Hidden Histories: Revealing the Life of a Painting examines a 16th century Venetian Sacra Conversazione, recently donated to the Davis Museum. This Holy Family with Saint Catherine, Saint Sebastian, and a donor was previously attributed to Giorgione, and exists in multiple versions, including one at the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Several important details in the Davis’s painting, such as the donor figure and the background landscape, differ from the other nearly identical works. Restorations, like the head of Saint Joseph, are clearly visible on the canvas. The history of visual change evident in this painting spans centuries, and now raises many questions: Who made it? How many artists or conservators worked on the painting? Why are there multiple copies, and why is this work different from the others? Hidden Histories explores this Sacra Conversazione painting through recent conservation, technical analysis, and an art historical lens to uncover a wealth of new information and highlight the unknown.

Co-curated by Alicia LaTores, Friends of Art Curatorial Research Assistant, and Katherine Davies, the Summer 2019 Eleanor P. DeLorme Museum Intern in the Curatorial Department, the exhibition is generously supported by Peter H. and Joan Macy Kaskell (Class of 1953).  

Visit the online version of this exhibition here.