The emigration of prealpine lake masters: A study of a 17th-century mantelpiece attributed to the Carlone family of Rovio (Ticino, Switzerland)

This work illustrates the possible connections between the phenomenon of the seasonal emigration of lake masters and the production of artistic artefacts. Within the ambit of these dynamics, a stucco mantelpiece was taken into consideration. Nothing was known about the object: neither its origin, nor the artist who produced it, nor the period of execution. Historical, stylistic and formal analyses of the materials and of the technique with which the work was executed allow us to verify that the mantelpiece was produced using the stucco technique in the 17th century, in Rovio (southern Switzerland, Ticino), and that it comes from one of the exponents of the Carlone workshop, whose representatives were important in the tradition of itinerant artistic workers. Due to their good technical and professional specialization, the Carlone workshop served both public and private buyers. Tommaso Carlone is the principal representative artist of the Carlone workshop; it is certain that his workshop produced the stucco mantelpiece. The migrations of the artists were seasonal and they maintained a close bond with their country of origin. When they returned to the country of origin, they produced works of great artistic value, of which the mantelpiece represents a splendid example. Through the employment of conventional analytical techniques (optical and electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy and porosity measurements), it has been possible to study the technique with which the work was executed, the materials used and the decay. The mantelpiece was produced using the stucco technique by means of a body layer (slaked lime and silicate and carbonate aggregates) and a marmorino finishing layer (slaked lime and pointed calcite crystals). Above this layer, whose thickness varies in relation to the executed result, there is a thin lime plaster whitewash, pigmented with the dispersion of yellow ochre particles; chromatic alterations are an oxalate patina caused by firm adhesion to the marmorino layer, due to the denaturation of the proteic substances employed. The final treatment was made with beeswax, which increased the marmoreal effect. Several additional layers of lime plaster whitewash have also been applied over the centuries. The figurative central square of the plastic decoration was made using red ochre.