Portrait of Magellan work restored in emblematic Cuban museum

Havana, March 25 (Prensa Latina) The National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba reported that the Latin American Art Collection today preserves the "Portrait of Magellan", a work that has benefited from a restoration process.

The emblematic institution exhibits this piece for the first time, as part of the exhibition "Four hundred years of Mexican art in the collections of the National Museum of Fine Arts," as stated on its Facebook profile.

The technical sheet indicates that the aforementioned work is from the New Spain School (18th century), an Oil on canvas measuring 133 x 97 centimeters.

The state of conservation of the painting before being restored was poor, as it showed acute oxidation of the varnish, bulges and loosening of the support, as a consequence of the previous canvas, numerous crooked repaints and a tear of the support in the lower right area, as noted. the restaurateur, Ernesto Pérez del Río.

The restoration process began with the correction of the bulges, detachments and tears in the textile support.

Once the painting was stabilized, the varnish was removed by chemical means, which revealed a series of elements hidden by the repainting.

Among other actions, the missing parts were also stuccoed to level the surface of the painting and varnish it again. The reinstatement of color allowed the piece to recover its aesthetic qualities to signify a time of expansion and discoveries of new perspectives, Pérez del Río explained.

It is a portrait of the Portuguese soldier and navigator Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521), also known as Hernando de Magellan. In the service of Charles I, he began the expedition in 1519 to reach the East Indies by crossing the Pacific to open a trade route.

During the voyage he discovered the natural navigable channel that today is called the Strait of Magellan, making the first navigation of European origin from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, until then called the South Sea.

This expedition, in which Magellan died in 1521 in the Philippines, became the first circumnavigation of the Earth when one of his ships, captained by Juan Sebastián Elcano, returned to Spain in 1522 when he decided to do so by sailing west across the ocean. Indian and bordering Africa.