Completed the restoration of Our Lady of Mercy, a wooden sculpture from the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Camerino, overseen by theOffice of the Special Superintendent for the areas affected by the Aug. 24, 2016,earthquake. The sculpture, made of carved, painted and gilded wood, depicts the Madonna in a frontal position, with her mantle open to protect the community of the faithful, divided into two groups of men and women, members of regular orders and confraternities, genuflected in prayer. The work, probably commissioned by the Da Varano family, lords of Camerino, for their family chapel in the cathedral destroyed in the 1799 earthquake, is attributed by critics to Camerino carver Lucantonio di Giovanni Barberetti.
Executed using the “assembled block” technique, the sculpture combines three large wooden elements glued and fixed with wooden pins before the carving stage. The painted surface, in egg tempera with possible oil glazes, has gouache gilding on red bole and a decorative carving with a Marian symbol at breast height.
The restoration involved both the wooden support and the pictorial layers, involving structural restoration operations, disinfestation, re-adhesion and cleaning of the pictorial films, as well as color retouching aimed at restoring the overall legibility of the image. The investigations revealed that part of the polychromy was derived from later interventions, in some cases intentional, in others the result of undocumented restorations dating back to the second half of the 20th century. The consolidation phases proved particularly delicate in the areas most compromised by woodworm, where larval galleries had to be filled in to ensure adequate mechanical strength and prevent new subsidence. In order to restore volumetric continuity to the modeling, semi-structural stucco work was also carried out in the eroded areas, while the pictorial layers were consolidated and re-added.
Cleaning, performed with a selective and differentiated method, removed yellowed paints and altered retouches, rebalancing the intervention level of the 20th-century restoration. Given the complexity of the pictorial layering and the almost total loss of the original polychromy, it was decided to limit the removal to the most recent retouches, refining the cleaning in the original parts already partially freed.
The intervention also represented an important opportunity for in-depth technical-scientific study and investigation, with multispectral analysis and identification of the wooden essences, allowing reconstruction of the conservation history and execution techniques of the work.
The project is among the interventions planned with the support of funds raised through Art Bonus for the Earthquake.
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| Carved and painted wooden Madonna of Mercy from Camerino restored |
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