto and verso).ExpandFig. 2Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois, Vision de Moine,
1897, pastel, black and red crayon or chalk,
watercolour, gouache, oil paint, and metal leaf, on
toned paper, laid down on grey cardboard, 670 x 480
mm; M Leuven, inv. no. G/968/D (even illumination
photography; recto and verso).
Dated to 1897, Vision de Moine entered the collection
of the Stedelijk Museum Leuven (the municipal museum known
today as M Leuven) in 1957, as part of a vast bequest of the
artist’s works by his brother Richard.11
Delaunois was recognized in his lifetime as a prominent Leuven
artist, a leading figure of the art scene in his capacity as
the director of the Academy of Fine Arts, exhibiting regularly
in Belgian galleries and several times at the Venice
Biennale.12
A vast body of art historical writing exists for Delaunois
dating from the first half of the twentieth century.13
However, compared to the renown he experienced during his
lifetime, later and more recent research on the artist remains
relatively obscure.
Like much art historical writing from this period, technical
commentary remains limited due to the absence of advanced
analytical techniques that are more commonly used today, and
to a lesser interest in material aspects of artworks. Except
for a brief mention,14
technical descriptions of his works are virtually
nonexistent—especially in exhibition catalogues—with authors
and researchers mainly focusing on other forms of art
historical analysis such as iconography. In a rare occurrence,
Henri Lavachery, one of his biographers, does allude to the
peculiar materiality of Delaunois’s works:
The skillful richness of the matter contributes to
perfecting this realisation, because Delaunois is a magician
of nuance. Thanks to skillful overlays of impressions, in
his etchings, thanks to sumptuous highlights, in his
drawings, he manages to endow them with the muted richness
of tortoise shell, of lacquer and enamel. Faces, glowing
mysteriously like ivory leaf laid on gold.15
Written in 1931, this testimony of Delaunois’s way of working
captures the decorative qualities of some of his works, and
his mastery of various artistic techniques. This observation
is exemplified by Vision de Moine, with its complex
combination of drawing (mostly pastel) and painting media,
handled so as to achieve a variety of visual effects. Situated
at the intersection between several artistic categories, the
work blurs the lines between fine and applied arts, its unique
materiality a testament to the young artist’s experimental and
intuitive approach.
This mixed-media artwork also raises a number of questions,
the first being the artist’s original intention, which in this
instance refers to his material choices and how he used them
to fulfil his aesthetic goals. In addition, the work’s highly
finished appearance further leads us to wonder how Delaunois
prepared and carried out his work. Finally, distinctive
degradation patterns apparent on the work’s surface suggest a
complex layering of various media that needs to be locally
understood so as to deconstruct its full material structure.
We will first shed light on the work’s genesis, based on
archival and material evidence, to anchor
Vision de Moine within both Delaunois’s early oeuvre
and the broader artistic context of his time. Then, we will
dive deeper into the materiality of the artwork. In order to
gain insight into Delaunois’s idiosyncratic working method, we
carried out close examination of the work’s surface with the
naked eye and with a headband magnifier, and subsequently
collected more precise data through a number of noninvasive
imaging and analytical techniques (high-resolution
visible-light photography, photometric stereo, microscopy,
narrow-band multispectral imaging, macro X-ray fluorescence;
see Appendix 1). This data helped us better evidence the range
of materials Delaunois used, the ways in which he implemented
them, and how this can explain damage patterns. Subsequently,
we will look underneath the surface for traces of the artist’s
working process, through the close study of the surface
topography coupled with chemical imaging and microscopy.
Finally, revisiting our first discussion point on the artist’s
original design in light of the technical and documentary data
collected, we will reflect on the work’s afterlife and the
special status it enjoyed with the artist until his death.
Through this technical case study, we hope to provide a
concrete example of the subtle interplay of materiality and
aesthetics in the Symbolists’ works. These artists remained
all but silent about the specific materials and studio
practices that enabled them to create such a haunting visual
legacy, but evidence thereof lies embedded within the artworks
they created, for us to unlock. Additionally, the technical
imaging protocol performed on Delaunois’s work was intended as
a test for the analytical workflow that would be carried out
on nine works with friable media from the FRIABLE project’s
research corpus.
Unraveling the Work’s Genesis: A Preparatory Work for a
Decorative Cycle
A label in Delaunois’s handwriting pasted onto the verso of
the work is inscribed:
Vision de Moine / (pour fresque murale) (“A Monk’s
Vision / [for wall fresco]”) (Fig. 3).16
Although the inscription in red in the lower left corner is
now partially effaced (Fig. 4), the top part is an earlier
signature flanked with the date 1897, and the bottom line can
still be read as Le Songe des Moines (“The Monks’
Dream”). The work’s documentation at M Leuven does not provide
any further indication that could shed light on these
inscriptions. However, the most explicit mention of a project
titled Le Songe des Moines, and of this very artwork,
can be found in art historical writing on the artist. Indeed,
in his 1935 monograph on Delaunois, Robert de Bendère wrote
that:
ExpandFig. 3Detail of the handwritten label pasted on the verso of
Vision de Moine.
[Delaunois] created a whole series of projects that would
make up a fresco titled “Le Songe des Moines.” This
project,17
only partially realised, comprises fragments of astonishing
technical value… Some of these panels, already shown in a
number of exhibitions of Alfred Delaunois’s works, were
destined, according to the artist’s design, to decorate the
chapel of a Dominican convent or a church of the same order.
Among the fragments of this decorative suite, we should
mostly mention some pieces of beautiful idealisation and
romantic feel such as “The Monk with a Lily,”18
in which he synthesised the gentleness and naiveté of a
monk’s mask, young still, … expressing admirably the monk’s
contemplative and dreamy attitude… This “Songe des Moines,”
too little known, would deserve to be realised, but who will
be the patron who will endow a chapel with this jewel among
the most admirable of modern religious art?19
ExpandFig. 4Detail of the signature and partially erased inscription,
in the lower left corner of the label.
