RICERCA ITALIANA     

History and Criticism of Conservation Activity of Historical and Artistic Heritage in Southern Italy (1750- 1950)

Università degli Studi di Lecce

Abstract

Summary

This research program is the natural extension of the experience of the international study meeting held in the Auditorium of Museo di Capodimonte in 1999, about "Storia del restauro dei dipinti a Napoli e Regno nel XIX secolo" (now edited in a special volume of «Bollettino d'Arte» - 2003).
During that meeting, many inquiry tracks emerged, all liable to be further explored. Themes discussed in that occasion share a new horizon in historical research; dealing with guardianship, preservation and conservation fields, it resolves to open new critical and methodological ways in a reviewing process, concerning instruments themselves of History of Art.
A decisive input to this process comes from modern data processing technology, that consents the constitution of updateable and increasable data banks, creating new study possibilities due to control in gathering and compilation stage, recovery during the research, web diffusion of the results.
This project aspires to find an important strength in organic cooperation between various institutions: Archivio di Stato di Napoli, Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Napoletano, Soprintendenza Archeologica delle province di Napoli e Caserta, Archivi di Stato di Napoli, di Palermo e delle province pugliesi, Soprintendenze di Puglia e Sicilia, Museo Provinciale di Lecce.
According to this is clear how formation, care, conservation and documentary collections Institutions become direct interlocutors and members of a research group at same time, that is consciously composed by different kind of person: art historians, archeologists, archivists and restaurators have to work together, confronting their different approaches in order to obtain an high integrated result.
We choose for this research a wide chronology: two hundred years from the middle of XVIIIth to the middle of XXth Century.
Museum and territory will be the places for the research: here we will try to measure in long times an historical dialogue in which opposite istances will interlace, that will see connected also the demand of the market and of the restoration connected to antiquary, together with the formulation of theoretic specific bases. Intellectuals, artist, collectionists, scientists, technicians are the different protagonists of a story, not always well-known, that goes on between the opposite poles of a reutilisation, guardianship, conservation and restoration.
Using the large documentation of archive and the same artworks, as primary fonts of aknowledge, we can verify the presence of situations where the theoretic substratum justifies the operative methods, without forgetting the need of observing methodological changes that are the result of particular historical and cultural moments. <<<

