The Primer of Claude of France
Prayers for Mass
Texts and Images
Prayers for Mass with images of Mary and Joseph, the Nativity, and the Story of Salvation
1
Despite the low resolution of this capture, the SWIR image shows the radical changes to the composition designed by the artist in this scene.
2
Thanks to the high reflectance of azurite in the SWIR range, this image most clearly reveals the presence of an angel hovering above Joseph’s head, which was sketched but never painted.
Mary praying; God sending Gabriel; Joseph’s dream
Several pentimenti are hidden beneath the paint layers on this page; in some cases, they can be perceived with the naked eye, through the light blue azurite used in the sky. They are more easily seen in the near-infrared image and become even clearer in the images recorded using infrared reflectography (hotspots 1 and 2).