The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie is in possession of two Madonnas attributed to sculptor and painter Andrea del Verrocchio and dated to 1470/73. Technical examinations and the comprehensive restoration of one of the two paintings have enabled an art-historical re-evaluation and yielded new insights into the painting techniques used and the works’ original appearance.
The two works, both titled Madonna and Child (cat. nos. 104A and 108 respectively), were exhibited as part of Verrocchio: Il maestro di Leonardo in Florence and Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence in Washington in 2019 and 2020. Preparations for the exhibitions gave art historians, restorers and scientists the opportunity to tackle unresolved questions surrounding the positioning of these two works within Verrocchio’s oeuvre. In the run-up to the paintings being loaned, both were examined with the help of special technology, and the Madonna often attributed to Perugino (cat. no. 108) was comprehensively restored.
The technological appraisals conducted by conservators from the Gemäldegalerie, the scientific material analyses by staff at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s Rathgen-Forschungslabor and the close collaboration with the National Gallery of Art in Washington all led to a broadening of existing knowledge concerning the techniques used to produce the paintings and Verrocchio’s original pictorial compositions. By using John Delaney’s multispectral investigative technique (hyperspectral imaging), later alterations to the two paintings (among other things) could be analysed and visualised in detail. The examination and restoration of Madonna and Child (cat. no. 108) allowed for a comparative evaluation of painting techniques and aesthetics in relation to other works by Verrocchio. The new insights gained from the process correspond to the recent attribution of the painting to Verrocchio in art-historical circles.
Objectives and outcomes: Investigation of unresolved questions of attribution and historical alterations to the paintings for the purpose of classifying the paintings within Verrocchio’s oeuvre
Funded by: Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Project participants: Dr Babette Hartwieg (head conservator, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Dr Neville Rowley (curator of early Italian painting, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Dr Ute Stehr (conservator, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin); John K. Delaney (senior imaging scientist, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), Dr Francesca Gabrieli (postdoc researcher, Scientific Research Department, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.); Dr Elke Cwiertnia (Rathgen-Forschungslabor, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Sabine Schwerdtfeger (Rathgen-Forschungslabor, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)
Cooperation partners: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Rathgen-Forschungslabor, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Project duration: 2017 to 2020