Restorers in Spain’s Prado museum have revealed a rare, previously unknown work by the 16th century Flemish master Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
The painting, The Wine of Saint Martin’s Day, is only the 41st known signed work by Bruegel in the world and is among the largest at 148cm by 271.5cm.
It depicts dozens of people in various states of drunkenness, described by the Prado as “a sort of Tower of Babel composed of wine drinkers.”
The Madrid museum had been restoring the painting since February and was able to identify it conclusively when an X-Ray revealed fragments of Bruegel’s signature at the bottom of the canvas.
Bruegel painted it in tempera, a technique he rarely used joining pigments with an emulsion of water and glue. The artist more often used oils. The painting was dated at between 1565 and 1568.
Spanish Minister of Culture Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde said the discovery was an “exceptional event” as the painting was shown in public last week for the first time.
According to a report in the daily El Pais newspaper, the ministry is in talks to purchase the Renaissance work from its unidentified owners for seven million euros (US$9 million), as little as a third of its estimated market value.
Prado management declined to give a price.
Gonzalez-Sinde said only that the museum had a chance to buy it at a “very advantageous price” and every effort would be made to ensure that the negotiations were successful.
The owners wanted the painting to be part of a Spanish public collection rather than allowing it to leave the country and become part of a private collection, she said.
Pilar Silva, head of the Prado’s Flemish art section, said the painting needed another nine months of restoration work. It would be only the second Bruegel to hang at the Prado after The Triumph of Death.(AFP)
西班牙普拉多美術館的修復員近日揭示了先前不為人知的十六世紀荷蘭畫家,老彼得•布勒哲爾的一幅畫作。
該畫作「聖馬丁日之酒」,是布勒哲爾世界上第四十一幅公諸於世,有親筆簽名的畫作,而且也是最大幅畫作之一,尺寸為一百四十八公分寬,二百七十一點五公分長。
普拉多美術館描述該幅作品,畫的是數十個人不同的酒醉模樣,「有如愛酒人士的巴別塔。」
馬德里美術館自從二月開始修復這幅畫,最後在X光照射下,才於畫布下方,依稀發現布勒哲爾的簽名,因此才確定是他的畫作。
布勒哲爾以蛋彩畫顏料創作這幅作品,但是他很少使用這種技巧,這種表現方法必須把顏料和水跟膠質物混合成乳狀液體。這位畫家比較常用的是油彩。這幅作品年代在一五六五年到一五六八年間。
當這幅畫上週首次公諸於世時,西班牙文化部長安荷雷斯•龔薩雷茲•辛德表示,該作品的發現是個「特別的事件」。
據西班牙國家日報報導,文化部正與該作品不願具名的所有人談判,希望以七百萬歐元的價格(九百萬美元)購買,只有估計市場價的三分之一。
普拉多美術館當局不願告知價格。
龔薩雷茲•辛德只表示美術館曾有機會可以「非常划算的價格」購得此作品,而他們會盡一切心力使得協商順利。
她表示,擁有者希望該作品成為西班牙公有收藏品,而不是讓該作品流落國外,成為某收藏家私人收藏的一部分。
掌管普拉多美術館荷蘭藝術品部門的皮拉•席爾發表示,該畫還需要九個月的修復時間。這將是美術館所展示的第二幅布勒哲爾作品,第一個作品為「死神的勝利」。
(法新社�翻譯:吳岱璟)
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