Conserving the Man in Red
Examine one of the most enigmatic paintings in the Royal Collection
Panel analysis
This painting is composed of four oak boards, which have been sourced to the eastern Baltic around modern-day Poland. Since oak from this region was the high-quality wood of choice during the sixteenth century and could be bought across Europe this identification does not provide a definitive confirmation of the painting’s country of origin.
Dendrochronology – scientific analysis of the sequences of tree rings in the panels – suggests that the wood used was felled between c.1527 and c.1543. On the basis of panel analysis alone, a latest date for the painting is difficult to establish with certainty, although the wood is unlikely to have been left unused for decades after felling.