21mc045-TE-2008_Turin, Galleria Sabauda, C. Giaquinto, Il transito di S. Giuseppe, inv. 1089

Facilitated description: 

 

The Transit of Joseph is a painting on canvas. 
The painter Corrado Giaquinto painted the painting in 1735-1738. 
The painting depicts the death of St. Joseph. Near Joseph there are Jesus, Our Lady and many angels. 
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 behind the painting with a small vacuum cleaner to remove dust. 
They cleaned the painting with chemicals. 
Then they cleaned the frame of the dust. 
They put on the frame a product against insects that eat wood. 
They filled the wooden gaps with stucco (plaster and glue).
They filled the lacks of gilding with gold leaf and watercolors.
In the end, they applied paint on the painting and the frame to protect them from the sun's rays and dust. 

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration

During the restoration, the textile support of the painting was subjected to the removal of deposits of incoherent atmospheric particles through the use of micro aspirators. The protective film of the pictorial surface was subjected to a delicate cleaning from atmospheric particle deposits inconsistent with a weakly ionic solution. Finally, a protective paint was sprayed.

 

Frame
The wooden support was cleaned with water and alcohol and subsequently treated with a mothproof and biocidal product. The atmospheric deposits on the back of the frame were removed with alcohol and acetone. The entire surface was then consolidated by injections of protein glue. Subsequently, the atmospheric deposits were removed from the surface. The gaps were grouted with plaster and glue and levelled with brass canvas and scalpels. The stuccoed parts were then reintegrated by applying bolus and silvering with gouache leaf. The additions were finally burnished and appropriately tuned to the color of the original surface. The most visible abrasions spread over the entire surface have been integrated with watercolor colors. Finally, a protective film was spread over the entire surface.

 

Bibliography

S. Villano, Sheet 9.5 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, p. 205.