Long and complex restoration of the tapestry of the Battle of Roncesvalles concluded.

The restoration of the large fifteenth-century tapestry depicting the Battle of Roncesvalles, preserved at the Bargello National Museum and restored by theOpificio delle Pietre Dure, has ended after seven years, from the end of 2013 to the beginning of 2021, for a total of more than 20 thousand hours of work and twenty-five people engaged in various capacities.

It is a huge fragment of tapestry (nearly 4 meters high and 5 meters wide) woven by a manufacture from the Franco-Flemish area, probably active in Tournai, in present-day Belgium, from the Carrand collection. Made in the late 15th century, the work depicts the initial phase of the clash of Roncesvalles between Christians and Saracens narrated in the epic poem la Chanson de Roland, with an intertwining of horses and knights.

The tapestry, made mostly of wool and silk (the latter used in small quantities to highlight the highlights of faces, armor, and horses), was in a poor state of preservation due to dirt, cuts, tears, and especially large gaps in the textile structure. In fact, the apparent completeness was offered by a rigid cloth that, applied on the back, had been painted at the gaps. The long and complex intervention made it possible to put to good use the long experience conducted on the treatment of the lacunae over the course of nearly four decades of activity of the Tapestry and Carpet Sector of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure: it was in fact a technical and methodical challenge that provided the opportunity for extensive investigations and unprecedented insights.

“I am deeply grateful to Superintendent Marco Ciatti and all the colleagues at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure who took turns in the delicate restoration of this admirable tapestry, which came from the Carrand Collection and was donated to the Bargello National Museum in the late 19th century,” said Paola D’Agostino, director of the Bargello Museums. “The restoration of textile artifacts is among the most delicate, and this challenging restoration confirms the excellence that the Opificio maintains in this area as well. I would also like to thank Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi, who was director of the Bargello in 2013 when she decided to start the restoration of the work, and Ilaria Ciseri, who followed with her usual meticulous care the phases of this long and important work.”

“The Opificio delle Pietre Dure continues its historic collaboration with the Museo Nazionale del Bargello and its masterpieces, even in a field of restoration such as tapestries that is so little practiced in Italy,” said Marco Ciatti, superintendent of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure. “The Opificio delle Pietre Dure has always dedicated similar attention and a homogeneous methodological approach to the conservation of each artistic type, according to that principle of unity of methodology clearly established by Umberto Baldini. I am proud of the excellent result achieved by the OPD restorers and officials who took turns in this project.”

“This is the second large fragment of tapestry preserved at the Bargello that the Opificio has brought back to life,” added Ilaria Ciseri, curator of collections at the Bargello National Museum, “and it is always a great thrill to be able to follow the complexity of such interventions and the very high specialization of these restorers.”

The restoration involved first of all the removal of the support and darns that were creating deformations and tensions to the textile structure. At the same time, an initial cleaning was carried out through capillary macro-aspiration of the dirt present on the entire surface, which was darkening the tones and making the fibers dry and parched. After stitching the work entirely onto a rigid mesh support to stabilize the lacunar areas and verifying the stability of the original dyes, aqueous immersion cleaning was carried out, according to a procedure developed by the Opificio, thanks to which the work recovered hydration and chromatic vibrancy. Of all the phases of the restoration, the consolidation was the most complex phase and required great effort: the gaps were recovered through an integrative consolidation operated by reinserting the warps and wefts, where missing. By doing so, it was possible to restore mechanical tightness to the cloth allowing the aesthetic recovery of the reintegrated areas.

Special attention was paid to the consolidation of the perimeter areas, whose advanced degradation was leading to the loss of material: the wefts were self-consolidated and a large selvedge-support was applied, woven manually on a loom, which involved special precautions because of its size and the irregularity of the perimeter gaps. The intervention ended with the sewing of a linen cloth onto the back of the tapestry, the lining and the preparation of the appropriate fastening system essential to be displayed in the Armory Room at the Bargello National Museum.

The tapestry of the Battle of Roncesvalles, cut on all sides, is a fragment of a cloth likely more than ten meters long: it belongs to the cycle of tapestries with Stories of Charlemagne and Orlando along with at least nine other known fragments preserved in various museums and private collections. Valuable indications as to how the composition of the Bargello exemplar must have continued on the right are obtained thanks to a fragment preserved in the Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire in Brussels, in which appears the episode of the killing of Marsilius by Orlando, narrated in the Florentine cloth by the second scroll at the top. The commission is not certain, but it is assumed that it can be traced to the circle of the dukes of Burgundy.

The fragmentary nature of the tapestry of the Battle of Roncesvalles is a condition common to many large-scale tapestries that, decontextualized from their original abodes, have been cut into smaller portions. In the “Florentine” fragment, Orlando, paladin of Charlemagne, is clearly seen in the right foreground on the prancing horse holding the sword Durlindana (marked with the inscription DURENDAL) and fighting against the Emir of Babylon Baligante, also on horseback. Behind them are observed respectively the paladin Olivier, fighting in defense of Orlando, and Marsilius of Zaragoza, king of the Saracens. There are as many as fifty-five characters, six of whom can be identified by the inscription on the cuirass: Godebue (Gondebue, king of Frisia); Baligant (Baligante, emir of Babylon); Marsille (Marsilius, king of the Saracens); Tyery (Thierry); Olivier (Olivier); and Rolant (Orlando).

Long and complex restoration of the tapestry of the Battle of Roncesvalles concluded.

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