The Restoration of a Velázquez

After technical studies and a yearlong restoration, curators and conservators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art now believe that a full-length portrait of Philip IV that has been in the Met's collection since 1914 is by Velázquez and not his workshop. The attribution reverses a finding made in 1973 when museum officials downgraded this portrait, along with 299 other old master paintings, saying they were either by the artist's workshop or a follower.

We thought we’d talk together about the retrieval of one of the major pictures in the Metropolitan by Velázquez, his first fully documented portrait of Philip IV. It’s a picture that had suffered a great deal in time, that has been on view constantly, but about which there developed a debate as to the degree of Velázquez’s involvement in the production of this picture. However, the picture was quite honestly a bit disappointing in the state in which it was shown, and for many years scholars that I have had conversations with in front of the picture have said, “you know, Keith, the only way we will ever be able to decide what involvement Velázquez had in this picture is if you clean it.” —Keith Christiansen, chairman of the museum’s Department of European Paintings

It’s not always easy to understand the true condition of a picture when it’s buried as this was in varnish and repainting. And what happens over time is the materials that were in a sense piled on, they discolor, they darken, and the quality of the picture is pulled down. I think it’s interesting that when it came to the Met in 1914, it came in as Velázquez. By 1970s the Met demoted it, and many serious scholars of Velázquez really didn’t agree with that, but the picture as it hung on the wall, the way it appeared, didn’t really do that defense any favors. It was a mystery really what the true condition of the picture was. —Michael Gallagher, the museum’s chief paintings conservator

Interview with Mr. Christiansen and Mr. Gallagher

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