50-TA-2008_Moncalieri, Castle, Still life with flower basket, inv. 364

Facilitated description:

 

Still life with a basket of flowers is a painting on a wooden table made during the 1600s. 
The painting represents a basket full of flowers and a wreath of flowers. 
The painting is kept at the Castle of Moncalieri. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2008. 
The restoration was also attended by the restoration students.
Scientists at the Venaria Center did scientific analysis to understand how the wooden board is made. 
The restorers dismantled the wooden planks behind the painting. 
They built a softer system behind the painting.
Then they cleaned in front of the painting and eliminated the yellowed paint. 
They filled the missing color parts with putty (plaster and glue layer).
They painted the putty. 
Eventually they painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration

The diagnostic campaign, which preceded the intervention, made it possible to understand the method of assembly of the table (radiography). Preliminary work on the study and protection of the pictorial film, intended to rehabilitate the support, was carried out as part of an educational project promoted by the Venaria Centre. 
The operations on the support involved the dismantling of the transoms and temporary patches on the back and the development of a containment system of the structure with elastic constraints to facilitate the natural movements of the wood. 
On the pictorial film first the problems of adhesion were solved. Subsequently, the surface was cleaned with solvents suitable for eliminating the oxidized and yellowed protective, the oldest portions of paint, the overflowing repainting and grouting. The gaps were filled with new plastering in imitation of the surface and the pictorial integration was carried out with a differentiated method with watercolor colors, then intoned with paint colors. Finally, a final protective was applied first by brush and then by spraying.