The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin has announced a two-year restoration of Filippo Lippi’s 1459 painting *The Adoration in the Forest*, funded by the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung and the Schoof’schen Stiftung. The tempera-on-panel work, a centerpiece of the Palazzo Medici chapel in Florence, is now in the Gemäldegalerie’s collection. Conservators discovered that a 19th-century varnish layer is degrading the paint, causing it to lift off the panel, particularly affecting the Virgin’s blue cloak, skin, and gold leaf areas. The treatment aims to remove the varnish while stabilizing the paint layer, and may also reveal Lippi’s use of oil paint alongside egg tempera.
This restoration matters because *The Adoration in the Forest* is a historically significant work that helped spark appreciation for Quattrocento Florentine art after entering Berlin’s collections in the 1820s. It also survived a post-WWII period as war booty in the US. The project will not only preserve the painting but also brighten its appearance, revealing details like white flowers that anticipate Botticelli’s *Primavera*. Curator Neville Rowley plans to feature the restored work in a future exhibition highlighting the Lippi-Botticelli artistic dynasty.