Restoring Rubens: How a gigantic masterpiece is transformed in front of public eyes

euronews (in English)

Restorers at Antwerp’s Royal Fine Arts Museum are carefully restoring Peter Paul Rubens' massive 'Enthroned Madonna Adored by Saints' masterpiece in full view of the public.

Transcript

00:00So this work was covered by a very exceptionally, I must say,

00:29thick and yellow varnish, which distorted, on the one hand, the colors,

00:34but on the other hand, also the brushwork, which had become impossible to see.

00:39But once you remove the varnish, the paint also has a bit of a matte appearance.

00:47And it has happened on several occasions that a visitor stopped by

00:52and thought that we were ruining the painting.

00:55The visitors don't know that we are going to apply a new varnish,

01:02and that that new varnish will create more saturation, more depth in colors,

01:08and that the result of that will be much nicer than the discolored varnish

01:14that is just a brown film on top of the original paint layer.

01:32No part of this recording may be reproduced

01:35without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.

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