The Holy Face of Lucca, the cathedral's famous crucifix, will be restored

One of Italy’s most important crucifixes, the Holy Face of Lucca, kept in the Cathedral of San Martino, will be restored. A work of art revered as a relic by the faithful, known all over the world and variously replicated, the Holy Face will be restored by theOpificio delle Pietre Dure of Florence, an Italian excellence in the field of conservation and restoration of artistic heritage, thanks to the support of the CRL Foundation and in agreement with the ABAP Superintendency of Lucca. The details of this of the intervention were illustrated this morning during a presentation in the very cathedral of Lucca, which for centuries has welcomed crowds of pilgrims who, since the Middle Ages, have braved the impervious roads to pay homage to the “Holy Cross” and then perhaps continue on to Rome or the Holy Land. Archbishop of Lucca Paolo Giulietti, mayor Alessandro Tambellini, provincial president Luca Menesini, president of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca Marcello Bertocchini, Cathedral rector Don Marco Magnani, Lucca superintendent Angela Acordon, president of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure Marco Ciatti and director of works Sandra Rossi attended this morning’s meeting.

The Holy Face is the image of a solemnly adorned Christ placed on the cross and is considered by tradition to be an acheropite image (literally “not made by hand”), thus made by direct divine intervention. Hence the celebrity, widespread throughout Europe, of this wooden statue, which, although long believed to be a 12th- or 13th-century copy of an original, has recently been dated (2020), by means of acognitive investigation using carbon-14, to the last decades of the 8th-early 9th century(although the method has received criticism), which would have identified it as the oldest wooden statue in the Western world.

Recent diagnostic investigations certifying the work’s antiquity have identified dangerous phenomena of detachment of the pictorial film, and have thus highlighted the need for a restoration intervention that is also fundamental for acquiring new information about the work, but also functional for determining the ideal environmental microclimatic parameters for the sculpture’s optimal conservation. The intervention of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure will be completely free of charge, while the necessary expenses will be borne by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca, the financing body of the entire conservation project. The restoration will be conducted by the OPD’s Polychrome Wooden Sculpture Sector, directed by Sandra Rossi, and will start in early 2022, with the first major challenge, which is to ’extract’ the statue from the small temple of Matteo Civitali in which it is preserved and transfer it to the workshop that will be specially set up in the transept of the Cathedral, preventing the sacred Crucifix from leaving San Martino and at the same time allowing the work to be displayed to the public at regular intervals during the course of the work.

Restoration details

The work, as mentioned, is kept guarded in a cramped space inside the Renaissance temple created by the great sculptor Matteo Civitali, and will therefore have to be extracted and taken to the workshop that will be prepared in the transept of the Cathedral. After the preventive operations of veiling the parts affected by detachment of the pictorial film and of protecting the projecting elements and the most delicate surfaces, which the restorers will carry out thanks to the setting up of a scaffold inside the tempietto, the sculpture will be moved in its entirety, consisting of the cross and Crucifix, by highly specialized personnel: the upper canopy will be disassembled, then it can be freed from the current constraints that connect it to the panels, and then it can be raised about 80 cm so that it passes over the facing altar; finally, it can be lowered into the ground and removed from the tempietto, making it pass through one of the side openings after disassembling the protective grating.

The current assessment on the state of preservation was based on the results of X-ray images for understanding the structural part, and on the outcomes of the stratigraphy and multispectral analysis performed for characterizing the chromaticity and any non-original and deposit materials; additional data were collected during the inspection, inspecting the interior of the Crucifix, which is almost completely hollow, with the help of an endoscopic probe and LED lighting. Xylotomic investigations revealed that the cross is made of chestnut wood, while the Crucifix is made of walnut. Information derived from stratigraphic investigations is also valuable, for indications of the composition of the preparatory layers and the succession of the different chromatic layers that cover the work, on which gilding is also detected. The part of Christ’s feet is particularly worn, due to rubbing by devotees.

Before proceeding to the restoration, the work will undergo a second thorough campaign of diagnostic investigations aimed at further deepening and refining the information already acquired on the execution technique and the conservation conditions. In particular, further analysis of the constituent materials will be conducted in order to identify the wood species of the wooden pins; a C14 measurement will be made on the cross in order to compare it with the results already obtained on the crucifix, which confirmed the dating to the 9th century; non-invasive investigations and micro-samples will be carried out to better clarify the composition of the preparation and pictorial layers, and to reconstruct their stratigraphic succession. Finally, the 3D survey of the work will be carried out, which will serve both as a support for the documentation of the restoration and for the creation of supports and brackets necessary for the positioning of the work in the various phases of the restoration.

On the basis of the data collected and the studies that will be carried out by the various professionals involved, delicate conservation interventions of consolidation and cleaning will then be conducted, oriented as much as possible to respect the historicized appearance of the work. Finally, special care will be devoted to the monitoring of the microclimatic parameters inside the Cathedral and the Renaissance temple for the entire duration of the works, so as to be able to provide useful indications to ensure the optimal conservation of the Volto Santo once the restoration is completed for the future.

Statements.

