17mc44-AL-2013_Nichelino, Stupinigi Hunting Lodge, G. M. Bonzanigo, Paravento, inv. 3018

Facilitated description:

 

The screen consists of 6 panels of silk and a wooden structure.
Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo made the screen in 1787-1790.
The screen is kept at the Hunting Palace of Stupinigi.
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the screen in 2013.
The restorers inserted the wooden structure of the screen into an anoxic chamber (room without oxygen that serves to eliminate insects that eat the wood). They cleaned the golden wood surface and metal parts.
They glued the detached parts and filled the holes with a layer of plaster and glue.
They finished the decoration with watercolors and gold leaf.
In the end they spread a protective varnish from the sun's rays and dust.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration 

Initially the screen was placed in the anoxic chamber for disinfestation for a period of three weeks. A chemical cleaning of the deposits and the mechanical scalpel removal of the most consistent sediments were then carried out on the entire golden surface. On the painted surface a mechanical cleaning was carried out with rubbers of various softness and on the brass hinges ethanol was used. The consolidation of the lifts was carried out with injections of acrylic resin. The gaps were filled with stucco (bologna plaster and animal glue) loaded with bismuth, then blunted with brass canvas and scalpel and chromatically integrated with watercolour colours. At the request of the Directorate of Works: the large groutings were supplemented with gold leaf (23 3⁄4 Kt) on the basis of orange bolus subsequently burnished; the resin surface layer was lightened by means of an ethanol gel solution in klucel.
The flickering holes have been filled with waxy putty added with natural pigments. Finally, preventive disinfestation with anti-moth solution was carried out and the final painting was carried out.