Principal Investigator

Regina POSO Università degli Studi di LECCE

Research Objectives

The first aim of the national research is to create an Archive and Data bank of the history of restoration of the artistic heritage in Southern Italy from the second half of the 18th century up to 1950.
The chronological limit proposed by the three universities on the cultural areas which have to be examined is suggested by the wide documentary fonts, mestly unknown, to which it is necessary to apply to acquire new data of knowledge, and that, by means of informatic systems already used by the Secco Suardo Association, want to obtain the following:
- acquiring all the documents related to history of restoration in Naples, Sicily and Apulia
- acquiring all the documents from the artistic literature and fonts aiming to reconstruct a dossier concerning every restored work of art to permit better results in the other restoration operations
- promoting and consenting access and consultation of the data-bank to restorers and conservators involved in the restoration operations
- possibility of consulting the archivistic and visible fonts (drawings, engravings and photographs) regarding the restored works of art, thaks to an informatic system
- improving of the biography regarding painters-restorers (18th-19th century, mainly sicilian) and restorers (20th century) to include in an updated Biographic Dictionary of Italian Conservators
- promoting of the acquired data with the publishing of inventories, catalogues and indexes on specialised magazines, restoration books, volumes.
Another important aim is to consider the works of art in relation to their structures for a control of the heritage and of the institutions, organising a system to enable the consulting of material in the Archeological and Capodimonte Museums in Naples, and "S.Castromediano" in Lecce. Starting from the analysis of the works of art, kept in these museums, our research groups, studying methods, investigation instruments and informatic systems, will consider: destination, time signs, collection and market happenings, so that it can be possible to find the characteristics for a museum system.
To obtain these aims it is necessary to collect the rare bibliographic data, proceed to carry out the collection of founds connected to the restoration kept in the Archivio Storico della Soprintendenza of Naples and Caserta, the Archivio Centrale dello Stato in Rome, of the Archivi di Stato of Napoli, Palermo and of the Apulian provinces.
Starting from the bibliographic and archivistic point important themes will emerge, as bibliographic and professional events of the restorers lifes, history of collections and institutions, history of taste, techniques, lexical, materials and interventions, not well-known and that this project wants to examine.
Another aspect which has to be examined: the role of different institutions and of the directions of museums in selecting restorers and works of art which have to be restored. It will also be necessary the collection of the iconographic documentation relative to the works of art taken in exam, and that will complete the modern documentation which can be found only at the Archivio of Ufficio Restauro of Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Napoletano.
On the other side the documentation relative the history and events of restoration in Apulia and Sicily has to be started and planned.
Also useful the search at the Archivio Storico dell'Accademia di Belle Arti of Napoli, yet not explored and that contains personal data of teachers and pupils coming from Apulia and Sicily and that who worked also as restorers.
Thanks to a bibliographic and documentary research it will be possible to know and study unknown figures and themes; examination of the works of art - frescoes, sculptures and pottery for the archaeological section; paintings and sculptures for the modern section - will be used to adcquire data regarding the history of conservation, that is also history of taste.
Technical reports, index cards, graphics, photographs, radiographs, accounts of stratigraphic and chemical analysis, will be in some cases the join link between old and new, so completing the choose of a diachronic research, that is the preferencial one.
One of the results of the research coul be the possibility of constitute some "Conservation History dossiers" of the art works examined. They could be a helpful tool in the hands of people involved in programming next intervention. In fact, an aware knowledge of the historic dimension makes relative every operation to be carried on, feeding the choose - always preferable - of the minimal intervention.
The composition of a historic dictionary of local lexicon could be one of the parallel results of the research, meeting similar experiences made in other regional environments; in this case, too, the yet prepared and experimented data processing aids, offered by Associazione Giovanni Secco Suardo, will make easier the quantitative analysis, seen in the context, of linguistic recurrences.
Finally, the biographic reconstruction of conservators' profiles will, at same time, throw light on the many thematic references visible in background, as further result of the research. Revealing this way the starting theoretic and methodological proposition: highlight the plurality of interpretations allowed by this theme, helped by different kind of experts called to contribute to the project. <<<

First Results

Exploring unknown sources will permit to know various aspects connected to the theme of restauration: scholars, artists, collectionists, scientists, technicians and connoisseurs, protagonists of a story not always lived and dialogued, that goes from the opposite poles of the re-use, of the re-establish, of the conservation and of the restoration.
The use of the great archives documentation wil be compared with the works of art and then transferred in an informative data bank. Only in this way it will be possible to verify all those choices whose methodological substratum justifies some operative methods.
The analysis of the historical lexicon of the acquired documentation will complete the new historic data, which will included in the informative system already described (RES.I, AR.CO and GUIDA), experimented for research and similar to the Associazione Secco Suardo.
The comparison between the obtained results will be presented in a Seminar of studies concerning the subject, which will be held in Lecce.In the second phase the objective is that of compiling "dossiers of the history of conservation" from the works examined, in this way supplying a work instrument for the person who, in charge of supervising activity, would be facilitated in the projection stage. A correct, programmed conservation cannot exclude, in fact, a good knowledge of a historic dimension which diminishes any operation to be carried out on the works, as the choice, always preferable, of the smallest intervention shows.
The compilation of a historic dictionary of local lexis would be applied also and, for justified reasons, in this phase of comparison not only by the three research units, but by other research groups and inserted with the means at the disposal of the Associazione Secco Suardo, facilitating in this way a contextualised and quantitative research of linguistic recurrencies.
In conclusion the same network of thematic references visible in filigree as a background to the biographic reconstruction of the restorers careers is proposed as an ulterior result of the research and in some way reveals the original theoretical and methodological assumption.
Another result consists in underline the different readings that the theme allows, thanks to the informatic instruments and mainly to the different competences called to collaborate to the project.
Finally to make available (consulting, also on-line, informative data) these results, even if partial, in a territory where the areas of the research are often impraticable and isolated, is the innovative and indispensable task. Aport from the diffusion with informative means, all the results of the project will be presented in a meeting that will be held in Naples and Lecce. <<<

