Art restorer uncovers old painting

A 17th-century painting by French artist Nicolas Poussin entitled “Hymenaios Disguished as a Woman During an Offering to Priapus,” was inadvertently uncovered.

Regina Pinto Moreira, a Brazilian master art restorer at the Louvre in Paris, has been restoring Poussin’s artwork for eight months alongside two French experts.

What Moreira discovered after removing layers of dirt, dust, and paint specks that accumulated over the more than three centuries-old painting of the Greek God of fertility Priapus was the deity’s erect penis.

The 3.71-meter (12.2-feet) by 1.66-meter (5.44-feet) painting depicts Hymenaios, the Greek god of marriage ceremonies, dressed as a woman and dancing with Priapus, who was traditionally portrayed with an erect member.

Moreira suspects that the cover-up was made in conservative Catholic Spain in the 18th century.  At the time, it was not uncommon to apply modifications for the sake of modesty.  This painting once belonged to the Spanish royal family, making it likely that the alteration had to be made.

Following the Napoleonic wars, the painting changed hands from Spanish royalty to English aristocrats.  It was then sold to French art dealer Georges Wildenstein, who in turn sold it in 1953 to influential Brazilian journalist and MASP founder Francisco Assis Chateaubriand.

[via msn.com]