31-DG-2020_Antagnod (AO), Parish Church, A. De Lonhy (attr.), Virgin assumed, inv. 26780

Facilitated description: 

 

The Virgin (Mary Mother of Jesus) is a painted wood carving.
Antoine De Lonhy together with another sculptor made the Virgin in 1480-1485. 
The Virgin is part of a work that decorated the altar of the collegiate church of Sant'Orso in Aosta. 
Today this work is divided into several museums. 
The Virgin is preserved at the church of Antagnod in Valle d'Aosta. 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the angels in 2020 for an exhibition.
The restorers cleaned the Virgin from the dust and paintings of the old restorations using a laser beam instrument. 
They painted the parts without color. 
They have left many wooden parts exposed because the original color is not preserved.
They finally glued the wrist fracture.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:

 

The intervention was carried out on the occasion of the exhibition The European Renaissance by Antoine de Lonhy (Susa, Museo Diocesano, 10 July - 10 October 2021; Turin, Palazzo Madama, 23 September 2021 – 9 January 2022).
The project linked to the exhibition involved the restoration of several works that originally adorned the main altar of the collegiate church of Sant'Orso, now dispersed in different locations. In particular, the Assumption of the Virgin (Church of Antagnod), a sculptural group of angels (dismembered between the Castle of Issone and Palazzo Madama in Turin) and the predella (Palazzo Madama in Turin) have been restored. In addition, diagnostic studies were carried out on the painted tables (Collegiata di Sant'Orso in Aosta) and on the two wooden sculptures of St. Bear and St. Peter (Cappella di San Rocco in Aosta). 
 
The conservative recovery of the sculpture of the Virgin has allowed comparisons between the constituent elements of the large dismembered altar machine and insights into the executive technique with a view to identifying elements to support the attribution, for the pictorial part, to Antoine de Lonhy. 
The intervention was accompanied by a diagnostic campaign carried out in collaboration with the Scientific Analysis Laboratory of the Autonomous Region of Valle d’Aosta (LAS). The main objective was to understand the executive technique, to identify the superimposed substances, the succession of the pictorial layers and the type of binder used.
The comparison with the other sculptures and the diagnostic campaign allowed to advance the hypothesis of a direct intervention of De Lonhy in the realization of the pictorial treatment of the sculptures.

 

Restoration

Cleaning was one of the main operations of the intervention. In particular, it was carried out in a differentiated way by removing the materials using scalpels and laser technology depending on the characteristics of the material.

The chromatic integration was performed with glazes of the surface abrasions, aimed at a general reorganization of the whole. The additions, made on grouting, were limited to the areas of junction between islands of color at risk of falling and to the areas of the forehead of the Virgin, the back of the hands and the missing eye. Areas with exposed wood were therefore left to respect the real state of conservation of polychrome. 
Finally, the fracture of the support at the wrist was compensated by the application of filler material.

 

Bibliography

- S. Barberi, Sheet 28, in The European Renaissance by Antoine de Lonhy (catalogue), edited by S. Baiocco and V. Natale, Genoa, Sagep, 2021, pp. 304-307;
- P. Buscaglia, S. Cheney, F. Zenucchini, A. Piccirillo, M. Cardinali, L. Appolonia, V. M. Vallet, Antoine De Lonhy and the Assumption of the altarpiece of the Collegiate Church of Saints Peter and Bear in Aosta. Study and criticality of intervention, in 19th IGII National Congress. The State of the Art 19, volume of proceedings (Palazzo Garzolini di Toppo Wassermann, Udine, 16-18 September 2021), Firenze, Nardini, 2021, pp. 41-52.