Reasons for partial cleaning may vary, however, often a restorer only cleans light (often white pigments) sections of a painting as the effects of deterioration on more visible areas have a larger impact on the painting than darker areas. Leonardo Da Vinci's 'virgin of the rocks' illustrates exactly this, two exist, one in the Louvre, Paris and the other in London's National Gallery. The version in the Louvre has remained mainly untouched in comparison to the National Gallery's version which tonally, appears almost jarring as a result of the removal of saturating varnishes and perhaps partial cleaning from previous decades or uneven original varnishes. The painting's cleaning process began in November 2008, which improved saturation of the darker tones, it was undertaken because the painting had become difficult to read due to severe degradation of the oil and varnish applied in 1949.8 Madonna's ultramarine blue garment appear incoherently bright in contrast to the overly brown background. Sassoferrato's Virgin and Child embracing (Fig.3), which also hangs in the National Gallery demonstrates a similar overly contrasted effect in the painting's bright use of cobalt blue which stand out from its near-black background as a result of the partial cleaning
Reasons for partial cleaning may vary, however, often a restorer only cleans light (often white pigments) sections of a painting as the effects of deterioration on more visible areas have a larger impact on the painting than darker areas. Leonardo Da Vinci's 'virgin of the rocks' illustrates exactly this, two exist, one in the Louvre, Paris and the other in London's National Gallery. The version in the Louvre has remained mainly untouched in comparison to the National Gallery's version which tonally, appears almost jarring as a result of the removal of saturating varnishes and perhaps partial cleaning from previous decades or uneven original varnishes. The painting's cleaning process began in November 2008, which improved saturation of the darker tones, it was undertaken because the painting had become difficult to read due to severe degradation of the oil and varnish applied in 1949.8 Madonna's ultramarine blue garment appear incoherently bright in contrast to the overly brown background. Sassoferrato's Virgin and Child embracing (Fig.3), which also hangs in the National Gallery demonstrates a similar overly contrasted effect in the painting's bright use of cobalt blue which stand out from its near-black background as a result of the partial cleaning