Prague’s Dürer 'Feast of the Rosary' to Undergo Five-Year Reconstruction

Albrecht Dürer painted The Feast of the Rosary in 1506 using oil on poplar, following Venetian techniques. The large altarpiece, also called The Feast of the Rose Garlands, is now in the National Gallery in Prague. The gallery has announced a five-year reconstruction programme to address long-standing deterioration of both paint and wooden support.

The restoration team will begin with detailed imaging and analysis before any physical intervention. Chief restorer Adam Pokorny said the gallery will carry out macro-XRF scanning to map the painting's composition and reveal minute details. This is the same scanning method used in the ongoing reconstruction of Rembrandt's The Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum. The project will also produce a 3D model to assess the condition of the wooden panel and to document deformations and losses.

Historical problems and past repairs

Commissioned by the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary for the San Bartolomeo church in Venice, Dürer's painting drew crowds and praise in its early years. In 1606 Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II acquired it and had it transported to Prague. It survived attempts at looting during the Thirty Years' War but later fell into neglect. An 18th-century inventory described the work as "completely destroyed." It moved to the Strahov monastery in 1793 and suffered its first known repair before that transfer.

In 1839–41 Czech painter Johann Gruss carried out restoration work that later attracted criticism for altering the painting's surface and appearance. Today conservators note that paint is falling off on the border between Dürer's original paint and Gruss's interventions, which makes careful conservation urgent.

Missing details and provenance notes

Over time the painting has lost some elements. A small fly that Dürer painted on Mary's knee is one disputed loss. The state purchased the painting in 1934 for 9.6 million koruna, at the time a record governmental art purchase after the monastery declined higher foreign offers.

Expect a phased programme: non-invasive imaging and material mapping, structural assessment of the poplar panel with 3D documentation, targeted conservation treatments based on the technical findings, and long-term preventive measures to stabilise the wood and paint. The use of macro-XRF and 3D modelling indicates the gallery intends to base interventions on a detailed scientific record rather than broad, surface-level cleaning or overpainting.

Why it matters to visitors and scholarship

The restoration will generate new technical data on Dürer's materials and methods in a Venetian context. It will also produce documentation that can inform future exhibitions and conservation choices, and should stabilise a work that has been repeatedly altered and moved over five centuries.