21mc002-TE-2008_Turin, Galleria Sabauda, L. Bassano, Il piccolo mercato, inv. 419, cat. 576

Facilitated description: 

 

The small market is a painting on canvas.
The painting depicts a scene from an open-air market.
The painter Laendro da Ponte, known as Bassano, painted the painting at the end of the 1500s.
The painting is kept at the Galleria Sabauda in Turin.
The restorers of the La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2008.
Scientists at the Venaria Center did scientific analysis to study the painting.
The restorers cleaned the painting of dust and yellowed paint.
They also removed some paintings from a restoration of the past.
After cleaning, they discovered the artist's signature on a stone in the middle and bottom of the painting.
They painted the most ruined parts.
They painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. They cleaned the frame.
Filled the wood gaps with stucco (plaster and glue layer).
They covered the stucco with gold leaf.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration

The restoration work began with the removal of atmospheric dust deposits from the support thanks to the use of micro-aspirators and soft brushes. The painting was then subjected to some investigations, in particular analysis in UV light, false color, IR reflectography, X-rays, XRF analysis, taking a stratigraphic sample. The subsequent cleaning operations, carried out with cotton swab, sought to maintain the chromatic unity by lightening the paint and eliminating some altered touch-ups. In this phase, two pictorial integration interventions made in different eras have been identified, including a more recent one with paint colors. It was also possible to identify the artist’s signature ‘LEANDER BASSANO’, placed on top of a stone in the lower central part of the composition. Painting of the surface and pictorial integration with vein colours was then carried out in the most abraded areas and on the most altered previous interventions. Finally, a final protective spray layer was applied.

 

Frame
The frame has been subjected to an initial cleaning; then the gaps were stuccoed with chalk and rabbit glue, then covered with bolus of a color similar to the original one. Finally, gold leaf was applied using the gouache technique (brown in some areas).  The new gold foil was coated in watercolour colours, bringing the brightness of the additions to the original parts. The metal parts on the back of the frame (reinforcement brackets placed at the four corners, attachment) were treated with anti-corrosion applied by brush.

 

Bibliography

- S. Villano, Sheet 3.2 in De Van Dyck in Bellotto. Splendeurs à la cour de Savoie, C. E. Spantigati, P. Astrua, A. M. Bava, S. Damiano, Turin, Allemandi, 2009, p. 121.