Present day
10-12-10
Zaindu-The Museum Restores
Presenting artworks restored in 2010.
El Corte Inglés first became involved in the conservation and restoration of artworks in the museum collection in 1990. In 2000, the department store stepped up its participation in the programme, giving it greater stability with the launch of the Zaindu–The Museum Restores programme, which every year selects several works requiring either conservation treatments or complex restoration processes. Besides updating the material conditions of the works, the work is decisive in ensuring each work is catalogued correctly and that our knowledge and insight into the way the artists worked is significantly enhanced. In other words, the work done is vital for the proper scientific understanding of the museum collection.
Major programme initiatives this year include Portrait of Cardinal Francisco Javier Gardoqui, painted in Rome in 1816 by José de Madrazo (Santander, 1781–Madrid, 1859). One of the finest portraits the artist ever produced, it is a key work in neo-Classical Spanish art.
From the collection of Basque art, To market and Sardine seller seated, painted around 1913–1915 by Aurelio Arteta (Bilbao, 1879–Mexico F.D., 1940) have both been restored. They are from the series of allegorical paintings Arteta produced for the Munoa mansion house in Cruces, of which the museum owns another four. One of these, To the farmhouse, was also restored as part of the programme in 2007.
From the contemporary art collection, in 2010 two works by Andrés Nagel (Donostia-San Sebastián, 1947), Friends from Bilbao and Madrid gallery owners in Benidorm were chosen for treatment. These two typical Nagel works are similar in terms of technique and media to The Kidnapping of Centaur, restored last year.
From the “hidden collection” have been recovered a fine relief called Motherhood, executed in Paris in 1895 by sculptor Nemesio Mogrobejo (Bilbao, 1875–Graz, Austria, 1910). The version in bronze of this work is part of the major group of works by Mogrobejo owned by the museum. Also from the collection of works not usually displayed are twelve drawings by Joan González (Barcelona, 1868–1908), including landscapes and scenes with figures, restored this year.