10.6092/issn.1973-9494/10346
In 1897, the architect Ernesto Basile was commissioned to design the new Chamber in the Italian Parliament. Basile visualised a long painted frieze crowning the Chamber. The assignment was given to the painter Aristide Sartorio who executed it between 1908 and 1911. The frieze is 105 meters long, 3.75 high, and consists of 50 panels painted on canvas. In 1998 the frieze was examined closely and several problems regarding its state of conservation became evident, such as the loss of elasticity of the canvas and the widespread tendency of the paint film to become detached. In order to study the problem and plan the restoration for the entire frieze, it was decided to do a pilot restoration on only one of the 50 panels. The restoration was carried out in an equipped environment inside the Parliament, during the period 2003- 2004. Based on the studies carried out over the two years, it was possible to plan the restoration of the entire frieze, which was completed in one year: from 2006 to 2007. The panels were taken to a Roman studio exclusively dedicated to this restoration. It was not possible to do the restoration in situ as it would have created a disturbance in the working of the Parliament. The panels painted by Sartorio with a particular technique based on oil and wax, were treated with BEVA 371, reactivated with heat using a flat, low pressure table, and with a heated curved low pressure table specially designed by us. Using the same system and cloth bands, the edges of the panels were reinforced and then placed on their original frames. Finally, the veil of greasy particulate matter that had deposited over a century was removed. The restoration, directed by the Architectural Superintendency of Rome, was preceded and accompanied by numerous scientific research studies on the colors, canvas, color medium, wood and microclimate of the frieze. An extensive detailed color photographic documentation recorded all the phases of the restoration.
application/pdf
1973-9494
10346
en
Daniela Bartoletti
Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage
thermoplastic resin
Restoration of the Frieze by Aristide Sartorio in the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament
Text.Serial.Journal
https://conservation-science.unibo.it/
19
Articles
2020-03-18
2020-01-10
2020-03-18
2020-03-18
99-115
CSCH
Daniela Bartoletti
2019
10.6092/issn.1973-9494/10346
99
Conservazione e restauro Snc, Rome
1973-9494
thermoplastic resin
en
115
Restoration of the Frieze by Aristide Sartorio in the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament
https://conservation-science.unibo.it/article/download/10346/10599
19
R      STORATION OF THE FRIEZE BY ARISTIDE SARTORIO
      E
      IN THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES OF THE ITALIAN
      PARLIAMENT

      Gianluigi Colalucci*1
      Former head restorer of the Painting Restoration Laboratory of the Vatican Mu-
       seums Rome, Italy

      Daniela Bartoletti
      Conservazione e restauro Snc.
      Rome, Italy




   Keywords: frieze, primer, frame, thermoplastic resin


   1. Introduction

   The frieze in the Italian Parliament was created by Giulio Aristide Sartorio between
1908 and 1911 and depicts a lyric and epic representation (an allegorical narrative his-
tory) of the Italian people (Figure 1). Inside the hemicircle, the lyric events culminate
with a citation from the Renaissance, while on the side of the Presidency, the epic
events culminate with the Risorgimento.
   It is composed of 50 canvas panels mounted on wooden frames held together with
iron pins, even though it was actually conceived as one long strip of seamless painting
running along the entire perimeter of the Chamber [1].
   The architect, Ernesto Basile, the undisputed master of Italian floral art, was com-
missioned to design the ‘new’ Camera dei Deputati (Plenary Hall) on the 11th July,
1897 and his wish was that the frieze act as a cornice above the tribunes.
   The Chamber is semicircular in shape and is situated at the point where the old
building by Fontana/Bernini joins the new building designed by Basile, the Palazzo del
Parlamento (the Parliament building).
   The space inside the Chamber is developed vertically, with a large velarium made
of glass and iron which provides it with natural light. The wall panelling is made from
Slavonian oak from the Ducrot workshops in Palermo, following Basile’s own design
(Figure 2).
   The Chamber was inaugurated on 20 November 1918, at the end of the First World
War, which was seven years later than the initially programmed 1911. Work on the
Palazzo del Parlamento, however, continued until 1926.


*1 Corresponding author: g.colalucci@virgilio.it; daniela.bartoletti@virgilio.it
G. Colalucci, D. Bartoletti - Restoration of the frieze by Aristide Sartorio




                                                                                 Figure 1. Two of the panels representing the lyric and epic events of the Italian people.




                                                                                                    Figure 2. Partial view of the Chamber with frieze.




