59mc02-DG-2008_Turin, Galleria Sabauda, P. Caliari (Veronese), Moses saved from the waters, inv. 458

Facilitated description: 
 

Moses saved from the waters is a large painting on canvas. 
The painter Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese, painted the painting towards the end of the 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. 
The scientists saw some small changes in the scene under the painting layer (position of the Pharaoh's daughter's face in the center with the white coat).
Scientists studied the colors used by the artist.
They studied the upper part of the painting where there is a strip of canvas added in later years to enlarge the painting. 

 

 

 

 

Abstract intervention: 

 

Scientific Analysis

The painting Moses Saved from the Waters 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).
On the painting, in addition to 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 did not highlight the presence of a drawing, but of some lines of refreshment and some rethinking (position of the face of the Pharaoh's daughter).
Infrared in false-color allowed the identification of the pictorial palette used by the artist, in particular made evident the widening strip at the top of the painting. 
The analysis in ultraviolet fluorescence, on the other hand, made it possible to observe the strong inhomogeneity of the paint.
Finally, the radiographic analysis made it possible to detect some chromatic regrets on the face of the Pharaoh's daughter and on that of the woman behind. 

 

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.