Fontana's Preparations

Technical and scientific analysis of Fontana's painting The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon (1599) has revealed some fascinating information about how she approached this large project, beginning with constructing and preparing the canvas and planning out the composition.

The canvas

The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon is a monumental painting measuring 256 x 325 cm. Its production began with the construction of the canvas, which was made of five strips of hemp fabric sewn together with vertical seams. This approach was common at the time for large paintings because the looms that were used to weave fabric were generally no wider than one metre.

The ground layer

Clay-based materials that we identified in the reddish-brown ground layer suggest that Fontana may have re-used broken clay bricks as a filler and to achieve the desired colour. The colour of the ground is significant because the trend of using darker coloured ground layers was only just taking hold in Bologna at this time, indicating that Fontana was up to date with the newest developments in technique.

The composition

Fontana laid out the composition of the painting using incised lines to divide the background. She then blocked in rudimentary forms for the figures, with balance in mind. She drew the portraits first, before applying the costumes and gestures of each figure, and the objects and gifts.

Funding for the conservation of this artwork was generously provided through a grant from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project.