[Bcma-l] (Fwd) CMA Clip Serv: Gallery Reunites fragments of Renaissance piece
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
Thu, 28 May 2009 10:16:41 -0700
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<b>Ottawa gallery reunites fragments of
Renaissance altarpiece</b></span></font>
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CBC News, Wednesday, May 27, 2009</span></font>
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The National Gallery of Canada has brought together the scattered
fragments of an altarpiece by Renaissance artist Paolo Veronese in an
international restoration effort.</span></font>
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The Ottawa-based gallery worked with Dulwich Picture Gallery of
London to locate and reunite pieces of an altarpiece painted in 1563
by the Venetian painter, also known as Paolo Caliari.</span></font>
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"It is a landmark event, because while people have known for quite a
while that the individual fragments from the various institutions
belong together, no one's really seen them together, or no one's
thought about them together in quite the way we have," Stephen Gritt,=
chief of the NGC restoration laboratory, told CBC News.</span></font>
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The full altarpiece, minus some of the pieces that were lost in its long
journey over the past 200 years, was unveiled in Ottawa Wednesday
and will go on public display Friday.</span></font>
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The altarpiece began life as a commission for the wealthy cousins,
Antonio and Girolamo Petrobelli who lived in what is now northern
Italy.</span></font>
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"In 1563, Paolo was commissioned by two cousins to paint an
altarpiece. They had themselves painted into the painting, and it was
installed on their family altar in a chapel in a rather small town, and
when they died they were buried beneath it," Gritt said at the
unveiling.</span></font>
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The richly coloured piece shows the dead Christ, supported by angels,
along with Saint Anthony Abbot and Antonio Petrobelli and Saint
Jerome and Girolamo Petrobelli.</span></font>
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A little over 200 years later, however, Venetian dealers saw an
opportunity to make a profit on a work by a Renaissance master.</span></fo=
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"They travelled to the small town of Lendinara, they de-installed the=
painting, and they cut it up into four pieces. They put on a cart, and
they took it back to Venice, and the various sections were then sold
off and have moved around the world," Gritt said.</span></font>
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The pieces ended up in the National Gallery of Scotland in
Edinburgh, the Blanton Museum of Art, in Austin, Texas, the
Dulwich Picture Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada.</span></font>
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The NGC's piece was the largest, but it also was in the worst
condition, Gritt said.</span></font>
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"It's the only piece that came across the Atlantic until fairly recen=
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… and it got wet in the ship. So as well as being cut off and then
trimmed and then soaked, it had the hardest life of all these fragments
— and they've all had hard lives," he said.</span></font>
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Since it was bought in 1926, the piece has not been displayed because
of the damage it suffered.</span></font>
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The National Gallery Foundation and private donors covered the cost
of restoring the painting, which took over two years. The restored
section showing Christ and the angels will remain as part of the
NGC's permanent collection after the exhibition tours.</span></font>
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The Head of Saint Michael, also believed to be part of the original
work, was discovered at the Texas gallery, which will host an
exhibition of the restored painting after it leaves Ottawa in
September.</span></font>
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"In a sense, we’ve added a major work to the corpus of one of t=
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most important and influential painters of the 16th century," Gritt
said.</span></font>
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