Restoration begins on rare Ludovico Mazzolino painting at the National Gallery of Ireland

"It's quite a famous painting, and we are often asked to loan it for exhibitions—but in its present condition, that's just impossible. It can't travel," says Aoife Brady, the curator of Italian and Spanish art at the gallery.

"Mazzolino's interpretation of the Bible story of the Red Sea parting for the Israelites before the waters rush back to drown the Egyptian army is an extraordinary composition, heaving with detail in queasily shifting perspective."

"A major research and conservation project has now begun in the gallery's laboratory, backed by a €25,000 grant from the European Fine Art Foundation (Tefaf), which should allow the work to be displayed for the first time."

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