25mc18-TA-2014_Turin, Galleria Sabauda, L. Da Verona, Madonna with child and Saint Catherine, inv. 199

Facilitated description:

 

The Madonna and Child with Saint Catherine is a painting on a wooden table. 
Liberale da Verona painted the painting between 1480-1490. 
The painting is kept at the Galleria Sabauda in Turin. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2014. 
Scientists at the Venaria Center did scientific analysis to study drawing under painting. 
The restorers placed the painting in the anoxic chamber, an oxygen-free chamber that serves to eliminate wood-eating insects. 
Then they cleaned the painting from the yellowed paint and glued the parts that were peeling off. 
They eliminated the parts painted during the old restorations. 
They filled the colorless parts with a layer of putty (plaster and glue). 
They painted the putty with watercolors and paints. 
Behind the painting they put a product against insects that eat wood. 
The restorers painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 
Then they cleaned the frame and rebuilt some missing decorations- 
They filled the holes in the wood with stucco. 
They've gilded the putty. 
In the end they put an adhesive strip so as not to ruin the painting and the frame at the point where they touch.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

The panel was the subject of conservation and restoration work on the occasion of the setting up of the Galleria Sabauda at the new headquarters in the Manica Nuova of the Palazzo Reale in Turin (2014). The restoration was accompanied by a multispectral diagnostic campaign and photographic documentation to investigate some of the technical characteristics of the work. Traces of the preparatory design have emerged through infrared reflectography.

Restoration

The intervention began with the disinfestation in the anoxic chamber, then proceeded to the removal of the altered paints. It was then carried out a review of the stability of the preparatory layers on which we intervened with localized injections of adhesive and heat supply with thermocautery. Removal of paint retouches and resins followed, while small tenacious retouches presumably with oil were kept in the gaps with loss of preparation.
The verse of the painting has been treated with antitarlo and the two crossbars have been consolidated and made more flowing. The gaps were grouted and the pictorial integration of the pictorial surface was performed with watercolor colors to lower the tones of the new plasterings and with paint colors for the adaptation of abrasions and small stains. Finally, a protective varnish was applied. 
On the support, given the good state of preservation, only adhesive teflon has been applied to the sleepers to facilitate sliding. Permethrin was spread on the back of the table and on the frame as a preventive solution to entomatic attacks.
On the frame was made puitura from deposits and additions in purple dating back to previous restorations. In addition, the preparatory layers have been consolidated and two portions of tablet decoration have been reconstructed through casting. The gaps were plastered and reintegrated in gouache with gold leaf on a layer of brown bolus. Finally, an adhesive strip was applied to the bar to prevent rubbing.