An Italian altarpiece has gone on display for the first time in more than 100 years, following a 7-year conservation treatment – one of the longest and most complex in the history of the National Gallery. The Virgin and Child with Saints is one of the major surviving painted altarpieces by the Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor, Giovanni Martini da Udine (c.1470–1535). Most of his career was spent in Friuli, north of Venice. The picture was painted on a wooden panel, which is very reactive to changes in humidity and climate. As a result, the altarpiece had already undergone several major structural changes before the Gallery acquired it in 1867.When it entered the Collection, the wood was conserved using a technique called cradling, which was the best practice at this time. Although this work was done with the best of intentions, it ultimately made the altarpiece even more fragile. In 2011, the National G<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An Italian altarpiece has gone on display for the first time in more than 100 years, following a 7-year conservation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publications"],"yoast_head":"\n