X-radiograph(s) of "Male Portrait" 

Curator: This is an x-radiograph of "Male Portrait" thought to be by Dieric Bouts. What strikes you most about this ghostly view? Editor: The grid. The way the portrait is overlaid with this precise, almost mathematical pattern really clashes with what I imagine to be a more organic, expressive painting style. Curator: It’s uncanny, isn’t it? Seeing this hidden structure. The x-ray reveals the wooden panel beneath the paint, the very bones of the piece. It changes our understanding. Editor: It also shifts our understanding of labor. Someone prepared that panel, planned the construction, and that's just as crucial to the artwork's story as Bouts' brushstrokes. Curator: Absolutely. I think it's a good reminder that so much of what we experience is layered with hidden histories, both artistic and material. Editor: Agreed. This image pulls back the curtain on the making of the art object, revealing something both ancient and strangely modern.