22-mc04-TE-2012_Moncalieri, Castello, A. Gramatica, Madonna and Child with St. Cristina, inv. 136

Facilitated description:

 

Madonna and Child with St. Christina is a painting on canvas. 
The painter Antiveduto Gramatica made the painting in the early 1600s. 
The painting represents the Madonna with Jesus in her arms and Santa Cristina on the right. 
The painting is kept at the Castle of Moncalieri. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2012. 
A restoration student restored the painting for her thesis (final exam).
Scientists did scientific analysis to study how the painting was made. 
The restorers dismantled the painting from the frame. 
They cleaned the painting to get rid of the yellowed paint. 
Behind the painting they removed the canvas patches of the old restorations and glue with a laser beam tool.   
They eliminated the folds of the canvas and repaired the cuts of the canvas. 
After the restorers cleaned the front part of the painting. 
They filled the color gaps with putty (plaster and glue layer). 
They painted the putty with paint colors. 
They painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 
In the end they cleaned the frame and put on the frame a product to eliminate insects that eat wood. 

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention: 

 

Restoration

Restoration of the painting Madonna and Child with St. Christina, inv. 136 was carried out as part of a thesis project.
The intervention began by untying the work from the frame and by cleaning the atmospheric particle deposits with differentiated solutions based on the degree of solubility presented by the various portions of the painting. Subsequently, on the front, the yellowed paint was removed, while on the back, patches that did not have a support function were removed, also using laser equipment to remove adhesive residues. At the same time, plastering and retouching have been eliminated. The recovery of the flatness of the canvas, the stretching of the edges of the textile support, the rapprochement of the edges of the cuts and the consolidation of the painting were then started. The U-shaped cuts were then restored in the lower portion of the painting, on the top of the head of Santa Cristina and at the level of the breast of the Madonna with the contribution of auxiliary thread. Finally, the gaps of the pictorial film in imitation of the surface were grouted with a mixture of plaster and glue. The integration was then carried out with watercolor colors, pigments linked to paint and a protective varnish was sprayed. 
On the frame was carried out a cleaning, a preventive biocidal treatment, the integration of the gaps with plaster and glue and the watercolor chromatic intonation. 

 

Bibliography

- Interdisciplinary study aimed at the restoration of the painting on canvas Madonna and Child with Santa Cristina by Antiveduto Gramatica, from the Castle of Moncalieri (TO), dissertation in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, University of Turin, Prof. Bernardette Ventura, dissertation thesisist Ilaria Negri, academic year 2012-2013; 
- I. Negri, B. Ventura, T. Cavaleri, Nineteenth-century repaintings on a work by Antiveduto Gramatica. Study of historical restorations and reflections on the desirability of their removal, in The State of Art XII Proceedings of the IGIIC National Congress (23-24 October 2014 Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera), pp. 581-588;
- I. Negri, F. Zenucchini, T. Cavaleri, A. Piccirillo, Laser aid for the remediation of a textile support, in Acts of Congress Aplar 5: Laser Applications in Restoration (Città del Vaticano, Vatican Museums, 18-20 September 2014), Saonara 2014, pp. 329-340.