The editors of JHNA have just received word that the Samuel H. Kress Foundation has awarded the journal a grant to underwrite the costs of publishing a digital project in the next year. The project in question is Melanie Gifford’s “The Fall of Phaeton in the evolution of Peter Paul Rubens.” Melanie is Research Conservator for Painting Technology at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Her project uses high-resolution zoomable images and interactive paint sample analysis to illustrate her discovery of two distinct campaigns of revision by the artist in The Fall of Phaeton. This new information has important implications for our understanding of the artist’s evolution: we see how he continued to engage critically with his experience in Italy (1600-1609) after he had returned to Antwerp, and we observe his creative process as he moved between paintings and rethought the efficacy of his compositions.
