Case Histories
Blessed Amedeo interceding before the Madonna and Child for victory at the Battle of Turin, 1729 – 1730
Bernardino Cametti
The work, which comes from the Pontifical Irish College in Rome, is exposed for the first time at the Reggia di Venaria in the exhibition ‘Sfida al Barocco. Rome Turin Paris 1680-1750’.
The JRC has been entrusted with the delicate restoration, financed by Intesa Sanpaolo as part of the 19th edition of the Restitutions programme.
Brief description of the interventions
A team interdisciplinary of the Center has investigated the structural peculiarities and materials in order to guide the restoration choices.
Operations have used scientific analysis, such as the digital radiography which was carried out in the bunker of the laboratories of Venaria, where a tomographic radio apparatus capable of analyzing large works is active. The continuous confrontation with the diagnosts of the Center and the scholars involved in the preparation of the exhibition has allowed the restorers to know in detail the model, its fragility and implementation features and made it possible to plan the intervention and all the recovery phases of the areas.
The work was heavily altered in form and colour and had several non-original layers. These data were the valuable starting point for the start of the extensive restoration, which included cleaning techniques with various instruments. LASER.
The result of these operations has led the bas-relief to an extraordinary recovery of the modeled.
The work, lined with a canvas, had perimeter strips of linen canvas that were removed and replaced with new strips of polyester canvas, the frame was rectified and made suitable for containing the work in the frame. The paper support had tears and gaps that were integrated, operating from the back and from the front, accompanied by a timely consolidation of the pictorial film and watercolor reintegration.
CCR and accessibility