“The Volto Santo is dear to all the people of Lucca,” says the Archbishop of Lucca, Paolo Giulietti, “at home and abroad, because it is at the heart of the identity of the city community, a religious and cultural reference that is capable of uniting everyone. It is much more than an image, a beautiful and precious reminder of the person of the Savior: it is a relic, that is, an object through which one can enter into special contact with the merciful Christ, hanging victorious from the cross. In these restorations, which are appropriate for the conservation of the work, it is therefore necessary to take special care-not only professional care-because what is being worked on is truly special. I am convinced that the masters of the Opificio will work with competence, but also with religious respect, on the Holy Face, to return it to the Church and the City in its ancient splendor. I thank in advance all those who in different ways will collaborate in the work, and I hope that the restoration will be an opportunity to revive the devotion of the people of Lucca, particularly the new generations.”

“The image of the Holy Face,” says Mayor Alessandro Tambellini, “is an extraordinary religious symbol, with which the city of Lucca itself has been identified for having been chosen, according to divine design, as the dwelling place of the great wooden Crucifix, in the execution of which the Angels themselves would have participated. We are therefore faced with an extraordinary work of art that encompasses religious and civic values, guarded by a tradition sedimented over time, unchanged for more than seven centuries, which has made the Holy Face universally known. The restoration conducted by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure of Florence, one of the world’s top institutions in the field, will be an opportunity for this exceptional Crucifix to continue its very long journey through the centuries in the best conditions of preservation. I thank the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca for supporting the intervention, because after the recent scientific acquisitions that have confirmed the antiquity of the wooden statue, the restoration will be an opportunity to further deepen our knowledge of the Holy Face, which is not only an evocative image of Jesus, but also an ark for the faith of the city and for the history of the people of Lucca.”

“It is no coincidence,” highlights Marcello Bertocchini, president of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca, “that years ago the Holy Face was chosen as the theme for the logo first of the Cassa di Risparmio and then, in continuity, of our Foundation. An icon recognized as a unifying and representative symbol for Lucca and its entire territory. To be here today, in fact, to kick off a restoration campaign for this very ancient statue represents the ideal culmination of a long journey that over the years has seen the Foundation support the complete restoration of the Cathedral of San Martino in every aspect, structural and artistic. Intervening and preserving the Holy Face is a due act to protect the integrity of an asset whose value far transcends the boundaries of artistic merit: it is a gesture of care and attention to the history, devotion and memory of our community.”

“Before being a work of art, the Holy Face is the image of a deep and heartfelt devotion,” the Superintendency explained in a note. “The Holy Face, in fact, is not only a symbol for the Lucchese community, but for the entire Christian community and is a pilgrimage destination for many believers from all over the world. For this reason, the degradation in which the sculpture finds itself has raised awareness of the need for restoration work to be carried out in a different way than usual. Given the importance of the work and its significance, the archdiocese has from the beginning involved the institutions responsible for the protection and preservation of cultural property. Indeed, the restoration of a work so ancient and so deeply felt by the faithful requires the involvement of the best specialists and the use of the latest technologies and instrumentation for in-depth diagnostic and scientific analysis before even ’touching’ the artifact. The purpose of restoration is not only to safeguard the cultural and religious asset, but also to arrive at a better understanding of it in order to find the most correct intervention solutions and implement all the necessary measures to ensure its life for as long as possible, in order to hand down to posterity the history, culture, tradition and value that the Holy Face represents and encompasses. Eventually, of course, we will know more from an art historical perspective as well, but that is not the primary goal of restoration. Precisely because it is the work of everyone, it was decided to accompany the restoration work on the Holy Face with constant communication and also to allow - at certain times - the public to see the various steps of the work both through moments of disclosure and through a real ”window“ open, or rather openable, on the construction site.”

“The Opificio delle Pietre Dure and Restoration Laboratories of Florence,” says President Marco Ciatti, “responded enthusiastically to the request for involvement received from the Cathedral of Lucca in order to ensure the best conditions for the Holy Face. In fact, we are honored to be able to put at the disposal of Lucca Cathedral, free of charge, all the knowledge and expertise gained in its long history for the preservation of the Holy Face, an extraordinary artistic masterpiece and the very symbol of the city’s faith and identity. To this end, the OPD has prepared a complex project, in agreement with the local Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio (Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape Superintendence), which includes both an in-depth study of the work and its complete restoration from certain conservation problems. In order not to move the Holy Face away from its historical location, a laboratory space will be set up in the left transept, equipped with all necessary technical features, which will also allow periodic visits to the ongoing restoration. Special attention will be paid to constant communication of the results in progress in order to maintain a strong involvement of the public and the faithful. In addition to the high oversight of the competent Superintendence, a special Scientific Committee will be formed composed of some of the top Italian experts in conservation, supplemented by representatives of the Cathedral and the city of Lucca. At the conclusion of the project, the results achieved will be presented with appropriate levels of communication for both the public and insiders. The OPD thanks the Cathedral of Lucca for its trust and the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca for its generous financial support.”

The Holy Face of Lucca, the cathedral's famous crucifix, will be restored

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