Restoration of Matthew
Matthew's head - mural
Duplicate drawing of the head of Matthew
Matthew's head is in a relatively good state of preservation, and after restoration, the outline of his face stands out clearly against the dark background.
Although much of the hair has been lost, faint traces of Leonardo's original drawing can still be seen along the hairline from the forehead to the ears. It has also been discovered that Matthew's hair was painted in light brown, and these depictions of his hair appear to have been drawn all at once with somewhat sharp brush strokes. Since it is a mural, it is possible that it was painted with a rough brush stroke, which is different from the detailed depiction of a board painting.
Additionally, the outline of Matthew's slightly parted lips has returned to its original shape, and the added depiction of his beard has been removed, giving Matthew a clean, youthful look.
When restoring Matthew, there are several parts that have been restored with a slightly different shape from the current mural.
The first is a depiction of the hair on the back of Matthew's head.In the original, it shows a slightly bulging, rounded shape, but in many reproductions there are no examples of the back of Matthew's head being depicted in this shape. In most of the reproductions, the back of the head is drawn in a shape similar to the reconstruction I drew. The back of Matthew's head in the mural seems a little too bulgy.
Next is Matthew's shoulder line. The lines left on the wall in this part also lend credibility. This point also shows a different shape from many reproductions. I think that the line that is faintly visible below the shoulder line that is currently visible in the mural is the original line.
And the third line is the line of Matthew's arm. In the mural, the shape of Matthew's arm is depicted as stubby and thick, but the reproduction shows that it was actually a little thinner and slightly bent at the elbow joint. Therefore, in my reconstruction, I have drawn Matthew's elbows slightly lower and slightly bent.
There are two areas of great concern when it comes to restoring Matthew's colors. The color of the hair and the color of the clothes.
In my reconstruction, Matthew's hair has been restored as dark brown. It would have been possible to restore it in a lighter brown color, but in order to maintain harmony as a whole, I decided to finish it in a brown color that is not too noticeable. I feel like this part requires a little more trial and error.
Another area of color concern is the treatment of the glaze on Matthew's clothing.
It is known from the pigments left on the wall that Matthew's clothes were purple, with a red glaze applied over the blue depiction. In fact, in some reproductions, Matthew's clothing is depicted as purple or red.
It is highly likely that Leonardo's depiction of Matthew was actually depicted wearing such a bright purple costume.
However, this part has also been reproduced in the restored drawing without emphasizing the purple color so much, using the color of Giampietrino's reproduction as a reference.
Restoration process
1. Leonardo originally depicted Matthew with a blue cloak and purple clothes, not a blue cloak and blue clothes. The red pigment applied over the blue clothing has faded over time and lost its glaze effect.
2. Reconstruction of Matthew's youthful facial expression without his slightly parted lips and beard.
3. Correction of the slightly bent elbow and shoulder contour.
4. Restoration of the cloak.
5, Restoration of hands and feet. Matthew's left foot is depicted in front of the table leg, and his right foot is faintly depicted beyond the table leg. You can see that the pose as a whole is a pose that twists the upper body quite strongly.
Left image: Purple Matthew
The image on the left is a reproduction of Matthew's clothing glazed with red.
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