"After having given an account of the mechanical operations, employed
with so much success in the first part of the restoration of the
picture by RAPHAEL, it remains for us to speak of the second, the
restoration of the painting, termed by the French artists
_restauration pittoresque_. This part is no less interesting than the
former. We are indebted to it for the reparation of the ravages of
time and of the ignorance of men, who, from their unskilfulness, had
still added to the injury which this master-piece had already
suffered.
"This essential part of the restoration of works of painting,
requires, in those who are charged with it, a very delicate eye, in
order to know how to accord the new tints with the old, a profound
knowledge of the proceedings employed by masters, and a long
experience, in order to foresee, in the choice and use of colours,
what changes time may effect in the new tints, and consequently
prevent the discordance which would be the result of those changes.
"The art of restoring paintings likewise requires the most scrupulous
nicety to cover no other than the damaged parts, and an extraordinary
address to match the work of the restoration with that of the master,
and, as it were, replace the first priming in all its integrity,
concealing the work to such a degree that even unexperienced eye
cannot distinguish what comes from the hand of the artist from what
belongs to that of the master.
"It is, above all, in a work of the importance of that of which we
are speaking, that the friends of the arts have a right to require,
in its restoration, all the care of prudence and the exertion of the
first talents. We feel a real satisfaction in acquainting you with
the happy result of the discriminating wisdom of the Administration
of the CENTRAL MUSEUM OF THE ARTS; who, after having directed and
superintended the first part of the restoration, employed in the
second, that of the painting (which we call _pittoresque_) Citizen
ROESER, whose abilities in this line were long known to them, and
whose repeated success had justified their confidence."
After having assured the Institute that they consider the
_pittoresque_ part of the restoration of the _Madonna di Foligno_ as
pure as it was possible to be desired, the Commissioners proceed to
call their attention to some discordance in the original design and
colouring of this _chef d'oeuvre_, and to make on it some critical
observations. This they do in order to prevent any doubts which might
arise in the mind of observers, and lead them to imagine that the
restoration had, in any manner, impaired the work of RAPHAEL.
They next congratulate themselves on having at length seen this
masterpiece of the immortal RAPHAEL restored to life, shining in all
its lustre, and through such means, that there ought no longer to
remain any fear respecting the recurrence of those accidents whose
ravages threatened to snatch it for ever from general admiration.
They afterwards terminate their Report in the following words:
"The Administration of the CENTRAL MUSEUM OF THE ARTS, who have, by
their knowledge, improved the art of restoration, will, no doubt,
neglect nothing to preserve that art in all its integrity; and,
notwithstanding repeated success, they will not permit the
application of it but to pictures so injured, that there are more
advantages in subjecting them to a few risks inseparable from
delicate and numerous operations, than in abandoning them to the
destruction by which they are threatened. The invitation which the
Administration of the Museum gave to the National Institute to attend
the restoration of the _Madonna di Foligno_ by RAPHAEL, is to us a
sure pledge that the enlightened men of whom it is composed felt that
they owed an account of their vigilance to all the connoisseurs in
Europe."
[Footnote 1: It may not be amiss to observe that RAPHAEL employed the
_impasto_ colour but in few of his pictures, of which the
_Transfiguration_ is one wherein it is the most conspicuous: his
other productions are painted with great transparency, the colours
being laid on a white ground; which rendered still more difficult the
operation above-mentioned. _Note of the Author_.]