D06mc02/03-TA-2016_Milano, Pinacoteca di Brera, M. d'Oggiono, Study and restoration of 2 paintings on wood from the Polyptych of Maleo

Facilitated description: 

 

Saint Francis and Bona Bevilacqua Trivulzio (or Antonia Pallavicini) e OAntonio da Padova and Giulia Trivulzio (or Lucia Bevilacqua) are two paintings on wooden board. 
The paintings were part of a single large work, the polyptych Maleo, consisting of 10 paintings.
The painter Marco d'Oggiono painted the paintings in 1517-1518.
The two paintings are kept at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. 
A student at the Centro Conservazione e Restauro La Venaria Reale restored the paintings in 2016 for her thesis (final exam). 
During the study, the student proposed new identifications for the characters represented. For this reason, there are names in parentheses in the title. 
The restorer stopped the parts of color that were coming off. 
It eliminated the velinatura (very thin paper that is put on top of the painting to protect the detached parts of color) of the previous restoration.
He cleaned the painting of dust and yellowed paint. 
The restorer eliminated the paintings of the restoration done in 1800 because they hid some parts. 
Filled the missing color parts with putty (plaster and glue layer). 
He painted the stucco with watercolors. 
At the beginning the painting was of a centinated format (with the high curved part) and not rectangular. 
The restorer has inserted a frame part to cover the top part of rectangular shape and show the painting in the centinated format.
He placed the painting in an anoxic chamber (room without oxygen) to eliminate wood-eating insects. 
He painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 
In the end he filled the parts without gilding of the frame. 

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention:
 

The two panels by Marco d'Oggiono have been restored as part of a thesis project of the master's degree course in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage entitled Two paintings on panel by Marco d'Oggiono of the Pinacoteca di Brera: restoration as an opportunity for interdisciplinary research and new knowledge, Elena d'Elia, Prof. Paola Buscaglia, academic year 2017-2018. The two paintings on wood were originally part of a polyptych - Polyptych of Maleo - ten tables made for the Franciscan convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie near Maleo (LO). The works, now kept at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, constitute two of the five still known compartments of the polyptych: of the other five tables have been lost since the mid-nineteenth century and their location is still unknown today. The tables subject to restoration are:
- Saint Francis and Bona Bevilacqua Trivulzio (or Antonia Pallavicini), inv.270 
- SAntonio da Padova and Giulia Trivulzio (or Lucia Bevilacqua), inv. 269

The research initially focused on the study of the circumstances surrounding the commissioning and the contextualisation of the polyptych within d’Oggiono’s artistic production. The interdisciplinarity of the work approach (historical-artistic, genealogical study, history of customs, diagnostic investigations) has led to the hypothesis of a new iconographic attribution of the two devotees depicted, proposed in the formulation of updated titles. The technique of execution has also been investigated, placing it in relation to other paintings of the Polyptych of Maleo and with other works by the same artist, and the state of conservation, strongly characterized by the interventions suffered in the nineteenth century in view of the exhibition of paintings in the Pinacoteca di Brera.

Restoration

The intervention began with the consolidation of the raising of the pictorial film and the removal of the velinature of the previous restoration. We then proceeded with the surface cleaning and removal of the protective film, now yellowed, of brown residues and nineteenth-century repaintings, which in the case of the table Saint Francis and Bona Bevilacqua Trivulzio (or Antonia Pallavicini) They concealed the presence of a cloud and generally covered the original preparation. Passepartouts were then created to be tied to the frames to cover the centinata portion, in order to refer to the original exhibition will. Cleaning and consolidation work was carried out on the verses. In the final phase, punctual stuccoing interventions, watercolor pictorial retouching were carried out to restore the chromatic reading as a whole and a preventive anoxic treatment. Finally, a protective was spread over the entire surface and gouache gilding was carried out in correspondence with the gaps of the gilding of the frames. 

 

Bibliography 

E. D'Elia, Two paintings on panel by Marco D'Oggiono of the Pinacoteca di Brera: restoration as an opportunity for interdisciplinary research and new knowledge, Master’s thesis on the conservation and restoration of cultural heritage, Prof. Paola Buscaglia, Prof. Alessandro Morandotti, University of Turin, academic year 2017-2018.