Our museums and galleries house fascinating collections, from living bugs to The Beatles, fine art to photography, the Titanic to ancient Egypt.
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Our museums and galleries house fascinating collections, from living bugs to The Beatles, fine art to photography, the Titanic to ancient Egypt.
Conservation departments
After the facial features and fingers were painted in dark ink onto the gesso, an underlayer of a pale grey-green was applied. This underlayer was used invariably in egg tempera flesh painting and varied from a strong green (as seen in Simone Martini’s 'Christ Discovered in the Temple' of 1342) to the much paler colour used in this painting.
The warm pink of the flesh is usually a mixture of lead white, vermilion, organic red and ochres with more white added for the highlights. The flesh paint is applied in quick, free strokes with much of the grey-green underlayer exposed to create cool mid-tones.
Detail of Mary’s face from Simone Martini’s 'Christ Discovered in the Temple'