After a
three-year-long restoration, Renaissance master Piero della
Francesca's Resurrection can once again be admired in its
original glory at the civic museum of Sansepolcro, the little
Tuscan town where the artist was born sometime around 1420.
The details and colors that make up the masterpiece have been
brought back to life - the eyes of Jesus Christ, the draping of
his pink cloak, the soldiers at his feet and the hills and
fortresses against a clear blue sky on the background.
The fresco described by Giorgio Vasari, the father of modern
art history, as the Renaissance pioneer's "most beautiful"
artwork and hailed by British novelist Aldous Huxley in 1925 in
the essay "The most beautiful painting in the world", is a
symbol of Sansepolcro.
Indeed gunnery officer Anthony Clarke in 1944 famously
decided at the last minute not to bombard the town because he
remembered about the masterpiece he would otherwise have risked
destroying.
The long restoration work was carried out by Florence's
Opificio delle Pietre Dure, one of Italy's most well-known
restoration laboratories, and the art superintendency of Arezzo
and Siena, with a 100,000 euro donation from Buitoni manager
Aldo Osti.
The restoration saved the fresco from damage caused, among
other things, by earthquakes, an exhaust pipe and 40 previous
minor restorations including one in the 19th century in which
sodium hydroxide was used to "clean" the painting.
It also unveiled new details of the fresco's history.
Cecilia Frosinini, director of the Opificio's department for
the restoration of painted murals, said that, following the
work, "we can affirm with certainty what has been said for a
long time: the painting was moved here from somewhere else,
perhaps even from an external wall of the building".
"It is one of the oldest and most monumental" relocations of
a fresco in the history of art, Frosini said, adding that moving
it to its current location where the town meetings were held was
an "identity choice".
The restoration also shed new light on the artist's technique
and color choices.
"Today we know that the greens are the weakest" hues while
the pink of the cloth worn by Jesus was intended to be "richer",
noted Frosini.
The director of the restoration work on behalf of the
superintendency, Paola Refice, also said it is necessary to
ensure "ordinary maintenance work" for the fresco.
"An artwork should never require such a significant
intervention ever again".
Nevertheless, a few questions on the masterpiece remain
unanswered.
Art historians have often dated the fresco between 1450 and
1465 but new research has shifted the date to 1470.
The original location and reason why it was moved are still
unclear.
And the mystery on whether the sleeping soldier represents
Piero della Francesca remains unanswered.
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