Restoration of the painting Massacre of the Trinitarian nuns in Constantinople
Located in the antechoir of the Monastery of San Ildefonso and San Juan de la Mata or Convent of the Discalced Trinitarians in Madrid
The painting depicts the legend of the massacre of the Trinitarian nuns in Constantinople, according to which on 29 May 1453, when Constantinople was taken by Sultan Mehmed II, the convents were razed and all the Byzantine Christian religious were killed. While Saint Laura was in the church of her monastery with her 53 sisters, to whom she had just offered communion, they were attacked by Muslim troops. In the scene we see Saint Laura in the centre of the composition, kneeling and looking at the sky, while a man, brandishing a dagger, is about to kill her. On either side the sisters fall under the swords of their enemies and in the background we see a monastery in flames. Rectangular in format and horizontal, the canvas has an original XNUMXth century frame.
Images of the canvas before and after restoration
Previous state of conservation
The work was generally well preserved, although it had many alterations. It still had its original frame, although it had been attacked by woodworm and was without wedges. On the support, which was loose, the frame had been marked around the entire perimeter, showing dents with tears and depressions.
In the canvas fabric, made of linen taffeta, there was visible oxidation and the paint layer was very satiny and blackened. It also showed surface cracking and very encrusted dirt from the paint layer.
The varnish layer was very thick and oxidized. The canvas was slack and very stiff, undernourished and losing moisture. Neither the color nor many of the formal details of the drawing could be seen on the painted surface.
The canvas showed small holes with loss of support in specific areas and a thick layer of red primer; very pronounced and very evident cracking on the entire surface, which, together with the dirt, composed of a layer of dense dust, blackened the surface. The layer of varnish was opaque, dense and blackened by attacks of wood-eating insects.
The frame It is originally made of pine wood and was in a good state of preservation. The wood did not show any serious alterations, only those caused by the passage of time and mechanical manipulation, with loss of polychromy and dirt. It was polychromed with an imitation of marble, with a yellow repaint on the edge of the edge, which was removed during the restoration. The support was stable, preserving the original hardware, with marks of remains of metal elements that have now disappeared.
restoration project
After a first phase of documentation work of the work, the interventions to be carried out were determined:
- Cleaning from the surface dust, on the front and back of the work. The process was somewhat complicated because the work presented serious imbalances and was very tense and hard. It was necessary to apply a chemical cleaning using an ethanol mixture to remove oxidized and uneven varnish, repaints and surface dirt. A varnish was then applied mixed cleaning (chemical and mechanical), with the help of a scalpel to remove the waxed layer, superimposed on the layer of pictorial film.
- Removing the anchor nails between the painting and the frame. This anchor was old, although not from the time of the canvas.
- Support treatment, which was stable and only needed cleaning on the reverse side. The central tear in the fabric was repaired with a suture using linen threads, an operation that was carried out after the support had been wallpapered.
- The protection and coating of the pictorial film was carried out by wallpapering the entire surface with tissue paper and impregnating it with rabbit glue under infrared radiation to promote the penetration of adhesive through the layers. In this action, two treatments were carried out at the same time, the sitting of color and the protection of the pictorial layer. Deformation correction and colour setting were carried out by applying heat and pressure with a medium temperature iron, controlling these two factors simultaneously. The paper was removed using steam.
- Frame change. The frame was replaced with a new one that could better support the tension of the canvas.
- Coated Using a synthetic mahogany-coloured stucco similar to the original. It was applied cold using a brush and spatula.
- Leveling of gaps and imitation of the original weave of the fabric.
- Varnished. To achieve a homogeneous and balanced saturation, a hand varnish with a brush, process facilitates chromatic reintegration.
- Chromatic reintegration with reversible pigments. Large gaps in the pictorial film or where information had been lost were reintegrated using a differential technique of rigattino and in the small ones, invisibility with pointillism was used.
- end protection with successive layers of varnish. Protection of the canvas with a rear overlay. Foam board panels were glued to the frame. This operation provides greater protection for the painting during transport and cushions the influence of ambient humidity on the reverse side of the canvas.
- Frame treatment: cleaning, disinfection of the wood and injection of anti-woodworm, removal of elements foreign to the frame, sitting of the paint layer, chromatic and volumetric reintegration, final varnishing.
- Mounting the painting on the frame.
Technical data
- Dating:
Second half of the 17th century. Oil on canvas.
- Author
Spanish anonymous
Church of the Monastery of San Ildefonso and San Juan de Mata or Convent of the Discalced Trinitarians. Chapter house of the convent.
C/ Lope de Vega nº 18. Madrid.
The Church of the Monastery of San Ildefonso and San Juan de Mata was declared a National Monument by Royal Order of 17 September 1921, the Convent of the Discalced Trinitarians, on 11 November 1943. By Order 19/2017 of the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sports, the protected area of the Convent of the Discalced Trinitarian Nuns was delimited. The restored canvas is also an Asset of Cultural Interest.
- Restoration work team:
Yolanda López Fernández Sarga. Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art.
- Date of intervention:
2024
Menéndez Pidal, Ramón: "The convent of the Trinitarians of Madrid" in Bulletin of the Royal Academy of History, t. 79, pp. 97-99 and 474-74, and t. 112, 1943, pp. 141-142.
Aranjo y Costa, J. “The convent of the Trinitarians” in HL Madrid, October 15, 1951.
Tovar Martín, V. (1990): “The Monastery of Barefoot Trinitarian Religious Sisters of San Ildefonso in Madrid”, Spanish Art Archive, No. 251, pp. 401-418.