                                                                           100
    The task of creating the frieze for the Montecitorio Chamber was given to the Ro-
man painter Giulio Aristide Sartorio, who, at the age of fifty, had reached full artistic
maturity and had gained considerable experience from his work on large formats.
    Sartorio was born in 1860 into a family of sculptors but trained at the Academy of
Fine Arts. He soon expanded his knowledge of artistic culture by studying the great
foreign masters such as Rubens, Delacroix, Courbet, as he was fascinated by decora-
tive grandeur and had a taste for theatrical effect. A great traveler, he went to Paris
twice, London and, years later, to Egypt, Syria and Latin America. After traveling to
London, he became a popularizer of the late Pre-Raphaelite painting by Burne-Jones
and Dante Gabriele Rossetti.
    Between 1896 and 1900 he taught at the Weimar Academy of Fine Arts, in the chair
that had once belonged to Lebach and Boeklin.
    The tragic experience of the war, however, for which he enlisted in 1915, and the
two years of imprisonment in Mathausen, marked him so deeply that on his return
he had no strength to resume his teaching, feeling detached from the world of other
artists. He consequently left the Academy of San Luca and his position as director (in
Italian Principe).
    He died in 1932 in Rome while he was working on the sketch of a mosaic for the
Cathedral of Messina.
    On the occasion of his death, his friend Ugo Ojetti remembered him with these
words in the newspaper, “Corriere della Sera”: “He was a tireless worker of meticulous
precision. He unaffectedly and dispassionately expressed admiration for the Parlia-
ment frieze, having painted the figures of the men and animals on the 450 meters of
canvas in 930 days. He kept the canvas wrapped around a large upright roller, the
painted canvas going one step forward each week”.


   2. The pilot restoration




                                                                                                   CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
   At the end of the 1990s, almost a century after its installation, Sartorio’s frieze was
examined up close for the first time during the restoration of the velarium that provides
light in the Chamber. The examination highlighted the critical condition of the painting
on which there were widespread areas of visibly raised color (cupping) (Figure 3).
   It was ascertained that the frieze urgently needed conservative intervention.
Thus, having assessed the complex problems it would entail, taking into account
the place (the room is only available for just over a month a year), and the difficulty
faced in accessing the frieze (positioned at about twenty meters from the floor), it
was decided that a pilot intervention would be carried out on one of the 50 panels.
This meant that the overall intervention on the entire frieze would therefore be
based on concrete information.
   At the end of 2003, on the basis of a preliminary project drafted by Conservazione
e restauro di GL. Colalucci and D. Bartoletti Snc. in 1998, the “pilot” intervention was
carried out on one of the 50 panels of the frieze. The intervention was organized so
as to have the opportunity to study the piece in the laboratory without hurrying and to
have all the necessary means and tools ready at hand. Studying and analysing the
executive characteristics, known until then only from the author’s writings, was an es-
sential task in order to fine-tune the appropriate conservative strategy to adopt for such
a complex work. The intervention also had the purpose of determining the possibility


                                                                                             101
                                                                                 of dismantling the panels, studying the anchoring system, finding a suitable protection
                                                                                 for the painted surfaces during the removal of the panels from the wall and designing a
                                                                                 light versatile packaging that would secure them safely during their transport from the
                                                                                 Chamber to the laboratory.
                                                                                     The pilot intervention lasted one year, and the restored panel was the subject of an
                                                                                 exhibition set up by the technicians of the Chamber of Deputies inside a large space
                                                                                 known as the “Transatlantico” (an area outside the Chamber reminiscent of the ocean
                                                                                 liners of the time).
                                                                                     The collected data made it possible to draw up the restoration project for the entire
                                                                                 frieze, which took place from August 2006 to August 2007, under the direction of the
                                                                                 Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities.
G. Colalucci, D. Bartoletti - Restoration of the frieze by Aristide Sartorio




                                                                                                          Figure 3. Craquelure and raised paint colours.



                                                                                    3. Technical data

                                                                                     The Parliament frieze is composed of 50 panels (Figure 4).
                                                                                     The frieze, measuring 105 meters in length and 3.75 meters in height, runs along the
                                                                                 entire perimeter of the hemicycle-shaped Chamber, the frames being designed to follow
                                                                                 its curvature. The twelve canvases on the side of the Presidency and the four positioned
                                                                                 at the ends of the hemicycle at the corners of the Chamber (two on the right and two on
                                                                                 the left), are flat and consist of a perimetral structure reinforced in the center by two inter-
                                                                                 sections composed of one vertical element and two horizontal crosspieces. The panels
                                                                                 have varying widths: from a maximum of 2.61 m to a minimum of 1.55 m.


                                                                           102
   The frames, made of pine wood belonging to the pinaceae family and specifically
that of the silver fir (Abies alba Mill) and the Norway spruce (Picea abies Karsten), are
fixed and painted a gray-blue color with an artificial ultramarine base of very fine grain
size, gypsum and oil.




        Figure 4. YELLOW = curved panels; RED = flat panels; BLUE = corner panels.




                                                                                                       CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
    The hemicycle is formed of thirty lightly curved frames, whose perimetral structure is
substantially similar to that of the flat frames and differs only in terms of the curvature of
the horizontal elements and the use of five vertical axes to reinforce the structure. The
four corner frames, that join the side of the Presidency to the hemicycle, have a very
pronounced curvature and a more complex construction than that of the flat frames.
The perimetral structure is in fact reinforced with two horizontal crosspieces and eight
vertical axes (Figure 5).
    The iron pins that connect the panels are of circular section with cut ends, inserted
into specially made openings in the long sides of the frames and fixed with a bolt.
    Sartorio purchased the canvas for the frieze in the form of a large roll on which the
priming had already been applied mechanically. The analyses carried out on the sam-
ples of material revealed the vegetal nature of the fibres with morphological character-
istics corresponding to those of a rough coarse linen, obtained from plants harvested
when the fruit was at its ripest.
    The canvas has a yellowish color and a twill weave.
    The fibers vary in length and width with a twist of between 17.5 ° and 20 °; the num-
ber of threads are approximately 12.85 for the warp and 14 for the weft, with a thread
density of 179.9 per cm².




