Discriminating analysis of damage

On account of its odyssean history and many an attempt to restore it, the painting had suffered considerably and showed a mulitude of damage: yard-long cracks, cuts, worn areas, as well as natural aging detriments, such as mould infestation. The adherence between the recanvasing and the original material was mainly intact.

 

Removal of earlier overpainting

Two Vienna studios, Scheel/Prenner (Mag. Elisabeth Scheel and Mag. Ilse Prenner) and Atelier Schlossgasse (Mag. Michael Odlozil, Mag. Maria Pachovsky and Mag. Martina Ruttin), were jointly in charge of the preparatory examinations, dismantling, transport and new hanging in the Panorama Museum. The museum also commissioned this team to carry out restoration of the work, which lasted a total of two years and was completed in July 2005.

This involved removing the overpainting applied in earlier restorations, either with various solvents or mechanically with the scalpel or micro-chisel. After sealing any cracks, re-touching was done with colour pigments, and an anti-ageing bonding agent.

 

The original, high-quality painting is revealed once more

It took 4,400 working hours by the restorers and conservators to change the heavily weathered, gloomy and one-dimensional picture into a brightly rendered view, worked out in every detail in the typical Biedermeier style. Sattler’s panorama is now manifested once more in the original airiness and clarity of a September afternoon in the 1820s.