An eerie Renaissance masterpiece, fresh from a four-year restoration process, goes on show in Berlin

"With a vast maritime empire and firm control of overland Silk Road routes, Venice in the early 16th century was at its peak. The artist synonymous with those dazzling years is Vittore Carpaccio (around 1465-1525/26) whose religious scenes often had an urbane and elaborate splendour that places them immediately in what was then likely Europe's richest enclave. To a remarkable degree, the major works of Carpaccio are still to be found in Venice proper,"

"In the 2020s, Berlin has turned to its second work by the artist-the eerie, otherworldly lamentation scene The Preparation of Christ's Tomb (around 1505-20). After four years of treatment, which has included the removal of decades of dirt and discoloured varnish, the cleaned painting will be shown to the public for the first time this month, when it takes centre stage in a small exhibition, Tribute to Vittore Carpaccio, to commemorate the occasion (20 November-6 April 2026)."

"Remarkably, the last time Christ's Tomb had a major treatment dates all the way back to the early 20th century, when Berlin's legendary museum director, the German art historian Wilhelm Bode, acquired it for a forerunner of today's Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. At the time, experts widely attributed it to Andrea Mantegna, in response to a false signature in the lower section of the painting. Bode's keen connoisseurship reattributed the work to Carpaccio."

Venice in the early 16th century held vast maritime power and overland Silk Road control, creating immense wealth and an urbane artistic culture. Vittore Carpaccio produced elaborate religious scenes reflecting that prosperity, with most major works remaining in Venice while Berlin's Gemäldegalerie holds two key paintings. The museum previously conserved The Ordination of St Stephen as a Deacon in the 1990s; its second Carpaccio, The Preparation of Christ's Tomb, has just completed four years of treatment removing dirt and discoloured varnish. The painting will appear in a Tribute to Vittore Carpaccio exhibition (20 November–6 April 2026). The work last underwent major treatment in the early 20th century when Wilhelm Bode acquired it and reassigned a prior attribution to Andrea Mantegna, prompted by a false signature; recent conservation revisited that signature and the painting's attribution.

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