Eve

At the end of 2008 conservators at the Prado turned this panel round and began work on its back. Three crossbars, bolted on in an earlier repair, were forcing the wood flat against its own curve, and the bolts had been driven through from behind, breaking the ground and the paint. All three came off. The one original crossbar that had survived was kept and laminated so that it could follow the curve again. On the front, cleaning lifted a coarse oil overpaint from her hair, and the holes the bolts had left were filled. The work took two years. When the panels returned in November 2010 they were shown so that visitors could walk round and see the backs as well. The date is inside the picture: a small tablet hangs from the branch in her hand, recording that Dürer made it in 1507, after the Virgin's childbearing.