Formerly attributed to Jacopo Bassano
Technique: Oil painting on canvas
Dimensions: 59,1 cm x 49,1 cm
Date: Inscribed 1558 (likely a later addition, not considered reliable)
Condition of the Artwork Before Restoration
The original portrait was, in the past, evidently trimmed due to significant damage, with the edges subsequently supplemented with new canvas during a lining process using a paper interlayer and glue-starch paste. The added edges are lifting at the corners from the lining canvas. The canvas is locally undulating, and the edges of the lining canvas are torn. The stretcher is of good quality, with the capacity for keying, though it lacks a spacer/distance bar. The paint layer survives in a fairly fragmentary state, with information locally lost entirely in places, leaving only the lower paint layers preserved. As a result of the lining process, the paint layer has become flattened, scorched, and affected by blanching (clouding).
Condition of the Artwork After Restoration
The painting was removed from its original stretcher to address the failing lining around the edges. New strip-lining was applied to facilitate a more secure readjustment onto the stretcher.
Given the extent of damage sustained through past interventions, a full reconstruction to the painting’s original state was considered impractical, risking the introduction of unwanted conjecture not intended by the original author. A conservation oriented approach was therefore adopted: retouching was limited to improving the overall legibility and visual coherence of the composition, completing or lightly reinforcing only the information already present within surviving fragments, without inventing lost detail. In accordance with the client’s wishes, the historical additions to the painting were retained.
While the painting retains a partially fragmentary character, it has been returned to a coherent and coherent portrait.
