Scuderie del Quirinale funds restoration of Antonio Alberti's banner

The banner by Antonio di Guido di Giovanni Recchi, better known as Antonio Alberti da Ferrara, depicting the Crucifixion on the recto and Saints James Major and Anthony Abbot on the verso will be restored. As part of the exhibition Liberated Art 1937-1947. Masterpieces Saved from the War currently underway in Rome at the Scuderie del Quirinale, in which the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche is the institute’s main partner, an agreement has been signed thanks to which, in exchange for the important loans granted by the Urbino museum, the Roman institute will finance the restoration work on the 15th-century work, which will be entrusted to Giacomo Maranesi.

The banner was made in 1438 for the Confraternity of St. Anthony Abbot of Urbino; in 1831, when Cardinal Giuseppe Albani had the family’s new palace built by demolishing the pre-existing buildings including the Oratory of the Confraternity, the furnishings and art objects, including the banner, were transferred to the Oratory of St. John the Baptist. In the 1860s the work was transferred to the Museum of the Institute of Fine Arts of the Marches, at the former Convent of San Benedetto, and then moved from 1883 to the Ducal Palace in Urbino, the new home of that museum, which would become the National Gallery of the Marches in 1912. The two sides of the banner depict, on the front, the Crucifixion with Longinus piercing Christ’s side and, at the foot of the Cross, the Madonna, St. John the Apostle and the genuflected Magdalene while, on the back, Saints James the Greater, formerly confused with the figure of the Redeemer, and Anthony the Abbot. In this work the author appears to be less bound to the late Gothic decorativism that usually belongs to him, in order to leave more room for a more spare and didactic narrativity.

As a result ofexcessive devotional exposure and obvious repainting, the work has partly lost its original characteristics, while retaining the solidity of its primitive layout. Although it does not show progression degradation phenomena, the reading of the painting today appears disturbed by the presence from thealteration of the old restoration interventions while, the verso of the work, in its current location, is not visible. The restoration intends to eliminate potential deterioration factors and visual interference through the removal of obsolete materials related to previous interventions, restoring lacerations, stretching the support and cleaning the pictorial surfaces. Upon completion of the operations, also taking advantage of the refitting of the main floor of the Ducal Palace, the work will be placed in such a way that both painted faces will be visible.

Pictured is a detail of Antonio Alberti’s banner.

Scuderie del Quirinale funds restoration of Antonio Alberti's banner

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