Naples, start of restoration of seventeenth-century paintings in the el Chiostro di San Giacomo della Marca

Restoration work has begun in the Cloister of San Giacomo della Marca in Naples . The historic cloister, located on the left side of the church of Santa Maria la Nova in the heart of the Campania capital’s historic center, is about to welcome the project promoted and financed by the management company of the monumental site, San Martino Alberghi srl, and carried out by the Master’s Degree Course in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage of the Suor Orsola Benincasa University under the supervision of the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio for The City of Naples.

The aim of the project is to conduct a comprehensive intervention on three wall paintings dating back to the 17th century. First and foremost, the restoration will affect the painting depicting the Deposition of Christ, the work located on the counter-façade of the entrance to the cloister and attributed to Simone Papa known as “the Modern” (of whom there are records between 1614 and 1629), an artist who with his master Belisario Corenzio collaborated on the creation of Santa Maria la Nova. The work will also include the restoration of two other wall paintings: a decorative panel placed on the side wall of the building and a portrait depicting Franciscus Quinionius.

“The restoration of the Deposition of Christ,” says Francesca Pagliari of San Martino Alberghi srl, “is a dream come true, but also a great responsibility to the community. Our goal is to make an asset of inestimable artistic value usable and accessible by the community. Hence the idea of activating a collaboration with the Suor Orsola Benincasa University, with which we have developed the idea of a permanent teaching site.”

“The Pagliari family has been in the recovery and enhancement of historical assets for many years, and it is thanks to them that it was possible to give an important entrepreneurial input for the revaluation of the Monumental Complex of Santa Maria la Nova,” says Professor Giuseppe Reale, Director of the Monumental Complex of Santa Maria La Nova. “Our goal is to do business, culture and education. All this is possible thanks to the collaboration with Professor Pasquale Rossi President of the UNISOB master’s degree program in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage who, with a team of restorers from the university, has taken the field to recover and enhance the works in the cloister of San Giacomo della Marca. We are aware that intense months of study and work await us, but also of great satisfaction.”

The restoration work will last 120 days and will be led by Maria Rosaria Vigorito, a restorer on the list of professionals recognized by the MIBAC and an expert in the relevant field 1-2 stone materials, mosaics and derivatives/decorated surfaces of architecture. The site workers, on the other hand, will be 6 students and 4 tutors from the University of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa belonging to the Master’s Degree Course in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage LMR/02 Department of Humanities.

“The work of our students in Santa Maria La Nova,” says Lucio d’Alessandro, Rector of the Suor Orsola Benincasa University and vice president of the CNR, “is one of the many concrete testimonies of the practical vocation of our educational system and in particular it is one of the many commitments to the service of the cultural heritage of our city that we undertake with our Degree Course in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage.”

For the occasion, a didactic worksite will be set up that can be visited by non-professionals, who will be able to observe, at predetermined times and days, the work in progress being put in place. The restoration includes a thorough intervention on the three wall paintings that today, as evidenced by the state of conservation of the property, present surface deposits, detachment of plaster from the wall support, white patina attributable to moisture infiltration and the presence of biodeterogenic attacks as well as phenomena of progressive disintegration of plasters. A “scientific” restoration that, in addition to slavishly mapping and documenting the interventions on the structure, will be conducted with the use of the latest generation of green and low-toxicity solvents : biocide treatments and consolidation of the original plasters, cleaning of the pictorial surface but also plastering and chromatic integration works that will restore chromatic reading unity to the three works are planned. Painstaking recovery work that will allow the frescoes to be protected and give back to the city of Naples and the many visitors to the Monumental Complex of Santa Maria la Nova works of inestimable historical and artistic value.

The Monumental Complex of Santa Maria la Nova, in the heart of the historic center of Naples, is a treasure chest of art and history of rare beauty whose foundation dates back to 1279. In its present appearance, the ancient monastic complex recounts and preserves the many transformations that have occurred over the centuries, both architectural and decorative. On the left side of the Church, an undisputed masterpiece of Baroque culture, stands the Convent, which is divided into two cloisters, the smaller of which, also known as the Cloister of St. James, dates back to the late 16th century and was built by Giovanni Cola di Franco. Rectangular in shape, it has monolithic columns surmounted by Ionic order capitals placed on a low wall interrupted by four passages.

The four arms feature round arches and frescoed cross vaults. The fresco cycle is dedicated to St. James of the Marches and depicts scenes from the saint’s life, grotesques and illustrative inscriptions. The paintings are attributed to Simone Papa and dated between 1627 and 1628. The cloister also contains a marble well and some sepulchral monuments from the nearby church. Over the years the Neapolitan convent has gone through various vicissitudes and had a variety of uses: it housed the congregation of Monte de’ Musica a school for training cantors, calligraphers and poets, was the site of scientific and theological studies in the 17th century, housed an infirmary in its halls and for a brief period was also used as a squatter’s parking lot for cars. Only thanks to the sensitivity of enlightened patrons did this priceless treasure chest of art return to its original splendor and today it is about to live a new life.

Naples, start of restoration of seventeenth-century paintings in the el Chiostro di San Giacomo della Marca

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