Recovery of a severely deteriorated painting: the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian by Giovanni Santi (15th Century). Integrative proposal

Abstract

[EN] This contribution examines a painting on wood: The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, by Giovanni Santi. This work of art is the altarpiece of the chapel dedicated to the saint, located in Urbino's Church of San Bartolomeo. The history of this work of art is inextricably linked to that of its conservation: initially, the artwork was difficult to read due to the serious state of deterioration of the paint layer, with a loss of significant portions of the painting, including pictorial parts that played a decisive role in the rendering of the image. This had significant implications when it came to choosing the methodology for the pictorial reintegration of the painting. The aim was to reduce the negative effects caused by the state of deterioration as much as possible, to improve the readability of the work. Following a conservative restoration of the panel and of the polychromy, and after submitting it to art historian officer for a careful and close evaluation, a differentiated pictorial reintegration of the work was planned, applying the Florentine “selezione cromatica" method for the main figure, Saint Sebastian, and for all lacuna treatments. This intervention was carried out using tempera colours, overlapping by hatching three pure colours, chosen from the primary and secondary colours. I continued the “selezione cromatica” on the integrations, using varnish colours until achieving the desired tone, maintaining a tone of brilliancy and chromatic vivacity similar to the painting by Santi. The other parts of the painting had been very seriously damaged due to irrecoverable losses and can no longer be reconstructed; these were treated by experimenting with the “chromatic abstraction” reintegration with tonal variations within the layers of abstraction. The method involves the application of a cross-hatching where no shape is reconstructed, in a four-colour scheme (yellow, red, green/blue, black), in tempera colours.