JULY 27

AA - #290139 VERONESE ROOM GALLERY RE-OPENS AT THE GARDNER MUSEUM - “VERONESE”

GW/KC

BOSTON, MASS. – The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has re-opened its Veronese Room gallery after an extensive conservation effort involving several of the gallery’s works, including the painting that gives the room its name, “The Coronation of Hebe” executed by Paolo Veronese and his studio in the 1580s. The conservation effort began in 1997 on the gallery’s Seventeenth and Eighteenth century leather wall panels. The gallery remained opened during this initial phase of conservation but closed in September 2000, when the Veronese room was converted to a working studio for the treatment of “The Coronation of Hebe.”

Located on the third floor of the museum, the Veronese Room is an opulent space with its painted and gilded ceiling, leather wallhangings, antique lace, paintings, furniture and sculpture. The leather wallhangings represent the largest collection of European Seventeenth and Eighteenth century hangings on public view in the United States.

In 1997, conservators at the Gardner Museum began the documentation and conservation of the more than 500 individual leather hangings in the Veronese Room. Among their tasks, the conservators had to repair tears in the leather and flatten wrinkles that had developed over the last several decades.

There are 27 different types of leather wallhangings in the Veronese room, from France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Turning their attention to the gilded ceiling, conservators worked over their heads, balanced only five inches below the ceiling on scaffolding, to clean the gilt and replace areas of lost gilding. The blue paint on the ceiling was also preserved.

In the center of the coffered ceiling is “The Coronation of Hebe.” Daughter of Jupiter and Juno, Hebe is the cupbearer of the gods, whose name translates as “youth.” The canvas was painted in 1580 for a ceiling in the della Torre palace at Udine, Italy, in 1692. Isabella Stewart Gardner purchased the painting in Paris in 1899. Because the painting is too large to fit through the gallery doors, it had to be treated in the Veronese Room, which served as a conservation studio last fall and winter.

After surface dirt was cleaned from the painting, a darkened varnish was largely removed and revealed extensive overpainting by past restorers. The careful removal of the over paint exposed areas of concealed original paint, as well as extensive areas of loss of original paint. As part of the recent conservation treatment, these areas of loss were inpainted over a newly applied varnish.

The conservation of the Veronese Room wallhangings, ceiling, and “The Coronation of Hebe” restore to the gallery the rich and varied textures and images that Isabella Stewart Gardner intentionally combined. Among the other objects on display in the Veronese are the Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo’s “The Wedding of Frederick Barbarossa to Beatrice of Burgundy,” a varied collection of antique lace, and a royal sedan chair.

The conservation of “The Coronation of Hebe” was made possible by a gift from the Roy Family. The conservation of the leather panels was supported in part by a gift from board president Steve Walske and a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Ongoing care of the collection is generously supported by The Gardner Family Fund for Conservation.

The Gardner Museum, at 280 The Fenway, Boston, is open Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm. For information, 617-566-1401.