85187 - History of Restoration and Theory of Preservation

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student: - knows the theory and processes of restoration carried out in the past; - is able to recognize restoration work done in the past; - is able to develop a critical approach to the preservation science; - can interact with other professionals involved in conservative interventions in both advanced and routine subjects.

Course contents

The course will focus on history, art history and restoration history. Particular care will be devoted to the evolution of the concept of restoration along the centuries according to operations of great importance. The results of interventions of particular significance performed on some paintings by Raphael, namely the Madonna del Cardellino, Florence, Uffizi, the Madonna del baldacchino, Florence, Palazzo Pitti, Santa Cecilia and Saints, Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, the Rooms of the Vatican Palace, the cartoons for the Tapestries, today conserved in London at the Victoria & Albert Museum, will be discussed and critically assessed.

Readings/Bibliography

• A. CONTI, Storia del restauro e della conservazione delle opere d'arte, Electa, Milano 2010 (or previous editions).
  
• M. DE LUCA, Raffaello nelle Stanze del Papa, in Verità nascoste sui muri dei Maestri. Michelangelo, Raffaello, Perugino, Pintoricchio e gli altri in Vaticano, Artemide, Roma 2016, pp. 95-126.
• A. CERASUOLO, Diligenza e prestezza. La tecnica nella pittura e nella letteratura artistica del Cinquecento, Edifir edizioni Firenze, Firenze 2014.
• G. URBANI, Intorno al restauro, a cura di B. Zanardi, Skira editore, Milano 2000, pp. 15-18, 25-35, 43-48, 87-91.

Non-attending students and those who have a modest knowledge of the paths of art history will add to these texts the book of A. PINELLI, La storia dell'arte. Istruzioni per l'uso, Economica Laterza, Roma-Bari 2014.

Teaching methods

Lessons will be held remotely.

Frontal lessons will be integrated with visits to restoration laboratories and museums. Audiovisual material will also be used.

This is within the limits granted by the country's health conditions.

Assessment methods

Oral examination.

The verification of the learning takes place through the oral examination alone, aimed at ascertaining the critical knowledge and skills acquired by the student during the educational path.

The candidate will be led to demonstrate the acquired awareness of the problem of the theory of restoration through the examination of the texts and images addressed and discussed during the course and indicated in bibliography, as well as the different results of the conservative interventions put in place over the centuries from the XV to the present times, so as to attest to the acquired awareness of the fluidity of the concept of restoration and the restorative practice and the need for a firm critical consciousness for each intervention to be prepared.

The mastery of the content, the appropriate expression and the appropriate language for the subject matter, as well as the ability to summarize and analyse the concepts presented and discussed in the lessons, will be assessed.

The understanding of the problems related to the planning of a restoration, the knowledge of the paths over time will be evaluated with excellent grades, as well as the definition of the modern concept of restoration, the mastery of the specific language of the discipline and, of course, the in-depth knowledge of the texts of the program.

The only mnemonic knowledge of matter, the ability to synthesis and analysis not properly developed in an appropriate language will lead to discrete assessments.

Training gaps or lack of the appropriate lexicon, lack of knowledge of the analysis tools and the problems related to restoration interventions will lead to sufficientness alone.

Poor knowledge of the scheduled texts, inadequate lexicon, lack of understanding of the criticality of the topic and the conservative problem will be evaluated negatively.

Teaching tools

Slides, PowerPoint presentations

Office hours

See the website of Donatella Biagi