After 10 years of painstaking study and restoration that tested both cutting edge technology and human patience, one of the greatest masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance is returning to the public.

Three separate undated photos show the restoration process of Italian artist Raphael's 1506 oil-on-wood painting "Madonna of the Goldfinch", which had been shattered into 17 pieces then nailed back together following a house collapse in Florence. After 10 years of painstaking study and restoration that tested both cutting edge technology and human patience, one of the greatest masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance is returning to the public. Raphael's "Madonna of the Goldfinch" is a survivor. [Agencies]

Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch is a survivor.

The 107cm by 77cm oil on wood, showing the Madonna with two children caressing a goldfinch bird, has outlived everything from the collapse of a house in 1547 that shattered it to the ravages of time and the mistakes of past interventions.

The result of the restoration is stunning. Centuries of brown film and grime are gone. The Madonna's cheeks are pink. Her robes are deep red and blue and one can almost hear the cascade of a stream in the background Tuscan countryside.

"This patient gave us the most shivers and the most sleepless nights," said Marco Ciatti, head of the department of paintings at Florence's Opificio Delle Pietre Dure, one of Italy's most prestigious state-run art restoration labs.

"We spent two whole years studying it before deciding whether to go ahead because with the damage it suffered in the past, a restoration attempt could go wrong," he said.

X-rays, CAT scans, reflective infra-red photography, lasers, men and women in white coats, microscopes, latex gloves - it sounds like the stuff of hospitals and in many ways it is.