During the restoration process of a huge oil canvas (266 cm × 361 cm × 3 cm) by Agostino Bosia, a deep diagnostic campaign was carried out to characterize the original materials and those stratified over time. The activity was supported by the technologies available today in the field of conservation of the Cultural Heritage. Multispectral analyses (UV fluorescence, infrared reflectography, infrared false‐colour post‐production, digital radiography) associated with punctual (X‐Ray Fluorescence, Fibre Optics Reflectance Spectroscopy) and microstratigraphic analyses (visible light and UV fluorescence optical microscopy and SEM–EDX) allowed to accurately reconstruct the artist's creative process and to identify the pictorial materials. The well‐known analytical protocol was finally combined with Macro X‐ray Fluorescence scanning technique (MA‐XRF) in order to consolidate the results of the punctual, non‐invasive analyses over a large area of the canvas.

During the refurbishing of the “Lombard Art of the XV-XVI century” department at the Pinacoteca di Brera (Milan), concluded in 2018, the Conservation and Restoration Center “La Venaria Reale” had the opportunity to study and restore the famous pictorial cycle of Men at Arms by Donato Bramante (1488-89). The paper aims to present the methodological approach and the results obtained with the last conservation treatment, aimed at a new and updated aesthetic proposal for the pictorial cycle. The main objective was to re-establish the unity of the images, compromised by the numerous lacunae left visible by previous treatments, respecting at the same time the material features of the paintings and the evidence of their particular conservative history.The interdisciplinary work group* has reconstructed the complex conservative history of the detached wall paintings, thanks to the technical observation of the surfaces and the scientific characterization of the constituent materials. The results were compared with the available historical documentation, in particular with historical photographs. The project allowed us to retrace the profound changes that the concept of pictorial integration has encountered over time, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day. The conservation treatment also originated from the need of the Pinacoteca di Brera to update the aesthetic presentation of the works, facilitating the reading of the fragmented images due to numerous lacunae. d images due to numerous lacunae.