ROME - Incarnations that recover their freshness, garments that show every smallest decoration, shadows that give new depth and truth to the scene, in a long and careful work of returning to the perfection of the origins: at Villa Farnesina, the representative office of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the restorations that will bring back to their splendor the Triumph of Galatea by Raffaello Sanzio, the adjacent panel of the Polyphemus by Sebastiano del Piombo and on the first floor of the building, in what was Agostino's bedroom Chigi, the wall paintings by Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, known as Il Sodoma, known as The Wedding of Alessandro and Roxane.
The restorations, supported entirely by IGT and directed by the Conservator of the Farnesina Virginia Lapenta with the high supervision of the Special Superintendence of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Rome, began already last July and will end in January: to be carried out by Antonio Forcellino, former author of the Raphaelesque restoration of the Sibyls (1514) of Santa Maria della Pace (which Raphael once again carried out for Agostino Chigi).
The interventions for the works of Raffaello and del Piombo will concern the removal of the layer of dust and dirt that tarnishes the colors, but also the verification of the state of the plaster to restore any detachments from the wall.
The intervention on Sodoma's masterpiece is more complex, marred by the alteration it underwent due to the materials used during a restoration of the last century:
due to a glossy and dark patina, the refined painting of the artist is in fact hidden, who managed to transfer the effects of transparency and nuance of Leonardo Da Vinci (whose presence in Rome strongly influenced him) on the wall.
But the restoration will also be an opportunity to continue on the one hand the technical-diagnostic investigations on Raphael's executive technique and on the pigments used, thanks also to the collaboration with Antonio Sgamellotti, Socio linceo, who has recently discovered in the sky and in the eyes of Galatea the very rare pigment known since ancient times as "Egyptian blue", and on the other, as regards the paintings of Sodoma, to try to identify which of the students belonging to the painter's workshop participated in the realization of the frescoes together with his teacher.
Once again, therefore, Villa Farnesina confirms itself not only as a unique place in the world for its history and artistic value, but also as an open site for research, restoration and enhancement, capable of always revealing new aspects.
The works, which will continue until January, can also be followed by the public, thanks to the guided tours scheduled every second Sunday of the month, starting from 9 October (then 13 November, 11 December and 8 January, with reservations required).
"The first cleaning essays are already exciting. We worked without solvents, only with water. But already only from the nymph's arm cleaned of dirt you can find that fresh complexion like a rose petal typical of Raphael's mastery", he said to the 'ANSA Antonio Forcellino, "
We will continue with the cleaning and consolidation of the plasters that are a little detached from the wall.
Consolidation is also needed for Sebastiano del Piombo's Polyphemus.
And even here, even from the first clean parts, the colors have another freshness "." While for the Sodoma frescoes the work is more complex: in addition to cleaning we have to remove a layer of acrylic that has ruined the painted walls "." We started in July and we will finish by the end of next January ", continued Forcellino," so we hope that these masterpieces will be well for another 40 years "." The responsibility of safeguarding and enhancing the immense Italian historical-artistic heritage represents a commitment consolidated and rooted in our identity ", said Fabio Cairoli,