AIC's 53rd Annual Meeting

Bartolomeo Vivarini’s 1485 monumental altarpiece Virgin and the Dead Christ with the Ascension and Saints consists of a central polychrome sculpture surrounded by nine panel paintings all enclosed in the original ornate gilded frame. It is signed on the base of the Pietà: FACTVM VENETIIS PER BARTOLOMEVM VIVARINVM DE MVRIANO PINXIT 1485 (“Made in Venice by Bartolomeo Vivarini of Murano he painted it 1485”). Though the altarpiece was dismantled when it was removed from its original location in current-day Croatia in 1876, it is believed to be a completely intact work. The work has been in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) since 1901, with the various elements receiving different degrees of treatment over the past century. As a result of this uneven treatment history, the altarpiece has never read as a unified work of art. 

A major collaborative conservation treatment, supported by technical and scientific research, was carried out between 2018-2024 with the aim of finally bringing all the elements of the altarpiece into a cohesive whole. This presentation explores the ways in which distinct conservation specialties approached the treatment working in tandem with our research scientists and curators. 

Each element of the altarpiece was documented and examined thoroughly using techniques such as X-radiography, UV fluorescence, and infrared reflectography. The structure of the Pietà was investigated with CT-scanning at Massachusetts General Hospital. The materials (pigments, varnishes, gilding) were analyzed to better understand their composition and determine if the same materials were used consistently throughout, using methods including optical microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.

Structural work was carried out on all the elements to stabilize splitting or cracking of the wooden substrates and strengthen areas of insect damage.  Some of the panels were sent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Paintings Conservation Studio for more specialized treatment.  

Treatment was carried out simultaneously in the Paintings, Objects, and Frame Conservation studios, all of which are now in proximity, along with the Conservation Science department, in the MFA’s newly renovated Conservation Center. At several points in the treatment process the various parts of the altarpiece were brought together and reviewed with the entire team, including curatorial colleagues, to make sure that the levels of first cleaning and then compensation remained consistent. As treatment progressed, previously unnoticed or obscured details shared by the different pieces emerged, highlighting the complementary relationship among painting, sculpture, and frame. These visual cues were bolstered by the results of scientific analysis, which more firmly tied the works together. 

This project, completed in the spring of this year (2024), was an exciting opportunity for many of the divisions of the Conservation Department to collaborate on treatment and analysis. It led to fruitful exchanges of methods and different uses of materials and has built a framework for more collaborative treatment projects in the future.