Episode 25 - A Big Cloth
Pablo Picasso, Le Tricorne, 1919
Glue tempera on canvas, approximately 20 ft 8 in x 18 ft 11 in (629 x 577 cm)
The New York Historical Society
Egypt, Shroud of a Woman Wearing a Fringed Tunic, 170 – 200 CE
Linen, paint (tempera), 90 5/8 × 43 5/8 in (230.2 × 110.8 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Egypt, Shroud of Crispina, c 225-250 CE (detail)
Distemper and gold on linen, 78 x 37 ¾ in (198 x 96 cm)
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Central Tibet, Amitabha, the Buddha of the Western Pure Land (Sukhavati), c. 1700
Distemper with gold on cloth, 56 1/4 × 39 1/2 in. (142.9 × 100.3 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Andrea Mantegna, Madonna and Child, c. 1480
Distemper on linen, 17 x 12 ¼ in (43.0 x 31.0 cm)
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo
Andrea Mantegna, Ecce Homo, c. 1500
Distemper on canvas, 21 1/4 x 16 1/2 in. (54 x 42 cm)
Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris​
Official photo on museum website
Andrea Mantegna, Madonna of the Victory, 1496
Tempera on canvas, 9 ft 4 ¼ in x 5 ft 6 in (285 x 168 cm)
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Unofficial photo showing surface texture and gloss
Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1480s
Tempera on canvas, 72 1/2 x 112 1/2 inches (184.5 x 285.5 cm)
Uffizi Galleries, Florence
Botticelli, The Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child, c. 1485
Tempera and gold on canvas, 48 x 31 ½ in(122 x 80.3 cm)
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
Jacques Bellange (circle of), Beggar Looking through His Hat, c. 1615
Tempera on unprimed canvas, 57 1/16 x 34 1/16 in. (145 x 86.5 cm)
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
Bolognese, Aeneas and Hecate and Aeneas and Venus, mid 18th century
Distemper on canvas, c. 6 ft 9 in x 6 ft (c 205 x 177 cm) each
Acton Collection, Villa La Pietra, New York University, Florence
Isidor Canevale, Room for Palais Paar, Vienna, c. 1765-72
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York​
An example of the type of woodwork into which such decorative paintings would have originally fit
Francesco Corneliani (school of), Shepherdess Spinning Her Distaff, 18th century
Distemper on canvas, 57 ¾ x 60 in (146.5 x 152.5 cm)
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Francesco Corneliani (school of), Mandolin Player, 18th century
Distemper on canvas, 57 ¾ x 48 1/2 in (146.5 x 123.5 cm)
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Edouard Vuillard, La Terrasse at Vasouy, The Garden, 1901, reworked 1935
Glue tempera on canvas, 86 3/4 x 75 1/4 in (220.2 × 191 cm)
National Gallery, London
Edouard Vuillard, La Terrasse at Vasouy, The Lunch, 1901, reworked 1935
Glue tempera on canvas, 87 x 73 in (221.2 × 185.3 cm)
National Gallery, London
Original setting of La Terrasse at Vasouy
In the home of Jean Schopfer in Paris
Edouard Vuillard, Garden at Vaucresson,1920; reworked 1926, 1935, 1936
Distemper on canvas, 59 1/2 × 43 5/8 in. (151.1 × 110.8 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Vuillard, Garden (detail)
Note craters in thick yellow paint
Gustav Klimt , Mäda Primavesi, 1912–13
Oil on canvas, 59 x 43 1/2 in. (149.9 x 110.5 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Vuillard surface - dry and porous
Klimt surface - dense and glossy
Odilon Redon, Pandora, c. 1914
Oil on canvas, 56 1/2 x 24 1/2 in. (143.5 x 62.2 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Redon surface - varied
Andrea del Sarto, Scene in a Classical Style, 1513
Distemper on canvas, 22 1/2 x 45 1/4 in (57.3 x 115 cm)
Uffizi Galleries, Florence
Andrea del Sarto, Two Soldiers, 1513
Distemper on canvas, 22 1/2 x 45 in (57 x 114 cm)
Uffizi Galleries, Florence
Andrea del Sarto, Women and Putti, 1513
Distemper on canvas, 21 3/4 x 56 3/4 in (55.3 x 144 cm)
Uffizi Galleries, Florence
Pontormo, Putti with Arms 1513
Distemper on canvas, 35 1/2 x 26 in (90 x 66 cm) each
Uffizi Galleries, Florence
Krumlov Theater, ÄŒesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
Painted detail from historic backdrop at Castle Theatre Museum, ÄŒesky Krumlov, Czech Republic.
