With TEFAF’s funding, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister will restore The Boar Hunt (1616-18), a monumental painting by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). This work was most likely acquired directly from the artist in 1627 by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, before becoming part of the imperial collection in Prague. In 1749, it entered the collection of Frederick Augustus IIof Saxony and has remained in Dresden ever since, surviving wartime displacement to the USSR in 1945, a decade in storage in Moscow, and eventual return to Dresden in the mid-1950s.

The Boar Hunt is obscured by a thick, darkened multi-layered varnish (likely 19th-century) that mutes Rubens’ original palette. Technical imaging has also confirmed the presence of an upper extension into which the original underdrawing does not continue, raising key questions about when the extension was made and by whom. Early evidence suggests the addition may have been made under Rubens’ direction, while ongoing research will explore possible contributions from artists in his circle, including Jan Wildens, Lucas van Uden, or Anthony van Dyck.