Classical Scholarship Revival Continues

Technology continues to open doors on the past. Here's the latest old thing made new.

This from AOL News, photo from the Telegraph:

British Museum Uncovers Artists' Secret Sketches

Thanks to "CSI"-style technology, the British Museum is preparing to exhibit secret sketches that artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael thought they erased five centuries ago.

The museum discovered eight "undersketches," including previously unknown works by Raphael and Andrea Mantegna, by scanning eraser marks invisible to the naked eye on existing sketches. Using infrared imaging developed for drug testing and forensics, the museum revealed the hidden sketches by illuminating traces of carbon elements -- such as charcoal and chalk -- left behind when the artists wiped away their work in the 1500s.

One of the "undersketches" discovered by the British museum using infrared imaging shows Michelangelo based the Virgin Mary's form on his sketch of a male model for his Bruges Madonna sculpture.

Back then, it was common for artists to use stale bread as an eraser and reuse a single piece of pricey paper for multiple drawings.

"After 500 years the fact that any drawing by them has survived is pretty amazing," Hugo Chapman, curator of Italian drawings at the British Museum, told the Times of London.The never-before-seen sketches provide insight into the creation of the artists' well-known work, such as Michelangelo's Bruges Madonna sculpture.

Beneath a later sketch for the sculpture of a young Jesus sitting with the Virgin Mary, curators found an earlier version that shows Michelangelo based the Virgin
Mary's form on his sketch of a male model, as women rarely sat for artists in
his time...