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Madonna con Bambino (Madonna Vonwiller)

Technical Details
  • Title
    Madonna con Bambino (Madonna Vonwiller)
  • Author
    Marco d'Oggiono
  • Year
    1525

Marco d’Oggiono (1470ca-1524), originally from the province of Lecco, worked mainly in Milan; a painter with a Lombard background, he entered Leonardo’s circle with an already established experience: he was the author of three copies of the Last Supper and painted mainly religious subjects. Throughout the nineteenth century he was considered a second-rate Leonardo; his reappraisal would come only from the 1930s onward, recognizing his stylistic autonomy. The artist is depicted with three other pupils of Leonardo (Salaino, Cesare da Sesto and Boltraffio) in the Monument to Leonardo in Piazza della Scala.

the painting before restoration
Fig. 1 Marco d’Oggiono, Madonna con Bambino, the painting before restoration

Marco d’Oggiono is among Leonardo’s painters the one whose paintings are preserved the most in the Pinacoteca.
The Madonna and Child, was made at the stage of full artistic maturity after 1520; coming from the Milan Vonwiller collection, it arrived at Brera in 1935 where it remained on display for a long time but is now kept in storage.

The restoration of the Madonna and Child (figs. 1 and 2) was carried out in the Transparent Restoration Workshop from February to October 2019.

Details in diffuse visible light, grazing, IR reflectography, infrared false color and ultraviolet fluorescence (Fig. 3)
Details in diffuse visible light, grazing, IR reflectography, infrared false color and ultraviolet fluorescence (Fig. 3)

Before restoration, the painting was subjected to a thorough photographic and diagnostic campaign (fig. 3) involving diffuse and grazing light photography, macrophotographs and video-microscope photography, infrared reflectography (IRR), infrared false color (IRFC), and ultraviolet fluorescence (UVF).
The results of the campaign and direct observations of the work deepened the knowledge of the technique and state of conservation of the painting, allowing the restoration project to be set up and guide the intervention phases.

Executive technique

The painting is mainly done in oil on panel but the use of water-based or oil-resin binders is not excluded. The panel is set in a non-original molded frame, decorated with pastille and gilded with gouache.
The support is carved from a single board, made of hardwood, with fiber in the vertical direction; the board is prepared, both on the recto and verso, with a light-colored layering, presumably done with chalk and glue, finished on the back with a water-repellent pigment (fig. 4). On the front side, the presence of an imprimitura or chromatic backgrounds made as a base for the subsequent pictorial drafting cannot be ruled out. The composition has been completely changed from an earlier inverted version that is detected with infrared shots: the tracing of an inverted drawing of the Child’s face under the hand of the Madonna can be seen (fig. 5), and pictorial backgrounds traceable to an arm and the feet of the Child can be seen.

The spreading of color is achieved with thin brushstrokes in the light areas, thicker in the background and red robe; the shading is achieved with fine overlapping glazes. The Virgin’s nimbus, Christ’s halo, and the outlines of the robe were made with shell gold (fig. 6).

On the left, the back of the painting (Fig. 4); on the right from above, detail of IR reflectography, the upturned face of the Child is shown (Fig. 5); below, detail of the golden outline in the Virgin's red robe and microscope shot (55x) (Fig. 6)
On the left, the back of the painting (Fig. 4); on the right from above, detail of IR reflectography, the upturned face of the Child is shown (Fig. 5); below, detail of the golden outline in the Virgin’s red robe and microscope shot (55x) (Fig. 6)

Conservation status

Before the restoration, the painting was in a poor state of preservation: the panel, resected along the lower edge, is slightly boarded but the deformation is stabilized. On the other hand, the application of non-original varnish was uneven and dulling to such an extent that an aesthetic intervention was urgently needed: the resins were in fact severely yellowed and there were numerous small gaps, as well as altered retouches, evident especially at the red robe (fig. 7). Abrasions of the paint film and milder glazes were perceptible especially in the background, at the Madonna’s and Child‘s hair and on the shadowed areas of the flesh tones; a misleading retouching was discernible in the Virgin’s shadowed face.

Ruffles with a horizontal trend (fig. 8) were noticeable on the entire surface except for the incarnates, while reticular cracks were observed particularly in the blue backgrounds of the mantle.
The frame before restoration was darkened and blurred by deposits of particulate matter and coherent fatty substances; some small/medium gaps affected the gilding and preparation.

From left, detail in UV fluorescence, showing the thick layer of paint and some retouching (fig. 7); right, detail in grazing light (fig. 8)
From left, detail in UV fluorescence, showing the thick layer of paint and some retouching (fig. 7); right, detail in grazing light (fig. 8)

Restoration work

The painting and frame were restored separately; both were carefully dusted and disinfected.
The gradual and differentiated cleaning allowed the recovery of the painting’s original color scheme: the fragments of the haloes and gilded profiles, the characteristic shading of the flesh tones and the texture of the draperies became readable again; in particular, the gradual removal of the repainting on Mary’s face restored to the Virgin the physiognomy typical of Marco D’Oggiono’s faces characterized by luminous high cheekbones and elongated profile eyes (fig. 9).

Detail comparing the face of the Virgin before and after cleaning (fig. 9)
Detail comparing the face of the Virgin before and after cleaning (fig. 9)

Likewise, the removal of non-original materials (fig. 10) restored brilliance to the frame (figs. 1 and 2).

Pictorial integration, performed with reversible colors, was limited to repairing abrasions and closing gaps. The application of protective materials completed the intervention, restoring full legibility to the work: the heaviness of the red velvet robe has become tangible again, while the blue cloak, with its precious yellow lapel, has a lighter texture; even the dark background has lost that blurred appearance it had before the restoration and has returned to a black background from which the Virgin stands out and approaches the viewer.

Frame-cleaning plug
Frame-cleaning plug (fig. 10)
The framed painting after restoration
The framed painting after restoration (fig. 11)

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