17mc11/12-AL-2013_Nichelino, Stupinigi Hunting Lodge, 2 Consuls, inv. 459, 460

Facilitated description: 

 

The 2 consoles are of the types of gilded wooden table with a marble shelf.
The two consoles were built during the 1700s. 
The consuls are kept at the Hunting Palace of Stupinigi, in the Scudieri room.
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the consoles in 2013. 
The restorers have placed the consoles in an anoxic chamber (room without oxygen that serves to eliminate insects that eat wood). 
They cleaned the wooden parts and the marble shelf from dust. 
They glued the parts of wood and gilding that were coming off. 
They filled with stucco (plaster and glue) the missing wood parts and holes caused by insects eating the wood. 
They painted the stucco with watercolors. 
They eventually painted the consoles to protect them from the sun's rays and dust. 

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration

The two consoles of the Sala degli Scudieri were disinfected in anoxic chamber for a period of three weeks. Chemical cleaning and mechanical scalpel removal of the largest sediments was carried out on the entire golden surface, while the painted surface was cleaned with the use of rubbers of varying softness. The purples have been removed.
The consolidation of the micro-lifts was carried out with injections of acrylic resin and the gaps were filled with stucco (bologna plaster and animal glue), then sanded with scalpels and brass canvas. The fillers have been chromatically integrated with watercolor and mica colors. The flickering holes have been filled with waxy putty added with natural pigments. Finally, preventive disinfestation and painting were carried out.