![[Translate to english:] Georg Pencz, Portrait of Endres Steffan, detail of the painting before treatment with its thick, dull varnishPencz, Porträt des Endres Steffan, Detail des Gemäldes im Vorzustand mit seinem dicken, trüben Firnis](/_assets/039206741bf4587f2033bb29864a8b5a/img/placeholder_lazyload.png "Georg Pencz, Portrait of Endres Steffan, detail of the painting before treatment with its thick, dull varnish")
The “Portrait of Endres Steffan” on a hardwood panel of stately format was painted by Georg Pencz, a renowned Nuremberg painter, in 1534. It shows a confident man in a voluminous black coat with a fur-trimmed collar and black beret. He is seated in a curved niche in front of a table covered with a precious green arabesque carpet. In his hands resting on the table, he holds fine gloves, while his gaze is directed sideways out of the painting, creating a dynamic turn of the body.
A coat of arms in the upper left corner of the painting was painted over at an unknown date. It can be visualised in detail in the XR image, since it probably contains lead based pigments. A microscopic examination by Dr. Ute Stehr led to the reconstruction of its colouring as blue and white or light yellow. Based on this find, Katrin Dyballa was able to identify the sitter as Endres Steffan.
The painting was acquired on the art market in Nuremberg in 1819 and thus belongs to the early holdings of the Gemäldegalerie. This was opened in 1830 as paintings collection of the Royal Museum. At the time of acquisition, the coat of arms had probably already been painted over. Later, probably for the presentation in the Royal Museum, further overpainting was applied to the portrait’s edges and again to the area of the coat of arms.
In addition to the overpainting, the condition of the painting today is fundamentally affected by a very thick and heavily aged varnish. It consists of several layers, is yellowed and causes a considerable grey appearance of the painting due to its close-meshed and fine craquelure. It forms a yellow-grey veil covering the painting. As a result, the modelling of the black coat in particular is barely legible and the fine structure of the fur is no longer visible.
Earlier restorations have impaired the surface of the paint layer underneath the varnish and caused damage to Georg Pencz’s very thinly applied paint. This is particularly noticeable in the finely rendered transitions between the painting’s lighter and darker areas like the head, hands, and gloves, where many glazes in the penumbra areas have been lost. This condition provides a particular challenge for the current conservation.
The painting is to be presented in an exhibition Portraits! in the Gemäldegalerie in October 2026 and will undergo in-depth conservational treatment beforehand. The aim is to clarify its appearance by removing the varnish and uncovering the coat of arms, which is shown to be well preserved in the X-ray image.
Following a thorough preliminary examination of the condition, paint layer structure and restoration history, a detailed restoration concept has already been drawn up, including an evaluation of the dissolving behaviour and the procedure for varnish removal. Now the small-scale removal of the varnish begins under microscopic control and constant monitoring of the UV fluorescence of the paint layer and varnish.
Contact: Sandra Stelzig, graduate conservator, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Kerstin Krainer, Head of Art Technology and Conservation-Restoration
Duration: August 2025 until October 2026