22-TE-2007_Venaria Reale, Reggia di Venaria, C. Dauphin, Cristina di Fleury marchesa di San Giorgio and Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia Carignano (ownership of the Royal Museums of Turin)

Facilitated description:

 

The painting depicts Princess Christina of Fleury and Emmanuel on horseback.
The painter Jean Miel 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 2007 for the reopening of the Reggia di Venaria.
The restorers have replaced the lining (the canvas that is placed behind the painting to reinforce it).
They repositioned the painting on the frame (wooden structure that serves to support the painting) taking care to eliminate all folds.
They cleaned the painting of dust and yellowed paint.
They have eliminated the paintings of the old restorations.
They filled the parts with missing color.
Eventually they painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

The canvas Christina of Fleury Marquise of San Giorgio and Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy Carignano is part of a cycle of 10 large paintings 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 an articulated conservative history, has come to the Royal Palace from the Royal Palace of Turin (ownership of the Royal Museums of Turin).
For handling the work has been secured with a velinatura with Japanese paper.
The restoration was preceded by a diagnostic campaign carried out in the laboratories of the Center to deepen the knowledge of the executive technique, the surface layer and to identify previous restoration interventions.

 

Restoration

The restoration began with the removal of the previous lining, the cleaning of the canvas and the smoothing of the folds and deformations. It was then made the back stop and a new lining.
On the pictorial surface, after the removal of the velinatura, a cleaning was carried out to remove the oily protective and the repaintings and lower the overlapping groutings during previous restorations. Subsequently, the new plastering was performed, chromatically intoned with watercolor colors. Finally, a protective layer was laid out. 
 

 

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. 125-161.