Art Conservation at the North Carolina Museum of Art

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ART CONSERVATION

The North Carolina Museum of Art is an exploration of 5,000 years of artistic heritage, from ancient Egypt to the present. An internationally recognized European collection features masters such as Rubens and van Dyck. Founded in 1947, the Museum has earned a distinquished place on the nation's cultural map. The expertise that made the Museum a leader in the Southeast is also reflected in the Museum's Conservation Department.

Care of any collection is based on proper long-term maintenance that includes safe handling, storage, and display. A professional fine-arts conservator can offer advice for the conservation and restoration of collections and make referrals to conservators in other specialties. North Carolina Museum of Art conservators are specifically trained in the care of painting collections and works of art on paper. Conservators are also available on a consultancy basis to answer questions from the public and discuss general concerns on the care for any collections, either by phone or special appointment.

Conservation News

Medici Portraits Come to Light

Out of sight in the dark recesses of art storage for a generation, two stunning examples of Italian 16th-century portraiture were recently “brought to light” through painstaking restoration by North Carolina Museum of Art conservators. Part of a program to restore paintings previously considered unexhibitable because of aged, yellowed varnish and discolored restoration, this recent installation speaks to the excellent quality of the Museum collection.

Members of the city of Florence’s ruling Medici family, mother and daughter Eleonora di Toledo (1522–1562) and Lucrezia de’ Medici (1545–1561) were portrayed by artists working in the studio of Agnolo Bronzino (1503–1572). Bronzino, considered the preeminent Florentine portraitist of his day, produced many images of Medici family members.

The Museum’s portrait of Lucrezia de’ Medici was probably painted in large part by Alessandro Allori, one of Bronzino’s most gifted pupils, and is the finest of all the surviving portraits of her. In an important marriage of state, Lucrezia was wed to the future Duke of Ferrara in 1558. The portrait is thought to have been painted for her brother Francesco on the eve of her departure for her husband’s court in 1560. (A private collection contains the pendant portrait of her brother, in which he holds a miniature version of Lucrezia’s portrait.) The diamond and ruby jewels on her belt and pendant were familiar emblems for the dynastic reign of the Medici. The removal of old varnish from the painting allows the viewer to observe Lucrezia’s porcelain features and intricate costume with renewed clarity.

Kress Conservation Fellow Rikke Foulke’s treatment of the portrait of Lucrezia’s mother, Eleonora di Toledo, revealed a background that was originally a red color. Foulke’s research established the portrait as a workshop copy after another version in Berlin. The NCMA painting likely served as a template to produce other copies. The replication process frequently resulted in damage to the original. Both the NCMA and the Berlin portraits of Eleonora show such damage.

The elaborate frame for the portrait of Lucrezia is a 17th-century replica of a 16th-century tabernacle-style portrait frame. The frame of the Eleonora di Toledo is a 16th-century Tuscan-style portrait frame reproduced by Museum Frame Conservator David Beaudin. Beaudin based his copy on an antique frame in an Italian collection. He adhered to the working methods of his 16th-century Tuscan predecessors, fashioning the frame by hand from European walnut using chisels, scrapers and planes.

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