3-TE-2006_Venaria Reale, Reggia di Venaria, J. Miel, Hunting the fox, inv. D 738 295 (ownership of Museo Civco d'Arte Antica di Torino - Palazzo Madama)

Facilitated description: 

 

Fox Hunt is a painting on canvas.
The painting depicts a hunting scene.
The painter Jan Miel painted the painting in 1659-1661.
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 2007 for the reopening of the Reggia di Venaria.
The restorers have dismantled the painting from the frame (wooden structure that stands behind the painting and serves to support the painting).
They dusted the frame.
The restorers saw that the painting had been enlarged in a previous restoration and no longer entered the original stucco frame of Diana's hall.
The restorers returned the painting to its original size, folding the added parts behind the painting without removing them.
Then they cleaned the front of the painting.
They stopped the parts of color that were peeling off.
They filled the color gaps with stucco (plaster and glue layer) and watercolor colors.

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

The canvas Fox hunting by Jan Miel was restored on the occasion of the reopening of the Reggia di Venaria and the exhibition in its original location in the Hall of Diana within its stucco frame. The painting, part of a series of 10 works with a hunting theme, has been affected by several movements during its conservative history and has come to the Royal Palace from the Civic Museum of Ancient Art in Turin - Palazzo Madama. The restoration was preceded by ultraviolet analysis to deepen the reading of the pictorial surface and the paint.

 

Restoration

The intervention began with the velinatura of the painting along the edges, the removal of the canvas from the frame and the dusting of the frame. Since the work has an extension (15 cm on the right side and 30 cm in height), due to a previous restoration, it was decided to bring the painting back to its original measurements to place it in the stucco frame. We then proceeded to fold the canvas with moisture on the support, properly protecting the pictorial film to allow its preservation. The painting was fixed on a new frame with metal staples and in a way that would not alter the portion of canvas of the extension folded on the back. The flakes of pictorial film of the raised edges were made to re-adhere. Finally, the gaps were grouted and chromatically replenished with watercolor colors and paint colors.

 

Bibliography

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.