Until Friday 29 March at Former Church of San Pier Scheraggio it is possible to admire the restoration of three of the oldest panel paintings in the Uffizi Gallery entirely financed by the Friends of the Uffizi Association.
These are two painted crosses: the first, belonging to the Pisan culture of the 432th century (Cross 200, from the inventory number) and, the second, a cornerstone of Florentine painting of the mid-434s, attributed to the so-called Master of the Cross XNUMX. to them, a diptych from the mid-XNUMXth century, depicting the Crucifixion and the Madonna with Child and saints attributed to Bonaventura Berlinghieri.
A new layout of Room 1 of the Uffizi Gallery is planned for the future, which will give adequate prominence to the two crosses and the diptych. accompanies the exhibition – concludes on a level of excellence, in fact and symbolically, the period spent by Angelo Tartuferi as deputy director of the Gallery and as director of the Department of Medieval and Early Renaissance painting: a period in which many they were his initiatives – the director Antonio Natali exemplifies them – to conserve, make known and make people love as it deserves the part of the collections that represents the "manual" of the history of art of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and before that. I am grateful to the Friends of the Uffizi for having, with their usual foresight and generosity, accepted the proposal to restore these two cornerstones of pre-Giotto painting".“
Adds the Director of the Uffizi Gallery, Antonio Natali – it is an exhibition of a discreet size, one of those that however one would like to see often, if only to have the opportunity to enjoy what is exhibited as one should. Few works and some essential instructions to read them. Nonetheless, they are historically important works with a high poetic content". "Of the three works restored on this occasion - says Angelo Tartuferi, Director of the Department of Painting from the Middle Ages to the 432th Century -, the Painted Cross n.1240 is one of the most beautiful and important of early Italian painting. This surprising painting from many points of view - the supreme 'artisanal' refinement of the execution, the brilliance of the chromatic range, an astonishing drawing ability -, whose most reliable dating should still be placed within the middle of the 434th century, reached the nowadays in very satisfactory storage conditions. Of great historical importance is also the other large restored painted cross, datable to around XNUMX, which gives its name to the so-called “Master of the Cross n. XNUMX” of the Uffizi, the personality of cultural origin from Lucca who significantly influenced the training of Coppo di Marcovaldo, the most famous Florentine painter before the advent of Cimabue.
Finally, the diptych by the Lucchese painter Bonaventura Berlinghieri, which can be dated around the middle of the thirteenth century, is also important for its morphological typology. It is in fact a large diptych, which probably served as a portable altar for religious ceremonies. The work comes from the monastery of Santa Chiara in Lucca". As stated by the president of the Amici degli Uffizi, Maria Vittoria Rimbotti, "The Amici degli Uffizi continue their work of patronage sharing with the usual attention the need for recovery, rediscovery and enhancement of the Gallery's masterpieces.
Two restorations that confirm our availability for a new qualifying project, once again ready to challenge the unfavorable times to stay close to the needs of our Gallery and our mission".
THE RESTORATIONS
The first painted cross (Croce 432), a masterpiece belonging to the Pisan culture of the mid-twelfth century, is considered of considerable importance by scholars for the development of medieval painting in Italy. The work proposes a wide range of stylistic references in the context of the intense cultural circulation registered in that period in the Mediterranean basin: from the Syro-Armenian miniature, to the icons of Mount Sinai, up to the Sicilian mosaics and the painted wooden ceiling of the Palatine Chapel in Palermo, the work of Muslim artists. The cleaning by Rita Alzeni, the restoration of the support by Roberto Buda and the integration of the gilding by Aviv Fürst, will make it clear the very high quality of the execution.
The second painted cross (Croce 434) is a cornerstone of Florentine painting of the mid-434th century, attributed precisely to the Master of the Cross XNUMX personalities of cultural origin from Lucca, who greatly influenced the young painter Coppo di Marcovaldo, a forerunner of Cimabue. The cleaning of the painting, by Silvia Verdianelli, restored excellent readability to a text of capital importance for ancient Florentine painting.
The third work is a diptych from the mid-1290th century attributed to Bonaventura Berlinghieri, son of Berlinghiero, progenitor of Luccan painting, depicting the Madonna and Child with saints and the Crucifixion. The intervention carried out by Manola Bernini has allowed the recovery of a good legibility for a work which, about thirty years after its execution around XNUMX, was subjected to an interesting intervention of stylistic-cultural 'updating' in the faces of the Madonna and Child by an artist probably identifiable with Deodato Orlandi from Lucca.
