RESTORING A PICTURE.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13756, 23 June 1913, Page 3

RESTORING A PICTURE.

o> The ingenuity with which clevor workmon restore damaged masterpieces of painting is shown by the means recently taken to rescue a famous Ma-, donna by Botticelli. The Madonna was painted on a wooden panol at least four hundred years ago. Not long since the wood began to crack, and it was feared that tho painting would be ruined; but a restorer was found who said, that ho could save it. His first step was to paste thin strips of tissue paper on tho face of tho picture,

prossing tho paper into the uneven

surface of tho paint. Ho added layer after layer, until a thick body of paper concealed the picture. Then the restorer turned the picture over and began to sandpaper tho board away. After many months of careful work he had all the wood removed, and nothing but the paint adhered to the paper. Nest he glued a pieco of linen canvas very carefully to the paint, and slowly and patiently removed the paper bit by bit. The work took nearly a year; but when it was finished the painting was in a condition to last another four centuries.