RESTORATIONS

When, in 1909, Luciano Freire undertook the task of reintegrating the Polyptych, it had already been the object of four recovery interventions, carried out over the centuries.

This observation alone would suffice to admit that, although in part uncertain, after its removal from Lisbon Cathedral, someone had the Polyptych in their keeping and kept it on view, providing the necessary care for its maintenance.

The passages that follow are owed to José de Figueiredo (1910) and deal with the interventions the panels underwent in the course of several centuries. He was one of those who most closely followed Luciano Freire's work, as the successive layers of paint and varnish were being identified and dated:

a. the first, in the mid-sixteenth century, which was carried out with a certain care and discernment, during the episcopate of D. Fernando de Vasconcelos e Menezes (1540-1564).

b. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the pictures were covered with a thick varnish, tar-coloured, which darkened them. It is reported that beneath this varnish “there were found large drops of wax, which is also proof that the pictures had had lit candles nearby”.

c. At the end of the seventeenth century the action of a modest restorer caused no damage only because the paintings were protected by the varnish of the previous intervention. The faces, the hands, the armour and the garments were then retouched. The four lateral panels were, at this time, joined two by two.

“Then (and this must still have been in the seventeenth century), in order to make use of them, they were handed over to another restorer; but this one, of little worth and, above all, imbued with the bad spirit of the age, not understanding the special sentiment of the panels he was called upon to treat, was truly inept, though not vandalic, for the original painting, defended by a double layer of varnish, remained intact. Finding what was entrusted to him a horror, he amended and arranged it as he pleased, retouching all the faces and hands and entirely repainting flesh, armour and garments. And, because the details of the panels he was retouching cannot have been very clear, and he was unaware of the provision of the Ordenações Afonsinas, he transformed the six-pointed cross, which marked the Jew's garment, into a ten-pointed cross”.

d. At the beginning of the nineteenth century a mere amateur confined himself to covering the surfaces of the panels with a syrup he had prepared.

During the twentieth century extensive analyses were carried out on each of the boards that make up the panels constituting the Polyptych.

The first making use of radiography and infrared reflectography techniques, and the second of a dendrochronological character.

At present (2024-2026), a new intervention is underway, intended to identify and remove repaints from different periods and to fill the resulting lacunae.