'The Finding of Moses’ depicts an Old Testament story. This monumental painting was commissioned by King Charles I and Henrietta Maria to celebrate the arrival of their first son. Two kings, of England and Spain, a queen and three children, Moses, Charles II and Balthasar Carlos, are behind the story of this painting.
The painting was acquired by the National Gallery with the help of the nation in 2019 and has been undergoing conservation since early 2023.
In the video, conservators Kristina Mandy, Silvia Tagliante and Marek Goliaš and scientist Marta Melchiorre discuss how the conservation treatment and scientific analyses revealed Orazio’s working process as he developed the composition.
Kristina introduces details about the conservation treatment and how the different techniques came together on such a large painting.
Marek explains how large paintings like this were created in the 17th century and how removing restoration applied in the 1990s has uncovered details about the painting’s history as well as describing the filling process.
Silvia begins by discussing the composition, then addresses Orazio’s choice of colours and how the fill putty was coloured to match the original ground layer.
Marta explains how scientific methods, like X-ray fluorescence scanning, helped to identify Orazio’s pigments and to reveal areas of paint hidden under the surface, allowing us to understand how Orazio changed the composition while working on the painting. - This is the largest National Gallery painting to date to be scanned with this technique.
