Ruth Leon recommends… Before and after: three years of conservation work on Piero’s Nativity – National Gallery
Ruth Leon recommendsBefore and after: three years of conservation work on Piero’s Nativity – National Gallery
Everybody who works at the National Gallery always looks exhausted and dishevelled but they have wonderful insights into the artworks they tell us about. Here’s a case in point. Jill Dunkerton, one of the Gallery’s distinguished restorers, takes us on the fascinating journey of the process of restoring Piero della Francesco’s Nativity.
By the time she’s through we understand why so much love and expertise goes into her work and also why this painting took three years to bring back from the almost dead.
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Piero was one of the greatest of all early Renaissance painters. I have seen his paintings in the Museum in his hometown of Sansepolchro, the Madonna del Parto nearby, the magnificent restored frescos in the basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo and arguably the finest small painting in the world his Flagellation Of Christ in the Museum in Urbino. I cannot wait to see the restored Nativity in the National Gallery.
Yet, not everyone was convinced about the resoration’s end result …
https://www.finestresullarte.info/en/ancient-art/london-controversy-over-restoration-of-piero-della-francesca-s-nativity-ruined
The good news about most modern restorations is that they can be undone in the future and a new restoration, following new principles, can be attempted. The painting in question undoubtedly presents a particularly difficult problem, since so little of the original remains intact. Thank goodness that so many della Francesca paintings, as Nick2 reminds us, remain reasonably intact.
Oy. Just leave it alone. It was unforgettable the way it was. Gentle cleaning is fine; but repainting sections — which is what these arrogant fools did — is not.
I am certainly no art expert but I wonder if Geoffrey Dorfman saw the Piero frescos in the Basilica in Arezzo before and after their multi-year restoration. Had he done so, I doubt if he would have made his comments above. The difference is quite stunning and perfectly in line with Piero’s other existing paintings.
Just make sure the National Gallery does not allow activists to defile this masterpiece in order to raise our consciousness about climate change. The time, care, and expertise devoted to the restoration can disappear in a nanosecond.