Issue 41 Spring web - Flipbook - Page 72
Getty Exhibits Newly
Restored Paintings
of Adam and Eve
Cranach’s 16th-century wood panels will be on view at the Getty Center through April 21 before
returning to the Norton Simon Museum
Getty and the Norton Simon Museum have announced
the completion of a complex, multi-year conservation
treatment of the nearly life-size 16th-century wood panel
paintings Adam and Eve by leading German Renaissance
painter Lucas Cranach the Elder.
The newly restored works will be on view in the
North Pavilion at the Getty Center in a special display,
Conserving Eden, from January 23 to April 21, 2024,
before returning to the Norton Simon Museum.
Getty’s conservation treatment on the two panels
addressed several issues that emerged over the nearly 500year lifespan of the paintings, including alterations to the
limewood supports, physical damage, old restorations, and
layers of discolored varnish.
“Over recent years, the J. Paul Getty Museum’s
conservation departments have been invited to restore a
number of supremely important works of art from major
museums around the world, especially where Getty has
particular experience and expertise,” says Timothy Potts,
Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the
Getty Museum. “This was the case with these two paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder from our sister Angeleno
museum, the Norton Simon. The highly successful
restoration has brought these rare and beautiful images
by one of the most celebrated northern Renaissance
painters much closer to their original brilliance and
power.”
Below, Lucas Cranach the Elder’s paintings Adam and Eve sit on
easels in Getty’s paintings conservation studio. Courtesy of the J.
Paul Getty Museum
