15mc01-CF-2020_Turin, Museo Civico d’Arte Antica – Palazzo Madama, G. B Boucheron, Self-portrait, inv. 27-D

Facilitated description: 

 

Boucheron's self-portrait is a pastel drawing on paper. Giovanni Battista Bucheron made his self-portrait in 1790.
The drawing is kept at the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica in Turin (Palazzo Madama).
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2020.
The restorers dismantled the frame and separated the work from the background cardboard.
Then they removed the cardboard remains and dried the work with thermocautery (tool with a hot tip).
They stretched out the folds and cleaned the disrespect and the glass of the frame.
The work was mounted on a new base and protected with cardboard.
The frame has been inserted in an anoxic chamber, a chamber without oxygen that serves to eliminate insects that feed on wood.

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Maintenance

The extraordinary maintenance work requested on the occasion of exhibition APrecious rgenti. The work of the Piedmontese silversmiths in the collections of Palazzo Madama (Palazzo Madama, 2 July to 15 November 2020) The aim was to restore the flatness of the work and to carry out a new conservative assembly within the original frame. The operations began with the dismantling of the frame assembly system and the detachment of the work from the dry bottom cardboard by means of scalpels. The cardboard deposits on the work were then removed and drying was carried out using thermocautery. Subsequently, an underweight levelling was done to stretch the angular undulations and the central fold, the crystal was cleaned and the cardboard strips were removed. This was followed by dry cleaning of the inconsistent surface deposits on the front of the work with an air pump and light dusting with a brush, while on the back the cleaning was carried out using make-up sponges.
For mounting in the frame, a support base in ivory-colored Ingres paper was made to which the design was adhered through strips of Japanese paper. To protect the new base, conservative cardboard and a final layer of grey Archival board were used, to which the inventory label was re-adheded. Inside the frame, small conservative cardboard rails were inserted between the crystal and the work so that the work was spaced away from the glass. 
In parallel with the intervention on the graphic work, an anoxic bubble disinfection and frame consolidation was carried out by the Canvas and Tables Restoration Laboratory.