It appears, therefore, that this project was Delaunois’s own
initiative, a young painter’s ambitious attempt at
demonstrating his talent as a decorative painter while
celebrating the religious heritage of his hometown. The
envisioned destination, a Dominican institution, is clear from
the monk’s tonsured skull. The exact desired location,
however, if Delaunois had any in mind, is not known.20
Another uncertainty lies within the term
fresque murale seen on the pasted label. The authors
of related exhibition catalogues use the denomination
fresque and décoration murale (wall
decoration) interchangeably to describe preparatory studies
such as this one.21
It is therefore unclear which technique Delaunois would have
eventually implemented to realise this cycle at full scale,
perhaps a technique of working directly onto the wall, or even
using mounted panels.22
The young artist’s familiarity with decorative painting
techniques, learnt from his father and elder brother, could
explain his affinity with wall painting and fresco-like
procedures. This hypothetical choice should also be
contextualised within the so-called Fresco Revival.23
Observed from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth
century in countries such as England, France and Germany, it
was spurred by the Pre-Raphaelite and Nazarene schools, the
Arts and Crafts movement, as well as early Symbolist painters
such as Pierre Puvis de Chavanne (1824–1898) in France.24
This renewed appreciation for the technique proceeded directly
from the Tempera Revival,25
which sought to break away from academic art and the medium it
was most associated with—oil paint. In reaction to the glossy
finish of varnished oil paintings, artists turned to materials
with a matte appearance, such as tempera, distemper, pastel,
and crayons.26
This aesthetic trend is reflected in the studio practice of
Paul Gauguin and the Nabi painters Edouard Vuillard and Pierre
Bonnard, among others. Odilon Redon exemplifies this trend as
well, in his drawings combining pastel and distemper to create
large finished artworks with an unvarnished surface.27
Both matte painting materials and subdued colours used in
modern wall paintings served the aesthetic goal of re-engaging
with the “austerity of the primitives.”28
Against this backdrop, Delaunois’s choice of techniques such
as pastel, used extensively in Vision de Moine, could
be interpreted as the artist’s attempt at transposing onto
paper the visual effect of the a fresco technique,
the matte and chalky texture of soft pastel lending itself
perfectly to this purpose.
A Complex Material Makeup and Distinctive Degradation Patterns
Close examination of the artwork reveals the wide array of
techniques used by Delaunois. Soft pastel can be identified
over most of the surface, applied in layers of various colours
blended together, in adjacent touches, or in strokes,
oftentimes allowing the paper colour (a light pink) to show
through to build subtle mid-tones.29
The pastel was stumped into a remarkably smooth layer on the
monk’s face. The figure’s sharp outline and hair were drawn
with an iron-rich pigment,30
both in the form of a dry medium (chalk or crayon), and mixed
with an aqueous binding medium applied with a thin brush.31
Faint lines consisting of a black dry medium are also visible
in the lilies. Paint (gouache and watercolour, oil) was also
used in many passages,32
mostly in combination and layering with pastel—notably in the
lilies, in the figure’s white cloak and veil, and in thin
brushstrokes in his hair, with varying degrees of transparency
and thickness.33
In some parts of the veil, Delaunois appears to have blended
pastel colours together using a wet brush.
ExpandFig. 5Image of Vision de Moine with luminescence
effects when radiated with 450 nm with red longpass filter
(cutoff 590 nm), bringing out features in the white paint
layer and impastos.
ExpandFig. 6Top, detail of the lower right corner, revealing the
impastos and the carving; bottom, detail of the sleeve
with flowing lines carved into wet paint. Both
photographed in raking light from a 270॰ angle.ExpandFig. 6Top, detail of the lower right corner, revealing the
impastos and the carving; bottom, detail of the sleeve
with flowing lines carved into wet paint. Both
photographed in raking light from a 270॰ angle.
Observation in raking light shows the striking
three-dimensionality of the work’s surface. Thick white oil
paint (Fig. 5) was applied using an impasto technique (Fig. 6)
that Delaunois further carved into using a blunt tip.34
He also carved similar details into the paint layer of the
left sleeve of the monk’s cloak. The effect achieved calls to
mind the way his master and teacher Constantin Meunier would
carve lines and hatchings into clay to create background
texture in some of his models for high-relief friezes.35
The MA-XRF calcium map further evidences that a layer of white
pastel or chalk was applied in several instances on top of the
lead-containing white paint that the artist used in the veil,
contributing to the overall matte effect (Fig. 7).
ExpandFig. 7Ca map showing the presence of a calcium-containing layer
in the veil (MA-XRF).
Due to its complex material makeup and layer buildup,
Vision de Moine displays unusual degradation
patterns. We will focus here on two areas presenting severe
delamination and medium loss. One of the lilies is
particularly damaged: the oil paint layer has cracked, lifted,
and flaked off. The concave deformation of the cardboard
backing caused undulations of the primary support particularly
visible in raking light from a 0º angle.36
Mechanical stress therefore probably partly explains this
flaking phenomenon. However, observations of these lacunas
under a Hirox microscope revealed the presence of faint traces
of yellow and red pigments still sitting on the paper, in
areas where accidental smudging is very unlikely to have
occurred (Fig. 8).37
This shows that the paint was applied over a friable medium
layer, the particular combination contributing to the overall
instability of this interface. It is probable that the fallen
paint flakes lifted off most of the original pastel layer that
had adhered to them.
ExpandFig. 8Microphotographs (Hirox, with the x100 objective) of
two lacunas situated in the central lily.ExpandFig. 8Microphotographs (Hirox, with the x100 objective) of
two lacunas situated in the central lily.
The second severely damaged area is located in the monk’s
hairline. Interestingly, the flaking corresponds to parts of
the MA-XRF lead map, suggesting a relationship between the
local makeup of this area and its fragility (Interactive
figure I).