                                                                                                 103
                                                                                 a                                  b                            c
                                                                                                  Figure 5. Fixed panel frames: flat (a); curved (b); angular (c).
G. Colalucci, D. Bartoletti - Restoration of the frieze by Aristide Sartorio




                                                                                          Figure 6. Canvas weave and texture. Figure 7. Industrially prepared canvas.



                                                                                     Between the canvas and the preparatory layer is a layer of animal protein which
                                                                                 has penetrated the textile fibers due to the glue itself being spread on the surface to
                                                                                 secure it to the preparatory layer (Figure 6). The preparatory layer is of a pale ivory
                                                                                 color (Figure 7) and very thin, with a thickness between 0.01 and 0.25 mm.; the surface
                                                                                 looks “trimmed” making the woven pattern of the textile visible.
                                                                                     The results of the chemical tests and the stratigraphic examination of polished thin sec-
                                                                                 tions carried out to identify the composition of the colors and mediums revealed an imprim-
                                                                                 itura consisting of very fine-grained white pigments and drying oil. Lead stands out from all
                                                                                 the other elements, indicating the presence of a greater quantity of white lead. The analyses
                                                                                 also highlighted the presence of zinc (white zinc), copper and traces of iron and calcium


                                                                           104
   The calcium comes from impurities in the calcite and / or gypsum which was added
as an extender to the mixture. The traces of iron are instead attributable to the small
amounts of pigments, such as ochers / earths which were used to give warmer colors.
   The presence of protein substances highlighted by the analyses, both within the
textile fibers and on the surface of the canvas, confirm that the application of the pre-
paratory layer was not preceded by the preventive wetting of the canvas.
   The 50 canvases were fixed to the frames with bent brad nails. As is usual, the
canvases were mounted on the frames with the warp in a vertical position and the weft
in a horizontal position, so as to provide greater resistance to the traction produced by
the weight of the canvas and that of the pictorial film.
   In order to transfer the design of the sketches to the canvases, Sartorio used pho-
tographic projection, a practice frowned upon by the academic world but which allowed
him to speed up progress on the work to meet the very tight deadlines that had been set.


   4. Painting the frieze

    The frieze is wax painted using a technique deriving from the temperas used in
France in the nineteenth century and which Hippolyte Flandrin adopted for the paint-
ings in the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris [4-5].
    Sartorio writes:
    “… The mixture I used for the Parliament frieze, … is composed of three equal parts
of purified wax, poppy oil and turpentine. The execution must be rapid because the
painting is already dry by the evening and after four or five days you can paint over it”.
    Opaque painting, which in those years was back in vogue, provided the artist with
the possibility of painting on canvas and obtaining a final effect similar to that of mural
painting. It should not be forgotten that the project had started out with a frescoed
frieze, as fresco was seen as the only technique that would worthily celebrate Italian




                                                                                                     CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
pictorial tradition. Indeed, it was Sartorio himself who, faced with a thousand difficulties
and emphasizing the time factor, obliged his clients to change their mind.
    Flandrin’s technique consisted in the use of oil paints that had been ‘smagrati’ on
absorbent paper (i.e. oil paints from which the oil had been removed) and which were
then mixed with wax in purified essence, also known by the name of America resin
gluten (i.e. wax, turpentine essence and elemì resin). Sartorio however, as he himself
liked to point out, deviated from the French recipe and developed his own method for
purifying colors.
    The analysis by infrared spectrophotometry with Fourier transform (FT-IR) [6-7] car-
ried out on the samples of pictorial film revealed the presence of fatty organic sub-
stances (oils and / or waxes with ester groups similar to beeswax) and organic sub-
stances referable to natural resins, thus confirming the composition of the medium
described by the artist.
    Discussion revolving around this particular technique, wrongly defined in the con-
tracting agreement as encaustic on canvas, fuelled many misunderstandings due to
the fact that when speaking of wax, its presence is generally linked to the encaustic
used in Roman painting. Sartorio himself on several occasions highlighted the substan-
tial difference between a pure wax technique and his own particular mixed technique.
    The palette used by Sartorio for the frieze was composed of both natural and modern
pigments that the artist had manipulated from an early age at the Roman colourist’s, Boni.


                                                                                               105
                                                                                     The chemical analyses and observation under a stereo-microscope of the pigment
                                                                                 samples gave the following results: the white colors are lead-based (white lead) or
                                                                                 zinc-based (zinc white) which the artist also used mixed together, probably to reduce
                                                                                 the tendency of the zinc white to crack. Sartorio additionally used a wide range of
                                                                                 iron-oxide based ochres, browns and reds with a high degree of oxidation (hematite,
                                                                                 Mars red). The yellows are cadmium-based. The greens are chromium-based in the
                                                                                 anhydrous form (chromium oxide) and hydrated form (viridian). The blues are artificial
                                                                                 ultramarine and smalt (Figure 8).




