National Gallery’s treasured Dürer painting The Rosary Feast to undergo major restoration
One of the National Gallery’s most important paintings is about to undergo its most extensive restoration in decades. Albrecht Dürer’s The Rosary Feast will be out of the gallery for about five years and placed in the hands of Czech experts.
The Rosary Feast is one of Albrecht Dürer’s best-known works. Painted in 1506, it was created for a church in Venice, where it hung for around a hundred years before eventually making its way to Prague.
Over the centuries, the painting has undergone several restorations. Now, Czech experts are preparing to carry out the most extensive one yet, which is expected to take around five years. But before the restorers can decide what needs to be done, they first have to learn as much as possible about the painting.
The National Gallery is now using a technique called macro-XRF scanning to find out what pigments are in the painting and which may have been added during later restorations. Researcher Tereza Jurczyková explains:
“The device and software show us which chemical elements are present in different parts of the painting. Based on earlier samples, for example, we know to expect elements such as mercury, calcium or copper.”
The National Gallery is carrying out the research together with the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design and the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague.
The results will help the restorers decide what needs to be done. Adam Pokorný, head of the restoration team, says the exact course of the work can only be determined once the research is complete.
“To illustrate, I can outline a theoretical timeline. For example, next year we could consolidate the loose paint layers and remove unsuitable retouching. The following year, we could deal with unsuitable structural fills. After opening up the individual cracks in the panel, we would work on the wooden support. Then, during the final two years, we would focus on filling and retouching.”
Pokorný says an international commission will decide on each individual intervention. The exact restoration plan will therefore take shape gradually, as experts determine what needs to be done. One of the biggest questions will be how much of the painting’s later alterations should remain.
The painting has a complicated history. When Emperor Rudolf II decided to acquire it, The Rosary Feast was apparently repaired in great haste and in secret before it was presented to the emperor, to make sure it was in the best possible condition.
Olga Kotková, temporarily appointed director general of the National Gallery Prague and head of its Old Masters Collection, explains what happened next:
“It arrived in Prague in 1606 and became one of the treasures of Emperor Rudolf II's collection. Emperor Rudolf died in 1612, and his famous collections were returned to Vienna. What remained – what had escaped the attention of the diligent court officials – was subsequently looted by the Saxons and the Swedes.”
The Rosary Feast remained at Prague Castle until 1782, when it was discarded as unnecessary junk from the castle collections. After passing through several owners, it ended up at Strahov in 1793, where it was intended to become part of the picture gallery there.
It underwent another major restoration in 1839 and 1840, which gave the painting much of its present appearance. The painting was eventually bought by the Czechoslovak state for more than nine million crowns between 1934 and 1947.
Once the restoration is complete, The Rosary Feast will be displayed in a climate-controlled case. The work is expected to cost around nine million crowns, and members of the public can also contribute.
Until then, a photographic reproduction will stand in for the painting at the Old Masters II exhibition at Schwarzenberg Palace.
