4-TE-2006_Venaria Reale, Reggia di Venaria, J. Miel, Let's run, inv. D 739 296 (Owned by Museo Civico d'Arte Antica di Torino - Palazzo Madama)

Facilitated description: 

 

Letting it run is a painting on canvas.
The painting depicts a hunting scene.
The painter Jan Miel painted the painting in 1660.
The painting is kept in Diana's room of the Reggia di Venaria.
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2006-2007 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.
They fixed the painting on the frame again taking care to eliminate all the folds.
Then they cleaned the front of the painting: have removed the yellowed paint, dirt and traces of previous restorations.
They filled the color gaps with stucco (plaster and glue layer) and watercolor colors.
In the end they painted the work to protect it from the sun's rays and dust.

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

The canvas Let it run 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. 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 study of the pictorial surface and the paint.

 

Restoration

The intervention began with the removal of the canvas from the frame to allow a better cleaning. It was followed by the removal of previous restorations no longer suitable (patches on the lacerations, cloth band at the top, tensioning intervention along the edges). The frame, still in good condition, has been cleaned and subjected to anti-mould treatment. The work was then re-tensioned.
A differentiated cleaning was carried out on the pictorial film, in the first phase the yellowish varnish was removed, while in the subsequent ones the residues of dirt and the retouching related to previous restoration interventions were removed. Subsequently, the painting was carried out and the grouting was prepared. Finally, the work has been chromatically integrated with watercolor colors: The larger gaps were integrated with stripes, while in most of the painting the grains of the background color were closed with punctual touch-ups to paint. Finally, a protective varnish was sprayed.

 

Bibliography

- D. Zanardo, Tabs 8.1-8.10 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. 143-155;
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.