Neil McGregor, Director, has achieved a remarkable re-composition:
Masaccio’s ‘Virgin and Child’ of 1426 (this year
is the 600th anniversary of the artist’s birth)
which comprises a central panel (‘Virgin and Child’) owned
by the Gallery, along with the ‘Adoration of the Magi’
(Gemaldegalerie, Berlin) including six panels of saints, plus the
key panel of the ‘Crucifixion’ (Capodimonte Museum, Naples).
Also included is the St Andrew panel from the Getty Museum, Los
Angeles, and finally — the only panel of the original work
still located in Pisa, the original city — the panel of St
Paul. Notwithstanding this typically ingenious McGregor exhibition,
two-thirds to one-half of the original Masaccio multiple panel construction
is still lost. But as all jigsaw obsessives will admit, once one
has completed one-third of the puzzle, especially the centre, the
rest can be less essential to fulfilment. The exhibition goes up
this autumn.
