59mc01-DG-2008_Turin, Galleria Sabauda, P. Caliari (Veronese), Dinner at Simone's house, inv. 452

Facilitated description: 
 

The dinner in Simone's house is a large painting on canvas. 
The painter Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese, painted the painting in the mid-1500s. 
The painting is kept at the Galleria Sabauda in Turin. 
Scientists at the Venaria Center did scientific analysis of the painting in 2008. 
In 2008 the painting was transported to the Venaria workshops along with other paintings by Venetian artists.
The paintings were transported to Venaria during the move of the Savoy Gallery to the new location. 
The scientists did analyses with different types of lighting. 
Scientists saw the preparatory drawing under the painting layer and some small changes in the scene (the character's arm on the left with the plate was in another position). 
Scientists have studied the colors used by the artist and the restorations of the past. 

 

 

 

 

Abstract intervention: 

 

Scientific Analysis

The painting Dinner at Simone's house was part of a diasgnostic campaign carried out on 6 works by Venetian masters belonging to the Galleria Sabauda. The paintings, in fact, were in the laboratories of the Conservation and Restoration Center "La Venaria Reale" waiting to be transferred to the New Sleeve of Palazzo Reale, the new headquarters of the Savoy Gallery. The results of the diagnostic campaign and the restoration of two canvases (The Sabine Rat by Francesco da Ponte and Queen of Sheba offers gifts to Solomon Veronese) were presented during the exhibition The Veronese and the Bassano. Great Venetian artists for the Doge's Palace in Turin (Reggia di Venaria, 12 October 2013 - 2 February 2014).
In addition to the shooting in grazing light, multispectral analyses were carried out (black and white infrared, false-color infrared, ultraviolet fluorescence, digital radiography). 
The black and white infrared allowed to identify the preparatory drawing with a brush and the presence of some repentance (man's arm with tray under the columns on the left), while the infrared in false-color allowed the identification of the pictorial palette used by the artist.
Ultraviolet analysis, on the other hand, made it possible to recognize the bluish shade of the paint similar to that of synthetic resins and the presence of retouching and repainting.
Finally, the radiographic analysis made it possible to study the composition of the work and to notice the greater dimensions of the figure with the tray on the left and the head of the Christ.

 

Bibliography

M. Cardinali, P. Buscaglia, M. C. Canepa, V. Parlato, The conservation and restoration interventions, in The Veronese and the Bassano. Great Venetian artists for the Doge's Palace in Turin (catalogue), edited by A. M. Bava, L'artistica, Savigliano, 2013.