BERLIN.- One of the treasures of the Italian Renaissance in Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie is about to receive long-needed conservation care. Filippo Lippi’s The Adoration in the Forest, painted around 1459, will undergo a two-year restoration project supported by the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation and the Schoof’sche Stiftung.

The painting, considered one of the outstanding works of Renaissance art in the collection of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, is admired for its delicate tempera technique, subtle gilding, and sophisticated use of perspective. In the work, the Virgin Mary kneels before the newborn Christ Child in a quiet forest setting, creating a scene that feels both intimate and mystical.

A Renaissance masterpiece with Medici origins

The painting’s history adds to its importance. Lippi created The Adoration in the Forest in 1459 as an altarpiece for the chapel of the Palazzo Medici in Florence. That same year, Benozzo Gozzoli completed his famous Procession of the Magi for the same chapel, and Lippi’s altarpiece is understood as the visual and spiritual endpoint of that procession.

The work came to Berlin in 1821 when the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV acquired the collection of the English art dealer Edward Solly. Since the opening of the Royal Museum in 1830, it has remained one of the Gemäldegalerie’s most significant paintings. In Florence, the original altarpiece was replaced by a contemporary copy.

Why the painting needs restoration

The need for restoration became clear during the recent reframing of the painting. Conservators at the Gemäldegalerie discovered numerous small losses in the tempera paint layers and in the varnish covering the work. According to the museum, the damage is likely connected to the aging of a formerly colorless coating applied in the mid-19th century.

Over time, that coating has yellowed, developed countless microcracks, and begun to detach from the surface. In some places, tiny particles of varnish are breaking away and pulling original paint with them. The museum warns that this can lead to irreversible losses, making restoration urgently necessary.

Restoring color, protecting history

The project will begin with detailed investigations into how the damage developed. Conservators will then determine the safest methods for removing the aged varnish and stabilizing the painting’s original materials.

The removal of the yellowed coating is expected not only to protect the work but also to transform how it is seen. Once the discolored layer is removed, the brilliance of Lippi’s colors should become more visible again, bringing the painting closer to the luminous effect it once had.

The restoration will take place in the Gemäldegalerie’s studios over two years. Specialists will use X-ray imaging, UV fluorescence photography, infrared reflectography, and high-magnification microscopic examination. Scientific material analyses will also be carried out with the support of the Rathgen Research Laboratory of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

New research on Lippi’s technique

The restoration is expected to do more than preserve the painting. The accompanying art-technological research may also offer new insights into Lippi’s working methods and the possible involvement of his workshop.

Filippo Lippi, who lived from 1406 to 1469, was one of the leading painters of Florence and a favorite of the Medici family. Trained in the artistic environment of Masaccio, he later became known for major fresco cycles in Prato and Spoleto. His most famous pupil was Sandro Botticelli, who may have played a role in the creation of The Adoration in the Forest.

A new frame and a future exhibition

The painting has also recently received a new Renaissance-style frame. Its 19th-century frame was lost during the Second World War, when the painting had been moved outside Berlin for safekeeping. In 2023, the Kaiser Friedrich Museumsverein, the Gemäldegalerie’s support association, financed a new frame similar to the one that may have originally surrounded the altarpiece.

After the restoration and research are completed, the museum plans to present the results in a special exhibition. For visitors, it will be an opportunity to rediscover a major Renaissance painting with new clarity — and to see how conservation can reveal both the beauty and the hidden history of a work of art.

Visitor information

Painting: Filippo Lippi, The Adoration in the Forest, c. 1459
Museum: Gemäldegalerie, Kulturforum Berlin
Address: Johanna-und-Eduard-Arnhold-Platz / Matthäikirchplatz, 10785 Berlin
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.