Poland’s El Greco in the hands of conservators
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
07.06.2016 10:14
‘The Ecstasy of St Francis’, the only work by Spanish master El Greco in a Polish collection, is undergoing conservation at the National Museum in the southern city of Kraków.
Fragment of El Greco's ‘The Ecstasy of St Francis’. Photo: PAP/Stanisław Rozpędzik
An interdisciplinary team headed by Janusz Czop is to carry out comprehensive tests of the condition of the canvass, followed by a wide-ranging restoration and conservation programme.
This will include the design and production of a new frame which will create a protective microclimate around the painting.
Art historians hope the project will shed some new light on the techniques applied by the Greek-born Renaissance artist.
In September, after a several-day public display in Kraków, ‘The Ecstasy of St Francis’ will return to the Diocesan Museum in Siedlce, eastern Poland, where it is on a permanent display.
The early history of the painting remains unknown. It was discovered in 1964 by two Polish art historians in the rural parish of Kosów Lacki, not far from Siedlce, hanging on a wall over a sofa in a priest’s apartment.
It was established that it had been purchased in a Warsaw antique shop in 1927, as a gift for the parish priest.
‘The Ecstasy of St Francis’ measures 104 by 75 centimeters and shows St Francis with stigmata. Its value is estimated at five million dollars. (mk/pk)