(Finance) – Three important ones sculptures in polychromed wood from the Baroque period they were restored by the MOSAIC center (MultidisciplinaryOrganization for Studying and Analyzing materials in Art and Conservation), born from the collaboration of the University of Salento with the Polo Bibliomuseale della Puglia and the Province of Lecce. The first phase of this collaboration was hosted by the restoration laboratory of Castromediano Museumwaiting for the Center to settle in the former Dominican Convent of Cavallino. The three works, not yet exhibited to the public, come from places of monastic seclusion: a bust of Ecce Homo and a Saint Onofrio from the Benedictine Monastery of Lecce and another Ecce Homo from that of the Poor Clares of Nardò.
This is a unique opportunity to discover Southern Baroque: the absolute preview exhibition of “Precious woods” is hosted from November 21st to December 18th with one unprecedented look at the art and spirituality of Southern Italyand celebrates not only the artistic heritage, but allows the public to admire these three emblematic pieces for the first time, which reveal the cultural and devotional richness of the Baroque season in Lecce.
Prof. Casciaro, how was the “Interdisciplinary Convergence” project born and what role did the collaborations between the Superintendence, CNR ISPC and the University of Salento play in the development and implementation of the restoration of the exhibited works?
The project was born following the establishment of the MOSAIC study center (Multidisciplinary Organization for Studying also Analyzing materials In art and Conservation). This is a project financed by the National Research Plan which sees the University of Salento as the leader and the Polo Bibliomuseale della Puglia and the Province of Lecce as partners. The first activity carried out by the Center is the “Interdisciplinary Convergences” project, which aimed to bring together multiple institutions and multiple skills around the study and restoration of some unpublished sculptures. The works in question are also owned by cloistered female monasteries and were therefore not exhibited to the public. The Benedictines of Lecce and the Poor Clares of Nardò, who granted the loan in exchange for the restoration, have undertaken to make the works accessible after the exhibition in spaces set up within their respective monasteries. The analyzes on the materials involved the CNR ISPC which carried out the stratigraphic analyses, the Archaeobotany Laboratory of the Department of Cultural Heritage of Unisalento which carried out the dendrological analyzes and the Quarta Colosso Radiology Studio of Lecce which carried out the CT scans. All operations took place under the high supervision of the ABAP Superintendence of the provinces of Brindisi and Lecce. The restoration interventions were carried out by specialized personnel contracted by the Department of Cultural Heritage of Unisalento and the spaces in which they took place were granted by the Bibliomuseale Center and the Province of Lecce.
How does “Legni Preziosi” represent a practical example of the third mission of universities, i.e. the valorization of cultural heritage with a view to social inclusion and sharing of research results with the public?
The artistic heritage of the area has always been part of our university research activity and has already seen in the past a natural outcome in collaboration with museum institutions. Today, seeing all the institutions mentioned but also ecclesiastical bodies involved, as well as a private radiological laboratory, means having established a collaborative relationship that affects various social areas. In addition to publishing the results of the research in scientific journals, we have decided to make the results of the research public through an exhibition in the most important museum in the city, displaying the restored works in a large room of the permanent collection, accompanied by educational equipment and a video in which you can follow the various phases of the restoration. We have entrusted the communication of the project and the exhibition event to a qualified agency, which is enjoying an extensive information campaign.
What innovative diagnostic technologies were used during the restoration of the sculptures and how did these contribute to the historical and artistic understanding of the works?
The use of Computerized Axial Tomography (CT) allowed us to understand the construction structure of the three works, revealing specific assembly techniques that help us trace the workshops that created them. The analyzes on the pictorial materials used for the polychromes made it possible to identify the original decorations hidden by layers of repainting. To remove the latter, different techniques were compared, finding the most suitable solution for each case. In particular, the oil-resinous paint that covered the Ecce Homo of the Poor Clares of Nardò could be removed by cleaning with an enzymatic method. An eco-friendly detergent was applied, in the form of an aqueous gel, with a pH between 6.5 and 7.5, based on stabilized lipase enzymes, which act selectively only towards the substance you want to remove, without attacking and damaging the surface and without producing fumes that can be harmful to operators.
The restoration of Ecce Homo revealed a hidden signature that revealed its author. How important is, in your opinion, the interdisciplinarity between art, history and science in the research and valorization of artistic heritage?
Interdisciplinarity is essential today to achieve reliable results both in the study and in the restoration intervention. The disciplines compared provide each other with counter-proofs of the hypotheses formulated and the data emerged. In the case of the Ecce Homo of the Benedictine nuns of Lecce, the discovery of the cartouche with the author’s signature has provided new and very interesting data, which confirms the hypotheses on the productive scope of the work which already emerged from the study of the technique and of the style of the work. Parallel archival research contextualized the circumstances of the commission of the sculpture and the figure of the artist, Diego Viglialovos.
To what extent can the collaboration model that characterized the “Interdisciplinary Convergence” project be replicated for other research and valorization projects of cultural heritage, and what are the main challenges to be faced?
I state somewhat presumptuously that research and restoration on cultural heritage should always be addressed as happened with the “Interdisciplinary Convergences” project. We would not have been able to arrive at the discoveries we are presenting today without the contribution of all the skills that were involved. I believe that the main challenge today is to find the resources to conduct study and analysis campaigns that do not neglect material and diagnostic data and that make them usable through correct archiving, obviously also electronically. For well-founded and reliable knowledge, it is necessary to be able to compare data, which is often difficult to find even where the analyzes were performed. A final, not secondary, step is to make good use of photography. The phases of the restoration work were documented by a detailed photographic campaign with the involvement of a professional photographer.