05-MT-2010_Milano, Villa Necchi Campiglio (FAI), Ushak Holbein carpet with small designs

Facilitated description:

 

Ushak Holbein carpet is a wool carpet with geometric designs and coming from the village Ushak in Turkey. 
The carpet was made during the 1500s. 
The carpet is kept at Villa Necchi Campiglio in Milan. 
Villa Necchi Campiglio is an asset of the Italian Environment Fund. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2010-2011.
One of the restoration students followed the sculpture project for his thesis (final exam).
The restorers cleaned the carpet of dust. 
He put the carpet in the anoxic chamber, an oxygen-free chamber used to eliminate insects. 
He eliminated a net that stood behind the carpet and put it during an old restoration. 
The restorer sewed a linen cloth behind the carpet to reinforce the carpet. 
In the end he sewed the torn parts to the linen cloth.

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

The restoration of the Ushak Holbein carpet of Villa Necchi, commissioned by the FAI of Milan, was carried out as part of an ordinary teaching project that involved the students of the third year of the degree course in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage. The carpet, which arrived at the Centre in 2009, was subjected to treatment against a biological attack. During 2010 it was the subject of study and intervention by the students and was developed into a thesis project. The restoration was then completed by the staff of the Centre.

Restoration

The main objectives of the intervention were the restoration of the material unity and improvement of the aesthetic reading. The carpet was then cleaned by means of controlled suction. Subsequently, the net applied to the back was removed as protection during an extraordinary maintenance intervention (washing of 2008). During this phase two types of parasites were found, therefore a disinfestation treatment in anoxia was carried out. After having equipped the work with a linen support, anchored with silk yarn threads, the consolidation was carried out acting in a differentiated way depending on the size of the gaps. In this way it was possible to protect the warps and untied wefts with a semi-integrative restoration at the level of the largest deficiencies.

 

Bibliography

- S. Segimiro, Preliminary investigation of the design phase on the Ushak Holbein Carpet of Villa Necchi Campiglio, Master’s thesis in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, Prof. Azmoun Zahra, academic year 2010-2011.