Can you guess what's wrong with these paintings? - Noah Charney
These paintings are in peril.
All three have been defaced,
some in ways that are almost impossible
to see with the naked eye.
Can you guess how they've been altered?
You might be surprised.
When a museum curator
inspected this portrait,
attributed to the 16th century
Italian painter Bronzino,
they suspected it was a modern fake.
However, closely examining the cracks
on its surface,
an art conservator discovered
that it was from that era—
It had just undergone drastic changes
in recent centuries.
Using x-ray technology, they peered
under the outer surface of paint
and saw the countenance
of a completely different woman.
Essential parts of the painting
had been modified
during a 19th century restoration.
Prior to the mid-20th century,
art restorers took a more
heavy-handed approach,
often believing they were improving art.
Nowadays, they focus on keeping
the original work intact
with minimal intervention.
When they need to fix something up,
they usually make their markings visually
and chemically distinct from the original,
so they can be harmlessly removed.
But the work of past restorers is a threat
they regularly contend with—
as was the case with this portrait.
To recover the original,
the conservator began removing
the outer varnish coat.
Varnish is commonly used to protect
paintings from debris
and make their colors pop.
But the natural varnishes past restorers
applied eventually darkened,
which is what gives older paintings
that aged, yellowy look.
Slowly dissolving the varnish,
the conservator uncovered
crisp colors below.
Taking small samples from the added
and original paint layers,
they analyzed the compositions of each.
Then, they decided which solvents
could dissolve the overpainting
while minimally affecting the original.
Carefully dabbing the canvas with them,
they removed the overpainting’s
dainty hands and idealized face.
The true painting underneath revealed
Isabella of the Italian Medici dynasty.
The portrait isn’t Bronzino’s,
but it is from around 1570,
and may have been painted
by one of his students.
Its Victorian makeover was likely done
to boost sales
because the original subject wasn’t
considered attractive.
But now, Isabella is back,
meeting her viewer’s gaze directly.
This painting,
“An Allegory with Venus and Cupid,”
is actually Bronzino’s,
and it was completed around 1545.
It centers on a kiss between Venus
and her son Cupid–
but it’s been subtly altered.
When London’s National Gallery
acquired it in 1860,
the Gallery’s director deemed it
too risqué for Victorian England.
So, he commissioned a restorer to obscure
Venus’s tongue and nipple.
A century after this modification,
art conservators analyzed and removed
the overpainting with select solvents.
In the process, they also realized
that the veil covering Venus’s crotch
and the branch hiding Cupid’s posterior
were other add-ons.
Removing two layers of censorship
from the painting,
it was finally free to boast
its provocative original details.
This massive painting called
“The Night Watch”
was completed by Rembrandt in 1642.
Since then, it’s endured one
dramatic amputation, two stabbings,
an acid attack, and centuries of grime.
A museum guard immediately neutralized
the acid with water.
Restorers lifted the grime,
revealing that the painting was
not set at night,
and healed the slashes using adhesive
and extra canvas backing.
But they faced an even trickier problem.
In 1715, strips were removed
from all sides of the canvas,
including two whole feet from the left,
to fit it inside Amsterdam’s Town Hall.
They've been lost ever since.
But a multi-year conservation project
that began in 2019
replaced the missing pieces.
They managed this by training
an artificial intelligence
to digitally paint in Rembrandt’s style.
Then, using another artist’s rendering
of the original,
the program recreated and printed
the painting’s lost sections.
Finally, the team returned
“The Night Watch” to its full size,
with AI-generated best guesses
to fill in the blanks.
All of these paintings had been altered,
but none of them were irrevocably ruined.
With painstaking scientific analysis
and technical skill,
art conservators immortalize
priceless artifacts.
They counteract sudden damage
and creeping threats—
and sometimes, they perform near miracles.
This video was made possible with support
from Marriott Hotels.
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across the globe,
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