In 1969 Claude Huot made a second tour of Italy, visiting Siena,
Florence, Bologna, and Rome, and he also had the opportunity to collabo-
rate with aeronautical engineers on a number of ingenious procedures.
Other members of the Huot studio included Daniel Jaunard, a
compagnon cabinetmaker from the Gaston Hullin furniture restoration
studio, who was with the studio from 1975 until 1990. In 1983 the
Huot studio hired Juan Garcia, a compagnon cabinetmaker from the
F. Dolhen studio.Techniques used by the Huot studio
The Huot studio carried out interventions for almost twenty years for
the Service de Restauration des Peintures des Musées Nationaux, from its
creation in 1965 to its move to Malmaison in 1982, and then to its final
move to Versailles in 1985. These interventions illustrate a restoration
policy that advocates removing the stress on the wood, treating splits
minimally, gradually ceasing to do backing, reducing the amount of sur-
face area affected by adhesives and friction, and minimizing “orthopedic”
surgery. Eliminating surgery in favor of milder remedies also involved
abandoning the sverzatura (straightening by incisions and insertion of a
thin, triangular wood section piece), which was carried out only twice for
the Campana Collection and was hardly practiced at all after 1968.^63
Germain Bazin was well aware of the drawbacks of transfer and
considered the removal of a painting’s original support a genuine mutila-
tion of an inherent part.^64 Anewwooden support raises a risk of splitting
and, inevitably, new cracks, while a new canvas support raises the risk of
distortions, tearing, holes, and, inevitably, a new network of craquelure.
The transformation of the condition of the surface, which acquires the
gr ain ofa canvas and a new “flatness,” is no longer relevant to the original
support; the work is therefore betrayed. The overall fragility of transferred
paintings, whose gauzes soaked in glue can react to hygrometric varia-
tions, has been demonstrated for several years.
New supports were, therefore, very rarely devised. Solario’s La
Déploration sur le Christ mortat the Louvre required a change of support
because of the development ofmicroorganisms in the preparation
layer and the chronic loss of adhesion of the canvas from the original
marouflage of the original support. The painting was given a new support
consisting ofa metal honeycomb panel sandwiched between two sheets of
fiberglass coated with epoxy resin; this panel was fitted on the front withW P S: T H Y H F 275Figure 5
Benvenuto di Giovanni, Martyre d’un évêque.
Reverse. Musée du Petit-Palais (M 514),
Avignon. Hollowed crossbars. The wooden
crossbar slides in cleats glued to the back of
the panel. The hollowing reduces friction with
the panel and improves mobility.
Figure 6
Carlo Crivelli, La Vierge et l’Enfant trônant entre
deux anges,fifteenth century. Reverse, detail.
Musée du Petit-Palais (MI 492), Avignon.
Hollow cylindrical metal crossbar, which
slides in cleats lined with brass. This system
is called “Carità,” after its inventor at the
Istituto Centrale del Restauro, Rome.