Pentimento, the Master of Frankfurt’s
‘Virgin & Child’
Queensland Art Gallery, 2002–2003, with guidebook.
Pentimento focused on a single painting, the Master of Frankfurt’s ‘Virgin & Child’, circa 1496, considering its history through the idea of repentance. The exhibition outlined the role of religious repentance with the artwork’s inclusion of its original owner, who is portrayed at prayer. The artist’s revisions to his painting (known as pentimenti: repentances) were examined, and an enquiry into the work’s provenance was presented, establishing that restitution had been made after its 1939 confiscation by the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
Left: Exhibition guidebook.
Right: An example of a Book of Hours, a type of prayer book seen with the original owner in the painting.
Examples of minerals used by artists such as the Master of Frankfurt to create pigments.