38
Microphotographs provide further insight into the layer
buildup of the painting (Fig. 9). It appears that Delaunois
first drew in pastel—reddish and yellow pigments are visible
as a cohesive layer in the lower and right part of the main
lacuna—then he likely applied the same lead-containing white
paint as in the other damaged area, and finally reworked in
pastel on top of this layer. Therefore, both damage patterns
should be attributed to the same cause: the layering of paint
on top of a friable medium.
The highly finished appearance of
Vision de Moine leads to the question of just how
much the artist prepared his work, and whether traces can be
found that evidence the early steps of his creative process.
The presence of an underdrawing, for instance, is not clearly
visible to the naked eye, owing to the thick layer of pastel
applied throughout, although a few lines in red dry medium
appear through the thin paint layer on the left wrist,
together with the aforementioned black dry medium tracings,
partially covered with paint, in the lilies. However, incised
lines appear in some passages, most visibly in the area above
the lily close to the face (Fig. 10), in the top left corner,
along the top part of the halo (short parallel hatchings in
all three cases), and along the right hand, in long lines
running roughly parallel to the outline of the wrist. A
powerful complement to raking-light imaging, the white-light
Microdome allowed for a deeper investigation of these shallow
traces from all angles. These observations showed that the
relationship between these lines and the markings in the
pictorial layer was not directly obvious. We therefore propose
to view them either as a very early stage of Delaunois’s
creative process—from which he eventually drifted
considerably—or as elements from another composition that he
subsequently drew over.
ExpandFig. 10White-light Microdome captures revealing the incised
lines; left, with colour information retained; right,
normal map (i.e., topography) of the surface of the
same area.ExpandFig. 10White-light Microdome captures revealing the incised
lines; left, with colour information retained; right,
normal map (i.e., topography) of the surface of the
same area.
Another remarkable element of this composition is the golden
halo around the monk’s head. Delaunois occasionally worked on
a gold background and/or with gold highlights.39
This is the case for other drawings in the collection of M
Leuven that are stylistically and technically very close to
Vision de Moine.40
Examination in raking light confirmed the halo was made with
metal leaf, and MA-XRF mapping revealed that the metal present
is copper, with traces of zinc.41
A nod to Italian Quattrocento painting, it provides an
interesting contrast with the otherwise matte surface overall.
Evidently, the outer part of the halo has darkened throughout,
while the inner part has not (Fig. 11).
Chemical data collected in this area is fragmentary, since the
copper leaf that makes up the halo has a shielding effect. It
is therefore not possible to ascertain what kind of ground
layer it was applied onto, and whether the darkening could be
attributed to contact corrosion with the underlayer.42
However, the MA-XRF maps for lead and mercury reveal
discontinuous outlines underneath the halo—although
interestingly, these lines do not overlap with each other
(Interactive figure II). This could hint at the presence of
two distinct sets of preparatory tracings and provide further
evidence of extensive reworking in the area. Similarly, the
lead map shows a dotted line under the chin, which the artist
tried to erase, probably using a diluent, causing a leaching
of lead in this area (Interactive figure III).43
Furthermore, raking-light photography shows the presence of
underlying texture in the outer part of the halo, also clearly
visible in the zinc and calcium maps, which could reveal an
earlier stage of Delaunois’s working process (Interactive
figure IV). Indeed, another panel shows a very similar
pattern, with broad touches of gold paint freely applied all
over to create a background (Fig. 12).44
It is therefore probable that he experimented with a
comparable solution in Vision de Moine but changed
his mind and applied metal leaf to homogenise the aspect of
the halo.
ExpandFig. 12Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois,
Études pour Méditatifs, detail of the gold paint
background; M Leuven, inv. no. G/425/D.
Finally, the zinc map shows that the eye was originally drawn
slightly higher than its current position, and also more
slitted in shape (Interactive figure V), while the pupil was
first drawn with a copper-containing pigment (Interactive
vewier VI). Both the lead and the zinc maps reveal the extent
of Delaunois’s reworking in the area encompassing the eye up
to the forehead and hairline. As discussed above, he reapplied
a thin layer of lead-containing paint as a ground to work on
top of the previous layer, paying special attention so as not
to disturb the overall smoothness of the surface.45
Working with such elaborate colour buildup, the artist was
also able to implement reductive or subtractive techniques
such as sgraffito (“scratched”). For example, he used a sharp
tool to scratch out fine lines and hatchings in the pastel
layer to expose the lighter tone underneath and create subtle
modelling as a finishing touch.46
This is particularly visible in the face, the hair, and the
hands (Fig. 13).
ExpandFig. 13Three details of the head and hand showing
scratched-out lines in Vision de Moine.ExpandFig. 13Three details of the head and hand showing
scratched-out lines in Vision de Moine.ExpandFig. 13Three details of the head and hand showing
scratched-out lines in Vision de Moine.
Reconstructing the Work’s History: From Preparatory Study to
Stand-alone Artwork?
ExpandFig. 14PCA of normalised multispectral images of the lower left
corner, showing erasing and overpainting of the
inscription.
A lighter halo is visible to the naked eye around the
inscription in red, in the lower left corner (Fig. 4).
Principal Component Analysis performed on a stack of
multispectral images reveals the extent of Delaunois’s efforts
when it came to erasing and reworking this area (Fig. 14).
Visible- to near-infrared imaging proved unsuccessful at
bringing out the effaced inscription in its entirety,47
nor did MA-XRF mapping produce conclusive results in this
respect.48
Nonetheless, even if the original inscription remains
illegible using current methods, the erasing and reworking
alone are a good indication of a change in Delaunois’s
intention with regards to the painting’s final destination.
