The restoration of Donatello’s Crocifissione is complete, and now resides in the Bargello National Museum. This beautiful and unique piece was created circa 1455, and consists of a bronze panel inlaid with gold and silver. Interestingly the gold and silver were not achieved through paint or varnish, but actually through the art of damascening, and the use of incredibly thin plates of metal.
The work, consciously executed by the skillful restorer Maria Ludovica Nicolai, primarily dealt with the superficial cleaning of the three metals. As has been the case with other bronzed work from the Renaissance, a dark coating had collected hiding both the gold, and more considerably, the silver inlay. A workstation open to the public was arranged in the National Museum, where Nicolai worked for six months on the restoration. The bronze plate was delicately cleaned using a solution of solvents, while the gilded copper and silver were uncovered and polished using a laser.
The restoration was made possible by the generous twenty thousand dollar donation made by Janet and Jim Dicke II, as well as the Friends of Florence, a non-profit organization interested in the preservation of Florence’s art and culture. The brilliance and definition of the metals in la Crocifissione have been brought back to life, a quality of Donatello’s work which Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi, director of the Bargello, dubbed “the emblem of his intellectualism until the late years of his life”.
