As part of an interdisciplinary research project of the Bavarian State Painting Collections on their holdings of 15th- and 16th-century Venetian paintings at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, a double portrait of a scholar with his young pupil was recently attributed to the Venetian painter Giorgio da Castelfranco, called Giorgione. Unexpectedly, this lesser-noticed painting displays a complex stratigraphy made of four different compositions.

Beneath the visible painting, three further compositions were discovered. A multi-figure biblical scene, an Arcadian landscape, and a single portrait were uncovered thanks to the integration of stereomicroscopic examination with various imaging as well as material analytical methods. Details of the investigation are available in the following publication here.
The insiTUMlab collaborates with the research team of the Bavarian State Painting Collections to strengthen and accomplish the information about the hidden pictorial layers of the painting with hyperspectral imaging (HSI). The application of multivariate analysis on the SWIR image cube shed light onto a new figurative element of the Arcadian scene, highlighting HSI as a valuable analytical tool for investigating complex working processes in paintings.
Results of the investigation will be part of the doctoral project by Simon Mindermann, entitled “Optimization and Implementation of Advanced Hyperspectral Imaging Techniques for In-situ Investigation and Material Characterization in Cultural Heritage Science” (Supervisors: Dr. Heike Stege, Prof. Dr. Thomas Danzl; Mentors: Dr. Clarimma Sessa, Dr. Costanza Cucci).