                                                                                              Figure 8. Yellow, green and blue colours seen under the microscope.
G. Colalucci, D. Bartoletti - Restoration of the frieze by Aristide Sartorio




                                                                                     The blacks are obtained from the calcination of iron and copper salts. The analysis
                                                                                 provided another interesting element confirming what had already emerged from the
                                                                                 optical examination of the painting, namely, that the colors of the frieze are the result of
                                                                                 extremely composite mixtures. Sartorio seems to have worked with the pictorial mate-
                                                                                 rial directly on the canvas, using a brush as well as a spatula; for effects of maximum
                                                                                 light, white was pressed onto the canvas directly from the tube. The artist also used
                                                                                 very fluid pigments to go over the more densely applied colors again or spread them
                                                                                 directly on the imprimitura, exploiting its coloured tones as a background to produce
                                                                                 particular effects of transparency.
                                                                                     To preserve the concave shape of the canvases on the curved supports, the artist used
                                                                                 drawing pins (Figure 9) fixed to the wooden crosspieces of the supports and then, in the
                                                                                 finishing phase he incorporated them into the color making them an integral part of the
                                                                                 painting. The retouching done by the artist on the pin-heads was done in oil and not wax.




                                                                                  a                              b
                                                                                 Figure 9. Drawing pins used to fix the curved canvases (a); a graphic representation of the pin
                                                                                 points (b).


                                                                           106
  5. Restoration

   At the time of our intervention, it was ascertained that the frames were in good
condition with some minor damage located mostly along the edges of the lower
sides; there was no sign of deformation or biological attack or presence of any xylo-
phagous insects.
   The canvas, on the other hand, had lost much of its elasticity due to the thermal
stresses to which the Chamber is exposed. It appeared dry and, though it had not
reached high levels of creep deformation, it was disfigured in several points by wor-
rying deformations along the edges, and several tears of varying degrees at the point
where the canvas is folded onto the frame.
   The entire surface of the paintings was covered with a veil of homogenous par-
ticulate matter produced by the dust and fumes that had deposited and accumulated
on it for over a hundred years and had given the original colour tones a greyish hue.
The particulate matter was visibly thicker on the areas of the more densely applied
mixture (Figure 10).
   The partial loss of the load-bearing capacity of the support had, moreover, gen-
erated a widespread separation of the preparatory layer and the pictorial film and
had given rise to the visibly evident craquelure of the pictorial layer. The denser
pastes, including the thick-textured white-coloured lines of paint sqeezed straight
from the tube onto the canvas, used by the artist to define the lighter tones, were
in places detached and marked by missing pieces. Even the most fluid colors
showed cracks and problems of adhesion. In this case, however, the problem
derived from the excessive medium used which, in the execution phase, had pre-
vented the color from adhering optimally to the preparatory layer or the underlying
color. The loosening of a great many of the drawing pins was also evident, as they
had become detached from the wood of the frames and remained pinned only to
the pictorial layer.




                                                                                              CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE




                     Figure 10. Close-up of densely textured colors.



   Having ascertained that the paintings of the frieze essentially needed the picto-
rial film to be re-adhered to the support and that we were dealing with an art work
that had never before been restored, having reached us without any tampering,
we opted for an intervention that responded to the logic of minimal invasiveness
[8]. For this reason the lining was excluded, as it was considered more suited to

                                                                                        107
                                                                                 ancient canvases, and decided on a treatment that would allow the original canvas
                                                                                 to recover its elasticity and to deal with the re-adhesion and consolidation of the
                                                                                 detached pictorial film. The final result was obtained by using Beva 371 (Berger-
                                                                                 ethyl-vinyl-acetate), a thermoplastic adhesive developed in the early 1970s by
                                                                                 Gustav Bergher [9].


                                                                                   6. Treatment of the canvas

                                                                                    The work was carried out in four distinct stages and was repeated on each
                                                                                 panel one by one: in the first phase the recto of the painting was protected with
                                                                                 a veil of Japanese paper applied with Aquazol 500 [10]. Aquazol is a polymer
                                                                                 with high reversibility. It can be used as an adhesive and as a consolidator for
                                                                                 pictorial layers. It is soluble in water, but can also be dissolved in many solvents
                                                                                 with medium and high polarity. Aquazol 500 compared to 200 is denser and has
                                                                                 greater adhesive power. Used for purposes other than restoration, it was studied
                                                                                 by Wolber back in 1994 for purposes related to restoration and for its use as a
                                                                                 consolidant either in its pure form or mixed with other polymers, diluted in water
                                                                                 and / or in 4% acetone.
                                                                                    In the second phase, the Beva, diluted in white spirit (40% white spirit: 60% BEVA)
G. Colalucci, D. Bartoletti - Restoration of the frieze by Aristide Sartorio




