Pintoricchio Magnified: An Immersive Conservation Experience, at CMA

It is not often that the Cleveland Museum of Art constructs an exhibition centered around a single object. Even more rare is an exhibition that focuses on revealing the object’s extensive conservation history. Though the CMA has encouraged discussion around conservation in the past—such as with objects like the Cambodian sculpture Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan (c.600) and Caravaggio’s The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew (c.1606–7)–Pintoricchio Magnified: An Immersive Conservation Experience unveils the history of Pintoricchio’s Virgin and Child (c.1490-1500) through a unique digital experience. Pintoricchio Magnified spotlights the long and complex lives of paintings at the CMA, encouraging museum guests to see the objects in the surrounding galleries through a new perspective. The exhibition is on view until August 23, 2026.

Pintoricchio’s Virgin and Child is a tender portrait of Mary supporting the Christ child upon her lap, reflective of a high Renaissance approach to depicting Mary and Christ as a holy family (Fig. 1). Pintoricchio grounds the image with vibrant blues, greens, and reds that recall the prolific Italian painting tradition at this time. Since its creation, this painting has undergone multiple conservation treatments in order to restore the image to a nearly-original state. The most recent treatment is outlined in this innovative exhibition through an interactive digital experience where visitors are able to take a glimpse at the conservation process.

The gallery itself is divided into three parts. Viewers are first greeted with text that outlines the conservation process and discusses how conservators directly engage with an object’s historical significance and legacy by altering its appearance. This section shows two previous iterations of the painting throughout its conservation history, comparing the drastic changes in color and texture that took place over sixty years (Fig. 2). It is remarkable to see the different forms the painting took, guided by the judgements of past conservators. After gazing at the previous states of the work through history , the visitor turns to see Virgin and Child in its current state, in the center of the room. When comparing the previous images of this artwork to its present state, it is clear that the painting has been enlivened: the Virgin’s cheeks and hair are flushed with a rosy tone that was absent in its previous forms. The biggest difference is her robe, which has been restored to show the blue pigment it likely had in the sixteenth century, along with the beautiful folds and drapes that adorn the textile which had been lost over time. The panoramic display of the painting allows visitors to circle the object and view both the painted surface and the lattice support on the back of the panel. This alluring presentation invites viewers inside the object to consider its multi-faceted structure, much like the digital display that presents the object’s multiple layers of paint.

The most exciting aspect of this exhibition is the use of high quality scans to project the painting onto the gallery wall. Unlike previous iterations of immersive exhibits across the country, this display is entirely controlled by the viewer. A text on the introductory wall explains how the immersive experience works: by stepping on marked points on the floor, the visitor is able to control what appears on the large screen. The sequential dots trigger detailed images to appear on the screen ahead, alternating between images taken before and after conservation treatment (Fig. 3). The treatment in question is inpainting, a technique described by Julianna Ly, the Associate Conservator of Paintings at the CMA, as applying conservation-grade paint to damaged areas, reconnecting those spots with the original material around it. Ly explains that “the goal of inpainting is to not make the painting appear new or without damage, but rather, through a series of lines and dots applied with varying transparency, frequency, and color, allow large distracting damages to visually recede, so the painting can be viewed as a whole once again.”^[1] These small marks work together to seamlessly recreate Pintoricchio’s original painterly technique.

The projection on the wall makes this wholeness even more apparent. As the visitor walks towards the large image, they get a sense of the entire painting as a patchwork of meticulous details that are normally obscured to the naked eye. The images switch between portions of stripped and reworked details, highlighting the work of conservators to return the painting to its nearly-original state. The actual painting is not large, just under fourteen inches wide and eighteen inches tall, unframed, so its magnification onto the wall is quite astounding. The immersive component of this exhibition invites the visitor to engage with the conservation process in a remarkably physical way. The viewer is invited to manipulate the display of the image through theirbodily movements, akin to the role of the conservator who ultimately determines the object’s state through their meticulous work.

The conservation work on view in this exhibition enlightens new research on Pintoricchio’s artistic practice and works of the Italian Renaissance at large. Scholars can apply the information gathered by the conservation on this object to consider other works by Pintoricchio to better understand this artist’s process. By stripping back the complex physical history of this object, the lives of other Italian paintings in the nearby Renaissance galleries become even more intriguing. One can imagine how many iterations of Sandro Botticelli’s or Giovanni di Paolo’s paintings have similarly existed over the hundreds of years since their creation. Pintoricchio Magnified: An Immersive Conservation Experience excites curiosity around conservation as a practice and paintings as a rich medium full of mysteries to explore through a sharp eye and steady hand.

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^[1] Julianna Ly, “The Ethics Behind Reconstructing Damage,” Pintoricchio Magnified: An Immersive Conservation Experience (The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2025): pp 8.

Pintoricchio Magnified: An Immersive Conservation Experience
August 10, 2025 – August 23, 2026
Gallery 115 Manuscripts and Textiles
Cleveland Museum of Art
11150 East Blvd
Cleveland, Ohio

Allison Boroff is a student in the Art History Program at Case Western Reserve University, participating in CAN Journal’s Broadening the Conversation program. Broadening the Conversation is supported by Wally Lanci, the George Gund Foundation, and the Cleveland Foundation.