HISTORY AND THEORIES OF RESTORATION AND CONSERVATION OF ART WORKS

The course is part of the related and supplementary courses of the master's degree course in “History of the arts and conservation of artistic heritage” and aims to provide the critical and methodological tools for in-depth study of the theory and history of restoration.
By addressing specific problems relating to the methods of restoration and conservation of works of art and their change over time, the course allows students to broaden their knowledge on the theoretical and practical debate on these issues to understand the main current issues.

- knowledge and understanding: knowing in depth the specific vocabulary of the restoration and conservation of works of art; know the main methods of intervention on paintings and sculptures and the related debate in its evolution over time;
- ability to apply knowledge and understanding: knowing how to use specific vocabulary; knowing how to read and interpret information relating to restoration interventions in historical sources;
- judgment ability: knowing how to analyze the conservation history of a work of art; knowing how to read a historical source to understand the debate related to restoration;
- communication skills: knowing how to use adequate and specific terminology, introduced and explained in lectures or in the reference texts; knowing how to compare in a respectful and fruitful way with teachers and colleagues around the topics of the course;
- learning skills: based on the reference study material, knowing how to interpret the sources of the history of restoration to understand the operations carried out on a work of art and the related theoretical debate on the matter.

A basic knowledge of art history and artistic techniques is recommended.

The course intends to deepen problems, moments, issues related to the conservation and restoration of painting and sculpture, through case studies and protagonists who have offered a significant contribution to the development of methodologies aimed at protecting the historical-artistic heritage.
Particular attention will be paid to the evolution of the concept of restoration in the 18th - 19th and 20th centuries, as it is of particular importance for understanding the concept of restoration today and the current orientations of method and development of thought.
Therefore, alongside the in-depth study of particular themes transversal to the history of restoration and which offer a ground for meeting and debate (the concept of reuse, of lacunae, of cleaning, of reversibility, of matter in the Brandian sense, etc ...) '' attention to the major protagonists of the history of restoration between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries such as Giovanni Secco Suardo, Ulisse Forni, Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, Luigi Cavenaghi, Mauro Pellicioli, Ugo Procacci, to get to the post-war period, post-war reconstruction and protection regulations.
Specific space will be dedicated to the figures of Cesare Brandi and Umberto Baldini.
Furthermore, alongside this historical-critical trend, the focus will be on “doing” restoration, that is, on particularly significant restoration operations that lead to the analysis and highlighting of significant problems, moments, episodes. By way of example, the restoration operations carried out on some paintings by Raffaello Sanzio, or the restoration of the Sistine Chapel, should be mentioned.
In this way, a historical-critical reflection will be brought to completion, which from the nineteenth century anticipates today's solutions and, at the same time, an operational analysis perspective will be maintained on very specific examples, thus combining those that have always been the two souls of restoration: the theoretical one and the practical one.

- Baldini Umberto, Teoria del restauro e unità di metodologia, Nardini editore, Firenze 1978
- Brandi Cesare, La pulitura dei dipinti in relazione alla patina, alle vernici e alle velature, in Teoria del restauro, Einaudi, Torino 1977, pp. 89-97.
- Catalano Maria Ida, Brandi e il restauro. Percorsi del pensiero, Nardini editore, Firenze 1998
- Maino Giuseppe, Ciancabilla Luca, Progettare il restauro. Tre secoli di indagini scientifiche sulle opere d’arte, Edifir Edizioni, Firenze 2004
- Urbani Giovanni, Intorno al restauro, a cura di Bruno Zanardi, Skira editore, Milano 2000

In addition, non-attended students will have to integrate the exam program with the following texts:

- Raffaele Amore, Andrea Pane, Gianluca Vitagliano, Restauro, monumenti e città. Teorie ed esperienze del Novecento in Italia, Electa, Napoli 2010.
- Licia Vlad Borrelli, Conservazione e restauro delle antichità. Profilo storico, Viella, Roma 2008
- Laura D’Agostino, Marica Mercalli (a cura di), A scuola di restauro. Le migliori tesi degli allievi dell'Istituto Centrale per il Restauro e dell'Opificio delle Pietre Dure negli anni 2003-2005, Gangemi editore, Roma 2008

Even non-attending students are strongly advised to consult the powerpoints published among the teaching materials.

The assessment of learning takes place through a written test with open questions on the topics covered during the course and exposed in the powerpoints available among the teaching materials.

written

The currently authorized delivery method is that of lectures, but dialogic, in dual mode. Supplementary materials (sources, bibliography, videos, PowerPoint presentations used during the lessons) will be provided through the moodle platform (http://moodle.unive.it ).

Italian