This room houses the collection of early Italian paintings, the largest in its kind in the Netherlands. And, again, a varied one. Early Italian paintings are almost always chunks or fragments of altar pieces. Art dealers could make a lot more money by splitting big altar pieces into several individual works of art and selling these separately. This was how it was done with the majority of the paintings you see in this room, too. There is ongoing research into this collection. Researchers are of course keen to try and reassemble the individual paintings and the original altar pieces. This requires elaborate stylistic research. Infrared photography penetrates to the layers beneath the painting, enabling researchers to lay bare the preliminary drawings under the visible painting on the surface. The wood structure of the panel is researched too. Cutting lines may gave an indication as to if and where panels were sawn off the main altar piece.

For more information on the two triptychs that are still in one piece, press A

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