Restored Correggio Altarpiece to Anchor Major Dresden Exhibition

Correggio's Madonna of St Sebastian, a High Renaissance masterpiece at Dresden's Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, has undergone a transformative four-year restoration. The painting, created around 1524 for a confraternity in Modena, had suffered from centuries of counterproductive restorations, including overpainting and varnish layers that obscured the original palette. Restorers removed old varnish and overpaint, revealing the artist's intended colors: the Virgin's cloak now appears rich Marian blue with a deep-green lining, and St Sebastian's drapery is now marmoreal white. The treatment also recovered details such as the arrow in Sebastian's hip and the pilgrim's hat of St Roch, aided by a 16th-century engraving by Cristofano Bertelli. The restored work will be the centerpiece of the exhibition 'Correggio: Movingly Human' (19 September 2026 – 10 January 2027), the first full career survey of the artist outside Italy, featuring 40 works by Correggio and 90 related objects, including loans from the Louvre and the Prado. The exhibition will also explore Correggio's influence and afterlife, as he was once considered on par with Raphael. The restoration was led by Steffi Bodechtel, and the exhibition is curated by Andreas Plackinger.