                                                                                 was heated and applied on the canvas, giving it two coats at a distance of about 24
                                                                                 hours between each. The third phase involved removal of the protective coating. In the
                                                                                 fourth phase the Beva was reactivated on a low pressure thermal table.
                                                                                    This was a necessary phase for the pictorial film to adhere well to the imprimatura
                                                                                 and to the canvas. This was achieved by heating to 65-70 ° C with the painting under
                                                                                 pressure and keeping the temperature stable for a few minutes. Once the resin had
                                                                                 been reactivated, the painting was left to cool while maintaining the pressure of the
                                                                                 vacuum [11-12].
                                                                                    On the flat panels, the consolidation phases were carried out without removing the
                                                                                 paintings from the frames. The curved paintings, on the other hand, were disman-
                                                                                 tled because the frames had many wooden crosspieces that prevented access to the
                                                                                 canvas. The impregnation phase took place with the painting lying on a custom-built
                                                                                 counterform lined with soft material.
                                                                                    In the absence of a curved [13] thermal table of industrial production, we created a
                                                                                 thermal table with the same curvature as the canvases of the hemicycle (Figure 11).




                                                                                                       Figure 11. Low pressure curved thermal table.


                                                                           108
   As for the flat panels, the vacuum-sealing process was carried out using a high
vacuum pump capable of exerting a pressure of 9 kg per cm2. In addition, instead
of being generated from below, heat was generated from above using a sliding
panel placed at a distance of 60 cm from the table top on which were mounted IR
lamps able to reach the temperature necessary to reactivate the Beva. The pres-
ence of the wax was not a problem in the reactivation phase of the resin using
heat and did not cause any softening of the surface during the heating process
since the medium was made heat-resistant by the oil and elemì resin with which
the wax had been mixed.
   The strip lining (i.e. the application of bands of cloth along the perimeter of the
painting, so as to hold it taut on the frame) was done by releasing one side at a
time from the frame so as not to create too much imbalance in the tension of the
support. This line of action was employed for all the flat panels situated on the
Presidency side but not for the curved hemicycle panels, where the strip lining was
performed on the edges of the canvas free from the frame. The application of the
perimeter bands allowed the perfect re-tensioning of the canvases on the original
frames, as well as reparation of the edges which, over the course of a hundred
years, had been visibly damaged precisely along the lines where the canvases had
been folded on the frames and appeared to have been weakened by the nail holes.
The bands, in Lascaux synthetic polyester fabric, measuring 30 cm. in height, were
applied with heat reactivated Beva 371.
   Where necessary, the pictorial film was re-adhered using a thermocautery device
(Figure 12).




                                                                                               CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
a                                              b
             Figure 12. Detail of the curved panels (a); use of thermocautery (b)



    7. Cleaning

   Cleaning the paintings consisted in removing from the surface the fatty particu-
late matter deposited by the fumes and dust that had accumulated over almost a
hundred years.
   The cleaning was done in two separate stages. The first cleaning took place by
removing the protective film. In fact, the distilled water together with the adhesive
used for the Japanese paper, also removed most of the surface particulate matter.
In the second stage, performed when consolidation had been completed, white spirit
was used [15].


                                                                                         109
                                                                                    Another consideration, which had arisen from the initial study of the painting tech-
                                                                                 nique on the pilot panel, concerned the opaque quality of the wax painting that had to
                                                                                 be preserved at all costs. In fact, opaque tempera does not require a final varnishing
                                                                                 since the pigments diluted with the waxy medium acquire an appearance that may
                                                                                 be compared to those of a mural painting. A final varnishing would have modified this
                                                                                 aspect, exalting the tone of the colors, something not foreseen or wanted by Sartorio.
                                                                                 Thanks to this information, we were able to firmly discard the initial proposal, made in
                                                                                 an official report by the Superintendency in 1998, which included the final varnishing of
                                                                                 the paintings after their restoration.
                                                                                    Pictorial reintegration was performed following a logic of optical-tonal attenuation
                                                                                 of the lacunae. Tonal attenuation was performed on the surface of the canvas without
                                                                                 any filling in, so as not to interfere with the thickness of the original brushstrokes which
                                                                                 are extremely uneven and discontinuous. The chromatic tones of the canvas were
                                                                                 retouched with paint colors used specifically for restoration [16].
                                                                                    At the end of the restoration, during the handling and transfer of the panels (Figure
                                                                                 13) the edges could not be protected with a traditional coating (Japanese paper), since
                                                                                 the task of removing the coating would have been too demanding as well as risky. It
                                                                                 was therefore decided to adopt an alternative type of protection which was compat-
                                                                                 ible with the time needed for its application and removal so that the work inside the
                                                                                 Chamber could be completed by the established deadline. All the bands of color along
G. Colalucci, D. Bartoletti - Restoration of the frieze by Aristide Sartorio




                                                                                 the joint lines of the panels, which were those subjected to more mechanical stress
                                                                                 during handling, were treated with cyclododecane in white spirit in a proportion of 1:1.
                                                                                 Cyclododecane is a cyclic, unsaturated, chemically stable hydrocarbon with a waxy
                                                                                 consistency. This new-generation fixative has the property of sublimating (i.e. passing
                                                                                 from the solid to the gaseous state after approximately 24/36 hours without leaving any
                                                                                 residue on the work), making it particularly suitable for providing temporary protection.
                                                                                    On completion of the restoration, when the paintings returned to their place in the
                                                                                 Chamber, only those joint lines that had necessarily been cut with a scalpel and a
                                                                                 milling-machine during dismantling were stuccoed and repaired. The stuccoing was
                                                                                 done using Bologna plaster and rabbit glue and the pictorial layer reintegrated with
                                                                                 paint colors used specifically for restoration.




