9mc10-TA-2019_Turin, Civic Museum of Ancient Art - Palazzo Madama, J. B. Isabey, Alleged portrait of Josephine, Empress of the French, inv. 509

Facilitated description:

 

Josephine Empress of the French is a small painting on ivory (material that is obtained from the tusks of elephants).
Jean Baptiste Isabey painted the painting in 1804. 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.
 restorers dismantled the painting from the frame. They put the painting under weights to flatten it.
They cleaned the painting of dust.
They filled the ivory gaps with stucco (plaster and glue layer) and the color gaps with paints.
They put ties between the painting and the frame to protect the painting from rubbing.
Eventually they cleaned the frame and glued the edges and painted the missing gilding parts.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration

Restoration of the miniature Ripresumed trait of Josephine, empress of the French, 509 began with the disassembly from the frame and the fastening and re-adhesion of the movable color scales. It was followed by cleaning with soft brushes, microaspirator and scalpel for the largest deposits and the operations of restoration of flatness lascinado the work under weight. The degraded tissue was then removed and grouting was carried out. The pictorial retouching was done 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 spacer has been set up to reduce the pressure of the closing panel on the miniature, the constraint screws have been replaced and Teflon shock-absorbing clamps have been inserted along the inner perimeter of the glass plate.

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.