When it became clear that his project for a decorative cycle
titled Le Songe des Moines would not materialise, the
artist likely decided to suppress the mention of this
previously envisioned destination. The fact that both the
inscription in red and the monogram appear to be part of an
earlier stage in the work’s material history is also evident
through the observation that they were later covered with
various pastel colours, some clearly visible on top of the red
paint in the monogram (Fig. 15).49
Once he was done reworking this corner, the artist signed it
again and drew a circle around the monogram in a blue coloured
pencil. The only mention in an exhibition catalogue that could
potentially identify this artwork dates back to 1917—which
judging from available written records was also Delaunois’s
very first exhibition—where it is listed under no. 41 as the
Moine au Lys (Monk with a Lily) among other
“Fragments of Decoration (Studies for wall fresco).”50
It is therefore possible that the artist later reworked his
drawing in preparation for this exhibition, or at an unknown
earlier date. It should be noted, however, that without
further details, the listing in this catalogue can only
provide a limited level of confidence, mostly owing to the
fact that the work’s title is the same as the one found in the
De Bendère’s 1935 monograph mentioned earlier. Yet, in the
absence of more precise technical descriptions—let alone
reproductions of the works—we cannot be absolutely certain
that the described work is, indeed, the one at the M Leuven.
This further illustrates the challenges posed by vague
descriptions in catalogues from that period when attempting to
trace back an artwork’s history.
ExpandFig. 15Photograph of Delaunois’ house-atelier at 132 rue de
Tirlemont in Heverlee, from a photo album dated 1955, M
Leuven. Highlighted in blue:
Vision de Moine framed together with a
pendant.
Nail marks are visible at regular intervals along the four
edges, evidence of old mounting and/or framing. In fact, we
know from two photographs taken in Delaunois’s home, from an
album dated to 1955, that the drawing was originally mounted
together with a smaller one (Figs. 16, 17).51
This framed ensemble featured prominently in the artist’s
living room.52
The room itself has the look of a small private museum,53
where a selection of the artist’s works mingled with an
eclectic collection of architectural fragments, sculptures and
sculpted decoration, frames, and furniture. The styles of the
various objects span from the Gothic era to the twentieth
century.54
ExpandFig. 16Photograph of Delaunois’ house-atelier at 132 rue de
Tirlemont in Heverlee, from a photo album dated 1955,
M Leuven. Highlighted in blue:
Vision de Moine framed together with a
pendant.ExpandFig. 17Photograph of Delaunois’ house-atelier at 132 rue de
Tirlemont in Heverlee, from a photo album dated 1955,
M Leuven. Highlighted in blue:
Vision de Moine framed together with a
pendant.
The fact that Delaunois kept this early work in the room where
he also displayed a wealth of objects dear to his heart,
likely as sources of inspiration and for their sentimental
value, attests to the special status of the drawing as a work
particularly enjoyed by the artist himself. The objects
surrounding it further shed light on the visual references
from which Delaunois drew throughout his career.55
They reflect the same eclecticism that Delaunois demonstrated
in choosing the artistic techniques and processes he brought
together in his Vision de Moine.
Conclusion
The research carried out on Delaunois’s
Vision de Moine helped us understand the breadth of
the technical skills he mastered in his early career, and the
freedom with which he combined techniques and materials to
create this singular work. The degradation patterns
investigated in this study have proven to be directly linked
to this unrestrained way of working—in particular, his
application of paint highlights and impastos over a friable
medium layer to create contrasts in textures. Closer
examination revealed that this artwork’s apparent spontaneity
hinges both on careful preparation (as shown by underlying
tracings) and the artist’s ability to easily rework passages
utilising the properties of soft pastel, namely, its
blendability or ability to create soft transitions between
different passages of colour and to mix colours together.
This case study testifies to Delaunois’s experimental
technique and his bold—yet carefully weighted—choice of
materials. The other works by him we were able to see in the M
Leuven collections for this research all stood out by their
very distinctive material and visual effects, stemming from
the broad array of media and techniques he combined. Although
art historical writing published in his lifetime only
succinctly touched on the materiality of his artworks, we
demonstrated that this aspect deserves closer scrutiny; an
observation that also holds true for Symbolist artists more
broadly. It is our hope that this research will spur further
investigation into Delaunois’s studio practice, through close
examination and comparisons across his drawings, prints, and
paintings. This survey would be interesting from a (technical)
art history perspective, in leading to the rediscovery of an
artist whose unique talent is situated at the crossroads of
tradition and modernity. It would also be very valuable from a
conservation and collection management standpoint, by mapping
the use of materials across his oeuvre, their fragility, and
the damage patterns resulting therefrom.
In the present technical case study, the combination of
methodological approaches that complemented each other proved
to be a successful strategy. Archival and art historical
research contributed by filling in gaps in the work’s
provenance and exhibition history, while also establishing the
broader context of its creation. Various imaging techniques,
as well as optical and non optical analytical techniques, have
each compensated for the other’s limitations. We have
therefore also aimed to demonstrate the efficacy of
noninvasive and nondestructive techniques when it comes to
tackling research questions on artworks with a complex
material makeup such as Delaunois’s Vision de Moine.
In this endeavour, an innovative visualisation tool such as
the Curtain Viewer has played an instrumental role by allowing
for seamless comparisons across imaging modalities, peeling
off—so to speak—the artwork’s layers to understand its
buildup, the nature of the various medium-to-medium
interfaces, and also their relationship with each other. In
particular, the examination of surface features, as evidenced
through high-resolution raking-light photography and Microdome
imaging, coupled with chemical mapping, emerged as a powerful
tool to understand local variations of material buildup,
albeit concealed beneath the surface.
As such, the technical-imaging workflow performed on this
artwork was deemed satisfactory enough to be applied to the
FRIABLE project’s research corpus, consisting of nine artworks
from the collections of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of
Belgium, including friable media alone or in combination,
dating to the late nineteenth- to the early twentieth century.
This corpus was imaged during the summer and fall of 2023 by
the KU Leuven-VIEW and the KIK-IRPA teams, following the
standardised procedure tested on Delaunois’s work, with
practical adjustments and the addition of micro-Raman
spectroscopy to complement the Ma-XRF data. Building upon the
results obtained, a future avenue of research could entail the
systematic correlation of spectral and chemical data for
modern pastel pigments,56
extenders and binders, in order to build a more granular
understanding of the materials used and how to best
characterise them with simple imaging equipment.
