Focus on this artwork and explain the Provenance and restoration.
In 1802, the painting was acquired by the Neapolitan government to be given to France in compensation for the paintings taken from the French deposits of the Church of Saint-Louis-des-Français in Rome. In 1804, the painting arrived in Paris. It is held at the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon.
In 1987, the painting was restored after an examination by the LRMF (French Museums Research Laboratory) in the Versailles workshops. The examination revealed the presence of several changes, including a horizontal seam in the middle part of the painting (passing at the level of the neck of the figure receiving the cut) and the whole of the pictorial layer has been obscured by a very thick greenish-brown varnish. The edges of the painting had been cut during the previous relining (a restoration operation). The restoration consisted of reattaching the previous layer, lightening the varnish and eliminating the repaints by removing with a scalpel any astic, grime and accumulations of varnish. Then, the work was subjected to the resumption of wear and the painting of the re-harmonization glazes in watercolor on the right forearm of the man in armor. The restoration ended with a general varnishing of the work.
Versailles Lyon Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon