Voces del Prado

The Restoration of the Watteau Works

María Teresa Dávila Álvarez, Restorer, 1982-2013

Manuela Mena gave me a great deal of support. She liked restoration and we connected very well on a professional level. For example, when we restored the Watteau paintings, she made it possible for us to go to the laboratory, to the workshops in Paris. There we were able to see how they restored them, the criteria they applied and all the resources they had at their disposal. We were able to resolve questions and study the materials and see how they’d been employed, how they’d behaved over time and whether they had altered. And we could witness the method that had been followed so that the works were left in the best possible condition.