> On Apr 30, 2018, at 2:07 PM, Ron Andrico <praelu...@hotmail.com> wrote: > > The lack of clarity and crispness in the depiction of strings has > nothing to do with the artist's attention to detail, and such a > suggestion is a discredit to an artist known for his extreme adherence > to symbolism, proportion and symmetry. The painting, like so many > others, was the victim of a very poor cleaning and/or restoration.
I don’t believe anyone accused Piero of inattention to detail. I remarked that he "was not interested in showing the finer points of lute building or playing.” It’s a nativity scene, not an illustration for a lute manual. The lutes the angels are holding aren’t the focus of the painting; the baby at their feet is. The "very poor cleaning" left a details as fine as strings would require, in matters as small as the foliage on the trees in the far background, the strands of the rope belt on the man behind the madonna, the red-clad angel’s collar and jewelry, and the individuation of the donkey’s teeth. The National Gallery commentator raises the possibility that the painting was never finished, which would explain some things. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
