Voices | Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Since 1939, this picture by Antwerp painter Frans Francken II has not been seen by the public. One reason was the disastrous condition of the painting. Now it has been elaborately restored for the exhibition "TEAMWORK in Antwerp! Pieter Bruegel, Hendrick van Balen and Others". We have documented the process on film. It becomes clear that restoration is also a matter of teamwork, with many different specialists taking part.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder was one of the most influential and successful painters of the 16th century. Particularly innovative pictorial creations such as “The Sermon of Saint John the Baptist” (Budapest, Szépművészeti Múzeum) were copied in large numbers by his sons Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder as well as other artists. Today there are 36 repetitions of the motif, among which the Dresden version, with its exceptionally high quality, occupies a prominent place. The film provides an insight into the elaborate restoration of the painting.
It is known that, for his paintings, Caspar David Friedrich made extensive use of sketches which he had created in nature and from works of other painters. But how did he manage to enlarge elements from these sketches and transfer them to canvas? Our conservators followed up on that question.
