14-TA-2022_Saronno, Prepositural Church SS. Peter and Paul, G. Ferrari, God the Father surrounded by four angels

Facilitated description: 

 

God the Father surrounded by four angels is a painting on canvas. 
The painter Gaudenzio Ferrari painted the painting in 1540-1545. 
The painting is kept in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Saronno. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2022. 
The painting first rested on a wooden board. In 1932 the restorer Mario Pellicioli detached the painting layer from the wooden board because it was ruined and attached the painting layer on a canvas. 
The restorers of the Venaria Center studied the painting and made scientific analyses to understand how it was made before being detached from the wooden board. 
The restorers cleaned the painting from the yellowed paint and paintings made during Pellicioli's restoration. 
They have eliminated the ruined grouting (plaster and glue layer used to fill the color gaps) of the old restoration. 
They kept the groutings made by Pellicioli still well preserved. 
They filled the color gaps with putty (plaster and glue). 
They colored the putty with watercolors and paints. 
Eventually they painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

Restauro

Restoration on the painting God the Father surrounded by four angels is a particularly complex case of intervention on a painting on a table transposed on canvas. The painting, in fact, today has a non-original format and support, due to complicated conservative events that developed during the 1900s. In particular, the restorer Mauro Pellicioli carried out the color transport operations in 1932 due to the serious conditions of conservation of the wooden support.
The study of the work and the in-depth diagnostic campaign (infrared in false color, infrared, digital radiography, UV analysis, transillumination) have allowed to deepen the knowledge of the painting. In addition, documentary sources and traces of original materials beneath the grouting allowed us to understand how the ancient plank was made. 
The operation began with a cleaning of dust deposits. Thus emerged the dark varnish with yellow-golden tones and the numerous repaintings related to previous restorations. It was therefore decided to eliminate the yellowed paint and the repaintings altered or superimposed on the original material by recovering the chromatic tones of the background and the incarnates. The areas affected by large gaps, stuccoed and integrated by Pellicioli, were maintained and subsequently chromatically tuned.
The gaps, which emerged after cleaning, were grouted in imitation of the surface and replenished with watercolors. 
A first painting was then carried out on the work to uniform the surface. The chromatic integration with paint colours was perfected and a protective varnish was sprayed.