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

Studies about history of guardianship and conservation of the Italian historical artistic heritage - from the states of ancient regime up to the first half of XX century - notably increased in the last twenty years. They reveal with rising clearness that, in Italy more than elsewhere, they also involve history of the Institutions. Also for such reason these studies have been conducted with rising awareness of the necessity to plan the search on various levels, all strongly interdependent: the analysis of the restorations performed on the single objects (sometimes repeated on the same works, even in few years); the attempt to reconstruct figure and activity of some restorers of the past; investigation on theories and techniques of restoration applied; consideration of mutual conditioning among museological choices and conservation practice; evolution of juridical discipline of Cultural Heritage.
The tight connection among these various levels of investigation, the wideness of the available documentation since the half of XVIII century and the necessity to organize the information in a system preventing its dispersion, made more and more evident the necessity of the creation of a data bank for the acquisition and the consultation of the material (documentation coming from public and private archives; graphic and photographic records of the works,
before, during and after restoration; chemical analysis, et cetera).
A first effort in such sense was made by the national project "National Historical Archive ad Data -base for Italian Restorers" to which the research program here introduced will be connected.
That Project arose from the international study meeting "Giovanni Secco Suardo. La cultura del restauro tra tutela e conservazione dell'opera d'arte", held in Bergamo in 1995.
In that occasion, considering the exceptional importance of restorers' archives both for historical research and to program next restoration-conservation operations, it was planned an agreement between several institutions involved, to enable their acquisition, conservation, study and exploitation.
In 1996 a convention was then subscribed between the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro and the Associazione Giovanni Secco Suardo to constitute a National Historical Archive and Data bank of Italian Restorers, with the following purposes:
- avoiding the scattering of Italian restorers archives;
- acquiring and keeping up to date all the documents related to history of restoration;
- promoting and consenting access and consultation of the data-bank, supporting studies and researches aiming to reconstruct History of Conservation in Italy and to improve the knowledge about material history of works of art, helpful for programming next restoration.
One of the project's objectives is to organize and carry out a Biographic Dictionary of Italian Conservators, liable to be continuously increased and updated.
Considering the composite historical and cultural geography built up in Italy, it was thought advisable to call to join the project institutes and research units present on territory. A work group coordinated by professor Marisa Dalai Emiliani was then started at University "La Sapienza" in Rome, with a project co- financed by MURST for 1999 - 2000 academic years. Begun this way for Lazio area a census and recording work, initially for a period confined between Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. It involved single conservators archives as well as lots of documents kept in various kinds of archives, public and private, also connecting evidences from a published but very dispersed historiography. All data gathered this way have been organised using an automatic informative system.
This system meets these requirements: having control over the data flow; answering questions and researches; updating and increasing the data bank; producing and printing inventories, catalogues and indexes; data processing to carry out statistical examinations and comparisons; connecting with external data banks to acquire new information.
The structure of the Data Bank informative system is based on three different modules: RES.I (REStauratori Italiani), AR.CO (ARchivi COnservati) and GUIDA, able to manage documentary files containing texts, images, audio recordings and tapes.
The module RES.I is a data bank with information on the biographies of Italian restorers, on specific interventions and on the bibliographic sources.
The module AR.CO is a database of inventories of all the archives already acquired.
The module GUIDA is a database relative to a thematic guide of a defined geographical area.
Using therefore the experience already matured in the national project, as well as the effective tool offered by the association Giovanni Secco Suardo, the search we are presenting brings a contribution - related to the Southern Italy area, and particularly to the territory of the province of Naples, Sicily and Apulia - to a search with wide and long-term aims, really required by all sector operators. It will facilitate further studies on history of restoration in Italy, and will assist the concrete work of the institutional persons involved in restoration - in progress and in planning - finally, it will provide a better safeguard and efficient consultation of the archive material kept by public and private institutions. <<<