Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and Website

In December, my colleague, Suzanne Muchnic, reported on the cleaning and conservation of Francisco de Zurbaran's 1633 "Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose." It's been among the greatest European still lifes in an American collection since 1972, when the Norton Simon Foundation acquired it. By chance, I happened to be at the Getty Museum's conservation labs shortly after the cleaning was completed, and the picture is even more astounding than before: Surface textures emerged from beneath varnish, slight compositional alterations made the display of fruits and vessels more weighty, newly revealed details directed the eye in surprising ways, spatial relations were brought into a new light.

If you didn't manage to get over to Pasadena's Simon Museum to see the Zurbaran during the brief window of opportunity after the cleaning and before it got shipped off to New York for a three-month exhibition at the Frick Museum (opening Tuesday), here's the next best thing: The Frick has launched a page on its website about the cleaning, with a terrific interactive feature that lets you examine the work in detail--before conservation, during varnish removal and after the cleaning was complete. You can find it here (requires Java Script).

--Christopher Knight

Credit: Norton Simon Foundation

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Comments

[Ted Gallagher]

I live in New York City and, after a first-time visit to the Norton Simon Museum some years ago, I left a strongly worded comment card denouncing the museum’s policy of covering all paintings behind unclean and unclear glass. I left the museum virtually in tears, having dreamt for years of finally seeing some of the finest paintings in the world -- Giorgione, Bassanos, Guercinos and, especially, Zurbarán's "Still Life With Lemons, Oranges and a Rose," arguably the greatest still life oil in Western art.

In response the museum has told me that making these masterpieces "unadulterated" would expose them to the "deleterious effects of the environment, fires, earthquakes, accidents or premeditated attacks." To this, I say, should they not be locked up in a vault, safe from any purpose for which they were intended? The Frick Collection covers very few of its masterworks. How would “Las Meninas” suffer if the Prado Musuem were to cover it? The Norton Simon has taken a bold step toward sharing its treasures with the world community. Uncovering their treasures would be a test of faith that could bring many rewards, and pilgrims, to Pasadena for years to come.