Behind the scenes in Conservation: ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian’
Are the paint dribbles and cracks meant to be there?
See the Pollaiuolo brothers’ painting in our conservation studio and hear from conservators about their work on this Florentine, 450-year-old oil painting.
Are the drips, swirling and cracking evidence of artists getting to grips with a new medium or purposefully left for effect?
How does Saint Sebastian's six-pack (revealed by using infrared reflectography to look through the paint to the drawing below) make us reconsider which brother painted the saint?
These are just some of the questions Alysia Sawicka and Hayley Tomlison faced during the conservation of Pollaiuolo brothers, Antonio and Piero’s The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian.
Watch previous episodes in the series:
Behind the scenes in Conservation: The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret
Talented and highly original - but who painted it?
Visit our Conservation studio and find out about this fascinating and mysterious altarpiece and what its conservation did (or did not) reveal
Behind the scenes in Conservation: Nicolas Poussin: The painter's painter
Why is this such an important painting in Nicolas Poussin's career?
Visit our Conservation studio and find out about the painting and what its conservation revealed.
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Restoring rays of light and angels' wings in ‘The Nativity at Night’
Conservator Jill Dunkerton tells us about the meticulous conservation of one of our favourite nativity scenes.
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Painting with wax? Restoring Joshua Reynolds’s portrait of the Earl and Countess of Ely
Curators and conservators explain why Reynolds's marriage portrait presented such a challenging conservation project.
Behind the scenes in Conservation
A closer look at Pesellino
Marvel at Pesellino's mastery of gold and silver in the newly restored 'Story of David' panels and follow the clues that suggest the panels were owned by the Medici family
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Reuniting 400-year-old marriage portraits
See how the team reunited Frans Hals's portraits of a husband and wife, after two centuries of being apart
Behind the scenes in Conservation
The gory story of 'The Judgement of Zaleucus'
Britta New discusses the conservation of a 16th-century panel from the William Morris Gallery which depicts a gruesome tale
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Solving the mystery of a Frans Hals portrait
How did the discovery of a monster and skull hidden beneath this painting reveal the identity of the sitter?
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Cleaning Paolo Uccello's 'The Battle of San Romano'
Restorer Paul Ackroyd talks us through some of the challenges he's encountered while working with Uccello's 15th-century battlefield scene
Behind the scenes in Conservation
The Ugly Duchess
Britta New reveals surprising discoveries about 'The Ugly Duchess' and how the painting links Leonardo da Vinci to 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Cleaning Reynolds' 'Captain Robert Orme'
Hayley Tomlinson reveals why paintings by Reynolds are notoriously difficult to clean
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Displaying 'The Red Boy'
Follow the newly-cleaned 'Red Boy's' journey from the Conservation Studio to the Gallery walls
Behind the scenes in Conservation
A first look at 'The Red Boy'
Paul Ackroyd introduces Lawrence's 'Red Boy' – a work so popular it was the first-ever painting to feature on a British postage stamp
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Restoring Piero della Francesca's 'Nativity'
Caroline Campbell and Jill Dunkerton discuss the conservation of Piero della Francesca's miraculous Christmas scene
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Cleaning 150-year-old varnish from a Frans Hals portrait
Paul Ackroyd cleans a portrait that has not been restored since 1876
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Cleaning the 'lost altarpiece'
Britta New and Nelly von Aderkas discuss the cleaning of a Renaissance altarpiece that was hidden in an Italian wood store for many years
Behind the scenes in Conservation
The unfashionable artist who inspired Van Gogh
Kristina Mandy discusses Adolphe Monticelli, an artist admired in his lifetime, who inspired Van Gogh's famous 'Sunflowers', but who later fell out of fashion
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Restoring an 'undisplayable' painting: Part two
Kendall Francis and Larry Keith discuss the restoration of a work with a 'snowstorm' of painting loss
Restoring an 'undisplayable' painting: Part one
Larry Keith reveals an exciting discovery about Piazzetta's unfinished work, 'The Sacrifice of Isaac', and explains the plan for the painting's restoration
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Restoring the Gallery's oldest painting
Kristina Mandy shows the steps involved in restoring a painting that is over 750-years-old
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Restoring Botticelli's 'Adoration of the Kings': Part one
Jill Dunkerton and Britta New find out what was hiding beneath a frame for nearly two centuries
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Restoring Botticelli's 'Adoration of the Kings': Part two
Watch Jill Dunkerton as she retouches a Renaissance masterpiece
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Restoring Botticelli's 'Adoration of the Kings': Part three
Jill Dunkerton and Marta Melchiorre ask, how can we identify Botticelli's hand from that of his assistant, Filippino Lippi's?
Behind the scenes in Conservation
Find out what happens behind closed doors in this series of films that look at how we care for and conserve our paintings