pentimento

noun

1. The presence of traces of a previous work in an artistic or literary work; especially (painting) an image which has been painted over but is still detectable.

   “The companion of this picture is the Madonna dressing the Infant, with Joseph planing a board in the back-ground; a performance though inferior in style to the former, not less original from the pentimenti still discoverable in the two principal figures.”

   “She thought of the painting in the shop, the pentimento. Her life, the one she had so carefully planned for herself had crumbled like the paint on the surface.”