The National Gallery video runs for eight minutes and concerns making the golden haloes from Botticelli’s workshop sparkle. Its subject is ‘The Virgin and Child with a Pomegranate,’ a painting identified as being from the workshop of Botticelli.
The conservation investigation used UV light to help restore the painting’s original golden haloes.
Cleaning ‘The Virgin and Child with a Pomegranate’ revealed a dramatic colour transformation. The process also uncovered previously hidden gilding designs when the painting was examined closely in the Conservation studio.
The answers come from Conservator Valeriia Kravchenko and Curator Laura Llewellyn, whose roles are identified in the film’s presentation. Kravchenko carefully adds new gold to the places where it was lost, making the painting sparkle again just as the workshop of Botticelli meant it to.
