A new scientific study has revealed the cause of deterioration in Salvador Dalí's 1946 painting 'The Temptation of Saint Anthony.' Researchers from the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and an international team used advanced imaging techniques to determine that the degradation, which includes areas becoming transparent or textured, is linked to the chemical interaction between a zinc white paint layer and an amber varnish layer, both materials specifically advocated by Dalí in his own artistic manual.
The findings are significant for both art conservation and art history. They provide a concrete, scientific explanation for the painting's altered appearance, which occurred mostly before the museum acquired it in 1965, and highlight how an artist's specific material choices, intended to achieve certain visual effects, can inadvertently lead to the long-term degradation of their own work. The study also serves as a cautionary tale about the complex aging of historical materials.