After the restoration, the leaders of the Florence Cathedral shine again
The restoration of the two magnificent frescoes by Paolo Uccello and Andrea del Castagno in the Florence Cathedral representing the legendary leaders Giovanni Acuto and Niccolò da Tolentino has been completed. From Saturday 17 December 2022, anyone who enters the Cathedral will be able to see them again, freed from the scaffolding of the restoration site that has covered them in recent months, or take part in specially organized guided tours (https://duomo.firenze.it/it/home).
The restoration, which began at the end of May 2022, was commissioned and directed by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore – under the tutelage of the ABAP Superintendency for the metropolitan city of Florence and the provinces of Pistoia and Prato – and made possible thanks to American Express . The intervention was entrusted to the restorer Daniela Dini, who had already taken care of the two works in 2000.
The two masterpieces have undergone numerous restorations over the centuries which have left an indelible mark on them. It was decided to intervene again because, although the state of conservation was quite good, more than twenty years had passed since the previous restoration and the pictorial surface appeared dulled by a uniform dark patina, caused by the accumulation of particulate matter produced by pollution and from inert dust deposited over time.
Of almost equal dimensions – the monument to Giovanni Acuto measures 855×527 cm and that to Niccolò da Tolentino 833×512 – of the two cenotaphs, only that of Paolo Uccello is signed, and it is the first time that the artist signs one of his works: “in a of proud vindication”.
With his army, called the “White Company”, made up of two thousand Welsh archers equipped with enormous bows, almost two meters high, the Englishman John Hawkwood, nicknamed in Florence Giovanni Acuto (1323 – 1394), was a legendary leader and captain of fortune in the service of various States and finally of the Florentine Republic. Niccolò Da Tolentino (c. 1350 – 1435), after having fought for the Malatestas and passed into the service of the Florentines, was appointed captain general of Florence for his deeds. It was he who led, achieving victory, the terrible Battle of San Romano (1432), immortalized by Paolo Uccello in the famous triptych preserved in the Uffizi, the Louvre Museum and the National Gallery in London.
“The leaders of Paolo Uccello and Andrea del Castagno – declares Sergio Givone, Vice-President of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore – have a particular symbolic value for Florence. This gives the restoration a high value not only artistic, but also civil and cultural ” .
“American Express enthusiastically supports the city of Florence with various initiatives aimed at enhancing its beauty and promoting its tourist attraction at an international level” says Maria Pina Carai, Director, Head of Client Management Global Merchant Services Italy of American Express. “With the contribution to the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore we want not only to promote the area, but also to restore value to the community and stimulate, through our ecosystem, quality tourism capable of attracting tourists from all over the world. Our The goal is to generate benefits both for the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore and for the entire city, supporting the discovery of small merchants, excellence and craft activities that represent the identity of Made in Italy abroad”.
Restoration
The current restoration intervention had a preventive and conservative nature. To eliminate the most superficial dust, we intervened with a dusting with soft brushes over the whole painting, while the deeper one was removed with a light cleaning with a swab with cotton wool and deionized water and interposed Japanese paper, trying at the same time to maintain as much as possible the previous large-scale pictorial retouching. Finally, a punctual pictorial retouching was carried out, with tonal glazes, in the gaps through the use of natural pigments (vegetable and/or mineral).
The first restoration of the two frescoes dates back to 1524, by the painter Lorenzo di Credi who at the same time also created the “candelabra” frame on Paolo Uccello’s fresco. In 1688 the two works were “reinvigorated” on the occasion of the wedding of Prince Ferdinando, son of Cosimo III dei Medici, with Violante of Bavaria. Given the poor state of conservation, in 1842 the restorer Giovanni Rizzoli, with a very daring operation, detached them from the wall and placed them on a canvas framed only on the sides. While the painter Antonio Marini intervenes with a substantial pictorial restoration. Instead of putting them back in their place, the two frescoes were placed on the counter-façade where they remained until 1946. Once again in bad conditions, in 1953, it will be the turn of the important intervention carried out by Dino Dini who, in addition to removing the remakes of the previous restorations and making a pictorial retouching on the gaps, will remove the two frescoes from the canvas, placing them on a rigid support made of tempered masonite and an aluminum frame. In the 2000 restoration, also carried out by Daniela Dini, the two works underwent complete cleaning and a vast pictorial retouching with tonal veiling in the gaps.
The intermediation of the partnership between the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore and American Express, which supported the restoration, was managed by ArtFin Servizi e Garanzia per l’Arte.
Source: Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore – Press office