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Archaeological Heritage Service

Activity information

The service

The Laboratory

Location

The Archaeological Heritage Service holds an office in the OPD’s historical headquarters in the via degli Alfani 78, but is operational in all the Opificio laboratories and sites. As it is a cross-area service, it supports the Institute’s various restoration departments for conservation, restoration, and research involving archaeological artefacts, in various constituent materials.

History

Archaeological restoration is closely related to the history of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure. As early as the Grand Duchy period, the craftsmen in the original art workshop were also employed in the restoration of Roman sculptures. According to the methodology of the time, this involved the integration of missing parts by inserting, with pivots, large pieces carved ex novo.

Since the post-unification period, when the Opificio was converted into a centre for restoration, a new methodology for the restoration of archaeological pieces was adopted. This similarly occurred for stone and mosaic materials, the fields in which the Opificio was originally specialised. The methodology gradually evolved by employing experimental techniques that were innovative for the time, such as extracting wide portions of Roman floor mosaics using large wooden rollers.

In the 1930s, the OPD’s restorers were active in archaeological excavation and anastylosis campaigns on the Dodecanese islands. Work on the Grand Master’s Castle on Rhodes was accomplished in 1938-40. Most of the splendid mosaic and opus sectile floors from the several rooms of the castle, dating from the 2nd to the 5th century AD, come from the excavations undertaken after the 1933 earthquake in the ancient settlement of the nearby island of Coo. Under the supervision of the restorers Antonio Freni and Vittorio Toti, the mosaics were detached and reassembled, with many extensive additions.

Throughout the 1930s, the Opificio’s stone restorers also worked on the ancient Roman cities of Cyrene, Sabratha, and Leptis Magna (now in Libya), for the anastylosis and reinstallation of structural marble elements that were often entirely decorated.

Activity, Research, Training

The OPD continued working on archaeological restorations even after the Second World War, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, in Italy and other countries., Progressively, the Institute evolved its expertise from the restoration of mosaics and stone materials to all other materials related to archaeological heritage. These include ceramics, wall paintings, metals, goldsmithery and textiles. After the Institute acquired its special autonomy, a specific service for archaeology was introduced.

The Archaeological Heritage Service works alongside the OPD’s restoration departments and the scientific laboratories, providing consultation on conservations, restorations and research projects regarding archaeological heritage. In recent years, it has handled challenging cases in cooperation with various institutions. Many restorations and research projects have been carried out with the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Florence. Other fruitful partnerships involve the Museo Archeologico Nazionale Gaio Cilnio Mecenate in Arezzo; the Soprintendenza Archeologica of Pompeii for a project on the city’s public fountains; the Fondazione Brescia Musei for the restoration of the Vittoria Alata di Brescia; and more recently, the Soprintendenza ABAP of Pisa and Livorno, the Museo Guarnacci in Volterra, and the Complesso monumentale dei Girolamini in Naples.

Conservation and restoration works performed by this service are an opportunity to develop various research lines in collaboration with the OPD laboratories involved in specific cases. These include investigations into the artistic techniques developed in antiquity for a variety of artefacts, as well as studies on the history of collecting and restoration, often related to the understanding of the conservation history of various archaeological artefacts now exhibited in museums.

The service is also actively involved in the training activities of the OPD Higher Education School, within the teaching of Classical Archaeology and with research carried out for specific degree dissertations. It is also responsible for developing technical modules for the training programs focused on the restoration of archaeological heritage.

 

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