2-743-299 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Annunciation, c. 1580. The attribution of this painting had long been in question, but its condition made a proper assessment difficult. A recent cleaning revealed that the dove’s halo had been partly obscured with overpaint. Moreover, the blue pigment degraded over time, and attempts to clean this area in the past further abraded the surface, but close attention to the remaining original paint allowed for a much more sensitive restoration. In 2012 this painting traveled to a major Veronese exhibition at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida. The consensus of specialists there was that Veronese created this work in collaboration with his studio hands, with the glittering highlights on the fabric especially characteristic of the artist.