Assistant Professor Robert G. Erdmann's work on the Hieronymous Bosch Research and Conservation Project (BRCP) makes national news in Spain
The meditations of St. John the Baptist, painted by Hieronymus Bosch between 1485 and 1510, is one of the best known works of the Museo Lázaro Galdiano. In the box, 60 by 40 centimeters, the saint is surrounded by strange mountains (mirror of lust and sin), farm animals mixed with strange creatures and plants typical of a great science fiction movie. In this table highlights what could be a sort of grenade climbing. The restoration by the museum in 1995, sensed the existence of a male figure occupying the central part of the fruit. Now you can see almost every detail of the head and drawing the artist made before painting and it is known that, as it did in other works, the face corresponds to the donor, the person who commissioned the work. Why did it disappear? The causes can be many: not pleased with the payer. It did not work the composition in the eyes of the artist. He repented on the spot and the image of the patron is like many other artist's regrets.