The Sun.
London, England, 1802-10-21 00:00:00

RE; I oRATioN CYP PICTURES DECAAED OR
INJURED.

The following curious account of the Restoration -of a
Picture of R ngk LT..; ivhich had been much injured in its
journey froth: Fo.iigno ,to Paris, is extrmae4 front a -recent
French Atiork, published by the Administration of the Mu-
seum at Pigs.'

SUBJECT AF THE PICTURE.

IN the midst of a glory ,of Angels, the Virgin '
Mary sits holding in her arms the infant Jesus, who
is playing with his Mother's 'mantle ;* she receives
with humility and modesty the vows and the,prayers
which are addressed to her, by Sr. John, St. Francis,
and St. Jerome, in fav'obr of a Chamberlain of the
Pope, who, with hands joined, implores, with fer-
vour her protection.
the middle of the Piaure, and beneath the
Virgin, with eyes raised towards her, an Angel
holds a tablet destiiied to receive the name of the
Chamberlain, the donor of the piaure.

The ground represents a landscape.
Raphael executed this work for Sigismund Conti,
a learned man, Chamberlain and first Secretary to
Pope Julius 11. The Pilure was then placed at
the high altar of the Church of Araceli at Rome.
Afterwards, .about the year 1565, it was removed
to Foligno, and given to the Chttch .of the
giuises of St. Ann, called Le Contesse, from the
sister Nina Conti, niece of Sigismund. It was
lately brought from that Church to Paris, being
one of the hundred articles included in the Treaty
of Tolentino.

RESTORATION OF ME PICTURE.

-The Administration think they clin render an
important service to the Arts, by giving to the
Public an extra& from the interesting Report made
by Citizens Guiton, Morveau, Berthalet, Vincent,
and Taunai, Members of the National Institute,
to that learned body, reSpeding the operation to
which this valuable Plante has been submitted.
• When it was received at 'Foligno it was in such
a state of deterioration that the, Commissaries of
the Arts in .Italy hesitated whether they ought to
-send it to Paris, nor did they determine upon send-
ing it until they had fixed-together the several parts
of the Pidure. which were-broken, by means of
pieces of guaze pasted -on- the surface. Besides
this injury, the white wood, of about 32 inches
in thickness, on which the Pidure was painted, had
a cleft of about 10. in width at its superior ex-
tremity, which descended from the centre,, dimi-
nishing progt:•ssiveiy to the 10t foot of the Infant
Jesus; on each side of the fraeture the wood
.was
bent. A great number of scales were already de-
tached, and moreover tbe,painting- was pricked in
many parts.
- It was time to think of saving this valuable
Picture from the ruin which threatened it, and the
Administration decided that it shbuld be taken off,
being well convinced that it could only be refixed
upon another ground. But as a religious respeet
would not permit an operation of this importance,
particularly when applied to -a Picture of Raphael,
they requested the Minister of the Interior to in-
vite the National Institute to appoint from its own
bosom a Committee to make a Report -on the pro-
order to tranquillize timorous
persons, or silence those of bad faith, and above
all, to render public, operations..the.most simple,
and far distant. from Charlatinism and juggling.

This Commission was composed of Citizens Gui-
ton and Bertholet, Chemists, and Citizens Vincent
and Taunai, Painters.
They agreed with the Administration as to, the
urgent necessity of taking off the Pitturc.: The,
following are the operations which followed.
The surface being rendered smooth, a piece of
gauze was spread over the Piaure. Citizen Hac-
quin cut several little trenches in the wood at some
distance from each other, which were continued
from" the superior extremity. of the centre to the
place where the ground of the wood presented a,
surface more straight. He then introduced into.
the trenches, small pieces of wood, and covered the
whole surface with wet linen, which he was care_
ful to renew. The action of the small pieces of.
wood swelled by the humidity against the softened
wood of the Piaure, forced it to resume its first
form, the two edges of the cleft approached, and.
the Artist introduced some strong glue to unite
the two. separated parts,; he then applied cross.
bars of .oak to preserve the PiEture, whilst drying,
in the form which it had taken.

The drying proceeding slowly, the Artist apPlied
a second gauze on the first, and successively two
sheets of paper of a spongy substance.
This preparation being dry, he turned the Pic_
ture on a table,, anti -proceeded with great care to'
separate the Wood on which the Pifture was painted;
The first operation was executed by means of two
saws, of which the one worked perpendicularly and
the other horizontally : he then used a plane, and
afterwards another of a different .construetion, until
the wood was reduced to the thickness of a common
sheet of paper.
In this state the wood was successively moistened,
by compartments, with pure water, until the Artist
was enabled to separate the pieces with care by the
point of a knife.
Citizen Hacquin, after having taken off the
whole impression to the paste on which the Piffiire
was painted, and above all the mastics which in
former restorations had been thought necessary,,
discovered the first sketch of Raphael.
In older to render the Painting more
he moistened it with cotton dipped in oil, and
afterwards, by means of wax, moistened with oil,
took off the impression from the paste and fixed it
by means of a soft brush. •
After three months drying, a gauze was pasted
on the impression in oil, and over that a fine lined
cloth.

When the cloth was dry, the Piaure was de-
tached from the table and turned, in order to take
away the gauze and papers first applied with water.
This operation being done, he proceeded to smooth
the inequalities upon the surface, which proceeded
from the shrinking of different parts. For this pur,
pose the Artist applied successively, on the inequa-
lities, a strong paste, and having placed a 'piece of