Appendix 1: Technical Imaging Performed and Instrument
Specifications
High-resolution (1200 dpi) even illumination and
raking-light photography: Phase One IQ3 100MP camera,
f/11, 1/125 sec., ISO-100, Schneider Kreuznach 120 mm LS
Macro f/4.0 “blue ring.”
Narrow-band multispectral imaging (NBMSI): Phase One IQ4
150MP Achromatic camera with filter wheel, 350 to 940 nm,
800 dpi,57
data acquisition with the Spectral XV software,
normalisation and Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
performed with the ImageJ software.
Portable Light Dome (Microdome) white-light photometric
stereo imaging of areas of interest: GX 6600 (6576×4384
px) 35 mm CCD, f/11, shutter speed 150 ms, image scale
84.3342 px/mm (=11.85 μm/px), 100 mm lens.58
Microscopy: Hirox RH-2000.
MA-XRF mapping of selected areas of interest with Bruker
M6 Jetstream, spot size 550, step size 500 mm, dwell time
15 ms (unless otherwise specified); data processing with
PyMca.
The research took place at the KU Leuven
Core Facility VIEW: Imaging Lab (KU Leuven Libraries) and Book Heritage Lab
(Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies). MA-XRF scans were
performed at IPARC, Kampenhout, Belgium.
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↩︎
Sharon L. Hirsh, introduction to
Symbolism and Modern Urban Society (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2004), 3–6.
↩︎
Thea Burns and Philippe Saunier, “The Symbolist Pastel,”
in The Art of the Pastel (New York: Abbeville,
2015), 339–54.
↩︎
See, for instance, Michel Draguet,
Fernand Khnopff (Brussels: Fonds Mercator,
2018); Xavier Tricot,
Fernand Khnopff: Catalogue raisonné des estampes et
des platinotypes rehaussés / Oeuvrecatalogus van de
prenten en de gehoogde platinadrukken / Catalogue
Raisonné of the Prints and the Enhanced
Platinotypes
(Antwerp: Petraco-Pandora, 2018); Denis Laoureux, ed.,
Jean Delville (1867–1953), maître de l’idéal
(Paris: Somogy, 2014); Brendan Cole,
Jean Delville: Art between Nature and the
Absolute
(Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, 2015); Anne
Adriaens-Pannier and Leila Jarbouai, eds.,
Léon Spilliaert (1881–1946): Lumière et solitude
(Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées
nationaux–Grand Palais, 2020); Anne Adriaens-Pannier,
Léon Spilliaert: De oorsprong van het beeld
(Antwerp: Stichting De Reede, 2022).
↩︎
Michelle Facini et al., “Technical Exploration of Edgar
Degas’s Ballet Scene: A Late Pastel on Tracing Paper,”
in Facture: Conservation Science Art History,
vol. 3, Degas (Washington, DC: National Gallery
of Art, 2017); Harriet K. Stratis, “A Technical
Investigation of Odilon Redon’s Pastels and Noirs,”
Book and Paper Group Annual 14 (1995): 87–103;
Jacopo La Nasa et al., “An Integrated Analytical Study
of Crayons from the Original Art Materials Collection of
the MUNCH Museum in Oslo,”
Scientific Reports 11 (30 March 2021): 7152;
Anna Lluveras Tenorio et al., “The Chemistry of Pastels:
Investigation of the Organic Materials in a Drawing by
Umberto Boccioni,” in “Modern and Contemporary Art,” ed.
Francesca Caterina Izzo and Patrizia Tomasin,
Journal of Cultural Heritage 35 (1 January
2019): 235–41.
↩︎
Lee Hendrix, ed., Noir: The Romance of Black in
19th-Century French Drawings and Prints (Los Angeles:
Getty Publications, 2016).
↩︎
This research is carried out within the framework of the
BRAIN-be 2.0**/**Belspo FRIABLE project (2022–26) at the
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels,
Jan Crab and Leo Van Buyten,
Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois (Leuven: [Stedelijke
tentoonstellingszaal], 1976). The original Dutch term
“bemiddeling” used by these authors can translate to
“intercession”, or “brokerage”. Unfortunately, they do
not provide any further explanation as to the broader
family context in which the brother’s intercession took
place. ↩︎
Alfred Delaunois would later become a professor in this
academy and then, in 1920, its director.
↩︎
Delaunois paid homage to Meunier’s “deeply religious
soul” in the catalogue published on the occasion of the
hundredth anniversary of the Leuven Academy of Fine
Arts; Alfred Delaunois,
Fêtes du centenaire, 1830–1930: Exposition d’art
rétrospectif et contemporain
(Leuven: Akademie voor Schone Kunsten van Leuven, 1930),
and again in a succinct monograph published shortly
after the inauguration of the Meunier Museum; see Alfred
Delaunois, “Valeur du peintre,” in
Constantin Meunier (s.l., 1939), 19–21.
↩︎
The complete inventory—featuring an old numbering system
that is now coupled with the museum’s current accession
numbers—is preserved in the city archives. A typed
version of this list features in Crab and Van Buyten,
Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois (n.p.), in which the
drawing is listed under no. 936 (bequest no. H 42),
inaccurately titled Vrouwenkop (Woman’s Head) and described as a heightened drawing on paper,
signed at the lower left. Delaunois’s significance for
Leuven is best attested through a series of drawings
made on the spot in the aftermath of the destruction by
imperial Germany in 1914, at a time when Leuven was
under German occupation and his sketching could have
caused him in serious trouble. See Christiane Vaeyens,
“Le sac de Louvain (1914) in de grafiek van
Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois (1875–1941),” master’s thesis,
KU Leuven, 2012.
↩︎
Gustave Vanzype (Exposition d’une partie de l’œuvre d’Alfred-N.
