AMSTERDAM.- An innovative method for examining paintings has
revealed a hitherto unknown painting beneath Goyas Portrait of
Don Ramón Satué, one of his most celebrated masterpieces and the
only painting by this famous Spanish artist in The Netherlands.
The hidden portrait, which is almost certainly also by Goya
himself, was brought to light using Scanning Macro X-ray
Fluorescence Spectrometry a new technique developed by the
University of Antwerp and the Delft University of Technology.
From the scans it can clearly be seen that Goya (1746-1828)
painted his portrait of the casually-posed Spanish judge, Ramón
Satué, over a much more formal portrait of a man wearing
uniform. The decorations embellishing the uniform are those of
the highest ranks of a chivalric order instituted by Joseph
Bonaparte when his brother, the emperor Napoleon, created him
King of Spain. The hidden portrait must thus date from between
1809 and 1813. Goyas portrait of Satué is signed and dated 1823.
Although the hidden sitters face is not