20-TE-2006_Padua, Civic Museums - Museum of Medieval and Modern Art, J. Negretti (Palma il Giovane), Painting celebrating the rectors Jacopo and Giovanni Soranzo, inv. 680

Facilitated description: 

 

The celebratory painting of the rectors Jacopo and Giovanni Soranzo is a telero (a large painting on canvas that hangs on the walls invented by Venetian painters).
The painting represents in the center Jesus and two women (on the left the Justice and on the right the Abundance) and on the sides the two officials Jacopo and Giovanni Soranzo accompanied by saints.
Jacopo Negretti painted the painting at the end of 1500.
The painting is kept at the Museum of Medieval and Modern Art in Padua.
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2006.
Scientists at the Venaria Center did scientific analysis to study how the painting was made and what colors were used.
The restorers cleaned the painting of dust.
They eliminated the painting of the old restorations because it was ruined.
They filled the color gaps with a layer of putty (plaster and glue).
They colored the putty with watercolors.
They lined the painting (mounted a canvas behind the painting to reinforce the painting).
They reinforced the frame (wooden structure that supports the painting from behind) with metal parts.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

The canvas by Palma il Giovane of the Civic Museums of Padua has been restored by the ‘La Venaria Reale’ Restoration Centre more than 50 years after Antonio Lazzarin’s intervention. The recovery and transport of the large-format canvas was possible thanks to the collaboration of Compagnia di San Paolo, Cassa di Risparmio di Padova and Rovigo and Fondazione Cariparo.
The painting consists of four linen canvases joined horizontally and with diagonal armor. This type of weave is particularly resistant to the weight of large surfaces and facilitates the new modus pingendi established itself in the Venice lagoon in the mid-16th century, characterised by greater freedom of brushstroke and the use of colours with strong mixtures.
The intervention was preceded by an in-depth diagnostic campaign aimed at investigating the state of conservation, the execution technique, previous restorations and the rethinking of the composition. The complex evolution of the painting, evidenced by the numerous regrets highlighted by the reflectographic and radiographic investigations, demonstrates a tendency of the artist to proceed directly on the canvas, through continuous changes in itinere, a sign of creative action characterized by instinctive phases, interspersed with moments of pause and reflection. In addition, the micro-stratigraphic campaign on different pictorial backgrounds has made it possible to obtain an exhaustive knowledge of the various chromatic stratifications and the identification of the different pigments.
The restoration of the canvas had as its main objectives the cleaning of the substances not original and altered, the removal of the tacked touches of previous restorations and grouting no longer suitable, the consolidation of the surface with new grouting and the pictorial reintegration to restore the continuity of the pictorial film and mitigate color imbalances. In addition, re-lining of the canvas was performed and the frame was re-functionalized, adding a supporting metal counterframe to properly re-tension the painting.

Bibliography 

M. Cardinali, A. Gatti, F. Pellegrini, The recovery of the canvas of Palma the Younger of the Museum of Art of Padua, in Chronicles 3. The activities of the Fondazione Centro Conservazione e Restauro «La Venaria Reale» 2006-2012, Torino, Allemandi, 2013, pp. 47-65;