(Photo: Wendy Waszut-Barrett)
The Metropolitan Opera, New York, performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute, 1967 with stage curtain designed by Marc Chagall and executed by Volodia Odinokov
Casein, aniline, and gold leaf on linen, 43 ft 10 1/2 in x 65 ft (1,337 x 1,981 cm)
Joffrey Ballet performance of Rite of Spring, 1987, using reconstruction of original designs by Nicholas Roerich
Nicholas Roerich, Treasure of the World, His Country series, 1924
Tempera on canvas, 34¾ × 45¾ in. (88.5 × 116.5 cm)
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York
Pablo Picasso, The Three Cornered Hat: Study for the Drop Curtain: the Bullring, 1919
Gouache and India ink on pencil outlines, 8 1/4 x 10 3/4 in (20.7 x 27.4 cm)
​Musée Picasso, Paris
Pablo Picasso, The Three Cornered Hat: Sketch for the Drop Curtain, 1919
Oil on canvas, 36.5 x 35.4 cm
Francisco Goya, Bullfight, Suerte de Varas, 1824
Oil on canvas, 19 5/8 × 27 7/8 in (49.8 × 70.8 cm)
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Francisco Goya, Majas on a Balcony, c 1800-1810
Oil on canvas, 76 3/4 x 49 1/2in. (194.9 x 125.7cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Pablo Picasso, Le Tricorne, 1919
Glue tempera on canvas, approximately 20 ft 8 in x 18 ft 11 in (629 x 577 cm)
The New York Historical Society
Some of the horizontal seams indicated
Before and during the Berger treatment, early 1970s
Published in Gustav A. Berger, "Conservation of a Rare Work by Picasso," Preprints of the Fourth Annual Meeting, American Institute for Conservation, 1976
Peg Breen, president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, in front of the curtain hanging at the Four Seasons in 2014
Photo Michael Appleton for the New York Times, published March 27, 2014
In 2025
Recommended Reading and Viewing​​
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Egyptian Shrouds
Hanaa Ahmed Al-Gaoundi, Hussein Hassan Marey Mahmoud, “Unravelling the painting materials and technique used in a Graeco-Roman funerary painted textile mummy shroud from the Egyptian Museum of Cairo: a non-invasive investigation,” Pigment & Resin Technology, January 14, 2025
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Clara Granzotto and Julie Arslanoglu, “Revealing the binding medium of a Roman Egyptian painted mummy shroud,” Journal of Cultural Heritage, Volume 27, October 2017, Pages 170-174
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1296207417301140
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Tibetan Thangkas
The Making of a Thangka Painting, Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, April 12, 2024
https://rubinmuseum.org/the-making-of-a-thangka-painting/
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Andrea Mantegna
Keith Christiansen, "Some Observations on Mantegna's Painting Technique," in Suzanne Boorsch et al, Andrea Mantegna, 1992
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Andrea Rothe, "Mantegna's Paintings in Distemper," in Suzanne Boorsch et al, Andrea Mantegna, 1992
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Botticelli
Michael Gallagher “A Masterpiece Revisited” – lecture given at The Frick Collection, New York on December 10, 2014 in conjunction with the exhibition “Masterpieces from the Scottish National Gallery,” on view there November 5, 2014 - February 1, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqbyjPpQoho
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1513 Carnival Decorations
John Shearman, "Pontormo and Del Sarto, 1513," The Burlington Magazine, November 1962
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Edouard Vuillard
Anne Robbins and Kate Stonor, “Past, Present, Memories: Analysing Edouard Vuillard's Le Terrasse at Vasouy,” National Gallery Technical Bulletin, Vol. 33, 2012
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/technical-bulletin/robbins_stonor2012
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Wendy Waszut-Barrett
Anne E. Johnson, "Historically Inspired Set Design for Haymarket's Monteverdi," Early Music America, published September 12, 2022
Elisabeth Vincentelli, "A Hidden Trove Gives a Glimpse of Opera in the Wild West," The New York Times, August 11, 2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/11/arts/music/opera-sets-leadville.html
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Wendy Rae Waszut-Barrett, PhD, Dry Pigment.Net
Information about historic theaters, scenic art and stage machinery. Copyright © 2024
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Nicholas Roerich
Joffrey Ballet, The Rite of Spring, 1987, with sets and costumes based on original designs by Nicholas Roerich
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF1OQkHybEQ&t=318s
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Greg Cook, "A Reconstruction of The Rite of Spring as the Infamous Ballet Turns 100," WBUR, March 15, 2013
https://www.wbur.org/news/2013/03/15/rite-of-spring
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Marc Chagall
Lucas Lind, The Restoration of Marc Chagall's Magic Flute Stage Curtain, uploaded September 30, 2022​
https://vimeo.com/755609998/0149496ef2
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Picasso Curtain
​Tatiana Ausema, "A Wide Open Field of Color: caring for color field paintings at the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden," American Institute for Conservation Painting Specialty Group Postprints, 2005 - for a discussion of cleaning with breadcrumbs
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Charles V. Bagli, "Fate of a Picasso at the Four Seasons Hangs on a Court Case," The New York Times, March 27, 2014
George Balanchine and Francis Mason, 101 Stories of the Great Ballets, Doubleday, 1975
James Beechey and Richard Shone, “Picasso in London, 1919: The Première of 'Three-Cornered Hat,” The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 148, No. 1243 (Oct., 2006), pp. 666-679
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Gustav A. Berger, "Conservation of a Rare Work by Picasso," Preprints of the Fourth Annual Meeting, American Institute for Conservation, 1976
Olivier Berggruen, Picasso und das Theater, Frankfurt, 2006
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Barry Jackson, “Diaghilev: Lighting Designer,” Dance Chronicle, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1991), pp. 1-35
Vladimir Polunin, The Continental Method of Scene Painting, first published 1927, republished by Dance Books, Ltd., London, 1980​
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Farruca del Molinero, El Sombrero de Tres Picos, 2016, BNE Historia, Ballet Nacional de España.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnrAPicdOrA
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