Restoration department: canvas and panel paintings

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Activity information

The Laboratory

Location

The laboratory occupies an entire wing of the large spaces on the ground floor of the OPD location in a 19th-century building within the Fortezza da Basso. It is the Institute’s largest laboratory in terms of size and the number of staff employed.

History

The restoration laboratory of the OPD’s canvas and panel paintings department descends from the conservation laboratory of the Soprintendenza of Florence founded in 1932 by Ugo Procacci. The laboratory owes its heritage to the tradition of painter-restorers who worked for the Uffizi Gallery on the ground floor of the Uffizi in the rooms of the Vecchia Posta, previously the Royal Post Office.
The activities of Procacci’s laboratory initially focused on the recovery of ‘primitive’ Florentine paintings, as demonstrated on the occasion of the great exhibition on Giotto and his followers in 1937. In the following years, the lab intervened on artworks damaged by the war and subsequently on those affected by the Florentine flood of 1966.
Although catastrophic, the 1966 flood contributed to reinforcing the restoration department, leading also to the relocation of the laboratory to the newer spacious premises of the Fortezza da Basso. Highly invigorated, the restoration department grew in numbers and expertise, thanks also to the contributions of foreign restorers who had come in aid, merging the skills and local tradition with modern scientific approaches. The results of this important period were presented in the internationally acclaimed exhibitions of Firenze Restaura (1972) and Metodo e Scienza (1982).

Restoration activity, research, training

In addition to conservation and restoration work requested by public and private organisations, both Italian and worldwide, the department has recently expanded its activities to include research in artistic techniques of the past, in-depth study of the most modern non-invasive investigation systems, new materials for restoration, with a particular focus on the artworks present in the lab.
The results of the numerous interventions carried out in the laboratory are presented in the OPD Journal and monograph publications on the restoration of artworks by Fra’ Bartolomeo, Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, Giotto, Botticelli, Leonardo, Perugino, Jackson Pollock and many others.

 

 

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