18-TE-2009_Venaria Reale, Royal Palace, Portrait of the Marquis Carron of San Tomaso, inv. R 8101 (ownership of Racconigi Castle)

Facilitated description: 

 

The portrait of Marquis Carron of St. Thomas is a painting on canvas. 
The painting was made during the 1600s. 
The painting is kept at the Reggia di Venaria. 
Scientists at the Venaria Center did scientific analysis and saw that some parts had been painted during an old restoration. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2009. 
The restorers cleaned the frame (wooden structure that stands behind the painting and serves to support the painting).
Then they cleaned the front of the painting. 
They eliminated the yellowed paint and paintings from the old restoration. 
They left on the painting only the oldest paintings.
The restorers painted the ruined parts with watercolors and paint colors.
In the end they cleaned and gilded the frame.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

The painting, owned by the Castello di Racconigi (Residenze Royali Sabaude - Regional Directorate of Piedmont National Museums), was granted to the Reggia di Venaria to be exhibited in the permanent visit path.

Restoration

The work started on the frame by removing the sedimentation of atmospheric particles inconsistent with the use of micro-aspirators and adding the missing wooden wedges for the uniform expansion of the joints. Textile support has also been cleaned of organic deposits and sedimentation. Thanks to ultraviolet investigations it was possible to conduct a targeted cleaning of the pictorial surface and it was possible to identify the areas affected by repainting. The inconsistent and consistent deposits with brushes and micro-aspirator were then removed and the yellowed protective layer was thinned. During this phase, the presence of a large repainting intervention (the upper half of the embroidered lapel, the projected shadow of the nose and the right eyebrow) was noted. These are ancient repaintings, lightened during cleaning, but not removed.
Subsequently, the altered protein layer was removed, probably dating back to previous consolidation interventions. Thus emerged decorations and floral motifs of black color on the toga.
The pictorial re-itegration was performed with a watercolor base, brought to tone with veils of paint colors. In the areas affected by abrasions and micro-consumptions, a mimetic retouching was performed with pigments bonded with paints.
On the frame was carried out a consolidation and cleaning of the surface (removal of deposits and altered protective). Subsequently the gaps were stuccoed, the surface was treated with bolus and the gouache gold foil was applied.