25mc57-TA-2014_Turin, Galleria Sabauda, G. Bugiardini, Sacra famiglia con san Giovannino, inv. 253

Facilitated description:

 

Holy Family with St. John is a painting on a wooden table. 
The painting represents Mary, baby Jesus and on the left kneeling the little St. John. 
Giuliano Bugiardini painted the painting in the early 1500s. 
The painting is kept at the Galleria Sabauda in Turin. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2014. 
The restorers placed the painting in the anoxic chamber, a special oxygen-free chamber that serves to eliminate wood-eating insects. 
They glued the parts that were peeling off with glue and thermocautery (a tool with a hot tip).
Afterwards they cleaned the painting of the yellowed paint and the paintings of the old restorations. 
They filled the missing parts of color with putty (plaster and glue layer). 
They painted the stucco with watercolors. 
Then they reinforced the frame and put the gold leaf in the parts without gilding. 
They reconstructed some missing frame parts. 
In the end they painted the frame to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 

 

 

 

 

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. 

Restoration

The intervention began with the disinfestation in anoxic chamber and the consolidation of the preparatory layers with localized injections of adhesive and thermocautery. Incoherent greasy dirt, altered paint and touch-ups from previous restorations were then removed. Subsequently the surface was protected with aliphatic resin and grouting was carried out, then lowered in tone with watercolor colors. The pictorial reintegration for abrasions and small stains was done with paint colors.
Given the good state of conservation of the support, no conservative interventions have been implemented, but only a superficial cleaning from incoherent dirt. Permethrin was spread on the back of the table and on the frame to prevent symptomatic attacks.
Finally, the following steps were performed on the frame: consolidation of the preparation and gilding scales, cleaning of the surface, filling of the gaps, reconstruction of the missing carving portions, reintegration with gouache gold leaf on a brown bolus layer, application of protective, insertion of adhesive strip on the internal support to preserve the painting from rubbing.