Delaunois
[Brussels: Galerie Georges Giroux, 1926], 5) noted that
Delaunois achieved early fame: his first work to enter a
public collection, a church interior titled
Après vêpres (After Vespers), was purchased by
the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium in 1901;
https://fine-arts-museum.be/fr/la-collection/alfred-delaunois-apres-vepres. Other titles and distinctions include his membership
at La Libre Esthétique, a Belgian avant-garde
artistic circle that he joined in 1906; and at the Royal
Flemish Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Fine Arts,
where he was received a few months before his death in
1941. Crab and Van Buyten,
Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois, n.p. Between 1907
and 1930 he exhibited nine times at the Venice Biennale.
↩︎
Mostly consisting of essays in gallery’ exhibition
catalogues and press articles, in addition to Robert de
Bendère’s 1935 monograph (Alfred-N. Delaunois
[Brussels: J. & A. Janssens, 1935]), which is by far
the most comprehensive publication.
↩︎
Only broad descriptors, such as “watercolour”, or
“heightened drawing”, are used in the literature.
↩︎
“La richesse savante de la matière collabore à parfaire
cette réalisation, car Delaunois est un magicien de la
nuance. Par de savantes superpositions de tirages, dans
ses eaux-fortes, par des rehauts somptueux, dans ses
dessins, il arrive à leur donner la sourde richesse de
l’écaille, des laques et des émaux. Des visages,
mystérieusement lumineux comme une feuille d’ivoire
superposée à l’or.” Henri Lavachery,
Exposition de l’œuvre graphique du maître Alfred
Delaunois
(Brussels: Galerie des Artistes Français, 1931), n.p.
(translated from the French by Marie-Noëlle Grison).
↩︎
Comparisons between Alfred’s handwriting and that of his
brothers, on the basis of letters preserved in the M
Leuven documentation, confirmed that he was indeed the
author of this inscription.
↩︎
De Bendère (Alfred-N. Delaunois, 74–75) drew a
direct connection between this project and a later one
titled La vie bénédictine (The Benedictine Life), a cycle similar in its scope and theme.
↩︎
White lilies are a recurring feature in Delaunois’s
oeuvre. Gustave Vanzype (Nos peintres
[Brussels: Paul Lacomblez, 1905], 3:31), mentioned
Delaunois’s depictions of monks, precisely drawn but
idealised thanks to the artist having recourse to
“accessories,” such as lilies. A drawing titled
Pureté de lys is listed in Felix Timmermans and
Henri Lavachery,
Graphische Werken van Alfred N. Delaunois
(Leuven: Akademie van Schone Kunsten, 1936), no. 168.
The composition of a drawing from M Leuven, inv. no.
G/973/D, also prominently features white lilies. Felix
Timmermans (“Alfred Delaunois,” Van Onzen Tijd,
no. 23 ([1913–14]: 363) describes a piece Delaunois was
working on ca. 1913–14, with an apparition of the Virgin
Mary in swirls of incense smoke and “a dream of lilies”
with white-clad monks.
↩︎
De Bendère, Alfred-N. Delaunois, 73–75
(translated from the French by Marie-Noëlle Grison). De
Bendère also makes special mention of the techniques
with which Delaunois created some of the works for this
project—distemper, pastel, watercolour, gold
backgrounds.
↩︎
A likely mention of this drawing features in
Exposition d’une partie de l’œuvre d’Alfred-N.
Delaunois
(Brussels: Galerie Georges Giroux, 1917), under section
C, “Fragments de décoration (Études pour fresque
murale),” no. 41, “Moine au Lys”. “Le Mystique,” also a
bust-length depiction of a monk related to a wall
decoration, is illustrated in Albert Croquez,
Exposition d’une partie de l’œuvre d’Alfred N.
Delaunois
(Bruges: [Galerie San Salvador], 1924); and Timmermans
and Lavachery, Graphische Werken. Other
examples of works related to such decorative cycles can
be found in Lavachery,
Exposition de l’œuvre graphique, under “Dessins
et lavis,” cat. 137 D, “Étude pour décoration murale”;
in Timmermans and Lavachery, Graphische Werken,
cat. 85, “Fillette– Fragment pour fresque,” and in a
section titled “Dessins originaux–Panneau 1: Étude pour
décoration murale,” with no further detail. It is quite
possible that some of these fragments were exhibited
more than once, but the references in catalogues are not
precise enough to identify them with certainty.
↩︎
For a discussion of the historical and political
implications of the Fresco Revival in Germany and
Britain in particular, see Mitchell B. Frank and Mark
Phillips, “Historical Distance and the
Nineteenth-Century Revival of Fresco,” in
History and Art History: Looking Past Disciplines, ed. Nicholas Chare and Mitchell B. Frank (New York:
Routledge, 2020), 39–53.
↩︎
Puvis de Chavanne realised large decorative cycles in
various public buildings, notably in Paris (City Hall,
the Pantheon, and the Great Amphitheater at the
Sorbonne), and the Boston Public Library. Some of these
decors were executed in oil on canvas and stuck onto
walls. Recent research determined that a preparatory
work by Puvis de Chavanne (now at the Norton Simon
Museum, Pasadena) was created using distemper on paper,
and not gouache as is often mentioned in catalogues.
↩︎
Alan Powers, “The Fresco Revival in the Early Twentieth
Century,”
Journal of the Decorative Arts Society, 1850–the
Present, no. 12 (1988): 38.
↩︎
For a more focused discussion of this subject, see
Anthea Callen, “The Unvarnished Truth: Mattness,
‘Primitivism’ and Modernity in French Painting,
c.1870-1907.” The Burlington Magazine 136, no. 1100
(1994): 738–46.
↩︎
Mary Sargant Florence, “The Influence of Material on
Style,” Arts and Crafts Quarterly 1 (1920):
13–22. In fact, the iconography chosen here by Delaunois
draws quite literally upon representations of the Virgin
Mary of the Annunciation, with the presence of white
lilies and the soft, veiled figure. Cf., for example,
Fra Angelico’s frescoes at the San Marco convent in
Florence. The time-honoured Italian fresco technique of
wall painting onto freshly laid lime plaster was
incompatible with the higher humidity of northern
European climates, and therefore had to be adapted.
