21mc039-TA-2008_Turin, Galleria Sabauda, J. de Momper, Landscape with carriage and knights, inv. 308, cat. 240

Facilitated description: 

 

Landscape with carriage and knights is a painting on wooden board. 
The painter Joos de Momper made the painting during the 1600s. 
The painting depicts a landscape with three men on horseback and a carriage.
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 repaired a crack in the wooden board with glue and pieces of wood. 
They cleaned the painting of dust, yellowed paint and paintings from past restorations. 
On the front of the painting they filled the crack with stucco (plaster and glue). 
They colored the putty and the parts without painting. 
They painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 
They cleaned the frame of the dust. 
In the end they reconstructed three missing parts.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration

The restoration of the work began with the treatment of the slit of the support, consolidated with animal glue and inserted between two sheets of melinex interposed with two wooden dowels held with metal clamps. 
The pictorial surface has been the subject of a delicate restoration aimed at recovering the original tonal values, altered by surface deposits, retouching and yellowed paints. The cleaning phase involved thinning the protective layer and removing the additions to the grouting and the original (e.g. the rocks in the foreground). However, in agreement with the Works Department, the repainting on the X-ray figure has not been removed.
The cleaning phase made it possible to verify with greater precision the real state of conservation of the pictorial material: with the digital videomicroscope were highlighted widespread craquellure.
The grouting and retouching phases mainly concerned the slit area, while rare veilings were carried out at the abrasions. The reintegration operation was carried out in two phases, creating a watercolour base on the grouting, which was then brought to tone with varnish-coloured veils. Finally, a thin and uniform layer of paint with a protective function was applied to the entire pictorial surface.

 

Frame
After the surface cleaning tests, the incoherent deposits present on the gilding and on the outer sides were removed. In addition, the resin cast made in the previous restoration was removed. The three missing curls were then carved using linden wood, then pinstriped. Subsequently, plaster and glue plastering was integrated, while the reconstructed wooden parts were gilded with pure gold leaf and veiled in watercolour.