                                                                                 a                                              b
                                                                                     Figure 13. Removing the panels from the Chamber (a); to the fully-equipped studio (b).



                                                                                    All the drawing pins were mapped, numbered and extracted from the canvas after
                                                                                 being coated with Japanese paper treated with Aquazol.


                                                                           110
    Extraction of the drawing pins became necessary to facilitate consolidation opera-
tions. Taking into account the inefficacy of the anchoring system designed by Sartorio
and having established that the minimal curvature of the canvases of the hemicycle did
not need the central part of the paintings to be pinned to the crosspieces of the frames,
it was decided to re-attach only the painted head of the pins to the paintings as they
were an integral part of the work. Thus, after cutting all the drawing pins, the painted
heads were then affixed in their original position using undiluted Beva gel.


    8. Special provisions

   Unlike the hemicycle panels, the four corner pieces required a specially construct-
ed anchorage (Figure 14) which would allow the curvature of the canvas (more pro-
nounced than in the frames) to remain unaltered. Since the tacks were no longer us-
able, pieces of synthetic canvas were applied to the back of the paintings near the
horizontal crosspieces and made to adhere to the original support with heat reacti-
vated BEVA gel. Some thin string was then used to make loops at one of the ends and
the loops fixed to the centre of the pieces of synthetic canvas using the same synthetic
canvas to keep them in place. The loose end of the strings were then fixed to the wood
of the crossbars by means of small steel screws, so as to be able to pull the canvas
towards the frame and adjust it to obtain the right tension.
   The paintings were restored in a laboratory located in the center of Rome, specially
equipped with movable racks for the panels, which were transported to and from their
premises, protected by light metal and polycarbonate packaging as well as traditional
packaging.




                                                                                                              CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE


a                                                      b
Figure 14. Series of tension ropes with cords (a); detail of the loops held in position by the screws
to enable tension adjustment (b).



    9. The team

   Work on the entire cycle was carried out in the period from August 2006 to August
2007, under the direction of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities.
   − Sole Project Manager: Luciano Marchetti (engineer), Regional Manager for the
Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici del Lazio;
   − Project and Works Management for the architectural restoration in the Chamber: Pa-
ola Santilli (architect), Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e Paesaggistici del Lazio;


                                                                                                        111
                                                                                     − Works Supervisor for the historical-artistic restoration: Dr. Rossella Vodret, Supe-
                                                                                 rintendent for the Patrimonio Storico-Artistico ed Etnoantropologico del Lazio;
                                                                                     − Chief Operating Officer for the historical-artistic restoration: Dr. Claudia Tempesta,
                                                                                 Soprintendenza per il Patrimonio Storico-Artistico ed Etnoantropologico del Lazio.
                                                                                     The historical and artistic restoration was carried out by a temporary business as-
                                                                                 sociation (Associazione Temporanea d’Impresa) composed by the following:
                                                                                     − Leading company: Gianluigi Colalucci e Daniela Bartoletti (Conservazione e Re-
                                                                                 stauro snc);
                                                                                     − Associated enterprises: Cecilia Bernardini, Bartoli restauro srl.
                                                                                     Scientific analyses were performed by ARTELAB srl.
                                                                                     Graphic documentation by Francesca Gorini.
                                                                                     Photographic documentation by Felice and Simone Bono and Sandro Bracchetti.
                                                                                     The “pilot” restoration took place between December 2003 and October 2004 under
                                                                                 the direction of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e Paesaggistici del Lazio
                                                                                 (Paola Santilli (architect) and Dr. Claudia Tempesta).
                                                                                     The pilot restoration was carried out by Gianluigi Colalucci e Daniela Bartoletti
                                                                                 (Conservazione e Restauro snc).
                                                                                     The scientific analyses were performed by EMMEBICI and R&C Scientifica.
                                                                                     Graphic documentation by Conservazione e Restauro snc.
                                                                                     Photographic documentation by Humberto Nicoletti Serra.
G. Colalucci, D. Bartoletti - Restoration of the frieze by Aristide Sartorio




