Have you ever wondered what might be hidden on the back of a painting? In Verso, the flipside of artworks from the 14th to the 18th centuries will be on view, offering a chance to see the concealed sides usually visible only to curators and conservators.
The exhibition shines a light on the lives of artworks before they came to hang on museum walls, showing traces of their circulation in other contexts and their different functions. Find winged altarpieces, painted on both sides so that they could be displayed differently throughout the liturgical year, and coats of arms that were discretely attached to the backside of objects by their owners, or painted panels that had been simply turned over and reused. There’s even a double-sided advertising panel made by Ambrosius and Hans Holbein the Younger as well as paintings specially designed to be picked up and turned over. Verso thus offers new perspectives on artworks, not just by famous names such as Hans Baldung (also known as Grien), Lucas Cranach, and Konrad Witz, but also others that deserve a second look.
The exhibition shines a light on the lives of artworks before they came to hang on museum walls, showing traces of their circulation in other contexts and their different functions. Find winged altarpieces, painted on both sides so that they could be displayed differently throughout the liturgical year, and coats of arms that were discretely attached to the backside of objects by their owners, or painted panels that had been simply turned over and reused. There’s even a double-sided advertising panel made by Ambrosius and Hans Holbein the Younger as well as paintings specially designed to be picked up and turned over. Verso thus offers new perspectives on artworks, not just by famous names such as Hans Baldung (also known as Grien), Lucas Cranach, and Konrad Witz, but also others that deserve a second look.
