25mc58-TA-2014_Turin, Galleria Sabauda, H. Van Steenwyck, Interior of the Catholic Church, inv. 31

Facilitated description: 

 

Interior of Catholic church is a painting on wooden board by the painter Hendrik Steenwyck. 
The painting depicts the interior of a church. 
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 an anoxic chamber, an oxygen-free chamber used to eliminate wood-eating insects.
The restorers dismantled the painting from the frame and cleaned the painting from the yellowed paint. 
They filled the colorless parts with a layer of putty (plaster and glue).
They painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 
Afterwards they restored the frame.
They glued the gilding parts that were peeling off.
They put gold leaf in the parts without gilding. 
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

Intervention on the table Interior of the church, 318 by Van Steenwyck began with a disinfestation in the anoxic chamber and disassembly from the frame. A cleaning was followed for the removal of the altered vein and brown resin. The gaps of preparation and pictorial film were filled with stucco and retouched with watercolor. The pictorial reintegration has been perfected with paint colors on abrasions and small stains. Finally, a protective resin was sprayed. 
On the frame the scales of preparation and gilding have been consolidated and the gaps have been stuccoed. The reintegration of the deficiencies and abrasions was performed with the application of gouache gold leaf on a layer of bolus and a protective varnish was applied. Finally, a strip of Teflon was applied to the support pad to protect against rubbing.