51-TA-2022_Turin, Pinacoteca dell'Accademia Albertina, P. Brueghel (copy from), Parable of the Blind

Facilitated description: 

 

The Parable of the Blind is a wooden panel painting made in the early 1600s. 
The painting is kept at the Pinacoteca dell'Accademia Albertina in Turin. 
The Centre for Conservation and Restoration "La Venaria Reale" restored the painting in 2022 for an exhibition. 
The restorers stopped all the detached parts of color and wood. 
They cleaned the painting and the frame of the dust. 
They filled the wooden parts and missing paint with putty (plaster and glue). 
They gilded the stucco of the frame with gold leaf and watercolors. 
In the end they painted the painting and the frame to protect them from the sun's rays and dust. 
 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention: 

 

Maintenance

Extraordinary maintenance on the painting Parable of the Blind and on its frame were carried out on the occasion of the exhibition of the work on display The Beauty of Reason (House of Illegio Exhibitions, 15 May-16 October 2022). The goal was therefore to secure the falls of color and preparation for transport. 
The surfaces of the painting and the frame have been dusted with soft brushes. Subsequently, the consolidation and stoppage of the numerous lifts and detachments present more in the frame, near the edges of the gaps and along the horizontal cracking of the table were carried out. The shortcomings were plastered and then retouched with watercolor colors. On the largest gaps, gouache gold leaf was applied on bolus, while on the smaller ones, watercolor supplementation was carried out. A layer of acrylic paint was applied to the entire frame. Finally, the painting was aligned within the frame and the two wooden elements pressing on the lower edge were removed.