17th Century Masterpiece Returned to its former glory for "Art and Empire: The Golden Age of Spain"

Painting before treatment

Painting after treatment, on display at the museum

​The San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) opened "Art and Empire: The Golden Age of Spain" this May. In it, a gorgeous oil on canvas titled Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist by Francisco de Zurbarán is featured. Painted in 1658, it's a magnificent example of a devotional painting by this Spanish artist. 

​Exhibition goers may not realize that the painting had been removed from the SDMA galleries in 2017 to undergo a meticulous conservation treatment.
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Over the years, the varnish on the paint surface had aged considerably, yellowing the Spanish master's luminous color palette underneath. Thanks to funding from a generous SDMA donor, the painting came under the care of BACC's conservator, Alexis Miller, who completed technical analysis with infrared reflectography and x-radiography to fully understand the layering structure of the painting and the condition of those layers before embarking on treatment. She then consolidated the paint layer and lifted the varnish to reveal the vibrant, warm color tones that Zurbarán had originally intended.

BACC's Chief Conservator of Paintings, Alexis Miller, removing varnish that had yellowed the painting

An immediate difference in color can be seen once the aged varnish is removed

Conservation treatment and analysis often reveals new information about an artwork. Here infrared reflectography (above, left) shows that de Zubarán originally signed his painting a bit further above and to the left of where the signature can be seen now (above, right).

The painting can now be seen in all of its glory inside Art and Empire, on view at the San Diego Museum of Art through September 2.

You can learn more about what went into conserving and restoring this masterpiece on August 23, 2019 at 7 pm when Dr. Michael Brown, Curator of European Art at SDMA, and Alexis Miller, Chief Conservator of Paintings at BACC come together for an in-depth discussion at the James S. Copley Auditorium at SDMA (buy tickets, here)

Featured in this post: Francisco de Zurbarán, Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist, 1658. Oil on canvas, Gift of Anne R. and Amy Putnam. 1935.22.