87-AL-2020_Nichelino, Stupinigi Hunting Lodge, J.A.E. Getting, Napoleonic Gala Sedan

Facilitated description:

 

The Gala Sedan is a type of carriage.
The carriage is owned by the hunting lodge of Stupinigi.
Jean-Ernest-Auguste Getting built this carriage between 1805 and 1810 for the court of Napoleon (historical character, Emperor of France).
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the carriage between 2020 and 2021 because it was to be exhibited at the Reggia di Venaria for the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's death.
This restoration was carried out by the restorers of various workshops (wooden furniture workshop, textiles workshop, ceramic and glass metals workshop) because the work is made of different materials: wood, metal, fabric, leather, glass.
The scientific laboratories of the Restoration Centre carried out analyses to learn more about the work and to study the various coats of arms on the doors, front and back of the carriage.
These studies made it possible to see three coats of arms, one on top of the other: the oldest below all seems to be the coat of arms of Napoleon, the second was painted above the first and depicts the coat of arms of Maria Luigia, Napoleon's second wife, and the third, the visible one, is the coat of arms of Napoleon, painted when the carriage is sold.
The carriage was repainted many times and had many owners.
In 1955 the carriage arrived in Stupinigi to be exhibited in the museum, in fact, the coats of arms of the Duchess Maria Luigia were covered in the mid-1900s with new coats of arms reminiscent of the original ones of Napoleon.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

Restoration activities

 

The Napoleonic Gala Sedan built by the Parisian coachbuilder Jean-Ernest-Auguste Getting (1766-1846) between 1805 and 1810 is owned by the Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi and was restored in 2021 on the occasion of the exhibition organised by the Reggia di Venaria to mark the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s death.

The restoration of Stupinigi's carriage was financed by the Consorzio delle Residenze Reali Sabaude and involved a team restorers of wooden furnishings, textiles and metal artefacts, diagnosticians and art historians who have applied an analysis protocol to learn more about the work. The archival sources and the detailed bibliography indicated a stratification of the coats of arms on the carriage. The visible pictorial material, representing the imperial Napoleonic coat of arms not original (as repainted) denounced in fact inhomogeneity that suggested underlying layers. Thanks to the use of infrared reflectographs, it was possible to analyze the deepest level, without affecting the repainted surface; The coat of arms of Maria Luigia of Austria, Duchess of Parma (1814-1847), thus following the fall of the Napoleonic Empire, clearly emerged below the imperial weapon.
Subsequently, by means of stratigraphic micro-reliefs, a large abraded area was documented, below the coat of arms of Maria Luigia, with small portions of colour that make it possible to affirm the presence of a further representation, currently unidentifiable, but which could reveal the original Napoleonic symbols and weapons. On the other hand, the brand of the coachbuilder Getting, documented for supplying gala carriages between 1805 and 1810, is stamped at different points of the structure. In general, the entire surface of the carriage had undergone over time maintenance and color variations, the result of painting performed to uniform the signs of engravings, abrasions and color drops. On the cabin, now painted in black, traces of an intense blue coloring emerged, while the green of the wheels and the train was originally supposed to appear in light blue shades. The most superficial imperial coat of arms, executed for market needs at the time of sale in the mid-nineteenth century, was certainly still integrated at the time of the restoration of the carriage in May 1955, before the passage to the Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi.
The current restoration has for the first time dealt scientifically with the study of the carriage and the choice has been to keep track of the succession of all phases of the work: from the first decorative version to the museumization as a Napoleonic heirloom in Stupinigi.