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Sometimes it's very hard to know when a painting is finished. I study the canvas carefully, over a few days (or even weeks), constantly asking myself whether there are aspects that could be improved, or areas that need to be corrected.
I'm not alone in this struggle. Even the greatest artists of all time have been known to go back and make revisions--sometimes even after the painting has left the studio! I have written about this phenomenon before, because I find it fascinating. But a recent discovery has prompted me to return to it now.
This time the tables are turned: It's not the painter who made the late-breaking revisions, but rather an unknown subsequent owner. A painting by none other than the great Dutch master Johannes Vermeer has been determined to have been altered long after Vermeer's death.
Experts have known for about 40 years that the original canvas featured a large Cupid on the (now plain) back wall. But they believed that Vermeer himself was the one who had painted over it. Recently, it was determined that the overpainting of the Cupid had happened decades after Vermeer's death. So now the experts are painstakingly removing the overpainting, to restore the canvas to the state in which Vermeer intended it. The middle image above shows the painting in mid-restoration.
I for one will miss the quietude and serenity of the light on that simple back wall. But presence of the Cupid does tip us off that the letter being read is probably a love letter. So something is lost and something gained. I'm staying tuned for the final reveal. And I would love to have been a fly on the wall to learn why the owner of the painting decided to have it altered!
I'm not alone in this struggle. Even the greatest artists of all time have been known to go back and make revisions--sometimes even after the painting has left the studio! I have written about this phenomenon before, because I find it fascinating. But a recent discovery has prompted me to return to it now.
This time the tables are turned: It's not the painter who made the late-breaking revisions, but rather an unknown subsequent owner. A painting by none other than the great Dutch master Johannes Vermeer has been determined to have been altered long after Vermeer's death.
Experts have known for about 40 years that the original canvas featured a large Cupid on the (now plain) back wall. But they believed that Vermeer himself was the one who had painted over it. Recently, it was determined that the overpainting of the Cupid had happened decades after Vermeer's death. So now the experts are painstakingly removing the overpainting, to restore the canvas to the state in which Vermeer intended it. The middle image above shows the painting in mid-restoration.
I for one will miss the quietude and serenity of the light on that simple back wall. But presence of the Cupid does tip us off that the letter being read is probably a love letter. So something is lost and something gained. I'm staying tuned for the final reveal. And I would love to have been a fly on the wall to learn why the owner of the painting decided to have it altered!
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