Latvian Museum Association's Annual Award 2020: Contribution to the Preservation of National Values

The Latvian Museum Association has recognized the research and restoration of the painting "Allegory of Mercy" by Maarten de Vos (1532–1603) as a 2020 contribution to the preservation of national values.

The painting was exhibited at the Art Museum RIGA BOURSE in the exhibition “Baltic Oaks.” During the preparation of the exhibition, extensive research and complex restoration work were carried out on the painting "Allegory of Mercy." As a result, the painting received a new attribution and restored its original appearance.

The painting has been part of the Latvian National Museum of Art (formerly the State Art Museum) collection since 1920. Initially attributed to the school of Frans Floris, its attribution was changed in 2017 after consultations with colleagues from the Netherlands Institute for Art History. A print by Hieronymus Wierix, dated around 1580, was found in the RKD database, created after de Vos’s composition. The print is a mirror image of the painting "Allegory of Mercy." The execution style, choice of subject, and iconography of the painting indicate an artist trained by Flemish painters. In the LNMA’s Flemish collection, it is the only allegorical genre painting with a Christian virtue.

Restorer Nataļja Kurganova, who worked on the painting, explains: “After detailed research, it can be concluded that this more than 400-year-old artwork has undergone several restorations. Judging by the wooden frame attached to the back and the Berlin blue paint found, a significant restoration was carried out in the 19th century, during which the sky was likely repainted, perhaps because it seemed too gloomy. […] As a result of the complex restoration, a beautifully preserved 16th-century painting emerged—bright, rich in light and color nuances, just as the artist intended, with dramatic content and corresponding compositional and coloristic solutions.”

The complex, multi-phase research and restoration of this 400-year-old artwork was carried out over two years, from October 2017 to September 2019, by a team of specialists (restorer Natalija Kurganova, wood base restorer Kaspars Burvis, attribution research—Daiga Upeniece, Head of the “Baltic Oaks” project, and Ksenija Rudzīte, curator of the LNMA foreign collections, with invited researchers: Dr. Māris Zunda, senior researcher at the Latvian Institute of History, and restoration chemist Indra Tuņa).