9mc02-TA-2019_Torino, Museo Civico d'Arte Antica - Palazzo Madama, L. F. Aubry, Young woman, inv. 524

Facilitated description:

 

Young woman in the garden is a small painting on ivory (material that is obtained from the tusks of elephants).
Louis François Aibry painted the painting around 1850.
The painting is kept at the Civic Museum of Ancient Art in Turin (Palazzo Madama).
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2019.
The restorers dismantled the painting from the frame. They put the painting under weights to flatten it.
They cleaned the painting of dust.
They have eliminated the paintings of the old restoration works.
They filled the fractures with putty (plaster and glue layer).
They filled the color gaps with paint.
They put a cardboard between the painting and the frame closure to protect the painting.
In the end they cleaned the frame and glued the detached pieces.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration

Restoration of the miniature Young woman, inv. 524 began with disassembly from the frame and cleaning with soft brushes, microaspirator and scalpel (for larger deposits). Subsequently the work was left under weight to favor the restoration of the planarity. The pictorial retouching that transhipped with respect to the grouting was then removed and the grouting of the areas affected by fractures or gaps was carried out. The pictorial retouching was performed with resin-based paint colors, sometimes added with other types of resins to achieve a more defined gloss effect. Finally, the constraint system has been re-adjusted: a non-acidic protective cardboard spacer has been inserted between the back of the front element and the back closure panel to avoid excessive pressure on the thumbnail. 

Frame
Chemical cleaning of the metal frame and glass to remove inconsistent dusty deposits and greasy dirt and remove strips of adhesive tape. Subsequently, the bonding of the fractured parts and the replacement of any damaged elements (screws, bolts) were carried out.