Florence, Cimabue's Santa Croce Crucifix back on view for all to see

After nearly two years, from Saturday, December 4, Cimabue’s Christ will once again be visible to all visitors to the monumental complex of Santa Croce. Since the beginning of the pandemic, in fact, theOpera di Santa Croce had been forced, due to anti-Covid19 security measures, to close the sacristy, in which the famous Crucifix has been kept since 2013. Among the symbolic works of Santa Croce, it also became a symbol of the1966 Florence flood: the masterpiece was in fact submerged in water and smeared with mud and was carried away by makeshift means. Transferred to the Limonaia di Boboli, where the flooded panel paintings were initially housed, the cross underwent a long and innovative restoration in the laboratories of theOpificio delle Pietre Dure at the Fortezza da Basso and, after exhibitions in Europe and America, was relocated to the museum. In 2013 the Crucifix was moved to a very elevated position in the sacristy, blending perfectly into the environment. The move is part of the preventive conservation program against flood risk implemented by the Opera di Santa Croce.

“It is always exciting to be in front of that Christ that Paul VI called ’the most illustrious victim of the flood of Florence,’ returned to Santa Croce and to all of us by an extraordinary and innovative restoration conducted by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure,” says Cristina Acidini, president of the Opera di Santa Croce. “The symbolic value of this work is strong and its message of hope is also rich in meaning for the present time.”

Florence, Cimabue's Santa Croce Crucifix back on view for all to see

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