                                                                                       References

                                                                                 [1]  Damigella A.M. 1987, Montecitorio, F.M.R. n° 53, Milano
                                                                                 [2]  Miracco R. 2006, Giulio Aristide Sartorio 1860-1932, in catalogo mostra, Maschi-
                                                                                      etto, Firenze
                                                                                 [3] Carrà C. 1932, Giulio Aristide Sartorio in “L’Ambrosiano”, Milano, 8 ottobre 1932.
                                                                                 [4] Bartoletti D. 2009, Il fregio di Sartorio al Parlamento, La tecnica di esecuzione
                                                                                      tra fonti e pratica in Effetto Luce. Materiali, tecnica, conservazione della pittura
                                                                                      italiana dell’Ottocento, conference proceedings, ed. Edifir, Firenze.
                                                                                 [5] Secco Suardo G. 1870, Pensieri sulla pittura ad encausto, ad olio, e a tempera
                                                                                      in Arte in Italia, UTET, Torino.
                                                                                 [6] Aldovrandi A., Picollo M. 1999, Metodi di documentazione e indagini non invasi-
                                                                                      ve sui dipinti, ed. Il Prato, Padova.
                                                                                 [7] Santamaria U. 2004, Analisi dei materiali finalizzata alla conservazione dei beni
                                                                                      culturali: limiti e vantaggi, in Agathion, Università degli studi, Palermo.
                                                                                 [8] Bernardini C. 2009, Il restauro dei 50 dipinti di Giulio Aristide Sartorio che deco-
                                                                                      rano l’Aula della Camera dei Deputati in Montecitorio in Roma” in Effetto Luce,
                                                                                      Firenze.
                                                                                 [9] Berger, G. 1984, A Structural solution for the preservation of canvas paintings in
                                                                                      Studies in Conservation n°29, London 1984.
                                                                                 [10] Arslanoglu J., Tallent C. 2003, “Evaluation of the use of Aquazol as an adhesive
                                                                                      in paintings conservation, WAAC Newsletter 25, n° 2, May 2003, Los Angeles.
                                                                                 [11] Berger, G. 1974, Lining of a torn paintings with Beva 371 in Conference on com-
                                                                                      parative lining tecniques, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
                                                                                 [12] Berger, G. 1964 A vacuum envelope for treating panel paintings in Studies in
                                                                                      Conservation n° 9, 1964, London.


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[13] Cannizzaro C., Franceschini L. 1999, Un tavolo a bassa pressione, suggerimenti
     per la realizzazione e l’utilizzo, ed. Il Prato, Padova.
[14] Altofer H. 1991, Il restauro delle opere d’arte moderne e contemporanee, ed.
     Nardini, Firenze
[15] Bonomi Da Monte A., Meyer M., Miatello A. 1926 “Colori vernici e loro principali
     applicazioni, in Manuale ad uso dei Pittori, Verniciatori, miniatori, Ebanisti e Fab-
     bricanti di colori e vernici, ed. Hoepli, 1926, Milano
[16] Wolbers R.C., McGinn M., Duerbeck D. 1994, Poly(2-Oxazoline): A new conser-
     vation consolidant, Paintend Wood: History and Conservation” Proceedings of
     the Williamsburg Symposium, 11-14 november 1994, The Getty Conservation
     Institute, Los Angeles


  Biographical notes

    Gianluigi Colalucci was born in Rome in 1929. In 1953, he graduated from the
Istituto Centrale del Restauro (now ISCR) with Cesare Brandi. In 1954 he started
working in Palermo. In 1960 he entered the Paintings Restoration Laboratory of the
Vatican Museums and in 1979 he became its Chief Restorer. From 1980-1994 he
was technical manager of the restoration of Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine
Chapel which he personally carried out. The work lasted from 1980-1994. In 1991
he received an honorary degree in Fine Arts from New York University. In 1995 he
received an honorary degree in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage
from the Polytechnic University of Valencia. He has restored works by many artists
including Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Titian, Giotto, Buffalmacco, Caravaggio,
Mantegna, Crivelli, Lotto, Cranach, Sartorio, Ferrazzi, Sciltian, Morandi. He has lec-
tured throughout Europe, India, Japan, the United States, Canada, Cuba, Argentina,
Brazil, Colombia, Australia. He has published extensively on the restoration of Mi-




                                                                                                   CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
chelangelo’s frescoes and on the restoration of paintings by other authors. In 2015,
he wrote “Michelangelo and I”, edited by Vatican Museums and 24 Ore Cultura,
Rome. He is a Fellow of “The Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works
– London”. He is a Miembro de Honor of the CICOP (“Centro Internacional para la
Conservaciòn del Patrimonio - Spagna”). He is an external academic of the Real
Academia San Carlos de Valencia. Since 2019 he is an honorary professor of the
Roman Academy of Fine Arts.

   Daniela Bartoletti was born in Rome in 1956; after high school she graduated
from the Istituto Centrale del Restauro (now ISCR) in the field of paintings under
the direction of Giovanni Urbani, and attended the post-graduate specialization
course at the Istituto Centrale del Restauro on the theme of conservation and
restoration of stone materials. She subsequently graduated in “Technologies for
the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage” at the Faculty of Conserva-
tion of Cultural Heritage, University of Tuscia, Viterbo and did her doctoral degree
in “Conservation of Cultural Heritage” at the Polytechnic University of Valencia
– Spain. A former Member of the Corest and Eleazar Consortiums of Rome, she
currently holds the position of Technical Director and Administrator of the company
Conservazione e restauro snc di Roma. She has worked in Rome, Assisi, Padua,
Venice, Naples and Paris on works by Giotto, Altichiero da Zevio, Giusto de ‘Me-


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                                                                                 nabuoi, Bernini, Tiziano, Mantegna, Campi, Carracci, Salviati, Sartorio, etc. She
                                                                                 is currently engaged in the restoration of the fourteenth-century pictorial cycle by
                                                                                 Giusto de’ Menabuoi in the Baptistery of Padua.
                                                                                    She has published numerous texts on various topics related to restoration, its prac-
                                                                                 tice and techniques for intervention.


