Giorgione Double Portrait Reveals Three Hidden Compositions Through Technical Analysis

A research team from the Alte Pinakothek and Doerner Institute has attributed a double portrait of a teacher and student to Renaissance master Giorgione (Giorgio da Castelfranco, 1473/74–1510). The painting, dated around 1509/10, depicts Venetian scholar Trifone Gabriele (1470–1549) with his pupil Giovanni Borgherini. Advanced imaging techniques, including macro-X-ray fluorescence scanning, revealed three hidden compositions beneath the visible surface. Directly underneath lies an overpainted single portrait of a young man wearing a green head covering and a sleeve with a pattern originating from Nasrid Spain. Below that, a horizontal landscape scene evokes Giorgione's famous 'La Tempesta'. On the primed canvas, a fourth composition shows a virtuoso brush drawing of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple, a subject also treated by Albrecht Dürer in 1506. The painting entered the Wittelsbach collection possibly via agent Jacopo Strada in the 1570s and was first securely documented in 1637 at Schleißheim Palace. It was displayed in the Grüne Galerie of the Munich Residency from 2011. The multi-year research project, led by Dr. Andreas Schumacher and Eva Ortner, combined art history, conservation, and scientific analysis. Findings are published in the open-access journal ArtMatters. The project received funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung, and the Hubert Burda Stiftung.