Techniques such as Daniel Maclise’s water-glass medium
and Thomas Gambier-Perry’s “spirit fresco” were
developed to mimic the effect of a fresco painting while
ensuring that their painted murals using these
techniques would withstand England’s damp weather
conditions. Powers, “Fresco Revival,” 38.
↩︎
Soft pastel sticks have a lower binder to pigment ratio,
they are thus easier to blend and more friable than oil
pastel sticks.
↩︎
As was revealed by the MA-XRF mapping of the iron (Fe-K)
element.
↩︎
We based our assessment of the paint materials on visual
examination; no technical analysis of these materials
could be performed for this research.
↩︎
Crackling and delamination of the oil paint layer is
more pronounced in areas where it is the thickest; this
is particularly visible in one of the lilies.
↩︎
The same oil paint that Delaunois used in the monk’s
veil and as an underlayer in the left wrist, as seen in
Fig. 5 (this shot was taken with the following settings:
f/16, exposure time 25 sec., ISO-200, focal length 120
mm). ↩︎
Four of these models (ca. 1890), preparatory for
Meunier’s Monument to Labour, are reproduced in
Delaunois, Fêtes du centenaire, n.p.
↩︎
We use the convention that angles are measured
counterclockwise from the x-axis.
↩︎
Our observations were compared with microphotographs of
untouched paper taken in the same conditions to provide
ground truth data.
↩︎
All these interactive figures make use of Erdmann’s
web-based Curtain Viewer tool: (L. Hoogstede et al.,
Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draughtsman: Technical
Studies
(Brussels: Mercatorfonds, 2016); Anna Tummers and Robert
G. Erdmann, “The Eye Versus Chemistry? From Twentieth to
Twenty-First Century Connoisseurship,” in
Analytical Chemistry for the Study of Paintings and
the Detection of Forgeries, ed. Maria Perla Colombini, Ilaria Degano, and Austin
Nevin (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022),
3–45; Marie-Noëlle Grison, Leila Sauvage, and Robert G.
Erdmann., “Toward an Online Paper Study Toolkit:
Developing Innovative Tools for Conservators and
Researchers to Investigate the Materiality of
Pre-Industrial Paper,” in
Papers of the XXXV International Congress of Paper
Historians 2021, (2023), 166*‒*179). Each of the imaging modalities
was precisely stitched (where necessary) and
co-registered, enabling arbitrary combinations of images
to be displayed shown juxtaposed (sync mode), mixed
(fading mode), or in a dynamic layered peel-away mode
(curtain mode). Each configuration of mode, image
selection, and zoom-in has a unique URL, enabling the
precise specification of an exact views such as those
presented here.
↩︎
Two framed drawings on a gold background are listed in
Lavachery, Exposition de l’œuvre graphique,
under nos. 99 and 198, the latter described as a monk’s
face, seen from the front. De Bendère (Alfred-N. Delaunois, 74) also mentions that some of the preparatory works
for “Le songe des moines” were executed on a gold
background.
↩︎
The jagged and slightly lifted edges of the leaf are
visible under magnification.
↩︎
White paint does show corrosion patterns in several
areas, including in the lilies and in the right wrist.
↩︎
A diluent can be inferred from the mottled aspect of the
stain visible under the chin’s current outline. The Ca-K
map shows a lesser concentration along the lower outline
of the chin, where the pentimento is visible. Comparison
with the background around the face—where the presence
of chalk as an extender in lighter pastel colours shows
as homogenous grey in this map—proves the artist’s
intervention caused a change in the chemical makeup of
this layer. On chalk as an extender, see Joyce H.
Townsend, “Analysis of Pastel and Chalk Materials,”
Paper Conservator 22, no. 1 (1 January 1998):
21–28.
↩︎
Also a preparatory fragment for a wall decoration,
according to the label the artist wrote and pasted onto
the verso.
↩︎
Only very minimal distortion of the surface is visible
in this area under raking light from a 270º angle.
↩︎
This way of working is reminiscent of lithography
techniques, whereby the artist scrapes out fine lines in
the drawing on the stone with a sharp tip to create
light accents and contrasting lines. Delaunois was
taught printmaking techniques by Karl Meunier,
Constantin’s son; Crab and Van Buyten,
Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois, n.p. His printed
oeuvre comprises etchings and lithographs.
↩︎
Since it was written in red and therefore starts phasing
out from 600 nm onwards.
↩︎
This area was scanned with the following settings: spot
size 100, distance 100 mm, dwell time 25 ms.
↩︎
The mercury-containing red paint has severely crackled
and delaminated in two instances, revealing white paper
fibres where the paint flakes have pulled the
superficial layer. This is an interesting indication
that the artist may have toned his paper in the light
pink hue that can be seen in various areas.
↩︎
Exposition d’une partie de l’œuvre d’Alfred-N.
Delaunois
(Galerie Georges Giroux). This catalogue does not
include any reproductions of artworks.
↩︎
The album is preserved in the Delaunois files at the M
Leuven. The number H 42/A, inscribed twice on the verso
of the artwork, suggests that the pendant with which it
was mounted and framed might bear the number H 42/B.
However, the typed inventory of the Delaunois bequest,
which features in Crab and Van Buyten,
Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois, does not list any
drawing other than ours under the number H 42. We have
not been able to locate this companion drawing so far.
↩︎
Another photograph from the same album shows two other
drawings from the M Leuven collection (inv. nos. G/973/D
and G/974/D; see also note 40) mounted and framed
together in Delaunois’s house.
