National Gallery Page #15

or replicants of figures from the Bible?

Or are they important

as a way into understanding

the word of God as it was written?

So this is a debate that's taking place,

and what happens in Italy

is there is a proliferation of images.

In other words, the response

is to make more images,

and to make them

as emotional as possible,

so that you feel a sense within yourself

of what is... what is happening.

And the message is one of fraternal love.

It's a universal message,

and it's something

that we can all relate to.

And the idea is that you go away

from the experience of viewing

feeling more love

towards your fellow man.

I gum

all I would like to point out here

is that, having seen that issue

with the blanched ground downstairs,

and how that disrupted that space,

I think you might have your eye in enough

to start to recognize it here.

I mean, the more dramatic examples

are something like this,

where you've got the parts of the table.

Again, this isn't him correcting something,

but the actual paint he's subsequently

applied on top of the ground

is very close in colour

to what that would have been.

He certainly didn't intend

a great blotchy space.

And again, we have more and more

empirical evidence about that,

beyond just looking at the material itself.

This rather pale thing is absolutely...

it's a strong shadow cast from her arm.

You see it, the way it goes up the side

of the table and makes a sharp angle.

It's the cast shadow of the arm falling.

And so, obviously,

that must be a darker value than this.

And, see, that gets to the core

of what I was saying downstairs

about when the pigment change

is so localized

that it's really quite disruptive

to understanding what the thing is.

That is a different kind of argument

about what you might do as a restorer

to correct that, or at least to reduce

the effects of... problematic effects.

One of the most fundamental issues...

Well, I wouldn't say problematic,

but it's certainly an open question

where this picture is concerned,

and it has to do with the basic construction

of the space, where the wall is,

is that a window'?

Is it a picture of a picture?

All those kinds of issues.

Anyway, the evidence provided

by the ground and the shadows

suggests that this table

is right up against the wall.

You have a painted shadow

here in black paint

of the fish's head against the wall,

which tells you that it's quite close,

and the fact that that's cast there,

I think is also pretty important in...

in fixing where that thing sits in space.

Again, this kind of ground colour here,

and then mixed with a bit of white,

an applied shadow,

it all kind of starts to make sense.

This has still got quite a bit of retouching

that needs to be done.

And you can see the brush wipings here

that are partially covered in

ground-coloured paint by Velzquez,

and have been exposed by old cleanings,

and you have the basic ground colour,

a darker shadow,

and what would have probably been

an even darker one into the table.

It all starts to make sense

if you start to substitute this colour.

But I think you... I hope you might agree

that this, then, is pretty fundamental

to understanding what's going on.

Similarly, this area of the old woman's chin,

it sort of comes forward, now,

in a sort of Cubist way,

and that's, again,

because of blanched ground.

It should be much darker.

So if you start to, wherever you see this,

substitute a darker value,

I think all kinds of things

start falling into place

about the way the elements are modeled,

and where they are

in relation to one another.

And it's such a limited palette

and such an austere kind of image,

I think these issues

are really pretty fundamental

to your reading

and understanding of the picture.

And what he's trying to do.

So that's why we might take

a slightly different view

about how to approach its retouching.

Everything that Larry is now doing

in terms of retouching

is on top of a layer of varnish.

That, once it's cleaned, it's varnished,

and then Larry works on top of the varnish,

so that all the work that he does,

the tens, if not hundreds of hours

that goes into restoring a picture,

the next time it's cleaned, it comes right off.

The whole... the basic principle

of modern conservation

is that anything that we do

should be reversible.

That the next generation

can reverse it very easily.

Months or years of work

is gone in 15 minutes.

That's... that's OK.

It... it gets to the core of how you feel

about whether this is a document

or a kind of... an archaeological thing,

or whether you want to restore it

as an image you read.

And how confident you are

in what you're doing.

It's not just because I... Dawson

and I scratch our heads and think,

'Wouldn't it be lovely

if that was this or that?"

It's based on an understanding

of the material, historical sources,

and comparative images, and evidence,

as I showed you downstairs,

of Velzquez himself mixing colours

to match the ground that he used.

So it's important to remember that, too.

There are really good reasons

for the decisions we take

in matters like this.

I just wanna also make sure that you

understand what Larry has been saying

about him using the ground colour

in the modeling.

That... that it was the original ground colour,

that he trusted,

and he thought, "Oh, that looks

just right in that shadow."

He doesn't cover it.

And this isn't just Velzquez.

There are lots of painters

who use ground colour in modeling

as a kind of mid-tone sometimes.

Caravaggio does it, for instance.

It's not at all uncommon.

The intent is to restore the thing

as a work of art that you read.

At the end of the process, that wall

should more or less carry on across,

going from light to dark in a way

that I hope you won't be able to see.

I don't want to leave the impression

that we believe

that our retouchings and restorations

make the picture look as it did.

You know, we're just trying to help you

understand what it is.

And maybe what it was, but not...

It's... it's a balancing act, but it's...

A restoration is not a... not a renewal.

No. Of course, they're physical objects

made of organic materials.

And the second that they're finished,

they start to age.

And that's... that's just that.

We haven't really talked

about the meaning of this.

It naturally invites some consideration

of the relationship of religion

to contemporary life.

The two women in the foreground are

clearly figures from contemporary life.

And one has to... has to wonder.

What's this really about?

Are they simply sewing people,

and the meal is going

to go through the hatch

and be sewed in the other room?

Or do they, in some way, represent

a modern-day Mary and Martha?

Do you remember the story?

Christ comes to visit Mary and Martha,

and Mary sits attentively at Christ's feet,

and listens to his teaching,

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