14-SL-2005_ Venaria, Reggia, San Quirino - Holy warrior without helmet

Facilitated description:

 

The painted wooden statue of San Quirino was made in the early 1700s.
The statue is preserved at the Reggia di Venaria.
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the statue in 2005-2006 for the reopening of the Reggia di Venaria.
The restorers placed the statue in an anoxic chamber, an oxygen-free chamber used to eliminate wood-eating insects.
They cleaned the statue and filled the wood cracks with wooden tiles and glue.
They reinforced the damaged wooden parts.
Scientists at the Venaria Center did scientific analysis and discovered four layers of painting, made in different eras.
They also discovered the inscription on the base with the name of the saint. The writing was covered with paint.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

The restoration of the wooden sculpture was carried out on the occasion of the exhibitions 8 restorations from "La Venaria Reale". The Conservation and Restoration Centre: a new reality for cultural heritage (Turin, Palazzo Bricherasio, 26 January - 4 February 2007) and The Royal Palace of Venaria Reale and the Savoy. Art, magnificence and history of a European court (Reggia di Venaria, 12 October 2007 - 30 March 2008). 
Thanks to the restoration it was possible to identify with San Quirino, as it was brought to light the writing of the base covered by a repainting of the era.

Restoration

The intervention began with the disinfestation of the wooden statue in anoxic chamber for a period of three weeks. Subsequently, the verse was cleaned with sponges and localized buffering. In the cracks were put inserts in balsa wood and glue and grouting was carried out. For the support parts most damaged by xylophagous attacks, a consolidation with acrylic resin has been made. 
The movable base, which arrived with the work but was not relevant, has been excluded from the restoration work, as it is a later addition (the insertion and junction hole on the upper face does not match the sculpture).
Finally, thanks to the diagnostic campaign it emerged that the sculpture was the subject of four successive repaintings.

 

Bibliography

- S. De Blasi, Scheda, in 8 restorations from "La Venaria Reale". The Conservation and Restoration Centre: a new reality for cultural heritage, catalogue of the exhibition (Turin, Palazzo Bricherasio, 26 January - 4 February 2007), pp. 26-31.
- F. Gualano, Fact Sheets 18.6-187, in The Royal Palace of Venaria Reale and the Savoy. Art, magnificence and history of a European court, curated by E. Castelnuovo, catalogue of the exhibition (Reggia di Venaria, 12 October 2007 - 30 March 2008), p. 293.