Florence, start of restoration of Beato Angelico's masterpiece: work is underway on the Bosco ai Frati Altarpiece

The Museo di San Marco in Florence has resumed restoration work on one of Beato Angelico ’s (Giovanni da Fiesole, born Guido di Pietro; Vicchio, 1395 - Rome, 1455) masterpieces, the Bosco ai Frati Altarpiece, which has already been safely transferred to the restoration laboratory. The operation was announced last October following the return to the Florentine museum of the St. Mark’s Altarpiece, another masterpiece by Angelico, also restored by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure: the restoration, coordinated by Angelo Tartuferi (the new director of the St. Mark’s Museum, who took office in early May), will be carried out by restorer Lucia Biondi and will be supported by the Friends of Florence Foundation.

The Bosco ai Frati Altarpiece was executed by the friar painter after his return from Rome in about 1450, commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici: the painting was intended for the main altar of the Franciscan church of the convent of San Bonaventura di Bosco ai Frati, not far from the Medici villa of Cafaggiolo in Mugello. The composition, a sacred conversation, has the Madonna flanked by two angels in the center, seated on a bizarre seat completely concealed by a golden cloth (imitating, as was typical of many of Beato Angelico’s paintings, the gold background of medieval altarpieces), with a sumptuous cushion echoing Byzantine art, also gilded. The Virgin’s mantle descends to her feet, occupying almost the entire marble step and, in width, much of the niche in the background, which is also concealed by another large gilded cloth. In the left foreground are Saints Francis, Louis of Toulouse and Anthony of Padua, characterized by a strong naturalistic accent. On the right, we note instead the medical saints Cosmas and Damian (the patrons of the Medici family) and, last on the right, Saint Peter the Martyr. The figures are arranged in front of an elegant architectural background with its narrow, elongated niches of pink marble, interspersed with half-columns that are also marble: the altarpiece thus denotes the refined classical taste certainly appreciated by the painter during his stay in Rome and re-proposes the architectural members and parties exhibited in the frescoes of the famous Niccolina Chapel in the Vatican, created by Beato Angelico for Pope Nicholas V in the years 1447-1448.

The last restoration of the Bosco ai Frati Altarpiece dates back to the great exhibition on Beato Angelicoe held in the Vatican in 1955, for the fifth centenary of his death, and was carried out by two leading figures in the history of restoration in Italy, Leonetto Tintori and Alfio del Serra. Even at that time, the painting’s pictorial surface appeared partially damaged by the overly aggressive cleaning performed in the past. In our days, the dirt and the sensitive alteration of the old restorations heavily hinder the reading of this great masterpiece of Beato Angelico’s mature phase: a masterpiece that, therefore, needs intervention. Indeed, some parts of the painted surface clearly reveal a noticeable decrease in pictorial thickness, for example on the faces of Saints Anthony of Padua and Peter the Martyr, or on the floor in the foreground with the marble panels. The rich vegetation that can be glimpsed beyond the background marble enclosure is now almost illegible due to dirt and more or less ancient repainting. At the Museum of St. Mark, technicians are sure that already the first cleaning essays will hold great surprises, and are therefore working to give the painting renewed legibility.

The project also includes the complete refurbishment of the Hospice room of the Museo di San Marco, the vast room the most important nucleus in the world of panel paintings by Beato Angelico, as well as the installation of new supports for the works, a new lighting system, and then again a new system for filtering natural light and new information panels. The new layout will bear the signature of architect Maurizio De Vita and his studio and is announced as a very rigorous intervention to highlight one of the city’s most precious places.

“At a difficult time like this,” says Stefano Casciu, regional director museums of Tuscany, “the start of the project to restore the Bosco ai Frati altarpiece and the refurbishment of the Hospice Hall, generously financed by the Friends of Florence, really bodes well. This is an objective of strategic importance for the Florentine museum, which will condition the enjoyment for years to come of one of the greatest pictorial nuclei of the early Florentine Renaissance. It is therefore a valuable opportunity for the revitalization of one of the most symbolic places for the history, art and faith of our city. The operation was followed in its planning phase until her recent retirement by Marilena Tamassia, whom I take this opportunity here to thank and cordially greet. The baton is now entrusted in the implementation phase to Angelo Tartuferi, who I am sure will make the most of his long experience gained in the city’s major museums.”

“We are very happy that at the Museo di San Marco the restart has coincided with the start of the restoration to Beato Angelico’s Pala di Bosco ai Frati and the refitting of the Sala dell’Ospizio,” says Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda, president of Friends of Florence. “The COVID 19 emergency made so many realize how much culture is part of our lives, and our identity. During the lock down, art in all its manifestations not only held our country together, but comforted all of us in a time of great crisis. Donating to preserve and pass on to future generations is the essence of our work, a mission that we feel is never more deeply prioritized than today. We therefore thank the Regional Museums Directorate of Tuscany and the Museum of San Marco for giving us the opportunity to participate with our project in the restart of one of the symbolic places of Florentine and Italian culture.”

Image: Beato Angelico, Pala di Bosco ai Frati (c. 1450; tempera on panel, 175 x 175 cm; Florence, Museo di San Marco)

Florence, start of restoration of Beato Angelico's masterpiece: work is underway on the Bosco ai Frati Altarpiece

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