Conserved Masterwork Returns to Museum

ONEONTA—After five centuries, most everything needs a little tender loving care. And that’s something Hartwick College’s Yager Museum of Art and Culture celebrated when, on April 30, it welcomed one of its Renaissance treasures back from a year’s conservation treatment at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Massachusetts.

Painted in the early 16th century by Andrea Previtali (ca. 1480-1528), “Madonna and Child in a Landscape” was acquired by the Reverend Louis van Ess, rector of Saint James Episcopal Church in Oneonta and a Hartwick College professor, in the 1950s. According to a press release, when van Ess passed away in 1960, he left much of his art collection, including the Previtali, to Hartwick.

“Louis van Ess had collected American impressionist art before coming to Oneonta,” Museum Coordinator Doug Kendall noted. “But in the 1950s, he traveled to Europe several times and purchased a number of Italian Renaissance paintings. Among them were two by Previtali, who was a student of Giovanni Bellini.”

“Madonna and Child in a Landscape,” painted in oil on a wood panel, has been on display in the van Ess Gallery at the museum for several years. A survey funded with a Conservation Assessment Program grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services found that both the wood panel and a wooden cradle added in the 20th century had suffered woodworm damage. In addition, the painting’s surface had suffered some losses and showed the accumulated dirt and dust of the centuries.

In late 2023, the museum received a grant from the Greater Hudson Heritage Network and contracted with the Williamstown Art Conservation Center to treat and preserve the painting. A partnership between the New York State Council on the Arts and GHHN, the conservation grant treatment program is made possible with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Over the next year, Williamstown conservators Maggie Barkovic and Tatiana Shannon painstakingly treated the painting, cleaned it, strengthened the wood panel and varnished it before returning it to the Yager Museum.

“It’s great to be able to share “Madonna and Child in a Landscape” with the community once again,” Kendall said. “We also acknowledge the vital support of both federal and state grants funding for the arts that made the conservation treatment possible that has ensured the preservation of this masterpiece.”

The museum unveiled the conserved Previtali painting on April 30 in the van Ess Gallery as part of the “Masterpieces of European and American Art: the Hartwick College Art Treasure Room” exhibition.

For more information, visit the museum’s Facebook page and webpage, call (607) 431-4480 or e-mail kendalld@hartwick.edu.