25 The Annunciation retable conversatione” (Fig. 27). Older literature mentions that this painting was imported by Nikola Brautić from his bishopric in Sarsina/Umbria at the beginning of the 17th century.28 There is no doubt that the painting was specifically intended for the altar and has belonged to it from the very beginning, although artist and origin remain unclear. The painting was created using traditional oil painting technique. A distinctive feature is the fabric used by the artist. It consists of a single large piece (3.13 x 2.30 m); the preserved selvedge at the lower left-hand side shows that the cloth must have been at least 2.30 cm wide in the direction of the weft, indicating an extraordinary large loom for hand weaving at the time. The weave shows a complex pattern of rhomboid shapes and can be described as a variation of a diamond shaped point twill (Fig. 28, 29). Such canvasses are known to have been used in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in Venice and Spain. Similarly complex weaving patterns can be found in paintings by Titian, Tintoretto, El Greco and particularly frequently in Tuscan and Emilian paintings.29 The very common weave pattern was named mantelillo veneziano or perugine cloth.30 Paintings from Fig. 27: Painting “Annunciation”; condition as found Fig. 29: Schematic layout of the canvas weaving pattern (patrone) Fig. 28: Detail of the back of the canvas
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