48-TE-2008_Moncalieri, Castello, Filippo II without land, inv. 673

 

Facilitated description:

 

Filippo senza terra is a painting on canvas made at the end of 1600.
Filippo is a character of the Savoy family.
The painting depicts Philip holding a sword.
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 have eliminated the old restorations and the folds of the canvas.  
They mounted the painting on a new frame. 
The restorers also worked on the front of the painting. 
During the cleaning the restorers discovered paintings made during a previous restoration.
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 of the wood-eating insects.
 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration

The intervention began with the removal of the work from the frame and with the cleaning of the support by means of brushes, rubber and micro aspirators. Remains of glue and patches related to previous restorations were then removed from the canvas. The stuccoes were then thinned, the deformations of the support were eliminated with moisture and consolidations were carried out. Subsequently, bands of perimeter canvas were mounted on the work in view of the definitive tensioning on the new expansion frame. 
Before the cleaning intervention on the pictorial surface, numerous solubility tests were carried out to identify the product suitable for the removal of repainting and grouting. In this phase, two repainting interventions have been discovered: the most recent made with paint colors, spread on previous repaintings and on abrasions of the pictorial film; the oldest made on the pictorial film or on plastering, spread over large portions of original film. The painting was then velinato and, after the removal of the tissue, subjected to a first painting and plastering. Finally, the pictorial integration was carried out with watercolor colors, chromatic intonations with venici and a final painting.
Finally, the frame, not original, was subjected to disinfestation and solvent cleaning to thin the protective layer. They were then made to re-adhere the portions of paper detached by humidification.