Venice, Giorgione's Old Woman restored. The work returns to view after seven months (and leaves for a U.S. tour)

Restoration work on the so-called Vecchia by Giorgione (Castelfranco Veneto, 1478 - Venice, 1510), a masterpiece preserved at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, has been completed. After seven months of work, the conservation treatment has returned the Vecchia to its best legibility conditions.

The restoration was conducted by Giulio Bono with the collaboration of Silvia Bonifacio, under the direction of Giulio Manieri Elia and Maria Chiara Maida and, for scientific investigations, Ornella Salvadori. The work was funded by the Foundation for Italian Art & Culture, as part of an agreement signed with the museum aimed at increasing the visibility of the Gallerie dell’Accademia in the world. The work will now leave for a tour of the United States: starting February 15 it is expected in Cincinnati at the Cincinnati Art Museum, where it will remain until May 5, and from May 15 it will instead be in Connecticut, in Hartford, where the public can admire it at the Wadsworth Atheneum.

The subject of the painting is difficult to classify: it can be summarized by describing it as a realistic depiction of senescence and at the same time an allegory of the passing of time, to which the inscription on the scroll refers. It is a masterpiece that finds its inspiration in Leonardo’s portraiture, as well as in Albrecht Dürer and Nordic painting.

Pictured: the painting before and after restoration.

Venice, Giorgione's Old Woman restored. The work returns to view after seven months (and leaves for a U.S. tour)

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