Francesco Hayez, Corpus of Drawings, 19th century, Accademia di Brera, Milan

Conservation condition

The conservation condition of the drawings is compromised by mounting that paid no regard to the fragility of the graphic techniques. The sheets, almost all drawn on both recto and verso, are attached to the volumes with metal staples that have stained and torn the paper. They also present various forms of damage, in particular adhesive and tape stains, losses, tears and ink inventory stamps.

Description of the intervention

The large number of drawings and their historical, artistic and museological significance led to the design of a multi-stage intervention, structured around distinct phases:

• Systematic digital documentation of all drawings before and after treatment. This documentation will also serve as a first level of access to the corpus, allowing the owning institution to restrict direct handling to specific research needs.
• The creation of a database containing all information relating to the execution technique, materials and conservation treatments carried out for each individual drawing.
• The conservation treatment of individual drawings.
• Their mounting in passe-partout.
• The conservation treatment of the autograph sketchbooks.
• The development of a consistent conservation arrangement to ensure that consultation involves the least possible conservation risk, and — where necessary — the display of the works.

One autograph sketchbook, already treated, was exhibited at the show Giuseppe Molteni (1800–1867) and Portraiture in Romantic Milan: Painting, Conservation, Collecting and Heritage Protection at the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, from 28 October 2000 to 28 January 2001.