The year 2004 marked the 500th anniversary of the year in which Michelangelo’s David was completed and placed in the Piazza della Signoria. To honor the occasion, the Accademia Gallery, current home of the masterpiece, organized a program of conferences and events, including exhibits, publications and restored works of art. American based non-profit organization Friends of Florence funded the diagnostic work on the statue as well as a DVD about the masterpiece and its restoration and a web site dedicated to the entire project.
However, an even larger project had to be completed first, and in only one year. Arranged along the side walls of the Tribune are a series of enormous paintings and panels, some of them as large as 15 square meters, by Florentine contemporaries of Michelangelo, including Pontormo, Angelo Bronzino, Alessandro Allori, Francesco Granacci. To understand the David, one must attempt to comprehend the artists of his century, and these paintings provide a context for the great sculpture.
The museum thus was in need of two distinct projects: restoration of the works by Michelangelo, and the restoration of the setting and its expositional arrangement.
Many of the paintings were in critical condition: vast infestations of woodworms and damage from old restoration work. In sum, the exhibition area’s appearance was anything but acceptable compared with that of the other rooms of the Gallery. The degree of deterioration would have been even more apparent by the time the David was scheduled to be restored, in the spring of 2004.
The paintings in the lateral arms of the Tribune had long suffered from neglect. Their location beside the David had relegated them to ‘decorative’ status, accessories to the work on which visitors focus. There was little hope that the public administration would have intervened given the paintings’ size and condition. Many of them were covered with a thick layer of dirt that had been subsequently covered by several applications of a brownish patina, which rendered the paintings illegible. As Franca Falletti, director of the Accademia Gallery, said, ‘For a type of art defined as “visual”, visibility cannot be considered an accessorial factor.’
One of the most extreme cases was Agnolo Bronzino’s Deposition (1560-1561), a large painting on wood commissioned by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici for the Portoferraio Franciscans. It had been shipped on a boat to Elba Island and was in a disastrous state of conservation due to a series of events, including a cleaning gone wrong in 1817. A thick, dark patina had covered the painting, like a veil, for two centuries. The upper area of the painting was completely invisible. But it had also vanished in a critical sense: despite its importance, evidenced by its patronage, it was dismissed by scholars of the time, who attributed their lack of interest to its late placement in the chronology of the artist.
Friends of Florence made a commitment to restore all the paintings in the Tribune of the Accademia by July 2003. Some donors sponsored the restoration of an entire work (see box), others contributed towards a general fund for the entire project. The Friends of Florence also renovated a laboratory, the Sala delle Cacce in Palazzo Pitti, where the huge paintings could be restored, and published Around the David, a book and CD ROM on the Tribune Project. The project also included new interpretive panels. Providing explanations has helped transform the Gallery into a place of learning as well as aesthetic enjoyment, according to Falletti, and a means of instructing artists.
One of the most interesting parts of the restoration was the ‘uncovering’ of the flowers typical in Allori’s paintings. The artist had a unique way of using popular flora to convey religious and cultural symbols.
Once the flowers emerged after restoration, the Accademia decided to cultivate a number of the plants in the adjoining garden, where visitors can now admire first hand the flora so inspirational to Allori.
All of this thanks to Friends of Florence. As Falletti observed, ‘The Friends of Florence patrons allowed all restoration to be done at one time, which never would have happened without their funding. However, I can say that the most amazing thing about Friends of Florence is their consistent ability to understand the needs of this city and their tremendous willingness to help.’
The restoration was made possible by the Friends of Florence with major grants from the following:
Michele Tosini, known as Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio
Portrait of a Lady (Ideal Portrait)
Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda
Pontormo
Venus and Cupid
John and Kathe Dyson
Giuliano Bugiardini
Madonna and Child with the Young St. John the Baptist (or Madonna della Palma)
Friends of Florence
Stefano Pieri
The Sacrifice of Isaac
Renèe and Stephen Gardner
Pier Francesco di Jacopo Foschi
Holy Family with the Young Saint John the Baptist
Dorothy Collins Weaver
Tommaso Manzuoli, known as Maso di San Friano
Allegory of Fortitude
Friends of Florence
Carlo Portelli
Immaculate Conception
M. Ann O’Brien
Vasarian Painter (Giorgio Vasari?)
Saint Barbara
Elissa and Edgar Cullman, Jr.
Francesco Morandini, known as Il Poppi
Allegory of Charity
Michael and Sandy Collins
Tommaso Manzuoli, known as Maso di San Friano
The Trinity and Saints James the Great, Augustine, Philip and Crispinus
Mr and Ms Frank W. Hulse IV
Francesco de’ Rossi, known as Il Salviati
Madonna and Child, Young St. John the Baptist and an Angel
Friends of Florence
Agnolo di Cosimo Tori known as Il Bronzino
Deposition
Terry and Cynthia Perucca
Alessandro Allori
Madonna Enthroned with Christ Child and Saints
Robyn and Mel Gibson
Alessandro Allori
Annunciation
Robert and Shirlene Elkins
Alessandro Allori
Coronation of the Virgin
Friends of Heritage Preservation, Los Angeles, California
Alessandro Allori
Baptism of Christ
Friends of Florence
Cosimo Gamberucci
Saint Peter Healing the Lame Man
Chicago Chapter of Friends of Florence
Alessandro Allori
Annunciation
Friends of Florence
Stefano Pieri
Deposition of Christ
Friends of Florence
Santi di Tito
Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem
Friends of Florence
Santi di Tito
Lamentation over Christ with Saints John the Baptist, Catherine of Alessandria and the Donor
