A VELÁZQUEZ, REDISCOVERED

It's not everyday that you find yourself somewhere in the endless rooms of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, hearing one bow-tied man murmur excitedly to another, "yes, forensic science." These bow-tied men have reason to be excited: they are standing in front of a Velázquez portrait that was first thought to be by Van Dyck, and then was attributed to Velázquez, and then to his workshop and now finally to him again.

In the 1920s the picture was cleaned by an overzealous art dealer. This left it more sparkly but stripped of any trace of Velázquez's hand, his tornado-wisp brushstrokes suppressed by a new paint job and a thick coat of obfuscating varnish. The curators of the Met recently restored this portrait of an unknown man, which is now the focal point of a new one-room show, "Velázquez Rediscovered".

This show sheds light on the behind-the-scenes work of restoration. We learn of the scientific advances in the field and the thrill of discovery. It also raises the issue of a painting's value. Before the restoration, "it did not really matter whether it was on display or in the storeroom...curious museum visitors might check the label and in a sense be told they were free to ignore it," writes Michael Gallagher, the work's restorer, in his catalogue essay. Is a masterwork a masterwork because we are told so?

A complaint I have of grand museums and their blockbuster exhibitions is that we become too spoiled by riches: after ten rooms of Cezanne the eye turns soft and lazy, the paintings don't pop. In "Velázquez Rediscovered" the main painting sits next to the justly famous and extremely compelling "Juan de Pareja", Velásquez's portrait of his Mulatto slave. On the side wall sits a portrait similar to the restored one, painted by a member of Velasquez's studio (aping with great calculation what the master did effortlessly). Viewers get to see, as if for the first time, what makes a Velázquez a Velázquez, engaged by the eyes of the unknown man.

"Velázquez Rediscovered", Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, until February 7th 2010

~ ARIEL RAMCHANDANI

Picture Credit: Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (Spanish, 1599-1660)
Portrait of a Man Ca. 1630 Oil on canvas The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jules Bache Collection, 1949