Examination of the Uomini Illustri: looking for the origins of the portraits in the Studiolo of the Ducal Palace of Urbino. Part II

The study deals with some of the material aspects that can help interpret the results that have already been obtained with non-invasive analytical techniques (Part I). In particular, a deeper understanding of the painting technique adopted in The Communion of the Apostles has been achieved and used to verify the presence of typical features ascribable to the Flemish painting tradition. In fact, the presence in all the Uomini Illustri (Famous Men) portraits of typical features of fifteenth-century Flemish paintings, among which is the stratigraphic location, in direct contact with the gypsum ground, of the underdrawing material and the detection of a primuersel layer, has been confirmed. At the same time these features are not uniformly present in all of the 28 portraits and not even within each single portrait, where more local features of painting technique have been observed, such as the use of an imprimitura typical of Italian fifteenth-century paintings. All the analytical results seem, therefore, to confirm that the paintings have been executed by an artist well acquainted with Flemish painting materials and technique but, at the same time, both the underdrawings and some characteristics typical of the Italian painting tradition appear to suggest the contribution of local artists.