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>> This conversation is all about what
lies hidden underneath the surface.

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Over the past year, a team of researchers from
Agnes and the Art Conservation Program

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at Queen’s has been studying Rembrandt
van Rijn’s “Head of an Old Man in a Cap”.

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This includes so-called scanning macro x-ray
fluorescence which measures the distribution

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of specific elements throughout
the paint layers.

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So if a certain paint contains copper
or lead or mercury, we can now see

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or map where the paint has been applied even if
the paint layer lies below the painted surface.

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So that is really helpful to shed new light
on the painting process and materials used.

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During this study, an underlying earlier
composition by the artist was identified.

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In the cobalt map seen here, for
instance, a bust in profile emerges.

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And this makes sense because we know from
other examples that the young Rembrandt,

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who was only around 24 years old when he painted this work, would frequently reuse panels.

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His painting is paired here with recently acquired
work by Toronto-based artist Erika DeFreitas.

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These three photos on display
form part of the larger series

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that documents the artist performing with
her late grandmother’s handmade doily.

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As she unites as it were, these creative processes
along a maternal lineage, the piece reflects

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on loss and grief and breath leaving the body.
The fabric configurations that spill from the artist’s mouth

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also recall the 19th century ectoplasm photographs of T.G. Hamilton,
who seeking to document the embodied interactions

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between mediums and the spiritual world,
turned to photography which then of course was

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at the forefront of imaging technology.

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Brought together, Rembrandt’s and Defreitas’
work bring into focus an array of tensions

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between study and portraits, the visible
and invisible and loss and creation.

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