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Period of the monument: XVIII century
Place: Palace of the Municipality of Fano (PU)
Year of restoration: 2017
Category of works: OS2-A
Client: Municipality of Fano
Supervision: Arch. Mariangela Giommi
Work performed: Stuccoes and paintings restoration
The city of Fano in the Marche region is one of the Italian towns that has retained in its architecture the distinctive features of the historical eras it has passed through. Founded in Roman times, the city had a remarkable urban development that went hand in hand with the establishment of its strategic importance among the cities of central Italy: from the remains of the Roman era, still perfectly preserved, to structures dating from the Middle Ages, the Malatesta era, and the Baroque period, all coexist harmoniously to bring together religious and civil architecture of different historical periods.
In this context is the restoration work dedicated to the stairwell of the eighteenth-century Palazzo Comunale (former convent of the Minor Conventual Fathers), for which the company SANSONE srl was commissioned. It is found within a remarkable architectural context, between the medieval church of St. Francis and the ancient Malatesta Tombs gathered here in the seventeenth century.
The stairwell of the palace is crowned by a low pavilion vault, furrowed by ribbings that divide the surface of the vault into compartments. In the central one, of rectangular shape, the coat of arms of the city of Fano is represented. It is made up of a shield divided in two parts, loverlaid by a crown and accompanied by the motto “Ex Concordia Felicitas” enriched by decorative elements such as drapes, lances, acanthus leaves, volutes.
Thanks to accurate stratigraphic investigations, it was ascertained that the coat of arms was painted after the construction of the convent to cover up a representation of a religious character characterized by bright colors, probably following the change of use of the building.
The Cardinal Virtues are represented in the oval compartments, positioned at the corners: Justice, Fortitude, Temperance, and Prudence. Surrounding the linear frames that enclose the wall paintings present are embellishments of decorative elements in stucco such as ribbons, acanthus leaves and angels. The ovals most likely date back to the period of the construction of the convent, given the sacred theme of the representations. They were painted using only soils, from lighter to darker tones, with textured brushstrokes and dense impasto, with a result of great finesse and elegance.
The first phase of the work was therefore characterized by a thorough analysis of the general characteristics of the site to be restored, the evaluation of environmental problems, and the diagnosis of the state of conservation of the stuccoes and paintings.
The poor condition of the roofs of the building, difficult to access and therefore very degraded over time, had favored the emergence of infiltration of moisture, salt efflorescence, substantial raising of plaster with cracks and detachments.
In the early 90s a fire on the second floor aggravated the situation because of the draughts generated in the stairwell which concentrated all the hot smoke on the painted surface. The paintings, as well as the rest of the vault and the decorative stuccoes, were covered by superficial deposits due to smoke and dust that obscured the lines and colors.
For this reason, before the restoration of the paintings, the municipality undertook maintenance work on the roofs with the addition of a slated waterproof sheath after smoothing with lime.
Only in this way was it possible to begin to consolidate and restore the areas of degraded plaster of the vault, and then continue with the actual restoration.
For every phase of the work punctual photographic documentation was created and all the interventions were performed in agreement with the DD. LL. and the supervision of the Superintendence.
Mapping
The restorers first performed a complete mapping of the degraded areas of the painted surface, identifying their nature, extent, and severity, so as to have a complete picture of the situation before proceeding with the actual restoration.
In some points the coat of arms showed detachments, cracks, and missing plaster, in other points the problems concerned only the pictorial surface. The causes of the degradation (presence of moulds, salt efflorescence, humidity, traumas, deposits of dust or smoke) were accurately analyzed and specific recovery techniques were prepared for each point. Some small areas of the surface were analyzed with stratigraphic trials in order to confirm the presence of an underlying painting.
Cleaning
As a first step the pictorial surface was cleaned with soft bristle brushes in order to remove dust and stratified dirt. The raised paint film was consolidated with injections of 10% Acril AC33 with dabbing and light pressure with Japanese paper in between so that the actual cleaning of the colors could be carried out. Where the painting was more resistant, cleaning was carried out with deionized water applied with a natural sponge, interposing fine-weight Japanese paper on the surface: in the points where the organic dirt was particularly compact, wraps were made with Japanese paper and water saturated with ammonium, left in contact with the surface for a few minutes.
Similar cleaning techniques were applied where there were yellowish patinas of an organic nature, with the application of swabs and compresses with different exposure times depending on the extension and resistance of the patina.
Consolidation
The next phase was dedicated to the structural consolidation of the plaster, localized operations in the points where there was noticeable lifting, missing parts, and cracks.
