Luca Della Robbia's large lunette returns to Urbino after restoration

After a six-month restoration, Luca Della Robbia ’s large lunette depicting the Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic, Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great and Peter the Martyr, documented in some payments from the mid-1450s, will be back on display at the Ducal Palace in Urbino from May 10, 2022. The work had left the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche last September to be restored at the workshop of theOpificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence and will now be placed in the Sala della Jole where the last part of the restoration work will take place.

The lunette had been commissioned by Maso di Bartolomeo for the portal of the church of San Domenico in Urbino. There it had remained until the early 1980s, when it was removed and placed in the Ducal Palace to prevent the irreparable aggravation of a state of deterioration.

Forty years after the last restoration, the Della Robbia lunette needed a new intervention, which was taken care of by Laura Speranza, director of the Opificio’s ceramic and plastic materials restoration sector, together with her team. “We intervened to prevent the glaze from detaching from the terracotta,” Speranza said, “so we consolidated some parts. We also carried out an aesthetic intervention on the terracotta parts, which are now grouted white using natural materials, such as marble powder. In addition, we removed the old wooden support, which was too sensitive to climatic variations, and replaced it with a new one, removable at any time, made of resin and ’aereolam,’ an inert material of considerable guarantee.”

The work is currently divided into eleven parts and is undergoing the final touches before returning to Urbino. Once it reaches its destination, it will be reassembled at the Ducal Palace and placed in a lower position than before so that the details of the glazed terracotta can be better admired.

The Culture Committee of the Pesaro and Urbino Confindustria, chaired by Gastone Bertozzi, generously contributed to the restoration.

“The challenging work on the second floor is in the home stretch: a first part was already inaugurated last April 6 and, the remainder, on July 14,” commented Luigi Gallo, director of the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche. “In the meantime, we continue to take care of the remaining part of the collection as well: each intervention is an opportunity for study, reflection and rearrangement of the works. The important Della Robbia terracotta, probably Federico da Montefeltro’s first commission, will return to welcome visitors at the beginning of the exhibition itinerary, in the Sala della Jole, which faces directly opposite the church of San Domenico from which it comes.”

Image: Luca Della Robbia, Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic, Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great and Peter Martyr (Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche)

Luca Della Robbia's large lunette returns to Urbino after restoration

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