The “Crucifixion” by Giovanni Carlone after restoration
Ligurian Cells. The restoration of the painting depicting the crucifixion of Jesus created by Giovanni Carlone (1584 – 1631) and preserved in the Oratorio Confraternita San Michele Arcangelo has been completed. The canvas was particularly degraded by the oxidation of the protective varnish and showed numerous lifts and drops of color. The restoration was carried out in Cesare Pagliero’s laboratory in Savigliano (Cuneo). Now the work has returned to the oratory, to the satisfaction of the prior Luca Minuto and his brothers, who together with the Superintendency are organizing an evening to present the work and reveal some curiosities.
“After the useful interventions for the consolidation of the pictorial film, we moved on to cleaning the canvas with the use of gel solvents, removing the paint that prevented us from perceiving the true rendering of the figures and colours”, explains Paolo Pacini of the Service for Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage of the Diocese of Savona-Noli. The intervention was possible thanks to the intervention of the De Mari Foundation of Savona, which supported the expense entirely thanks to the recommendation of the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape.
Massimo Bartoletti, already a ministerial official for many years for Savona and the adjacent towns on the Riviera, had identified in the canvas the hand of Giovanni Carlone, an artist born in Rovio (Lake Lugano), who moved to Genoa together with his father around 1560. architect Taddeo and his brother. Carlone subsequently trained in Rome and Florence and was active with numerous construction sites at the main places of worship in the Superba. “I remember the previous interventions financed in the same way, concluded and followed by us – adds Pacini – In Calvisio the restoration of a wooden crucifix from the 15th century and in Savona that of two ovals from the stories of Saint John the Baptist by the painter Giovanni Agostino Ratti” .
