Unveiling Raphael's Christ Blessing: Chemical Analysis Reveals Distinctive Underdrawing Techniques and a Rare Early Use of Egyptian Blue in Renaissance Art.

ABSTRACT: This article highlights how advanced chemical analysis led to groundbreaking discoveries in Christ Blessing (1505-1506), a painting attributed to Raphael and housed in the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia, Italy. Through a comprehensive, noninvasive scientific investigation conducted in situ at the museum, our team identified a distinctive freehand underdrawing executed in a dry medium with a pointed tool and a rare early use of Egyptian blue in Renaissance art. Crucially, the presence of this ancient synthetic pigmentlong thought to have vanished after antiquitywas chemically confirmed in the background of the composition, where it was used alongside azurite and ultramarine blue. This marks the only documented instance of Egyptian blue in a panel painting by Raphael and its o

SUBMITTER: Pozzi F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12824709 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature