05-TE-2012_Padua, Civic Museums - Museum of Medieval and Modern Art, J. Robusti (Tintoretto), Crucifixion

Facilitated description: 

 

The Crucifixion is a large painting on canvas made by Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto) during the 1500s.
The painting depicts Jesus on the cross between the two thieves and below the women, John and the crowd.
The painting is kept in the Civic Museums of Padua.
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the painting in 2012.
Scientists at the Venaria Center did scientific analysis to see Tintoretto's working method.
Scientists have discovered changes in the construction of the scene, for example the two thieves at the beginning were drawn further back.
After the restoration, the painting was exhibited at the Reggia di Venaria.
The restorers cleaned the painting of dust.
They eliminated the ruined paint of the old restorations and the yellowed paint.
They removed the canvas that covered the back of the painting.
They filled the color gaps with a layer of putty (plaster and glue).
They colored the putty by making small stripes with paint.
Eventually they painted the painting to protect it from the sun's rays and dust.

 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention: 

 

The restoration of the Crucifixion by Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto) is part of a series of interventions carried out on the works of the Civic Museums of Padua by the "La Venaria Reale" Conservation and Restoration Centre, which began with the large canvas by Palma il Giovane (2006-2008) and continued with the construction site in situ of the Altarpiece of Santa Giustina the Romanino and with the table of the Saints Agatha, Francis and Jerome by Jacopo Parisiati from Montagnana.
The painting was the subject of an interdisciplinary research project, involving the collaboration of historians, restorers, diagnosticians and an in-depth diagnostic campaign of multispectral and micro-stratigraphic investigations, useful for the development of the intervention methodology and for and identification of the restoration substances introduced during previous interventions. In particular, the data that emerged from the digital radiography, cross-checked with those of the JRC’s multispectral surveys and those conducted by the Department of Visual Arts of the University of Bergamo on Tintoretto’s works of contemporary dating, made it possible to confirm and clarify the chronology and to improve knowledge of the subject. modus operandi of the artist. In addition, the X-ray revealed several changes in composition and in the position and size of the characters (e.g. the two thieves in a more backward position than the current one), while fluorescence x and spectrometry made it possible to identify the stratigraphic sections and the different use of the pigments.

The restoration work ended with a special set-up at the Sacristy of the Chapel of Sant’Uberto della Reggia di Venaria, replicated in the second half of October also in Padua, accompanied by illustrative apparatus and in-depth videos on the work, on the restoration and diagnostic work. The research resulting from this project came together in a conference organised by the JRC Documentation Centre (11 October 2012), the proceedings of which were then published. 

Among the main restoration interventions are the cleaning, the removal of touches, inconsistent materials and lining referable to restorations and the aesthetic readjustment, operated with different techniques based on the types of degradation of the painting.

 

Bibliography

- Crucifixion of Tintoretto. The intervention on the painting of the Civic Museums of Padua (acts of the study day), edited by S. Abrama, Turin, Editris, 2013; 
- A. Gatti, La Crucifixion by Tintoretto of the Civic Museums of Padua: new data on the executive technique and on the constituent materials, in La giovinezza di Tintoretto (acts of the 2015 Venice conference), curated by Guillaume Cassegrain ... [et al.], Venice, Lineadacqua, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 2017;
- E. Biondi, T. Cavaleri, M. Cardinali, A. Gatti, A. Giovagnoli, A painting by Tintoretto at the "La Venaria Reale" Conservation and Restoration Centre: diagnostics at the service of art, in State of the art 11 (volume of the Acts - XI National Congress IGIIC, Bologna, Academy of Fine Arts, 10-12 October 2013), Florence, 2013, pp.201-209;