A museum in the Netherlands has enlisted the support of a Luxembourg-based glass manufacturing company in its exhibition of works by renowned Dutch artist Joachim Wtewael.
The Centraal Museum in Utrecht is displaying the works of the painter in the form of Wtewael's first-ever monographic exhibition entitled 'Pleasure & Piety', bringing together 40 paintings and 10 drawings from European and American museums and private collections.
Priceless in nature, nurturing these paintings whilst they were displayed became a key criteria for the exhibition, and Guardian Clarity™ anti-reflective glass from Guardian Europe S.à.r.l. was used to maintain the quality and protection of the pieces whilst ensuring the reflection and overall aesthetics were not compromised. This was achieved by playing the works behind glass in specially designed showcases.
"These works are very special and although they are centuries old, they still look fantastic," commented Kristine Kavelaars, Senior Project Coordinator at the Centraal Museum. "We needed to strike a balance between delivering the highest levels of security for these often small and delicate works whilst meeting our visitors' desire to get as close as possible, Moreover, as custodians of our cultural heritage, we need to ensure that future generations too will be able to enjoy these masterpieces. We achieved this with Guardian Clarity glass."
She continued: "I have to say that I had never seen anything like the ‘no glass’ effect. Many of our visitors, too, were not aware of the glass layer until it stopped them from touching the paintings. As a result we had to clean the glass quite frequently."
"The main reason for choosing the product for this solution was its performance: the quality of the anti-reflective coating," added Henk van der Vlugt, owner of Glashander van der Vlugt which was reponsible for designing the displays. "An additional consideration though was the fast on-time delivery Guardian® was able to offer through its dealer network."
Photo by Guardian Glass
