26mc08-DM-2016_Milano, Pinacoteca di Brera, D. Bramante, Democritus and Heraclitus, inv. 1240

Facilitated description: 

 

Democritus and Heraclitus is a mural painting (painting done on a wall). 
The painter Donato Bramante painted the painting in 1487-1488. 
The painting decorated the walls of the villa of the poet Gaspare Visconti in Milan along with 7 other men in armor. 
The painting was detached from the wall of the villa in 1901 and was mounted on a canvas and a rigid panel.
The painting is kept at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2016. 
The scientists of the Venaria Center have done scientific analysis to study the materials of which the work is made and the restorations of the past. 
The restorers cleaned the painting of dust and glue remnants. 
They hung up the parts of the canvas that were detaching from the panel. 
They filled some parts of missing color with a layer of putty (plaster and glue). 
They painted the stucco with watercolors. 
The restorers left the lack of color along the edges of the painting to show that it is not complete.



 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

The restoration project on the Bramante cycle of the Men of Arms ed Heraclitus and Democritus  of the Pinacoteca di Brera conducted by the Conservation and Restoration Center "La Venaria Reale" has allowed us to deepen the study of previous interventions, including those of Pinin Brambilla Barcilon.
The restoration was carried out on the occasion of the refurbishment of the works within the visit path of the Pinacoteca di Brera, inaugurated in 2018. 
The intervention was preceded by a diagnostic campaign aimed at identifying the phenomena of degradation and distinguishing the materials of the previous restorations and from the original ones with particular attention to the characterization of the mortars and pigments.

Restoration

Restoration began by removing incoherent particulate deposits with dry cleaning, scotch fragments and glue residues. Subsequently, the bleaching was eliminated by means of swabs to return a greater readability of the surface and a better chromatic intensity. The areas affected by the detachment of the supporting canvas of the frescoes from the polyvinyl panel were subjected to a re-adhesion intervention.
The intervention of pictorial integration represented a particularly complex phase of the intervention aimed at enhancing the pictorial quality of the works and maintaining the legibility of their nature as fragmentary and decontextualized wall paintings. In this perspective, the perimeter gaps and the previous plastering along the edges have not been preserved.
As regards the internal deficiencies in the figuration, in agreement with the management of the works, compensation has been provided for gaps related to accidental damage and gaps related to specific historical-conservative vicissitudes such as the staking of the late eighteenth century, made to facilitate the attachment of new plasters. These areas were treated with neutral mortar and grouting and subjected to chromatic retouching with watercolor colors. 
Finally, in order to restore the chromatic and figurative unity and improve the readability of the works, the most recent plasterings with vertical hatching have been adapted chromatically and the abrasions with undertone veils have been tuned. 

 

 

Bibliography

- A. Gatti, M.C. Canepa, M. Cardinali, T. Cavaleri, M. Ferrero, C. Quattrini, The pictorial cycle of the Men of Arms by Donato Bramante. Rereading the conservative history and usability of the images, in ‘Kermes’, No 127-128, a. XXXV, July-December 2022, pp. 49-55.;
- M. C. Canepa, M. Cardinali, M. Ferrero, A. Gatti, C. Quattrini, A new aesthetic proposal for "Men at arms" by Donato Bramante, in ‘Ge-Conservacion’, No 18, 2020, pp. 375-385.
- The pictorial cycle of the "men of arms" by Donato Bramante: rereading of the conservative history and the usability of the images, speech at the conference Detachments and tears of wall paintings, 24-25 November 2022, (Sala delle Columni, via De Amicis 11, Milan).