24-TE-2019_Milano, Pinacoteca di Brera, T. Viti, Madonna and Child with Saints Crescentino and Donnino, inv. 576

Facilitated description:

 

Madonna and Child with Saints Crescentino and Donnino is a painting. 
Timothy Viti painted the painting in 1501-1503. 
The painting is kept at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2013 and 2019. 
A student from Venaria restored the painting in 2013 for her thesis (final work). 
The restorers of the Venaria Centre completed the restoration in 2019. 
Scientists at the Venaria Center did scientific analysis to study the colors used by the artist and see the drawing below the painting. 
The restorers put the painting in the anoxic chamber (room without oxygen) to eliminate the insects that eat the wood. 
They stopped the parts of color that were peeling off. 
They cleaned the painting of dust. 
They removed stains and worked on the paintings of the old restorations and in the areas with seams.
The restorers painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 
They mounted a canvas behind the painting to protect it from changes in humidity and temperature. 
After they cleaned the frame and filled the missing wooden parts with putty (plaster and glue layer).
In the end they painted the stucco with watercolors. 

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention: 

 

The painting arrived at the Restoration Center in 2013 and was the subject of a thesis work by G. Corrada entitled Interdisciplinary study of the lean tempera painting on canvas Madonna and Child with Saints Crescentino and Donnino, Timoteo Viti. During 2019, it was possible to carry out the final restoration, thanks to the support of the Bruschettini Foundation for Islamic and Asian Art, on the occasion of the exhibition Raphael and the friends of Urbino at the National Gallery of Marche in Urbino.

 

Restoration  

Thanks to the diagnostic campaign that preceded the event it was possible to detect the details of the original design with black and white infrared reflectography, In addition, investigations were conducted to understand the composition of the constituent substances and pigments in collaboration with the University of Turin and the CNR of Pisa.

The restoration began with an intervention in the anoxic chamber and with the consolidation and cleaning of the severely compromised pictorial film. The cleaning was carried out dry and then mechanically. At the end of these operations a protective layer was applied. The chromatic integration was carried out, aimed at limiting the imbalances, due to the stains and gores on which it was not possible to insist with the cleaning. In this phase we also intervened on the seams and on the old altered retouching.
Finally, a varnish was sprayed and a synthetic canvas was applied on the back for protective purposes.
The frame has been cleaned of surface dirt, grouted and integrated with watercolor at the small gaps of gilding.

Bibliography

- G. Corrada, Interdisciplinary study of the lean tempera painting on canvas Madonna and Child with Saints Crescentino and Donnino, Timoteo Viti, Master's thesis, tutor G. Ferraris di Celle, prof.ssa M.B. Failla, University of Turin a.a. 2012-13;
- AAVV, A new instrument for X-ray radiography and tomography of large artworks, Poster in Technart 2013;
- AAVV, MA-XRF analysis of XVI-XVII century Italian paintings and preliminary test for developing a combined MA-XRF/DR apparatus, ACTA IMEKO.