{"id":1203,"date":"2021-09-01T08:10:29","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T00:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?p=1203"},"modified":"2021-08-30T10:17:22","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T02:17:22","slug":"restoration-of-vermeer-painting-in-germany-reveals-hidden-image-of-cupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/restoration-of-vermeer-painting-in-germany-reveals-hidden-image-of-cupid\/","title":{"rendered":"Restoration of Vermeer Painting in Germany Reveals Hidden Image of Cupid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two years ago, the\u00a0<a id=\"auto-tag_staatliche-kunstsammlungen-dresden\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\" data-tag=\"staatliche-kunstsammlungen-dresden\">Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden<\/a>\u00a0in Germany launched a major restoration to make visible a Cupid buried beneath layers of paint in\u00a0<a id=\"auto-tag_johannes-vermeer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\" data-tag=\"johannes-vermeer\">Johannes Vermeer<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0<em>Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window<\/em>\u00a0(ca. 1657). The museum has since removed the overpainting from the famed work, which now shows an image of Cupid\u00a0hanging on the wall behind the forlorn young woman.<\/p>\n<p>Scholars believe that the newly revealed picture is meant to indicate that the woman is reading a love letter. Now, the public will get a chance to test that theory. The restored canvas will be on view to the public for the first time this September, at the museum\u2019s painting gallery, the Gem\u00e4ldegalerie Alte Meister.<\/p>\n<p>Uta Neidhardt, senior conservator and curator of the exhibition, said in a statement that the newly revealed image offers an \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\">occasion to rethink<\/a>\u201d the painting\u2019s meaning.<\/p>\n<p>The painting, completed sometime around 1657, was acquired for Dresden\u2019s city collections in 1742 and has since been a centerpiece of the painting gallery. For years, the painting was misattributed, first to Rembrandt, then to Pieter de Hooch. It was labeled a Vermeer in 1880, after French art critic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\">Th\u00e9ophile Thor\u00e9-B\u00fcrge<\/a>r came upon it in the gallery.<\/p>\n<p>The existence of the concealed Cupid was first detected in 1979 during an X-ray analysis of the painting. Researchers suspected at the time that Vermeer himself had painted over the Cupid image, leaving a blank white wall behind the young woman. In 2017, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden\u2019s painting conservator, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AtelierAuctionsg\">Christoph Sch\u00f6lzel<\/a>, began a more comprehensive inspection of the canvas that revealed the overpainting was added sometime during the 18th century, after Vermeer\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the recovery of the Cupid in the background, only the actual intention of the Delft painter becomes apparent,\u201d Stephan Koja, director of the Gem\u00e4ldegalerie Alte Meister, said in a statement. \u201cBeyond the superficially amorous context, it is a fundamental statement about the essence of true love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window\u00a0<\/em>was previously displayed in a semi-restored state in 2019 in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AtelierAuctionsg\">Gem\u00e4ldegalerie Alte Meister<\/a>. The Cupid was only half-exposed, as researchers were still in the process of removing a thick layer of varnish that had darkened over time, lending a yellowish tinge to the cool colors of the painting. To carefully scrape away the layers of overpaint, Sch\u00f6lzel used a microscope and a scalpel, which helped preserve the original paint.<\/p>\n<p>The fully restored painting will be the centerpiece of the show this fall. It will be joined by nine other paintings by Vermeer, including the\u00a0<em>Woman in Blue Reading a Letter\u00a0<\/em>(1663\u201364), on loan from Amsterdam\u2019s Rijksmuseum, and the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AtelierAuctionsg\"><em>Lady Standing at a Virginal\u00a0<\/em><\/a>(1670\u201372). (Those paintings represent roughly a quarter of all the known canvases Vermeer ever produced.)\u00a0Some 50\u00a0works of Dutch painting from the second half of the 17th century, including pieces by Pieter de Hooch, Frans van Mieris, and Gerard Ter Borc, will also be on display.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two years ago, the\u00a0Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden\u00a0in Germany launched a major restoration to make visible a Cupid buried beneath layers of paint in\u00a0Johannes Vermeer\u2019s\u00a0Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window\u00a0(ca. 1657). The museum has since removed the overpainting from the famed work, which now shows an image of Cupid\u00a0hanging on the wall behind the forlorn [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13,7,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artist","8":"category-auction","9":"category-events","10":"category-gallery","11":"category-latest-news"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Restoration of Vermeer Painting in Germany Reveals Hidden Image of Cupid - Investable Art Auctioneer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two years ago, the\u00a0Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden\u00a0in Germany launched a major restoration to make visible a Cupid buried beneath layers of paint in\u00a0Johannes Vermeer\u2019s\u00a0Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window\u00a0(ca. 1657).\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/restoration-of-vermeer-painting-in-germany-reveals-hidden-image-of-cupid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Restoration of Vermeer Painting in Germany Reveals Hidden Image of Cupid - 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