Severe damage to Bernini's Saint Bibiana. Tomaso Montanari reports the loss of a finger during the latest move

A very serious damage the Saint Bibiana by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Naples, 1598 - Rome, 1680) during the last move on the occasion of the work’s return from the Bernini exhibition held at the Galleria Borghese in Rome from November 1, 2017 to February 20, 2018. This was reported by art historian Tomaso Montanari in an article published yesterday in Rep: discoverer of the damage, according to the scholar’s account, is Professor Giovan Battista Fidanza, professor of modern art history at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, who last Friday, during a seminar held at the church of Santa Bibiana in Rome, discovered that the work was missing a finger, the ring finger of the right hand. The parish priest of Santa Bibiana therefore said it was damage that the sculpture suffered during relocation to the church’s altar. Bernini’s Santa Bibiana had left the house of worship in September to undergo restoration at a construction site open to the public, and then to be displayed in the first room of the Roman exhibition.

Montanari also denounces that the museum’s website has published photos of the restoration, but not those of the relocation, and points out that it appears “disconcerting that neither the Vicariate of Rome or the parish (owners of the work), nor the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, nor the companies that restored and moved the work have given notice of such serious damage,” not least because at the moment we do not know what has become of the lost finger: that is, we do not know whether it is whole, whether it has fractured, and especially whether it has been preserved. Montanari goes on to point out the severity of the damage by citing the catalog entry for the Saint Bibiana, written by Andrea Bacchi, curator of the exhibition, who wrote that “the fingers of the right hand, enlarged and suspended in the air, are a true technical miracle.” This miracle has therefore been lost, “and no restoration,” Montanari continues, “will be able to render to us that superhuman form of marble whose fundamental characteristic was precisely material integrity.”

The art historian concludes by blaming the responsibility for the damage (in his opinion more serious, for example, than that suffered by the Barcaccia during the assault by Feyenoord hooligans three years ago) on the “senseless excess of ’valorization’ and the unstoppable industry of ’great exhibitions.’” All the more so since the work, as, moreover, we had also noted in our review of the exhibition, was outside the chronological limits of the section in which it was exhibited, and above all it had had to undergo a displacement from its natural context that seemed quite inappropriate, since the church of Santa Bibiana is located just three kilometers away from the Galleria Borghese. It is therefore necessary to reflect, more than ever, on the heavy risks involved in moving such delicate works during temporary exhibitions, especially where the presence of certain works adds nothing to the value of the exhibition.

Pictured: the Santa Bibiana by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1624-1626; marble, 185 x 86 x 55 cm Rome, Santa Bibiana) on the occasion of its display at the Galleria Borghese in Rome for the Bernini exhibition. Ph. Credit Finestre sull’Arte.

Severe damage to Bernini's Saint Bibiana. Tomaso Montanari reports the loss of a finger during the latest move

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.