TECNICAL REPORT OF AN OIL PAINTING ON CANVAS, SHOWING SEASCAPE

The painting contains the following signature in the bottom left portion of the canvas: "J. M. W. Turner R.A. ".
Painting technique is complex. It is oil on canvas with a very fine and close weave. The preparation layer is white and quite thin. The color has been painted on in thin layers, creating transparencies and sfumature.
The painting has been subjected to at least one restoration, which has compromised its leggibility and caused some damage. A lager canvass has been applied to the backin such a way as it sticks out some 2 cm on all sides. It is possibile that durino the process of "ironing", certain areas such as some parts of the sky and the central zonwe were overheated. In fact some abrasions can be noted, formed by small bubbles and holes in the colour. Excessive pressure during ironing has caused a flattening of some colour strokes, which were quite thick. The reflectological analysis shows tha the restorer attempted, crudely, to clean the sky area, ruining some shadings. The lower area has not been cleaned, probably because of the instability of the paint , much of which has been lost, infact, the restorer has has applied a layer of glue(probably applied hot) to this zone The presence of this glue, applied to the layer of dirt on the bottom part of the painting is easily identifiable with a UV analysis, which reveals a strange grey/yellow layer which impedes the view of the original paint The retouching is limited and easily identifiable with UV. Therefore the state of conservation is not very good, but the anlysis allows us to make some considerations: - it is possible to observe that the signature has not been eliminated by the cleaning process. The x-ray alaysis shows that there are no layers underneath the signature allowing us to deduce that it was applied directly to the painting. This does not proove that it is original, even if it is similar to signatures on other paintings by the artist.
- The painting technique is similar to that used by turner in other paintings, this is shown by the stratigraphical analysis which shows the superimposition of thin layers of paint. (See samples AZ3-AZ5-AZ7- AZ8).
- All of the chemical analysis carried out by SEM show the artists pallette:
- the preparatrory layer is composed of white lead; - the whites are white lead; - the reds show inclusions of lake red; - the blues, the greens and deep blues show the use of lapislazzuli, and considerable dimensions;
- the presence of the inclusions of lacca and lapislazzuli, cut in various dimensions, also very large, indicates a very rich "tavolozza", inasmuch as such materials were very rare and precious. It would be interesting to compare these elements with those from painting known to be by the artist in question. Another consideration is the presence in some of the samples of white zinc, a color that was discovered and used, only after 1855. In thois case a comparrisson was made of the analyse from the various ad hoc samples where there were original whites, and white retouches or stucco . The original white was white lead however where a lesser layer of white zinc was discovered, superimposed on other layers of paint and dirt, it was that of the restorer, showing that the restoration was carried out post 1855. The preparatory design does not fully match the painting, leading one to imagine a degree of thought and variation by the painter, during painting, rather than a copier.

Marisol Burgio di Aragona (for Zeta Art Restauro)