Cleveland Museum of Art

Portrait of a Woman

Jan Anthonisz. van Ravesteyn

Date

1620s

Medium

oil on wood

Culture

Netherlands

Department

European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

How do you conserve a painting when portions are missing? The mid-treatment image (below) shows the painting after cleaning, when earlier restorations had been removed. In the painting on view, notice how the conservator reconstructed portions of the sitter’s lace collar and elaborate necklace. She re-created missing passages after studying the artist’s technique in other works and carefully emulating his treatment of the remaining lace and elements of the twisting, three-dimensional necklace. Conversely, there was not enough information to reconstruct what was probably another ornament at the back of the sitter’s head, so the decision was made not to speculate and invent something in that space. The sitter wears several transparent and translucent white collars that become opaque when layered.

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