It has bee a while since I have been to the Blanton Museum so I went to check it out. Since this museum opened I have been bored with it. Sorry to tell you how I really feel. But this past Thursday I was engaged in a lunch lecture at the museum and enchanted by the reconstructing of a renaissance masterpiece.

The quick version of the story is that a church was built by a wealthy family in the 1700’s by the  Petrobelli family. The family hired a famous painter named Paolo Veronese to paint a religious depiction for the church. The church was burned and demolished and the alter piece was cut into pieces and sold. ( can you imagine cutting up a painters work?) the painting is so large that it was more feasible to cut up and sell. Over 200 years later it become apparent that a piece  was in London, Scotland and Canada that all belonged to the Petrobelli  Alterpiece . These pieces have been reunited with each other. However there are still missing pieces and the Blanton just happen to have the face of Saint Michael the central figure in the altarpiece.

The painting pieces all went through a series of x-rays and other analysis to confirm its authenticity.

A painting created and then destroyed and separated. A 200 year old mystery solved. Very cool! Yeah for the Blanton.