Museums at Work
Between heaven and earth: Vincenzo Pagani's our lady of the girdle
Room XVII, Pinacoteca
After the restoration of the triptych of Antonio del Massaro and of the polyptych of Giovanni Bonsi, the cultural-scientific series Museums at Work presents to visitors to the Vatican Museums – from 9 October and again in Room XVII of the Vatican Pinacoteca – the recent diagnostic and conservation interventions regarding the painting Our Lady of the Girdle, by the artist Vincenzo Pagani, from the region of the Marches.
When the work arrived in the Pope’s Museums from a storage deposit in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran (2003), no information was available about it. Its state of conservation – especially of the figure of the Madonna – was so compromised that it was difficult to interpret. It was therefore necessary to carry out a long study, starting from a detailed examination of the work, and continuing with in-depth art-historical research and scientific analyses. It thus emerged that the work probably arrived at the Basilica of Saint John around 1844 and that the painter executed the work between 1525 and 1530 for a church in the southern part of the Marches.
The demanding restoration was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums Texas Chapter.