Conservation and Framing supported by the Aldama Foundation

The Aldama Foundation generously support important Conservation and Framing projects at the National Gallery and across the country

Preserving art for the nation

The work of our Conservation, Scientific and Framing Departments shapes the way we experience the nation’s art collections, at home in Trafalgar Square, and throughout the UK.

Thanks to the Aldama Foundation’s generous support of our National Conservation Programme, we are able to research, preserve and enhance important paintings in publicly accessible collections across the country.

The programme helps to ensure that such collections without the resources to undertake conservation treatments can reach out to the National Gallery to have their works considered for conservation by our team.

The Foundation’s support has also enabled the recruitment of our Aldama Conservation Fellow, Silvia Tagliante, and will support the recruitment of an Aldama Scientific Fellow: two roles that will provide invaluable work in the lead-up to our Bicentenary celebrations in 2024 and beyond.

Behind the scenes in Conservation

Framing the national collection

The support of the Aldama Foundation enables our Framing Department to continue their important work.

Alongside acquiring, adapting and restoring frames for works in the collection, the Framing Department is central to the Gallery’s ability to loan works for temporary exhibitions, preparing works from the collection to be viewed throughout the UK and around the world.

With the Framing Acquisition Fund as a resource, the team can make purchases when suitable frames, contemporary to the collection, become available. Such frames are rare and in high demand.

Learn about some of the projects supported by the Aldama Foundation:

A conservator wearing magnifying glasses holds a fine paintbrush to a panel by Peruzzi

Image: Detail from Olivia Stodart, Conservation Fellow, working on Peruzzi, 'The Nativity', 1515 from the Ulster Museum, Belfast

Image: Detail from Frans Hals, 'Portrait of a Man holding a Skull', about 1612 © The Henry Barber Trust, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham

A conservator sits close to a large panel painting on an easel. She is wearing magnifying glasses and holds a fine paintbrush and palette

Image: Detail from Britta New working on the panel in the conservation studio

Image: Detail from Pieter de Hooch, 'The Courtyard of a House in Delft', 1658 in its new frame

Image: Detail from Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 'The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities', about 1675-82

Peruzzi's ‘Nativity’ from the Ulster Museum, Belfast

The ‘Nativity’ has enormous cultural significance as it is the only painting in the UK by Italian artist Peruzzi. The painting was saved for the nation by National Museums Northern Ireland, who acquired it following a fundraising campaign in 2021.

Conservation treatment was undertaken at the National Gallery by our Conservation Fellow, Olivia Stoddart. This treatment has revealed the full richness of Peruzzi’s unusual and innovative deep night-time tones. The newly-restored painting will soon be unveiled at the Ulster Museum in Belfast.

A Frans Hals portrait from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham

The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Frans Hals provided a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reunite this portrait by Hals with its pendant from a private collection, and bring it into a state of proper display and harmony with its pair. Purchased by the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in 1938, the picture had a disfiguring and cloudy varnish, as well as extensive old re-touchings.

Following removal of old restoration, the painting was then re-touched and re-varnished, aligning the conservation histories of the two works, and greatly improving the appearance and structural condition of this impactful portrait by Hals.

A panel from the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow

A 16th-century French panel, 'The Judgement of Zaleucus', from the William Morris Gallery was in need of structural intervention. We were uniquely positioned, given our high level of structural panel conservation skills and expertise on Renaissance panel painting, to take on the conservation of the painting and stabilise the panel’s condition.

Repaired and conserved, the painting was able to travel to an exhibition at the National Museum of the Renaissance in Écouen, France, and will remain a unique Renaissance treasure on view for visitors to the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow.

The Aldama Conservation Fellow

Silvia Tagliante is the first Aldama Conservation Fellow. She is a graduate student in paintings and furniture conservation at the University of Turin, Italy. She held internships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rijksmuseum, gaining experience in lacquer and furniture conservation. Before joining the National Gallery, Silvia freelanced in Italy, working with different conservation studios and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. In Silvia’s words:

"Every morning I come into work thrilled by the opportunity of working on amazing pictures. This generous funding allows me to learn from senior and junior colleagues and see different treatments and conservation choices in a challenging environment."

An ebony frame for 'Courtyard of a House in Delft'

This painting by Pieter de Hooch was previously framed in an ornate gilt, replica British Baroque Louis XIV-style frame. Our Framing Department were able to source a replacement ebony 17th-century Netherlandish cabinet-maker’s frame, much more in keeping with the style of the period.

Returning the painting to an ebony frame has allowed the sunlight of its quiet afternoon to shine, the dark, polished frame providing an effective foil for the vibrant colours of bricks, paintwork, sky and clothing. Without the competition of its previous gilt frame, the picture appears full of light and more vivid and animated than before.

A rare frame for a Murillo altarpiece

When the Framing team came across a very large carved and gilded Spanish 17th-century frame, it presented a rare opportunity: Due to its style and size, it was well suited for a large-scale Murillo painting in our collection.

The painting was previously housed in a British 20th-century reproduction Spanish Baroque-style frame, which had a heaviness that contrasted with Murillo’s tender and graceful illustration.

The ‘new’ frame now provides a halo of flickering light and animation around the altarpiece of the Trinities that complements Murillo’s style, and the light and movement of the painting.

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