Siena, Giovanni di Paolo's two panels shine again after restoration

Two panels by one of the most important Sienese masters of the 15th century, Giovanni di Paolo (Siena, c. 1403 - 1482), shine in Siena: the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist, the two panels by Giovanni di Paolo from the Oratory of Saints John and John the Baptist, return to the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Siena after careful restoration. The work, carried out at the behest of the Board of Trustees and Opera della Metropolitana Rector Giovanni Minnucci, was financed by Rotary Siena East, which, through its then president Lorenzo Gaeta, identified among its services for the year 2022 the sum to be donated to support the restoration. Piero Florio, current president of Rotary Siena Est, completed and presented it to all members and the city on Friday, Jan. 10, in the Statues Room inside the Opera Museum.

The work was led by Cecilia Caporali, a restorer at the Opera della Metropolitana di Siena, who took care of these masterpieces together with a team of internal and external professionals: restoration technician Daniele Butti; restorer Ciro Castelli, who provided invaluable input for the restoration of the wooden supports; Ilaria Muzii for historical research; and Enrico De Benedetti, the body’s technical area chief, who supervised the operations.

The technical examination of the two figures provided important new information. In particular, observation of the St. John revealed the presence of small strips of gold that remained intact along the edges of the intertwined hands, a detail that suggests that the original panel was gilded. This, combined with the stylistic typology of the figures and the damage to the profiles, confirms that the two mourners were probably part of a larger composition. Non-invasive scientific imaging and photographic documentation analyses were conducted by Bruno Bruchi, Andrea Sbardellati and Teobaldo Pasquali. Their work proved fundamental in reconstructing the history of the two “dolenti” and in directing conservation activities.

The restoration in detail

The works were badly damaged due to a ruinous fall, and the restoration dealt with the restoration and consolidation of the support, working on the back of the paintings. This was followed by the steps that generally accompany painting restoration: color consolidation, cleaning, filling of gaps, and pictorial integration.

Restoration officer Letizia Nesi and Isacco Cecconi of the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the provinces of Siena, Grosseto and Arezzo followed the restoration step by step, and under their supervision all major decisions were made.

Now the two works, made fully legible again, are back on display inside the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo di Siena and are thus returned to the public enjoyment of scholars, art lovers and visitors, who will be able to appreciate their beauty thanks also to the new lighting of the showcases in which the panels will be kept.

“The Opera della Metropolitana di Siena,” said the Rector, Giovanni Minnucci, “is very grateful to Rotary Siena Est, and to the two Presidents Prof. Gaeta and Dr. Florio who have succeeded each other in the office, for the great and tangible attention they have paid to the activities of the Institution, thus enabling the achievement of indisputable results for the protection and preservation of the artistic heritage entrusted to the Sienese Fabbriceria.”

“The Rotary Club for more than a hundred years has had as its fundamental objective to ’serve’ beyond the personal interest of its individual members, proposing actions aimed at improving people’s lives and building a better world that supports efforts to build peace,” explained Piero Florio, president of Rotary Siena East. “The fruitful conclusion of the restoration project of the works of Giovanni di Paolo has induced me, the Board of Directors and the members of our Club to want to continue and deepen the relationship of collaboration with the Opera della Metropolitana, launching a new ’service’ aimed at the recovery of another asset belonging to its artistic-monumental complex, which we will be able to identify by mutual agreement, in the certainty that this collaboration can contribute to the preservation and development of the cultural heritage of our city.”

Illustrating the art-historical contents of the two “pains” was Laura Bonelli, art historian and curator of cultural activities at Vernice Progetti. It was Cesare Brandi who first studied the works in 1941 (“two magnificent fragments” of a large panel “barbarously” mutilated) and Enzo Carli hypothesized their placement, in the first half of the 15th century, on either side of a painted or carved Christ Crucified, in a work commissioned by the Confraternity of Saints John and Januarius; several, then, have been the more recent interpretations of their origin, collected in Dora Sallay’s 2006 essay on John of Paul, “One Crucifix Less, One Crucifixion More.”

Siena, Giovanni di Paolo's two panels shine again after restoration

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