Remaking Colored Grounds: The Use of Reconstructions for Art Technical and Art Historical Research

Reconstructing historical paintings—remaking them step-by-step with materials that approximate those used at the time—has become increasingly important as a means to investigate artistic practice. Through the sensory activity of reconstruction, a painting can be studied as a process, building it up from scratch and going through motions and stages that are similar to those the painter used. Since final paint layers obscure grounds and earlier layers, reconstructions are crucial for investigating the nature and role of colored grounds within the whole of a painting. This paper demonstrates this application through two case studies. Researchers can use the observations that have emerged from these reconstructions as a framework to connect the social history of making to formal analysis and the study of technique.