20mc06-AL-2010_Nichelino, Stupinigi Hunting Lodge, Chinese Fan, inv. 3220

Facilitated description:

 

The fan is a painted wooden furniture that is used to hang candles on the wall.
The fan represents a man who plays. The scene is set in China.
The fan was made after 1750.
The fan is kept at the Hunting Palace of Stupinigi.
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the fan in 2010.
The students of the restoration course participated in the project.
During the restoration they saw that some pieces were lost. For example, one of the two chopsticks held by the man was lost.
Eventually, the students supplemented (filled) gaps (holes) caused by wood-feeding insects and color deficiencies.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restoration

The restoration of the 6 Chinese fans of the Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi was part of an educational project carried out by the students of the third and fourth years of the interfaculty degree course in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage during the course "History and execution techniques: wooden furniture", lecturer Claudia Lombardi. On the works was also conducted a thesis work entitled The taste for "China" furniture between the reign of Vittorio Amedeo II and Vittorio Amedeo III (1713 -1796): scientific analysis of the materials used and of the executive techniques, with reference to some fans preserved at the Stupinigi hunting lodge, Jacopo D'Amico. 
During the restoration were found the loss of part of the leaves of the frame on the left side and one of the two sticks held in the hand by the figure. In addition, holes have been identified from flickering, loss of pictorial film, cracks in the joints of the candle holders, stains on the background and embarkation of the support.
 

Bibliography

E. Ballaira, Paper 37, in Genius and mastery. Furniture and cabinetmakers at the Savoy court between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (catalogue), Allemandi, Turin, 2018, p. 250.