Albrecht Dürer masterpiece under restoration in Prague for five years

A masterpiece by German Renaissance painter Albrecht Dürer, The Feast of the Rosary, is currently undergoing painstaking restoration intended to last five long years in Prague, time deemed necessary after five centuries of mistreatment.

Faithful to the Venetian technique, the master used oil on poplar wood to represent the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus distributing garlands of roses to the faithful, including the future Emperor Maximilian I and Pope Julius II.

But the material did not stand the test of time and countless reworks caused damage requiring in-depth restoration, Olga Kotkova, director of the National Gallery in Prague in the Czech Republic, where the work is exhibited, told AFP.

“Of the paintings, it is said that they are organisms similar to humans and that when someone leads a tormented life, it shows on their face,” she explains about the colorful work, created in 1506 for the San Bartolomeo church in Venice.

The painting will be subjected to scanner examinations to reveal "the tiniest details", says Adam Pokorny, chief conservator of the National Gallery. To map its composition, the museum will use macro-X-ray fluorescence technology, employed in the ongoing restoration of Rembrandt's Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. “We also plan to produce a 3D model of the painting, which will be useful for understanding the state of the support,” he says.

A book published by the National Gallery traces its history in detail. Commissioned by a Dominican brotherhood, the painting was widely praised and attracted crowds of German faithful to Venice. It was transported on foot to Prague in 1606, when Rudolph II of Habsburg, Archduke of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia, purchased it for his collection. It escaped looting by the Swedish army during the Thirty Years' War, but fell into oblivion when the collection was dispersed.

Described as “completely destroyed” in an 18th-century inventory, the painting changed owners several times before ending up in the Strahov Monastery, near Prague Castle, in 1793. Acquired by the state in 1934, it spent the Second World War hidden in shelters. It underwent several interventions, including those carried out between 1839 and 1841 by the Czech painter Johann Gruss, criticized for having modified the surface and appearance of the work. Only 75 to 80% of the elements are original. “The painting begins to come loose at the boundary between the original Dürer and the Gruss restoration,” according to Olga Kotkova.

Over the centuries, the painting has also lost an intriguing element: a fly, which Dürer had painted on Mary's knee. According to Adam Pokorny, its “rehabilitation”, which he hopes to be completed in 2031, will be carried out in consultation with an international committee. It should consist of fixing the paint layer, eliminating poor quality retouching and repairing the wooden support.