This online presentation by Elizabeth Wigfield describes the conservation treatment of two small panels by Andrea del Sarto at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Depicting portraits of Becuccio Bichieraio and his wife, they were originally part of the predella of an altarpiece commissioned in the 1520s for the monastery of Saints Lorenzo and Onofrio in Gambassi. The rondel portraits were until recently set within an illusionistic wooden frame recalling the double-portraits of Renaissance domestic interiors. The cleaning, however, revealed that this frame was a later overpainting that differed drastically from Andrea’s original predella, affecting their treatment and future display.
