19-TE-2005_Venaria Reale, Reggia di Venaria, B. Mathieu, Caterina Isnarda Marquise of Caluso and Delibera Eleonora S. Martino di Parella Marquise of Rhodes, inv. 273 (ownership of Racconigi Castle)

Facilitated description: 

 

The painting on canvas depicts two princesses on horseback, Catherine and Eleanor.
The painter Balthasar Mathieu painted the painting between 1658 and 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 restorers cleaned the painting with the princesses Catherine and Eleanor. 
They removed the patches of the back put during the old restorations. 
They removed the folds from 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 the restorers have arranged the restoration work of the 1800s without eliminating them.
Eventually they painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

The canvas Caterina Isnarda marquise of Caluso and Resolution Eleonora S.Martino of Parella marquise of Rhodes It 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, with its eventful 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 Mathieu's canvas, four other paintings from the upper register of Diana's hall were wrapped together.
The restoration was preceded by an in-depth diagnostic campaign: the samples made it possible to investigate the nature of the pigments, the x-rays on the faces of the two princesses on horseback highlighted the presence of large gaps and the shots with ultraviolet light showed the extent of previous restoration interventions.

 

Restoration

The restoration on the painting began with the cleaning of the back and the removal of linen patches and glue deposits, dating back to previous restorations. Subsequently, the numerous folds were extended, the lacerations were compensated with portions of linen and the edges were consolidated. The painting was fixed with a calibrated tensioning on a new fixed spruce wood frame with a sliding system to distance the canvas from the beams.

In the next phase the tissue was removed from the front of the painting and the scales of color at risk of falling were consolidated. Cleaning tests were then carried out, at the end of which, in agreement with the works management, it was decided not to continue with an operation to remove the nineteenth-century repaintings, but to lighten the thick layer of superficial pictorial film. The original layer of the work was in fact too compromised and the nineteenth-century repaintings extended, but very well preserved.  Finally, the painting was integrated with plastering chromatically intoned with watercolor colors and was painted. 

 

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.