9-TE-2008_Moncalieri, Castello, Equestrian portrait of Amedeo VII, inv. 296

Facilitated description:

 

Equestrian Portrait of Amadeus VII (seventh) is a painting on canvas made during the 1600s.
The painting represents Amedeo on horseback.
The painting is kept at the Castle of Moncalieri. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2008. 
Scientists at the Venaria Center did scientific analysis to see how the painting was made and where the restorations of the past are. 
The restorers cleaned up behind the painting.
They dismantled the painting from the frame (wooden structure that stands behind the painting and serves to support the painting).
They repaired the unwrapped canvas parts. 
They mounted the paint on a new frame. 
The restorers also worked on the front of the painting. 
They cleaned the painting from the yellowed paint and old restoration paintings. 
They reinforced the parts of color that were peeling off. 
They filled the color gaps with putty (plaster and glue layer). 
They colored the putty with watercolors.
In the end they painted the paint to protect it from the sun's rays and dust.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration

The painting is part of a series of portraits of the Savoy dynasty.
The intervention was preceded by a diagnostic campaign aimed at deepening the knowledge of the state of conservation, the executive technique and the presence of previous restoration interventions.
Operations have been planned on the support and on the pictorial film. Initially it was carried out the mechanical cleaning of the verse and the removal of the strips of paper applied during previous interventions. On the back of the support, thermoplastic adhesive and mordant were applied and the edges were smoothed out. After disassembling the frame, the weft and warp interruptions were compensated and the canvas was re-tensioned on a new expansion frame. 
On the pictorial film was carried out a cleaning with removal of the paint (on the figure it was decided to make only a thinning of the paint given the poor state of preservation of the original layer in particular of blacks and browns) and the repainting of the background. The unsuitable grouts were then removed and consolidation was carried out along the edges and in the areas with crettatura. Finally, the fillings of the gaps, the chromatic integration with watercolor colors and the final painting were carried out.