ABSTRACT
In one of his family letters from Italy (dated 1740, but written several years later), De Brosses referred to an artisan in Rome who transferred oil paintings from either panel or canvas onto new supports: a modest operator, who would return the old canvas or the wormeaten panel alongside the transferred painting, and who had no knowledge of pictorial restoration (restauro pittorico). His method was not suitable for frescos, and for the transfer of panel paintings he would charge three times the amount that he charged for canvas paintings. In the Palazzo Pamphilii, De Brosses had seen examples of transferred paintings which as a result were in excellent condition. However, the president observed, such a discovery would have been particularly useful for frescos, which were more at risk from the environment in which they found themselves, than other kinds of painting. It was possible, for paintings in oil, that this artisan might also have undertaken transfers from copper and glass: “He glues his painting, from the paint side, onto something which is both flexible and rigid, with a preparation of which he holds the secret; then he completely imbibes the painting with a liquid which detaches the paint layer from its old panel or canvas. Then he patiently rolls both painting and the old canvas until they are completely detached from one another …. Having done this, he once more lays out the painting and attaches it to a new canvas (it was not made clear to me whether with or without the priming layer). Then, with a similar artifice, he detaches the painting from the layer to which he had attached it to make it stronger”.v
In 1769 Joseph-Jerôme de la Lande would refer to a certain Domenico Michelini as the author of the transfer (executed in 1729) of a canvas depicting a Child by Titian, in Palazzo Altieri in Rome. A Michelini in Rome was also mentioned by Luigi Crespi as a good restorer and, in 1721, Charles-François Poerson told of having packed some paintings into cases in Rome, to be sent to France, with the assistance of Cavalier Luti and Signor Domenico “who is excellent in the reparation of paintings: it is he who has the skill and the secret of removing the paint layer from a painting, and attaching it to a new canvas in the most incredible manner; but as I have seen this with my own eyes, I cannot doubt it.” Michelini’s signature and the date 1714 were found on the reverse of the Road to Calvary by Paolo di Giovanni Fei, now in Memphis (published by Adolfo Venturi in 1906).6
