The Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (KMSKA) has begun the restoration of Peter Paul Rubens’s gigantic altarpiece Enthroned Madonna Adored by Saints (ca. 1628). Due to the monumental size of the masterpiece, the restoration has to be carried out in the museum gallery. The canvas is so large that the temporary restoration studio, aptly named ‘Studio Rubens’, takes up a quarter of the vast Rubens Gallery. It is here that the painting will be restored over the course of two years. Visitors will be able to watch the restoration from a distance.
Restorers and researchers have been working intensively for months on devising an imposing scaffold in order to facilitate the restoration process. Prior to the restoration, the KMSKA’s collection research team, in cooperation with the University of Antwerp, will conduct research.
A video from Studio Rubens introducing the restoration project can be found here.