Neri di Bicci’s painting from the Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters – a contribution to the history of conservation and reception

Konzervatorsko-restauratorski radovi na slici Bogorodica s Djetetom i dva anđela autora Nerija di Biccija (druga pol. 15. st.) iz zbirke Strossmayerove galerije starih majstora, provedeni su u Hrvatskom restauratorskom zavodu od veljače 2011. do lipnja 2012. godine. Radovi kojima su prethodila opsežna i raznorodna istraživanja rezultirali su pronalaskom i restauriranjem dobro očuvanog izvornog oslika sakrivenog ispod preslika kojim je bio bitno izmijenjen izgled slike. Postojanje takvoga preslika interpretira se kao zanimljiva činjenica ne samo u povijesti navedene slike nego i u široj povijesti recepcije pojedinih slikarskih stilova i načina u različitim razdobljima, uvjetovanoj mijenama prevladavajućeg ukusa. Temeljito preslikavanje s jasnim ciljem prilagodbe zahtjevima tržišta, koje mijenja izgled slike do te mjere da takvu opsežnu intervenciju možemo okarakterizirati kao »falsificiranje restauracijom«, česta je praksa restauratorskih radionica 19. stoljeća, u sklopu kojih su umjetnine bile prilagođavane prevladavajućem ukusu vremena te tako pripremane za daljnji opstanak na tržištu, odnosno »nalaženje« novih vlasnika među sakupljačima kakav je bio i biskup Josip Juraj Strossmayer.Virgin with Child and Two Angels Neri di Bicci’s painting is on permanent display at the Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. It was acquired for the collection of Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer between 1868 and 1883. An initial very wide attribution to the 15th-century Florentine school of painting (1885) was soon specified in old exhibition catalogues with the name of Filippo Lippi (1891, 1895), later to be modified with a “remote follower of the painter” attribution (1911, 1917, 1922). In the course of the so called “restoration of the Gallery” in 1926, the picture was removed from permanent exhibition, probably due to its poor state of preservation. It was re-exhibited after a conservation effort carried out in the 1950s – it was then that the attribution to Neri di Bicci was suggested by Grgo Gamulin, confrmed by Roberto Longhi and then explicitly written down by Vinko Zlamalik (1959) and Grgo Gamulin (1960). Comprehensive research done before restoration in the Croatian Conservation Institute from February 2011 to September 2012, revealed few interventions on the painting from 19th and 20th century as well as the existence of a well preserved 15th century painting layer executed in tempera grassathe technique, underneath the coats of oil overpaint and retouches. Unfortunately, no written trace of these earliest interventions has been found. The thorough 19th century overpaint was clearly aimed at catering to market demands, altering the look of the Neri di Bicci painting to such a degree that we may characterize the major intervention as “forging by restoration”. It was a common practice of 19th century restoration workshops to adjust artworks to contemporary taste, thus preparing them for further survival in the market i.e. for “finding” new owners among collectors, such as Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer. In the course of recent conservation layers of oil overpaint and old retouches have been removed, making the well-preserved original visible again. It was precisely the effort of removing the overpaint that provided numerous new findings, not only of the original layer but about the overpaint itself. Only after it had been removed (i.e. “detached” from the original layer) did it allow for a full examination, opening up possibilities of interpreting the material and the history of the painting