Nameless, Jacob de Wit, the 17th century

Jacob de Wit (December 19, 1695, Amsterdam - November 12, 1754) - Dutch painter, draftsman, teacher.
The painting was removed from a recess in the ceiling. The ceiling created the decoration of the 17th century house. In the ceiling were three paintings by the renowned Dutch artist Jacob de Wit.

Most likely, painting has been in a recess all the time of its existence. The house was exploited and rebuilt for three hundred years, and during this time the painting and canvas fell into a depressing state. The varnish darkened greatly and completely changed the entire visual perception of the painting. The canvas was dilapidated and torn in many places, the
paint layer cracked and numerous paint losses appeared in the craquelure places.

Numerous surface stains on the back of the canvas, accumulated over three centuries, led to the deformation of the canvas.
It took a lot of research to start restoration activities. The painting was strengthened over the entire surface, adhesion between layers was restored, and the deformations of the canvas were completely eliminated. The painting was stretched over a stretcher. After stretching the canvas, Kapaline plates with copper screws were placed on the back of the stretcher to protect the fabric from dust and mechanical intervention.

After structural preservation, the paint layer was cleaned from varnish that had changed in color and tone, and old tints.
Later on, the varnish and overpaint were removed, the loss of ground was covered with the new ground layer and polished. Then an intermediate layer of protective varnish was applied. Finally, the loss of the paint layer was retouched.
When the restoration process was finished, the painting acquired its original appearance, returned to the states of the artist's intention, and acquired the original combination of tone and color of the paint layer.