40-AL-2006_Nichelino, Stupinigi Hunting Lodge, Consul, inv. 6785

Facilitated description: 

 

The console is a golden wooden table with a marble shelf made in the mid-1700s.
The console is kept at the Hunting Palace of Stupinigi.
The Centro Conservazione e Restauro La Venaria Reale restored the console in 2006-2007 after the discovery of the piece of furniture. The console was stolen in 2004.
The restorers have placed the console in an anoxic chamber (room without oxygen that serves to eliminate insects that feed on wood).
After the restorers consolidated (made more stable) the parts of wood that were detaching. 
They carried out a cleaning (cleaned the surface from the dirt deposited over time or from the layers of old restorations).
The console had gaps (missing parts) in the decoration. The restorers integrated (filled the gaps) with the same type of wood.
They have integrated the gaps of the gilding.
In the end they painted the console to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

The restoration of the Piedmontese console was completed in 2007 under the supervision of Pinin Brambilla Barcilon. The intervention was carried out on the occasion of the discovery of the nucleus of works stolen from the Hunting Palace of Stupinigi in 2004. After the restoration, the work was relocated to the Palazzina.

 

Restoration

The console underwent anoxic room disinfestation treatment for a period of three weeks. The carving fragments were then relocated and glued and the small parts of the missing ornament were integrated. The carving gap on the top was filled with the same wood essence as the original. Subsequently, the consolidations, the cleaning of the surface and the mechanical removal of the purple touches were carried out. The lack of preparation was integrated with plaster and lapin glue.
The additions of the golden surface were made with the same original technique of the artifact, that is, with gouache gilding. In order to make the intervention recognisable, the gold tone was lowered by means of watercolour colour selection. Also the ochre background of the back has been reached by means of watercolor selection.
Finally, the marble top was subjected to cleaning, grouting and protection with microcrystalline wax.