21mc029-TE-2008_Turin, Galleria Sabauda, Il tramonto, inv. 463, cat. 346

Facilitated description:

 

The sunset is a painting made after 1650. 
The painting is kept at the Galleria Sabauda in Turin. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2008. 
The restorers cleaned the frame (wooden structure that stands behind the painting and serves to support the painting). 
They cleaned the dust-painted part. 
They filled the parts with missing color. 
They painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 
They cleaned the frame of the dust. 
They filled the wooden gaps with stucco (plaster and glue layer). 
They gilded the plastering with gold leaf and watercolors. 
In the end they painted the frame. 

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration 

The restoration of the painting began with the cleaning of the frame from dust deposits with a vacuum cleaner and with a retensioning. On the pictorial surface, however, incoherent deposits were removed and solubility tests were carried out to acquire information about the materials. At the end of the cleaning process, synthetic paint was applied, pictorial integration was completed and a final protective coating was applied.

 

Frame
The golden frame was initially subjected to the stoppage of the decoese parts by the application of acrylic resin, then it was cleaned from the accumulations of dirt with a Solvent gel and with the help of the scalpel. The work continued with the filling of the flawed areas, which were then treated with red bolus, golden leaf with gouache technique and burnished. The smallest gaps were supplemented with watercolours. Finally, the original gilding abrasions were supplemented with shell gold. The added gilding was then veiled with watercolor colors to conform to the original one of calmer tone. Finally, the final protection painting with the paint was followed.