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Titian, Christ Crucified, c. 1555, oil on canvas, 2.1 x 1.1 m. Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

A painting by Titian has been badly damaged, after becoming detached from a wall in the Sacristy at the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in Spain, according to The Art Newspaper. The painting hit a dresser and incurred a 90cm horizontal tear across its canvas support, which has affected the lower part of the work.

The c.1555 oil painting by the Venetian master depicts Christ’s crucifixion. The figure of Jesus was not damaged in the accident.

The painting was immediately taken to the restoration workshops at the Royal Palace of Madrid. Conservation experts, including representatives from the Museo del Prado, will carry out repairs to the 16th-century masterpiece.

Patrimonio Nacional, the organisation responsible for managing royal residences in Spain, including the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, sent a statement to frieze confirming that the probably cause of the fall was weak wall fastenings: ‘material degradation of the plaster coating of the wall to which the painting was anchored’. The work did not fall to the ground and the pictorial layer of the work has not been damaged.