22-mc08b-TE-2012_Moncalieri, Castello, P. D. Olivero, Pastoral scene (overlaps), inv. 252

Facilitated description: 

 

Pastoral Scene is a painting on canvas. 
The painting is an overdoor (a painting that is placed above the doors). 
The painting is kept at the Castle of Moncalieri. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre has restored the painting in 2012. 
Scientists at the Venaria Center did scientific analysis to understand how the painting was made. 
The restorers cleaned the frame (wooden structure that stands behind the painting and serves to support the painting). 
They rounded the corners of the frame. 
They removed the nails and repaired the holes in the canvas. 
They removed the folds from the canvas. 
After the restorers cleaned in front of the painting. 
They got rid of the yellow paint. 
They filled the colorless parts with a layer of putty (plaster and glue). 
Eventually they painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention: 

Restoration

The restoration of the two overhangs of the Castle of Moncalieri was preceded by a multispectral analysis campaign in order to find information on the state of conservation and the execution technique of the work. It was first realized a series of shots in ultraviolet fluorescence, which have highlighted the presence of previous interventions, and then an infrared detection and its processing in false color to read the pictorial conduction and the conservative conditions of the canvas. 

The intervention began with the cleaning of the frame, still in good condition and the chamfering of the corners of the rules against the support canvas. Subsequently, the deformations and lacerations near the edges were recovered with localized interventions: some nails have been removed and inserts in synthetic canvas have been applied on the back of the original canvas. The freed edge was then re-tensioned to mitigate the localized flatness defects and a consolidating agent was applied on the lapels of the canvas on the frame. 
At the level of the pictorial film, the paint and the gray patina have been selectively removed. Some of the pre-existing groutings have been maintained and adapted to the texture of the original stucco surface. It was then made a preliminary painting and the pictorial reintegration of abrasions and plastering with watercolor colors and retouching paint. Finally, a protective paint was sprayed.