                                                                                     Summary
                                                                                     In 1897, the architect Ernesto Basile was commissioned to design the new Cham-
                                                                                 ber in the Italian Parliament. Basile visualised a long painted frieze crowning the
                                                                                 Chamber. The assignment was given to the painter Aristide Sartorio who executed
                                                                                 it between 1908 and 1911. The frieze is 105 meters long, 3.75 high, and consists of
                                                                                 50 panels painted on canvas. In 1998 the frieze was examined closely and several
                                                                                 problems regarding its state of conservation became evident, such as the loss of
                                                                                 elasticity of the canvas and the widespread tendency of the paint film to become
                                                                                 detached. In order to study the problem and plan the restoration for the entire frieze,
                                                                                 it was decided to do a pilot restoration on only one of the 50 panels. The restoration
                                                                                 was carried out in an equipped environment inside the Parliament, during the period
                                                                                 2003-2004. Based on the studies carried out over the two years, it was possible to
                                                                                 plan the restoration of the entire frieze, which was completed in one year: from 2006
G. Colalucci, D. Bartoletti - Restoration of the frieze by Aristide Sartorio




                                                                                 to 2007. The panels were taken to a Roman studio exclusively dedicated to this res-
                                                                                 toration. It was not possible to do the restoration in situ as it would have created a
                                                                                 disturbance in the working of the Parliament. The panels painted by Sartorio with a
                                                                                 particular technique based on oil and wax, were treated with BEVA 371, reactivated
                                                                                 with heat using a flat, low pressure table, and with a heated curved low pressure
                                                                                 table specially designed by us. Using the same system and cloth bands, the edges
                                                                                 of the panels were reinforced and then placed on their original frames. Finally, the
                                                                                 veil of greasy particulate matter that had deposited over a century was removed. The
                                                                                 restoration, directed by the Architectural Superintendency of Rome, was preceded
                                                                                 and accompanied by numerous scientific research studies on the colors, canvas,
                                                                                 color medium, wood and microclimate of the frieze. An extensive detailed color pho-
                                                                                 tographic documentation recorded all the phases of the restoration.


                                                                                     Riassunto
                                                                                     Nel 1897 fu affidato all’architetto Ernesto Basile l’incarico di progettare la nuova
                                                                                 aula del Parlamento Italiano. Basile immaginò un lungo fregio dipinto a coronamento
                                                                                 dell’Aula. L’incarico fu dato al pittore Aristide Sartorio che lo eseguì tra il 1908 e il
                                                                                 1911. Il fregio è lungo 105 metri, alto 3,75, e si compone di 50 pannelli dipinti su
                                                                                 tela. Nel 1998 il fregio fu controllato da vicino e apparvero evidenti alcuni problemi di
                                                                                 conservazione come la perdita di elasticità della tele e la tendenza diffusa al distacco
                                                                                 della pellicola pittorica. Allo scopo di studiare il problema e di progettare il restauro
                                                                                 dell’intero fregio, fu deciso di fare un restauro pilota su uno solo dei 50 pannelli. Il
                                                                                 restauro fu condotto in un ambiente attrezzato del Parlamento, dal 2003 al 2004. In
                                                                                 base agli studi fatti in quella occasione, fu possibile progettare il restauro dell’intero
                                                                                 fregio, che fu realizzato in un anno: dal 2006 al 2007. I pannelli furono portati in uno
                                                                                 studio romano esclusivamente dedicato a questo restauro. Non era possibile fare
                                                                                 il lavoro in situ anche per non disturbare i Lavori dell’Aula Parlamentare. I pannelli


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dipinti da Sartorio con una tecnica particolare a base di olio e cera, sono stati trat-
tati con BEVA 371, riattivata a caldo con l’ausilio di un tavolo caldo, piano, a bassa
pressione, e con un tavolo caldo curvo a bassa pressione appositamente progettato
da noi. Con lo stesso sistema e con fasce di tela sono stati rinforzati i bordi dei
pannelli che poi sono stati ricollocati sui loro telai originali. Infine, è stata eseguita la
pulitura dal velo di polvere grassa depositatosi durante un secolo. Il restauro, diretto
dalla Soprintendenza architettonica di Roma, è stato preceduto e accompagnato da
numerose ricerche scientifiche sui colori, sulle tele, sui medium dei colori, sui legni
e sul microclima. Una ampia e dettagliata documentazione fotografica a colori ha
documentato tutte le fasi del restauro.




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