Wrestling the Beasts in the Coliseum

Description

This painting illustrates a battle between two men who are fighting with wild beasts, including lions and a leopard.  This scene is given depth and texture by the contrast between the bare human skin and the fur of the exotic animals.  In the background is the view of an amphitheater, which may be the Coliseum. The scene is framed by an ivy-covered column on the left and a Roman statue on the right. The artist's monogram and the date of completion are written on the pedestal: HF 1563. The scene ideally reproduces the fight against the wild beasts in the arena and the Bestiari fighters. There were two categories of bestiari: one category was composed of men sentenced to death who were condemned to be killed by these wild animals (damnatio ad bestias) and the other of those fighters who voluntarily faced wild animals with their bare hands in exchange for money and fame.

The monogram HF seems to refer to the Flemish painter Frans Floris de Vriendt due to the style of the painting, and his interest in ancient Rome.  Floris was born in Antwerp around 1519 to a family of sculptors. His older brother, Cornelis II, was a well-known painter and engraver. After an initial training as a sculptor, Floris moved to Liege to study with the painter Lambert Lombard and quickly inherited his teacher's love for Italian Renaissance art.  In 1540 Floris returned to Antwerp and became the Master of the Guild. Between 1541 and 1545 he traveled to Italy and specifically to Rome, where he produced many drawings of ancient sculptures and reliefs.  He especially liked the art of Michelangelo.  In particular he admired the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment, which he saw after it was just completed.  Floris also drew inspiration from the works of Raphael and his workshop, and those of the Florentine Mannerist painters, including Francesco Salviati and Andrea del Sarto.

Returning to Antwerp, he opened a shop with several employees. His major work is the painting for the altar of St. Michael in Antwerp depicting the Fall of Rebel Angels (1554). In addition to religious subjects and portraits, he also painted historical and mythological themes, of which he was a passionate connoisseur. Floris’ works on historical themes were essential for the painters of historical scenes of the next generation, especially for the art of Rubens.

State of Preservation

Cohesion and adhesion of the paint layers were good, though there was a thin crack shrinkage of the binder featuring layers of the brown color of the lion on the left of the scene. Numerous scratches are found in the center, above the figure of the man in the fight with the lion, and on the leg of the sculpture to the right of the scene: this is, perhaps, the damage caused by the attempted removal of old repainting.

The biggest problem was represented by strong discoloration caused by the yellowing of the thick layer of the present paint. This must surely be evidence of a previous restoration of the frame because the margins of the painting free of this writing. Its inhomogeneous application had created substantial accumulation zones of resin that caused considerable trouble for the entire painting.

Restoration Procedures

The restoration was divided into two distinct phases:

• Restoration of the support and realization of a support structure to control the movements of the wood.

• Cleaning the surface of the original painting and the aesthetic presentation.

For the restoration of the support, the lab chose a course of action that would not depart from the original specifications. The bonding of the axes was done without the insertion of wooden wedges as the practice suggested in the past. A reversible adhesive also needed to be used to facilitate any future revisions of the bonds. Even for the support structure, a ‘floating’ perimeter frame has been realized, or a structure that is not bound to the whole plank, reducing the coupling between the two structures to only a few points. The control of the expansion of the wood is entrusted to the springs, specially tuned, included in the attachment points between the chassis and axles of the painting.

The cleaning of the painted surface was addressed with an extremely cautious approach since the painting technique was characterized by almost transparent layers of color that remained completely hidden by the yellow-brown, paint-altered filter. The very compact repainting oil that compensates the seams between the planks was first mechanically thinned to scalpel and then remove with a slightly basic mixture.

The touches of abrasions on the paint film, which are also resistant to solvents, were first thinned with slight abrasive action of the glass fibers and finished with the solvent mixture TACO. Before the restoration of the painting was applied by brush, the restorers removed all the soft coatings. The slots of the lesions of the support have been compensated at the base level with stucco plaster and glue. The pictorial reintegration was made with watercolors over patched areas and with colors to paint glazes for the rebalancing of the surface.

The painted surface was finally protected, with alternating passages, by spraying glossy and matte paint. All phases of the work of this restoration have been accompanied by an imaging campaign conducted by the Scientific Research Laboratory. The painting is framed with gold leaf, definitely, a readjustment which is not original that was kept, from which a great renovation of the wooden structure was made with reinforcement of the angular joints, cleaning the gilding and restoration of the finishing of the integration of gaps and gold abrasions. The operation was conducted by the restorer, Marco De Pillis for the wooden portions and Stefano Tombesi for the gilding. The restoration began in May of 2013 and was completed in February of 2015.