Injections of a mineral hydraulic mortar were performed exploiting the small gaps created between the existing gaps and the lesions large enough to allow the insertion of a needle. Then the plaster was adhered through wooden props kept under pressure until the completion of the process. Where the detachment was evident and dangerous it was necessary to create micro-pilings with cotton soaked in vinyl resin. The intervention was completed with grouting with special mortar for both deep and superficial gaps.
Pictorial restoration and completion
After the cleaning and the structural consolidation it was finally possible to proceed with the pictorial restoration, in order to reconstitute the integrity and the original aesthetics of the decoration. Some of the gaps in the painting were filled in with glazes similar to the original colors, using pure mineral pigments (soils and oxides) and watercolor: where there were large portions missing, white tempera mixed with pigments was used.
The restorers worked in such a way as to achieve chromatic harmony with the surrounding original painting in order to restore the decorative finesse of the work making the points of intervention less visible.
Mapping
The restoration procedure of the four pictorial ovals representing the Cardinal Virtues was similar to that used for the coat of arms. The mapping of the state of preservation showed a widespread degradation of the plaster (missing parts, detachments, cracks) and of the colors with alteration of the pictorial film due to various factors. In particular, the oval representing Justice was in poor condition due to significant water infiltration from the roof and particularly dark stains caused by the combustion of the paint during the fire of the ‘90s. For this reason, the work of cleaning and restoration was particularly thorough and complex. The painting of Prudence also presented the specific problem of a heavy orange tempera repainting, applied during a previous restoration to hide a large dark stain that was revealed during the intervention of SANSONE’s restorers.
Cleaning
The restorers performed cleaning trials on each painting to test the resistance of the pictorial surface before a more in-depth intervention. Afterwards, the cleaning was carried out both with dry techniques (dusting with soft brushes, removal of deposited materials with wishab gum) and with wet techniques (mainly with swabs and rinses of deionized water).
The painting of Fortitude, which had a very tenacious layer of dirt, underwent an initial superficial cleaning and then an intervention of consolidation of the plasters, before moving on to a specific cleaning based on compresses with sepiolite and fine cellulose paste, soaked in a saturated solution of ammonium carbonate, with Japanese paper interposed on the surface.
For Justice the cleaning was also carried out step by step, so as to identify with precision which were the traces of degradation from the repainting performed in the previous restoration after the fire.
For Prudence, it was necessary to remove the heavy repainting behind the central figure, using saturated water and specific products.
Consolidation
The interventions of consolidation of the plaster were similar for all four paintings and consisted mainly in injections of hydraulic mineral mortar, filling of the fractures with slaked lime and washed sand. In some cases the consolidation and cleaning works were alternated at different stages of work, respecting the specific problems of each painting. In particular, in the case of Justice, the consolidation of the pictorial film was carried out before the wet cleaning, since, due to it’s very compromised state of conservation, it would not have been able to adequately support the humidity brought in during this phase. This procedure allowed for the complete detachment of the black crusts before continuing with the spatula filling of the gaps in order to level out the unevenness of the surface.
Pictorial restoration and completion
Once the restoration of the plasters and the thorough cleaning of the surfaces were completed, we proceeded with the actual pictorial restoration, aimed at reconstructing the painted figures as completely as possible, maintaining the original style. The pictorial retouching was carried out in order to adapt it as much as possible to the original drawing, integrating the plastered gaps and abrasions with color glazes that respected the original colors. Tempera mixed with mineral pigments (soils and oxides) or pigments diluted in acrylic resins and watercolors were used. Even in this last phase, the choice of techniques and materials was made according to the characteristics of the individual works, in order to intervene in a focused manner.
The restoration also involved the entire system of molded cornices, friezes, and stuccoes that surround the wall paintings and that literally model the space dividing it into geometric sectors. The artistic and structural restoration of these decorations greater enhanced the environment and the paintings, completing the recovery of the entire stairwell of the municipal building.
The friezes modeled in stucco, which reproduce vegetable elements, cherubs, ribbons, shells, and other items, are anchored to the wall by means of nails, finished on the surface with plaster of about 1 cm.
Preliminary analysis revealed five successive layers of paint, the result of whitewashing carried out over decades, which, however, were done without first cleaning the surface, as evidenced by the dust found between one layer and another: paradoxically, this made it easier to remove the paint and the emergence of the original surface, which was cleaned with natural sponges and deionized water. The support nails were also brushed and treated with specific anti-rust products.
The restorers then worked on consolidating the detached points, removing stains caused by infiltrations, and integrating the missing or degraded parts. The final touch was to apply a uniform patina over the entire surface of the staircase, maintaining the original light color.
