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The exhibition includes an explanation of the restorers\u2019 discoveries. Photo: S Boztas<\/p>\nWhen restorers started to strip away the layers of a 17th century painting called The Bull \u2013 a national treasure once looted by Napoleonic troops \u2013 they did not know what to expect.<\/p>\n
But the last thing they had anticipated was the original underpainting by the 22-year-old artist, Paulus Potter. Underneath the top layer of paint, on a much smaller original canvas, his bull had dramatically larger testicles.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the technical examination, we found that Potter made lots and lots of changes as he worked, and not only to the composition. He literally enlarged the canvas,\u201d said Abbie Vandivere, one of the paintings conservators at the Mauritshuis in The Hague.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started as a smaller composition, just a painting of a bull, maybe with the cow in it. When he made the composition bigger, he made a ton of changes, also to parts of the bull\u2019s anatomy\u2026His balls were bigger and lower.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although this was a \u201cbig surprise\u201d to the painting experts, they could only guess whether it was a correction or the result of the young painter sketching from real life in the fields \u2013 but then modifying his design to the national sensibilities of 1647.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have consulted quite a few cow experts and there are definitely breeds of cow that have giant, pendulous testicles,\u201d she said. \u201cIt also depends on the age of the bull: of course, when they are younger, they\u2019re still forming, and this is supposed to portray a young bull.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exhibition includes an explanation of the restorers\u2019 discoveries. Photo: S Boztas<\/p>\n
Jolijn Schilder, paintings conservator, said there was other evidence to suggest that the raw size of Potter\u2019s subject could have been found too shocking. \u201cHe had an etching of a pissing cow that created a bit of a controversy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is assumed that he got that [commission] from Amalia van Solms, princess of Orange, and he was supposed to create a mantelpiece for one of the palaces. It was turned down by her because she thought it was too filthy a subject to show a pissing cow above her mantelpiece.\u201d<\/p>\n
Napoleon<\/p>\n
The restoration of the gigantic, 1647 painting<\/a> has taken place behind glass during 18 months in an entire gallery of the Mauritshuis in The Hague. It is part of a project to find out more about a talented artist who died of tuberculosis at just 28, and remind the public of what was once considered a national masterpiece.<\/p>\n