21mc015-TE-2008_Turin, Galleria Sabauda, P. Batoni, Hercules between virtue and voluptuousness, inv. 460, cat. 471

Facilitated description: 

 

Hercules between virtue and voluptuousness is a painting. 
The painting depicts the hero Hercules between two women. 
The painter Pompeo Batoni painted the painting in 1750.
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 understand the materials used and the areas where the old restorations were made.
The restorers cleaned the paint (layer over the paint).
They filled the paint gaps of the edges and bottom with watercolors and paints.
They also restored the frame. 
They cleaned the frame and removed the paintings from the old restoration.
They glued the detached wooden parts. 
They filled the wood gaps with colored stucco (plaster and glue layer). 
They put the gold leaf in the parts without gilding. 
In the end they painted the painting and the frame to protect them from the sun's rays and dust. 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration

Before the start of the restoration activity, the painting was subjected to a series of multispectral diagnostic investigations aimed at exhaustive knowledge of the work, the constituent materials and the non-original substances superimposed on it. In agreement with the Works Directorate, it was decided to blur the evidence of the gaps along the lower right edge (at the symbols of the allegories) and along the left lateral margin (at the fountain) that had been resolved to neutral with defined contours in the previous restoration. Since the painting carried out in the restoration of 1982 was still completely transparent and in excellent condition, it was chosen not to thin it but to carry out only a cleaning from surface dirt. Integration with paint colours was then carried out to ensure the removal of solvents with limited polarity. The neutral colours of the Rijeka restoration have been veiled in order to better match the gap in the background. In addition, some pictorial additions were also veiled, which were very altered in the area of the blue sky, in the clouds, on the cheek of Hercules’ face and on the robe of the allegory of virtue. In correspondence with the entire horizontal band added on the upper edge, an attempt was made to dampen with veils the separation line on the crown of the tree and on the sky at the top left. The reintegration intervention was therefore limited to the revision of the parts taken from the previous restoration, without making any kind of veiling on the original. Finally, a layer of protective paint was applied to spraying.

 

Frame
In the case of the frame, the intervention consisted of a superficial cleaning of the dirt and removal from the purple repaintings, which were now altered and obscured. Subsequently we proceeded to the re-adhesion of the lifts, the plastering of the abrasions of the gilding and the reintegration with shell gold and gold folgia applied to gouache. Finally, a protective resin was applied. 

Bibliography 

- S. Villano, Sheet 9.16 in De Van Dyck in Bellotto. Splendeurs à la cour de Savoie, C. E. Spantigati, P. Astrua, A. M. Bava, S. Damiano, Torino, Allemandi, 2009, pp. 217-218.