MADRID.- He Museo National del Prado presented the constructions David conquering Goliath by Caravaggio after having been subjected to a restoration that revealed new dark areas and whose radiographic study showed two damages that must have been caused accidentally.
In the case of this damage, the restorer of the Prado, Almudena Sánchez, explained that the most important damage is found in the sleeve of David’s shirt, while the other is in his knee continuing along Goliath’s shoulder. “These damages were covered by a very old oil repaint, covering the original paint,” she noted.
“This restoration has returned the painting to all its splendor,” remarked the museum’s director, Miguel Falomir. The head of the Italian and French Painting Department of the gallery, David Garca Cueto, ruled out that the work has focused on: “the dirt accumulated by the passage of time, leaving a painting with better space, greater ease of the figures and improved in the nuances of skin and hair”.
Restoration of the work
The main objective of the work, in collaboration with the foundation Iberdrola Spain, has been to return to the work the image original conceived by the master of chiaroscuro, Michelangelo Merisi ‘il Caravaggio’, which with the passage of time had been lost under the effect of layers of dirt and oxidized varnishes.
According to the Prado, the opacity of these old varnishes suppressed the space and depth in the composition and made it difficult to perceive the dimensions of the place where David and Goliath are, since in the whole scene only the two figures could be distinguished. the areas strongly illuminated by the directed light source.
Sánchez stated that the restoration work began in September and has lasted for three and a half months. The technical studies of infrared reflectography and radiography have allowed us to know the state of conservation of the painting and the creative process of the artist.
Thanks to its excellent state of conservation, you can appreciate the glazes and halftones, subtle and fragile layers that contain great information about the great artist’s technique.
Regarding the creative process, notable changes can be seen in the composition, such as the face of Goliath still alive with a dramatic expression, with his eyes bulging and his mouth open in a gesture of horror.
The pictorial tradition
Also the foreshortened body of Goliath, an image that shows the defeated body of the giant after being hit by the young shepherd’s slingshot. Likewise, the space surrounding Goliath’s head and his chest resting on the ground is recovered, as well as the arm that passes behind David’s leg coming forward with the fist of his hand.
Another thing that has appeared with the cleanliness has been the clear light that surrounds the young man’s head. The cleaning has also resulted in the recovery of the successive planes of the composition and the air that circulates around the figure of David, previously non-existent.
“It is a very well-preserved work of youth that breaks with iconographic tradition to propose something different,” remarked García Cueto, who believes that in Spain there are only other Caravaggios in the Thyssen Museum, the Gallery of Royal Collections and the Montserrat Abbey.
This presentation occurs almost at the end of the museum’s year, with expectations of surpassing its annual record of visits. At the beginning of December, the Prado confirmed that it had exceeded three million visitors in 2023, approaching the record set in 2019, the celebration of the institution’s Bicentennial, when a total of 3,203,417 visitors were received.
Now, Falomir has announced that the museum is 80,000 visitors away from exceeding this Bicentennial figure. “It has been a magnificent year and we hope to beat the record,” she celebrated.
FUENTE: Europa Press
