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Restoration department: tapestries and carpets

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Activity information

The Laboratory

The Laboratory

Location

The restoration laboratory of tapestries and carpets is located in Palazzo Vecchio, the Town Hall of Florence, in the Sala delle Bandiere, at the level of the chemin de ronde, the walkway beneath Arnolfo’s tower. It was previously located in the west wing of the Uffizi, in an area of the 19th-century Royal Post Office (Vecchie Poste).

History

The tapestries and carpets restoration laboratory was created by a group of private restorers led by Alfredo and Marietta Clignon, who worked for several public institutions. With the establishment of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage in 1975, the laboratory merged into the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, along with other Florentine organisations operating in the field of restoration.
The relocation of the laboratory to Palazzo Vecchio was decided on the occasion of the restoration of the tapestries of the Sala dei Duecento. Although half of them had been transferred to the Quirinale Palace, Rome, at the end of the 19th century, the remainder of the invaluable series remained until 1983 on the walls of the hall for which the tapestries had actually been made in the mid-16th century.
When the restoration of the tapestries required removing them from their original location, the municipality of Florence decided to restructure the large Sala delle Bandiere (Hall of the Flags) to provide a suitable space ensuring that long task. Furnished with a washing pool and dyeing equipment, the laboratory was inaugurated in 1986.

Restoration activity, research, training

The restoration carried out in the laboratory follows a strict scientific and methodological approach related to research and experimentation. Theory and principles of restoration combine with the practical needs of purely manual work. Each tapestry is analysed and studied in terms of its constituent materials and realisation and is then restored using a consolidated methodology that is adapted, case by case, to the details of its weaving.
The methodological choice regarding the consolidation of tapestries, whenever possible according to the conditions of the artefact, is mainly an “integrative” consolidation. This consists in integrating warps where missing, and also the wefts in the case of losses, in order to re-establish both visual continuity and structural solidity to the tapestry. This technique allows for various solutions, excluding however the reconstruction of lost details. Furthermore, a great deal of manual skill is required to manage and control the reweaving, as well as a thorough theory knowledge to determine the procedure, with its due limitations. If the conservation conditions do not allow an integrative method, a so-called “conservative” approach is taken: the tapestry is not re-woven and a textile support is applied on the back, locally upon areas with missing warps or losses, or in certain cases behind the entire artefact.
This department collaborates with Italian and worldwide organisations and institutions in the field of training and applied research in conservation projects on innovative materials and technologies.

 

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