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

Editor: This is an X-radiograph of "Madonna and Child," attributed to Bernardino Luini. The film, quite large at 35.6 x 43.2 cm, presents a ghostly, fragmented image due to the grid. How do you interpret this X-ray as an artistic medium itself? Curator: The X-radiograph reveals the hidden labor and materiality of art production. We see not the idealized image, but the artist’s process laid bare through the density of pigment. It makes us consider what layers of material history and social context are often obscured. Editor: So, it’s less about the aesthetic and more about revealing the unseen steps? Curator: Precisely. It prompts us to question the value we assign to the finished artwork versus the means of its creation and the systems that support it. What does this radiography consume and show? Editor: I never considered how an X-ray could be so revealing of the art-making process itself. Curator: It challenges the traditional hierarchy that elevates the "fine art" over technical processes like radiography.