Four years, two of maintenance, for 9,000 hours (equal to 320 hours per square meter) and about 600,000 euros of investment.
These are the numbers of the restoration of the Assumption by Tiziano Vecellio, located in the Frari basilica in Venice, which ended and was presented today.
The project was financed by Save Venice, which thanks to its commitment was able to offer a radical intervention for the safety of the 28 square meter painting, as well as a stone frame and wooden altarpiece.
The last of the interventions undergone by the work was materially carried out by three restorers who worked on site: Giulio Bono on the painting, Egidio Arlango on the stone frame and Roberto Saccuman on the wooden altarpiece.
One of the problems faced was that of the disassembly of the organ, since one of the components that risked endangering the artistic masterpiece was precisely the vibrations deriving from the nearby musical instrument.
Among the main innovations that emerged from this restoration, there are two angels in the "pendentives" on the sides of the stone frame
.
The director of the works, Giulio Manieri Elia, underlined that «there had already been four interventions, in 1816, 1906, 1964 and 1974, as well as other older ones.
New generations of milder solvents have been used.
The central element was the color, the past interventions had been uniformed with a patina which, removed, enhanced the red in its various variations, bringing out the 'almost pink' of the cassock.
There is a chromatic richness that allows you to find a correct spatiality, giving light to the painting and placing it correctly also from a religious point of view ".
The director then underlined the problem of
woodworms, "the constant problem of a wooden plank; they damage the plank that had been reclaimed both in '64 and '74. From the organ they spread on the shovel, and from the organ with the heavier
, lower notes, it was seen that there were vibrations that could cause damage. For this reason it was decided to take it apart, since the blade was very close. And it took seven people for a month ".
The classic "cotton buds" were used for the painting, which, as Bono explained, required several steps depending on the difficulty and thickness to be recovered.
The Superintendent of Fine Arts, Emanuela Carpani, praised the work of the team "made up of trusted technicians, of the highest level, starting with the construction manager. We wanted to intervene both on the painting, and on the altarpiece and altar to guarantee the balance between the parts that make up the work ".