{"id":181491,"date":"2026-05-01T19:06:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T19:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/181491\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T19:06:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T19:06:06","slug":"university-of-scranton-spotlights-discovery-of-saint-john-in-restored-renaissance-work-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/181491\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Scranton spotlights discovery of Saint John in restored Renaissance work"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The University of Scranton unveiled a newly restored 16th-century Italian Renaissance painting Thursday evening after conservators discovered a hidden figure and background that had been covered for years.<\/p>\n

The painting, \u201cMadonna and Child with the Young St. John the Baptist,\u201d was attributed to Niccol\u00f2 Betti and was presented during a ceremony at the Weinberg Memorial Library.<\/p>\n

The work was gifted by the Morgan family to the university with a simple, black, featureless background that was believed to be original. Later, during restoration, conservators determined the dark backdrop had been added long after the painting\u2019s creation and began to uncover original elements beneath it.<\/p>\n

John Powell, co-owner of Chelsea Restoration<\/a>, said the breakthrough came as he moved beyond surface cleaning and deeper into layers that had built up over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cSort of halfway through, after I removed the soot and dirt and began to dive a little further into the varnish, the black overpaint started coming off. Where I was cleaning was exactly where the figure was, so I could see there was a flesh-colored figure underneath,\u201d said Powell.<\/p>\n

The newly revealed figure was an infant Saint John the Baptist, and conservators also uncovered a darker woodland setting behind Mary and the infant Jesus. Powell said the addition of Saint John changed the dynamics of the scene, creating more depth and action. He added that the scene shifted from a stark pairing to a more active triangular composition, with Saint John\u2019s gaze toward Mary drawing the viewer into the moment and making the painting feel more typical of Renaissance work.<\/p>\n

The ceremony featured remarks from Powell and Robert Simon, Ph.D., an art historian and president of Robert Simon Fine Art<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Simon said the painting\u2019s subject fit a common devotional tradition in Florence, Italy, where images often paired the Virgin Mary with Saint John the Baptist.<\/p>\n

\u201cMadonna and Child paintings are the most popular in Renaissance Italy. In Florence, the patron saint is Saint John the Baptist, and the patroness is the Virgin Mary. So it\u2019s kind of wonderful for the piece to be cleaned and for what we thought might be there to come to light,\u201d said Simon.<\/p>\n

The ceremony was led by George Aulisio, dean of the Weinberg Memorial Library, who said the restored painting would become the oldest artwork displayed in the library itself and would add to the university\u2019s broader art holdings.<\/p>\n

The painting will remain on display on the fourth floor of the Weinberg Memorial Library in a quiet study room and will be available for public viewing during regular library hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The University of Scranton unveiled a newly restored 16th-century Italian Renaissance painting Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-181491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}