Database and restorations: news from the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes (1)

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16/3/23 - Database, restorations - Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts - The Brittany museum is often in the news, and we will soon come back to some recent additions (long-term loans and acquisitions) and to a major restoration campaign it is conducting on large formats. In the meantime, here are two pieces of information about the museum, starting with the online publication of the database of its collections (ill. 1). It is very complete, since it contains practically all of his collections (only certain donations under reserve of usufruct seem to be missing), in particular, in the field of La Tribune de l’Art, 1,522 paintings, 611 sculptures, 4,734 drawings and 6,705 prints. Easy to use and fully illustrated, it contains a lot of information on each work. When several results are found, it is possible to refine the search using a large number of criteria in the column on the left of the screen, in a classic and very practical way.


1. Database of the collections of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes Screenshot
See the image in its page

It should be noted, however, that the "advanced search" is not very efficient at the moment. Thus, the lists proposed in certain fields are not exhaustive. For example, if you scroll down the list of "authors", you will not find Lehmann. And if you type the name of this painter in this field, you will not find any results. However, the museum holds (apart from a painting donated under reservation of usufruct - see news item of 16/12/2015 - which is not yet in the database) one large painting and two drawings, which can be found by typing "Lehmann" in the generic search engine. Similarly, if one searches for "start date" and "end date" by entering, for example, the two fields "1801" and "1900", one gets no results. However, we are certain that the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes has paintings from the 19th century!

The second information concerns four recently restored paintings, three of which are anonymous and have been taken out of storage to be hung in the galleries. This kind of operation is fundamental: it allows us to rediscover, and sometimes simply to discover, works that were neglected, forgotten, and sometimes even unknown, and therefore rarely taken into account by art historians. For a museum, this is almost like an acquisition.
The three anonymous paintings, on panel, have each benefited from a fundamental restoration, both for the support and the paint layer. Their supports were very fragile and cracked, and they were quite heavily overpainted. None of them had been exhibited for almost a century. They have also been framed.


2. Italy, 16th century
Descent from the Cross (before restoration)
Oil on panel - 89.5 x 59.8 cm
Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo: J.-M. Salingue/MBA de Rennes
See the image in its page
3. Italy, 16th century
Descent from the Cross (after restoration)
Oil on panel - 89.5 x 59.8 cm
Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo: J.-M. Salingue/MBA de Rennes
See the image in its page

 Italy, 16th century, Descent from the Cross (ill. 2 and 3). All the faces, except that of Christ, were repainted. They have been reconstructed with tratteggio (fine cross-hatching to reconstitute the modelling, while leaving the restoration visible when the painting is viewed closely). It was last published in 2004 in the catalogue of Italian paintings in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes (see article): Mylène Allano points out that it was mentioned in the 1871 catalogue as "Sébastien Seccante, known as the Trombou d’Udine, born in Udine in 1665", but notes that this artist is only known by another work dated 1558. In any case, the work is clearly from the 16th century. While the author of the 2004 catalogue cautiously renders it to the 16th-century French school, it is likely that it is rather, as we read from the collections, a 16th-century Italian painting, but with a strong Nordic and even Spanish connotation (around Pedro Campaña?).


4. France, second half of the 16th century
The Sacrifice of Isaac (before restoration)
Oil on panel - 94 x 70 cm
Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo: J.-M. Salingue/MBA de Rennes
See the image in its page
5. France, second half of the 16th century
The Sacrifice of Isaac (after restoration)
Oil on panel - 94 x 70 cm
Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo: J.-M. Salingue/MBA de Rennes
See the image in its page

- France (?), second half of the 16th century, Sacrifice of Isaac (ill. 4 and 5). While the previous painting had already been published, this one is completely unpublished, its date of entry into the collections and its origin are unknown, and its inventory number (2019.2.1) shows that it was inventoried only very recently after being found in the reserves. It is a fine work and we would like to know more about it when it is studied in detail. It was covered with black stains, which made it difficult to read, and the restoration was quite spectacular.


6. France, circa 1620-1630
Deposition of the Cross (before conservation)
Oil on panel - 69 x 153 cm
Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo: J.-M. Salingue/MBA de Rennes
See the image in its page
7. France, circa 1620-1630
Deposition of the Cross (after restoration)
Oil on panel - 69 x 153 cm
Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo: J.-M. Salingue/MBA de Rennes
See the image in its page

 France, c. 1620-1630, Deposition of the Cross (ill. 5 and 6). This painting, which was also published in the above-mentioned catalogue of Italian paintings, was nevertheless removed from it to give it to the French school of the first third of the 17th century. It is of good quality despite being somewhat archaic for the date of Vouet’s return from Italy. It had fewer conservation problems than the first two, but the crack in the middle had opened up across the entire width, causing the paint to fall out.


8. Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto (1519-1594)
The Massacre of the Innocents
(before restoration)
Oil on canvas - 110 x 166.5 cm
Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo: J.-M. Salingue/MBA de Rennes
See the image in its page
9. Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto (1519-1594)
The Massacre of the Innocents
(after restoration)
Oil on canvas - 110 x 166.5 cm
Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Photo: J.-M. Salingue/MBA de Rennes
See the image in its page

A fourth painting (ill. 8 and 9), which also underwent a fundamental restoration, is better known as it has always been on display in the galleries and widely published. It is a painting from the workshop of Jacopo Tintoretto, The Massacre of the Innocents, which is based on a composition from the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice. The work was quite worn, very yellow (although this is not very noticeable in the photo) and had many overpaintings.

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