A spectacular, internationally important painting of Thomas More and his family is to have its secrets explored as the public look on.<\/p>\n
The open heritage science project, scheduled to begin on Thursday, is a UK first and will deploy techniques used at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam during its famous public restoration of Rembrandt\u2019s masterpiece The Night Watch<\/a>.<\/p>\n Visitors to Nostell<\/a>, a Palladian mansion near Wakefield in West Yorkshire, will be able to watch cutting-edge research normally undertaken behind closed doors in labs, the National Trust said.<\/p>\n Simon McCormack, Nostell\u2019s curator, said they wanted to take the public on a deeper dive into what is a prized and fascinating painting.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy are we doing all these things behind the scenes when we are looking after and caring for heritage which ultimately belongs to everybody?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n The painting is considered \u201cone of the glories\u201d of the National Trust collections. At 2.5 metres by 3.4 metres, its size meant that for most of the 18th century it stayed in its packing case, as it was too big to get through doors to hang it.<\/p>\n Simon McCormack, the project\u2019s curator, hopes it will have the same \u2018buzz and drama\u2019 as the Rijksmuseum\u2019s restoration of Rembrandt\u2019s The Night Watch. Photograph: Annapurna Mellor\/National Trust<\/p>\n It shows three generations of the More family, Henry VIII\u2019s lord chancellor who was executed for not supporting the annulment of the king\u2019s first marriage to Catherine of Aragon.<\/p>\n Encountering the painting in person is quite something. McCormack said: \u201cIt\u2019s lifesize and it is that trompe l\u2019oeil effect where you might feel you\u2019re almost walking into the painting. It\u2019s very visceral, very realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n The work is regarded as the only faithful, lifesize copy of the painting by Holbein, which was destroyed in a fire during the 18th century.<\/p>\n Holbein, widely considered the most important artist working in 16th-century England, was introduced to More by their mutual friend Erasmus.<\/p>\n More commissioned Holbein to paint him and his family, with the result being considered by art historian Roy Strong as \u201carguably the greatest and most innovative work of Holbein\u2019s English period\u201d and \u201cat least a century ahead of its time\u201d.<\/p>\n McCormack said the Holbein was \u201carguably the first family portrait in a domestic setting in British art history\u201d.<\/p>\n The Holbein was destroyed in fire in 1752 but a preparatory sketch survives in Basel, Switzerland. Five copies are known about at present, including one in the National Portrait Gallery<\/a> and a miniature in the V&A\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n McCormack said the Nostell version<\/a> is \u201cunderstood to be the most faithful to Holbein\u2019s original and the only same-size version that survives\u201d.<\/p>\n It depicts More with his family, pets, books and musical instruments in their Chelsea home. As with most Tudor-era paintings, it is filled with symbolism and hidden meanings. A tethered monkey next to More\u2019s second wife Alice has been seen as representing discipline and her ability to control the household. More was believed to have owned a pet monkey.<\/p>\n The many books refer to the family\u2019s scholarly reputation and three-petalled irises in the painting allude to faith, valour and wisdom.<\/p>\n The on-site research, expected to last eight days, is being carried out by the Fitzwilliam Museum\u2019s Hamilton Kerr Institute. It will be the first time that macro X-ray fluorescence scanning has been done in public in the UK. Researchers are hoping to uncover any hidden under-drawing as well as discovering and dating later additions to the painting.<\/p>\n