_Paris, Dccemler 8, 1801_.
You desire that I will favour you with a particular account of the
means employed to transfer from pannel to canvas those celebrated
pictures which I mentioned in my letter of the 13th ult°. Like many
other, things that appear simple on being known, so is this process;
but it is not, on that account, the less ingenious and difficult in
execution.
Such is the great disadvantage of the art of painting that, while
other productions of genius may survive the revolution of ages, the
creations of the pencil are intrusted to perishable wood or canvas.
From the effect of heat, humidity, various exhalations to which they
may be carelessly exposed, and even an unperceived neglect in the
priming of the pannel or cloth, master-pieces are in danger of
disappearing for ever. Happy, then, is it for the arts that this
invaluable discovery has been lately brought to so great a degree of
perfection, and that the restoration of several capital pictures
having been confided to men no less skilful than enlightened, they
have thus succeeded in rescuing them from approaching and inevitable
destruction.
Of all the fruits of the French conquests, not a painting was brought
from Lombardy, Rome, Florence, or Venice, that was not covered with
an accumulation of filth, occasioned by the smoke of the wax-tapers
and incense used in the ceremonies of the catholic religion. It was
therefore necessary to clean and repair them; for to bring them to
France, without rendering them fit to be exhibited, would have
answered no better purpose than to have left them in Italy. One of
those which particularly fixed the attention of the Administration of
the CENTRAL MUSEUM OF THE ARTS, was the famous picture by RAPHAEL,
taken from the _Chiesa delle Contesse_ at Foligno, and thence
distinguished by the appellation of