This lunette from the Gallery’s collection (currently on view in the Lehman wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY) was selected for treatment in 1999. An ongoing collaboration between the Yale University Art Gallery and the J. Paul Getty Museum focusing on the Gallery’s collection of early Italian paintings provided an excellent opportunity to address the conservation issues of this painting. The challenge posed by the Annunciation was the need to restore visual continuity to an unevenly preserved painting, which, although damaged, retained a number of beautiful areas. This project was also instrumental in determining a more decisive attribution of the work—an issue that had previously been debated but remained inconclusive.

  Before the 1999 Treatment

The work had sustained damage from over-cleaning, and parts of the painting were severely abraded, including a noticeable loss of lapis lazuli on the Virgin’s robe. There was also an overall crackle pattern, or crackelure, that while stable, was visually disturbing. A synthetic varnish, applied in the 1950s–60s, had turned increasingly gray over the years, flattening perspective and the sense of space in the painting. Old losses, abrasions, and discolorations of the ground layer were apparent, further disturbing the integrity of the composition. Although structurally sound, a few large cracks in the panel and three missing battens (thin narrow slats of wood that support the work from the back) also suggested that the painting might be susceptible to future damage.
  After the 1999 Treatment

To stabilize the structure of the painting, the three missing battens were replaced, and the large cracks in the panel were repaired. The discolored varnish was removed and replaced with a natural resin varnish containing a light stabilizer to prolong clarity, which degrades with ultraviolet radiation. Abrasions to the paint and discolorations were retouched in order to bring forth some of the original delicacy of the composition. Significant losses, such as the missing layer of lapis lazuli paint on the Virgin’s robe, were addressed minimally through retouching with watercolor and reversible conservation paints to improve readability and restore balance to the composition.



 

Two Cross-Sections

In addition to the treatment itself and the opportunity for Getty and Gallery conservators to think collaboratively about the best approach to balancing restoration and retaining preserved areas, this project also revealed an answer to an old controversy about the authorship of the painting. Notice the contrast in the rendering of the figures of the Virgin and the angel. On this basis, some scholars had attributed the work to two artists—Neroccio and his sometime partner, Francesco di Giorgio. During the course of this restoration, scientific analysis helped to determine a more definitive authorship for the painting. Minute cross-sections of the paint and ground layers were taken from distinct but comparable areas of the painting, such as the angel’s drapery and the Virgin’s mantle. Samples were prepared and examined using polarizing light microscopy, which revealed a complex layering system of reds and whites. Suspicions that the figures had been rendered by two hands were quelled by the visual demonstration of nearly identical paint application on the figures.