62-AL-2017_Turin, Museo Civico d’Arte Antica – Palazzo Madama, P. Piffetti, Planetario, inv. 1269/L

Facilitated description: 

 

The Planetrarium is a wooden work that represents the movement of the planets. 
Pietro Piffetti created the planetarium in the early 1700s. 
The planetarium is kept at the Civic Museum of Ancient Art in Turin (Palazzo Madama). 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the planetarium in 2017. 
The restorers have placed the planetarium in an anoxic chamber, a chamber without oxygen that serves to eliminate insects that feed on wood. 
They cleaned the work of dust.
They filled the missing wood parts with wood similar to the original.
They repaired and fixed the metal and ivory pieces (material that is obtained from elephant tusks).
They fixed the mechanism that made the planets rotate.
Eventually they painted the planetarium to protect it from the sun and dust.

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention: 

 

Restoration

The work was subjected to a disinfestation treatment in anoxic chamber and dismantled in its entirety. Cleaning with hyrogel was then carried out, monitoring operations with ultraviolet lamp. The additions were made with materials similar to the originals (palissandro and ivory). One of the shell decorations on the belt, integrated during a previous restoration with mother-of-pearl, was removed and replaced with ivory retouched with watercolor colors to imitate the engraved decorations. Thanks to bibliographic sources of the time (Jean Antoine Nollet L'Art des expériences, ou Avis aux amateurs de la physique, sur le choix, la construction et l'usage des instruments e Lecons de physique expèrimentale) it was possible to understand the function of each element. The brass, wood and ivory pieces were then restored, welded and assembled correctly. Subsequently, a support plate of the globe was added, the straps that transfer movement to the planets were replaced, and the wooden support of the pin that transfers movement to the dial was restored. Finally, a protective varnish was applied.

 

Bibliography 

C. Arnaldi di Balme, S. De Blasi, P. Luciani, G. Freemason, Between art and science. The restoration of the planetarium by Pietro Piffetti, in "Palazzo Madama. Studies and news. Journal of the Civic Museum of Ancient Art of Turin", year V, number 4/2020.