13-TE-2008_Moncalieri, Castello, Equestrian portrait of Carlo Giovanni Amedeo di Savoia, inv. 300

Facilitated description:

 

The equestrian portrait of Carlo Giovanni Amedeo di Savoia is a painting on canvas made during the 1600s.
The painting represents Carlo Giovanni 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 dismantled the painting from the frame (wooden structure that stands behind the painting and serves to support the painting) to clean behind the painting.
They repaired the unskinned parts of the canvas.  
They mounted the painting on a new frame. 
The restorers also worked on the front of the painting. 
They cleaned the painting from old restoration paintings. 
They filled the color gaps with putty (plaster and glue layer). 
They colored the putty with watercolors.
They painted the paint to protect it from the sun's rays and dust.
In the end the restorers cleaned the frame.
They painted the wooden parts without color.
They painted the frame 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 characters from the House of Savoy.
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.
The operations began with the removal of the work from the frame, patches, perimeter bands and glue residues from previous restorations. A cleaning of the support with soft sponges and brushes was followed and a product was applied to the back of the painting to make the fibers less hygroscopic. We then proceeded with consolidations in the weakest parts of the fabric, the addition of perimeter ties and the replacement of the frame with an expansion one. 
Paint residues and repaintings were removed on the pictorial film (during this phase the original profiles of the figures partially modified by the old retouches were redefined). Subsequently, suitable grouting was adjusted and non-relevant grouting was removed. Two varnishes were then carried out and the chromatic re-itegration with watercolor and varnish colors to mitigate the disturbance caused by the exposed brown preparation.
Finally, on the frame, not original, a cleaning of the front was performed to eliminate the protective and the verse. The plastering and the chromantic reintegration and the painting were then carried out.