Research Point - Pentimenti

Mistakes in master drawings are known as pentimenti. Drawings are often more valuable if they contain pentimenti. I needed to find out about pentimenti and restatements and find examples of them in famous drawings and log my findings.



The Old Guitarist



Looking for at pentimenti I found quite a few examples of famous artists work which has been over painted to reuse the canvas but very little work showing these mistakes which have been overworked and revealed via x-ray in ghost like images.

I found a good example on Wikipedia of this, The Old Guitarist by Picasso. Although this total over work when the artist has changed his mind about subject it is not commonly known as pentimenti but as a restatement.



In this painting by Ferdinand Bol, when he over painted his figures they would have been hidden my the new layer of paint. Over the years these figures have started to show through which is quite common with age. It is very clear that Ferdinand moved the composition around until he was happen with the position of his figures.

Views of Paestum

This picture shows red markings which were the correction. It can safely be assume that Piranesi sketched this in 1778 and intended to use this as preparatory studies for a series of etchings.  

Leonado Da Vinci is famous for his preliminary sketches which more often than not have pentimenti within them.

In all my studies in art, I have been advised not to use a rubber but to leave any mistakes and over work them. Also pentimenti although I'm not yet a famous artist.