KONZERVATORSKO-RESTAURATORSKI RADOVI NA PORTRETU MARIJE TEREZIJE IZ GRADSKOG MUZEJA VARAŽDIN
CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF THE PORTRAIT OF MARIA THERESA FROM THE VARAŽDIN CITY MUSEUM

Summary/Abstract: This article is about the conservation and restoration carried out on a portrait of Maria Theresa from the 18th century attributed to the workshop of painter Martin van Meytens. The painting is an oil on canvas and portrays Maria Theresa, Hapsburg sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress. During her rule (1740 - 1780) she introduced a number of reforms in foreign and domestic policies. This painting, painted during the first few years of her rule, shows her whole posture in celebratory brocade robe, as she stands next to a richly carved table with a solemnly decorated cushion and two crowns of the Austrian archduke. The dimensions of the painting are 203 cm x 140 cm (height/width). The painting had undergone two previous restorations, in 1857 and 1993. Based on documentation, an interesting detail was added during the 1993 restoration: in the lower right corner of the painting, in the overpaint layer there is a visible signature Meytensen pinxit 1857- even though the painter died in 1770. It is therefore assumed that he was signed during the first restoration of the painting in 1857, led by painter Mayerwieser. During the last restoration in 2014, it was concluded that this signature is not correct, the correct one is Mayerwieser renoviert 1857. Because of the fragility of painted layer on this part of the canvas, the signature was cleaned only superficially by thinning of the yellowy varnish with a mild solution. Because of the incomplete and unclear documentation following the 1993 restoration, it was very hard to determinate all of the zones with layers of overpaint and validate the decision to remove them completely or only partially. After the probing it was concluded that the green color from the robe and turquoise color from the right sleeve were both removed during previous restorations. The dark background with visible architecture and drapery was also partially removed. Additional probes, including IC and UV scans, stratigraphy of the painted layer, removal probing of tarnished varnish with impurities and overpaint, were conducted to determine the zones of preserved varnish and overpaint as well as the quality of fill composition in the previous intervention.

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