At Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence has just finished a diagnostic campaign on the painting Maternità, by Gaetano Previati (1891), aimed at monitoring its conservation state and at understanding the painting technique of the artist.
The huge canvas (4 m x 2 m, with a painting layer nearly 5 cm thick), one of the milestones of the Italian Divisionism, is actually exhibited in Bergamo, in the Palazzo Storico del Credito Bergamasco (Banco Popolare).

The diagnostic campaign was conducted by the Florence unit of CHNet (INFN-LABEC), with a XRF scanning spectrometer, and by INO-CNR, with a UV-Vis-NIR scanner.

The XRF scanning spectrometer of CHNet working in the scientific labs of Opificio delle Pietre Dure.

Example of elemental XRF maps

The results of the analyses are reported in the volume Maternità di Gaetano Previati, published by Fondazione Credito Bergamasco, presented in Bergamo on May 22nd, 2015, in the palazzo of the Credito Bergamasco (sala Traini).