PAINTING TECHNIQUE OF PORTRAITS PAINTED IN THE 19TH CENTURY BY FRIEDRICH VON AMERLING

In 2007 to 2009 we examined 32 paintings by F. von Amerling using a non-invasive X-ray fluorescence method. The collection of samples was significantly limited as paintings were nor in the process of restoration; thus we only collected samples from bent edges of canvas. Two thirds of the examined paintings fall into the peak period of the Amerling's work, i.e. 1830s and 1840s. We found out that he used mainly two types of grounds oil white and also a two-layer oil ground consisting of a bottom clay-based (earthy) layer and a top light layer. We also found out that he did not change his favorite palette of pigments in that period (Naples and mixed Ph-Sb-Sn yellows, cobalt blue etc.) He used zinc white only later - in the eighteen fifties. Further, we compared three portraits of the Hilleprand von Prandau aristocratic family painted by Amerling, specifically two portraits of countess Marianne Norman - Ehrenfels (from the Spisske museum in Levoca, Slovakia, and from the Gallery of Fine Arts in Osijek, Croatia), and a portrait of Marianne's sister, countess Alvine, ne baroness Hilleprand von Prandau (from the Gallery of Fine Arts in Osijek, Croatia). The comparison of the paintings suggests that the portrait of Marianne from Levoca (so far without a definite datation) was painted earlier than the portrait of the same person from the Gallery of Fine Arts in Osijek) (1951) and it definitely was not made as a copy of the latter, as it had been reported in literature.