02-SL-2008_Turin, Museum of Oriental Art, Lokapala

Facilitated description:

 

The Lokapala is a Japanese wooden sculpture of about 1000.
The sculpture represents one of the guardians of the four cardinal points (north, south, east, west).
Lokapala is a Hindu deity and is represented with one foot raised, perhaps to crush a demon.
His right arm is gone, maybe he was up and holding a weapon.
The Lokapala sculpture is preserved at the Museum of Oriental Art in Turin.
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the sculpture in 2008. 
The restorers placed the Lokapala in an anoxic chamber (a container without oxygen to eliminate wood-eating insects).
Then they consolidated (made more stable) the parts that were likely to break away.
The restorers cleaned (cleaned the surface of the artwork from the dirt deposited over time). 
The restorers filled the flicker holes (holes caused by wood-eating insects) with cotton and wax. 
The restorers pictorially integrated (filled with paint colors) the scratches behind the sculpture.
The layer of wax that protects the work was still well preserved so the restorers did not apply a new protective product.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

The wooden sculpture Lokapala represents one of the Hindu deities, guardian of the cardinal points. The statue was purchased by the Compagnia di San Paolo on the American market. The restoration, funded by the Fondazione per l'Arte della Compagnia di San Paolo, was aimed at the exhibition of the work at the Museum of Oriental Art (MAO) in Turin, opened to the public in 2008. The work is in permanent storage at the MAO.

 

Restoration

The intervention started with a period of disinfestation in the anoxic chamber. We then proceeded to consolidation (with Paraloid B72 in acetone applied by brush or injections) and cleaning from the layer of dust that covered the work. Subsequently the larger flicker holes were filled with cotton and stuccoed with natural wax pigmented with earth. Some of the scratches on the back of the statue were masked with paint colors. Finally, given the good state of preservation of the wax that covered the surface, it was not considered necessary to write a final protective film.

 

Bibliography

- V. Rate, Lokapala, Heian period. State of conservation and conservation intervention, in "Restoring the East. Japanese wooden sculptures for the MAO in Turin", edited by P. Brambilla Barcilon, E. Mello, Firenze, Nardini, 2008, pp. 76-79.