Titian’s painting "Behold, Man!" returned to the main museum exposition

After a long and difficult restoration process, the work of Titian Vecellio “Behold, Man!”, Written by the master about 1575 - 1576, returned to the permanent exhibition of the Pushkin Museum.

The painting belongs to the last period of the Venetian’s creativity and is among the iconic works of Italian painting in the collection of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin. In 1850, the work was acquired for the Hermitage along with other paintings by Titian from the famous collection of Barbarigo della Terrazza. The painting entered the collection of the Pushkin Museum in 1924 from the Hermitage, along with a number of other works of old European painting. Three years later, she was kidnapped from the halls along with the works of Rembrandt and Carlo Dolchi and only September 26, 1931, was returned to the museum in a damaged condition.

The first restoration, carried out in the early 1930s, was aimed primarily at the conservation and further preservation of the canvas. Exposing the work of Titian in this state was considered impossible. For many years, the very fact that the painting was in the museum was unknown to the general public: only in 1995 it was first included in the short catalog of the art gallery, and in 2002 - in the scientific catalog of Italian painting, compiled by Victoria Emanuilovna Markova.

In 2008, it was decided to restore the work and return it to the museum. Prior to the restoration, technical and technological studies of the painting using X-rays, surveys in ultraviolet and infrared rays, as well as optical and physico-chemical studies of the paint layer confirmed the preservation of the most significant areas of the picture. X-ray scanning of the canvas revealed a male portrait under the upper colorful layers; Titian often used earlier, for some reason, remained incomplete as the basis for new works. The composition of paints used by the master in different years when working on the painting "Behold, Man!" And the image hidden under it was also determined.

The following people took part in the study and restoration of the painting: the Pushkin Museum team - Nikolai Vladimirovich Kolesnikov, Julius Vladimirovich Piteria, Igor Viktorovich Borodin, as well as Anna Vladimirovna Vasilieva and the research laboratory of the Mineralogical Museum named after A. F. Fersman RAS. The scientific management was carried out by Victoria Emanuilovna Markova.

February 11 at 19:00 in the Main building of the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin in the Italian courtyard will present the results of the restoration of the painting. The event will be attended by a team of restorers and scientific consultants who will tell about the history of work, about restoration in the 1930s, about technical and technological research of the canvas and about the last stage of restoration. The picture can be seen in the hall number 7 of the main building of the museum.

At the presentation, everyone will be able to ask the museum specialists questions of interest to them.

List of speakers:

Marina Devovna Loshak, Director of the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin;
Victoria Emanuilovna Markova, chief researcher at the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin;
Igor Viktorovich Borodin, head of the restoration and conservation department of the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin;
Julius Vladimirovich Piteria, specialist of the restoration and conservation department of the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin;
Nikolai Vladimirovich Kolesnikov, artist-restorer of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin

Collection of guests from 18:30.

Admission is free with museum tickets.