X-radiograph(s) of "Portrait of a Man" 

Curator: The Harvard Art Museums present an X-radiograph of "Portrait of a Man," originally by Dirck Dirckszoon van Santvoort. Editor: Woah, it's like looking at a ghost through prison bars! The checkerboard pattern really messes with your perception. Curator: Indeed. The grid reveals the painting’s structure beneath the surface—the wooden support, the paint layers, a kind of internal map. Editor: It also transforms the subject. All that we know of identity, the surface, is now layered over something… skeletal. He seems trapped, like a memory fading. Curator: The X-ray uncovers the physical elements—wood, nails, the density of the paint. Consider how it reveals the physical existence of the work across time. Editor: I guess this invites us to think about what is real. Is it the portrait we see, or the bones of its construction? It's kind of haunting, actually. Curator: A potent reminder that what we perceive is only a fraction of the whole. Editor: Right. Beauty is more than skin deep, as they say, and so is art!