16-TE-2005_Venaria Reale, Reggia di Venaria, G. Sandri Trotti di Mombasiglio, Caterina Agnese Provana Countess of Rivalta and Francesca de Lucine de Noyer (ownership of Racconigi castle)

Facilitated description:

 

The painting on canvas represents two princesses on horseback, Caterina and Francesca.
The painter Giorgio Sandri Trotti of Mombasiglio painted the painting in 1658-1663.
The painting is kept in Diana's room of the Reggia di Venaria.
The Conservation and Restoration Center "La Venaria Reale" restored the painting in 2005-2007 for the reopening of the Reggia di Venaria.
The painting arrived from the Racconigi Castle to the laboratories of the Center wrapped around an ancient roller used for the transport of the paintings.
Around this ancient roller were wrapped 5 paintings.
The paintings have been restored and repositioned in Diana's room in Venaria.
The restorers unrolled the painting from the roller and separated it from the other paintings.
The painting with the princesses Caterina and Francesca was very ruined and the two princesses on horseback did not recognize each other.
The restorers have eliminated the folds of the canvas.
They applied a reinforcement canvas behind the painting and mounted the painting on a new frame.
In the front part of the painting they filled the color gaps with grouting (plaster and glue layer).
They painted the plastering with watercolors and paint.
Eventually they painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust.

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention: 

 

The canvas Caterina Agnese Provana Countess of Rivalta and Francesca de Lucine de Noyer is part of a cycle of 10 tableaux depicting ladies and knights of the Savoy court on horseback. The painting was restored on the occasion of the reopening of the Reggia di Venaria and the exhibition in its original location in the Sala di Diana. The work, of which it is difficult to study the traces that document its conservative history, has come to the Royal Palace from the Castle of Racconigi (Residenze Reali Sabaude - Regional Directorate of Piedmont National Museums).
At the time of arrival the work was wrapped around an ancient roller for transporting the paintings. In addition to Mombasiglio's canvas, four other paintings from the upper register of Diana's hall were wrapped together. This painting was the last painting wrapped around the roller. It is, in fact, the most external painting that has suffered the greatest damage and had the worst conservation conditions compared to all the other paintings in the series. 

The restoration was preceded by a diagnostic campaign to deepen the study of the pictorial surface. 

 

Restoration

The work on the support began with the removal of patches, cardboard bearing the inscriptions and cleaning from deposits of dirt and glue. After consolidation and lowering of the edges with thermocautery, the work was laid out on a temporary frame to eliminate deformation through tensioning. In addition, the seams that join the 4 canvases of the painting, have been thinned so as not to interfere with the adhesion of the canvas put in place and with the tension on the final frame.
On the pictorial film, the protective velinatura with Japanese paper has been removed and targeted consolidation interventions have been carried out. After the removal of the residues of altered glue of the previous restorations, it was decided to keep the repaintings and the protectives related to the past interventions. The integration of the pictorial film, given the poor state of conservation and the extensive gaps, was aimed at recovering the background to restore a general understanding of the work. The groutings were then carried out near small portions of missing color to punctually stitch up all the remaining fragments. The fillers were then reintegrated with watercolor and varnish colors and the textile support was balanced with watercolor veils. Finally, a protective varnish was applied. Thanks to these operations, the figure on the right, the princess on the left, the two horses and part of the background were recognisable, consisting mainly of an architecture on which a soft red cloth rests.

 

Bibliography

- C. E. Spantigati, Tabs 8.11-8.17 in The Royal Palace of Venaria Reale and the Savoy. Art, magnificence and history of a European court, edited by E. Castelnuovo, catalogue of the exhibition (Reggia di Venaria, 12 October 2007 - 30 March 2008), pp. 156-159;
Of the hunts I give thee the high empire: restorations for Diana's room at the Venaria Reale, in ‘Archivio 2’, edited by C. E. Spantigati, Nardini Editore, Florence, 2008, pp. 124-161.