The restoration has revealed unseen fragments of the canvases
Industrialization comes back in Rialia Industria Museoa in Portugalete, where in recent months two paintings by the Filipino artist Juan Luna y Novicio (1875 – 1899) have been undergoing restoration. These both works of art represent scenes of labor at the La Vizcaya factory in 1893: ‘Field of loaves in the Blast Furnace‘ e ‘Inside the Robert Steel Workshops’. These large – size canvases (the first is three metres wide and two metres high and the second one is four metres wide and two metres high) are part of the permanent collection of the museum.
The delicate restoration has been carried out by the company Equipo 7. When they removed the frames, they found out that some parts of the canvas had been folded over the scretcher bars, with the scenes continuing up to the edges. Upon unfolding them, some unseen fragments of the canvases appeared, as a group of children inside the factory in ‘Interior de los talleres de acero Robert’, some unknown industrial architectures in ‘Era de panes’ and the information of ‘Portugalete 1893’, which verifies that these works where made in the town.
After finishing all these works, the paintings have not only regained all of their chromaticism and lighting, but now the scenes are exactly represented as Juan Luna y Novicio originally intended. The result shows an excelent composition executed with remarkable detail and astonishing realism. «This discovery not only increases the value of both paintings, but also the value of the full collection of Rialia Industria Museoa. It also makes us part of the commitment of conservation and preservation of the industrial patrimony that we obtain from the creation of the museum», claims the Culture town councillor, Estíbaliz Freije. Additionally, the museum will continue along the same lines with the restoration of a canvas from the drawer Gerardo d’Abraira.
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