↩︎
Near the end of his life, Delaunois was in contact with
the curator of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium
in Brussels about his project for a Delaunois museum in
Leuven (Delaunois to M. Devigne, 20 December 1940, M
Leuven documentation). After his death, his brothers
Richard and Edgard repeatedly attempted to convince the
municipality and the university of Leuven to create this
museum, as can be seen through the correspondence kept
in M Leuven, but this project never materialised.
Eventually Richard bequeathed the collection kept in the
house at 132 rue de Tirlemont in Heverlee, referred to
in his testament (drafted 3 May 1949) as the “temporary
museum” (musée provisoire), to the cities of
Leuven and Heverlee, wary that it would otherwise be
dispersed at auction.
↩︎
Nods to Italian Renaissance ornamental vocabulary, as
can be seen, for instance, in the low-relief hung at the
bottom of a pedestal in Fig. 16, are particularly
noteworthy in regard to the studied work.
↩︎
Thereby building on the research conducted for Degas’s
pastels (Facini et al., “Technical Exploration of Edgar
Degas’s Ballet Scene: A Late Pastel on Tracing Paper,”
in
Facture: Conservation Science Art History, Volume 3:
Degas
(National Gallery of Art, 2017); and Kathryn A. Dooley
and Michelle Facini, “Revealing Degas’s Process and
Material Choices in a Late Pastel on Tracing Paper with
Visible-to-near-Infrared Reflectance Imaging
Spectroscopy,”
Journal of the American Institute for
Conservation, no. 58 [2019]: 108–21) and complementing existing
reference spectra libraries such as
https://spectradb.ifac.cnr.it/
;
https://chsopensource.org/pigments-checker/; and
https://webimgc.inrim.it/Hyperspectral_imaging/Panel3.aspx. ↩︎
For more information about the development of the
Portable Light Domes by KU Leuven and their application,
see Hendrik Hameeuw et al., “The Painted Panels of the
Early Sixteenth Century Mechelen Enclosed Gardens: Art
Technical Examination with the Photometric Stereo; White
Light and Multispectral Microdomes,” in
Imaging Utopia: New Perspectives on Northern
Renaissance Art; Papers Presented at the Twentieth
Symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology
in Painting, Held in Mechelen and Leuven, 11–13
January 2017, ed. Lieve Watteeuw et al. (Leuven: Peeters, 2021),
20:165–75; Lieve Watteeuw and Hendrik Hameeuw, “Art
Technical Research on Manuscript Heritage with the White
Light and Multispectral Portable Light Dome System
(Multi Light Reflectance Imaging),” in
Immaginare la Commedia, ed. Ciro Perna and G.
Ferrante (Rome: Salerno, 2022), 225–37; and
https://portablelightdome.wordpress.com/. ↩︎
Fig. 1Fig. 1 Portrait of Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois in
L’Art belge, 31 January 1921.
Fig. 2Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois, Vision de Moine, 1897,
pastel, black and red crayon or chalk, watercolour, gouache,
oil paint, and metal leaf, on toned paper, laid down on grey
cardboard, 670 x 480 mm; M Leuven, inv. no. G/968/D (even
illumination photography; recto and verso).
Fig. 2Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois, Vision de Moine, 1897,
pastel, black and red crayon or chalk, watercolour, gouache,
oil paint, and metal leaf, on toned paper, laid down on grey
cardboard, 670 x 480 mm; M Leuven, inv. no. G/968/D (even
illumination photography; recto and verso).
Fig. 3Detail of the handwritten label pasted on the verso of
Vision de Moine.
Fig. 4Detail of the signature and partially erased inscription, in
the lower left corner of the label.
Fig. 5Image of Vision de Moine with luminescence effects
when radiated with 450 nm with red longpass filter (cutoff 590
nm), bringing out features in the white paint layer and
impastos.
Fig. 6Top, detail of the lower right corner, revealing the impastos
and the carving; bottom, detail of the sleeve with flowing
lines carved into wet paint. Both photographed in raking light
from a 270॰ angle.
Fig. 6Top, detail of the lower right corner, revealing the impastos
and the carving; bottom, detail of the sleeve with flowing
lines carved into wet paint. Both photographed in raking light
from a 270॰ angle.
Fig. 7Ca map showing the presence of a calcium-containing layer in
the veil (MA-XRF).
Fig. 8Microphotographs (Hirox, with the x100 objective) of two
lacunas situated in the central lily.
Fig. 8Microphotographs (Hirox, with the x100 objective) of two
lacunas situated in the central lily.
Fig. 9Microphotograph (Hirox, with the x100 objective) of a lacuna
situated in the hairline area.
Fig. 10White-light Microdome captures revealing the incised lines;
left, with colour information retained; right, normal map
(i.e., topography) of the surface of the same area.
Fig. 10White-light Microdome captures revealing the incised lines;
left, with colour information retained; right, normal map
(i.e., topography) of the surface of the same area.
Fig. 12Alfred-Napoléon Delaunois, Études pour Méditatifs,
detail of the gold paint background; M Leuven, inv. no.
G/425/D.
Fig. 13Three details of the head and hand showing scratched-out
lines in Vision de Moine.
Fig. 13Three details of the head and hand showing scratched-out
lines in Vision de Moine.
Fig. 13Three details of the head and hand showing scratched-out
lines in Vision de Moine.
Fig. 14PCA of normalised multispectral images of the lower left
corner, showing erasing and overpainting of the inscription.
Fig. 15Photograph of Delaunois’ house-atelier at 132 rue de
Tirlemont in Heverlee, from a photo album dated 1955, M
Leuven. Highlighted in blue: Vision de Moine framed
together with a pendant.
Fig. 16Photograph of Delaunois’ house-atelier at 132 rue de
Tirlemont in Heverlee, from a photo album dated 1955, M
Leuven. Highlighted in blue: Vision de Moine framed
together with a pendant.
Fig. 17Photograph of Delaunois’ house-atelier at 132 rue de
Tirlemont in Heverlee, from a photo album dated 1955, M
Leuven. Highlighted in blue: Vision de Moine framed
together with a pendant.