X-radiograph(s) of "Madonna and Child" 

Curator: This is an X-radiograph of "Madonna and Child" after Bernardino Luini, held at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It looks like a ghost trying to escape a cracked mirror. Haunting, yet delicate somehow. Curator: Indeed. The composition, even through the radiographic distortion, maintains a clear pyramidal structure, with the figures tightly integrated. Notice the contrast between the denser areas and the voids. Editor: It feels almost like looking into the soul of the painting itself. What stories are hidden beneath those layers? Curator: Radiography allows us to examine the underdrawing, the pentimenti – the artist's changes of mind – and the materials used. Editor: A painting laid bare. I am left pondering what is lost and found when we strip away the surface. Curator: Precisely. It compels us to consider the artwork as a complex object, embedded with process and history.