Visitors to the National Gallery will be able to see one of its treasures in its original setting after tech experts created a virtual reality medieval church.
The Consecration of Saint Nicholas was commissioned in 1561 to hang above an altar in a church near Mantua in Italy and the new exhibition will place it back in its original location for the first time since the Napoleonic Wars more than 200 years ago.
Free timed 20-minute visits will allow art lovers to don virtual reality headsets and see the frescoes and architecture that originally surrounded the work and enjoy guided tours from curator Dr Rebecca Gill or the historical figure of an Italian abbot who will explain why the painting was commissioned.
The huge oil painting, which measures 2.8 metres by 1.7 metres, shows the fourth century saint who is said to have inspired the modern day Santa Claus story because of a legend he secretly gave money to three poor young women before they were married.
It was taken from the church and sold on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte when the French soldier captured that part of Italy in 1797 and bought 14 years later by the governors of the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom who wanted it for “a future National Gallery”.
The digital experience visitors have is also enhanced by a recording of a Gregorian chant that would have been performed by monks nearly 500 years ago.
Dr Gill said: “Through this project we are able to bring architecture into the Gallery and allow our visitors to explore for themselves what it might have been like to stand in front of Veronese’s painting some 500 years ago.”
The free show, called Virtual Veronese, runs from March 7 to April 3 next year.
