Amedeo Modigliani's "Reclining Nude from the Back ," , oil on canvas. The work is part of "Modigliani Up Close” at the Barnes Foundation, which runs through Jan. 29.Conservators and curators have long known there was something funky about the unusual double-sided paintings by Amedeo Modigliani.shows a gaunt woman with angular cheekbones who was the artist’s lover for a brief period.
It wasn’t until the Hecht Museum in Haifa, owner of the double-painting since 1983, subjected the canvas to a forensic examination with X-ray technology that it became apparent just how unusualBeneath the surface of both paintings are multiple portraits and sketches, including a possible self-portrait and a fully rendered woman with hair drawn up in a bun.— and their largely concealed ghostly underpaintings — can now be seen in “Modigliani Up Close,” which opened at the Barnes Oct.
The Barnes exhibition, curated by an unusual collaboration of art historians and conservators — Barbara Buckley, Barnes’ director of conservation; Simonetta Fraquelli, independent curator and consulting curator for the Barnes; Nancy Ireson, deputy director for collections and exhibitions and chief curator at the Barnes; and Annette King, painting conservator at the Tate, London — zeroes in on what Modigliani made and how he made it.