The restoration of Donatello's San Marco, one year after its completion, told in a documentary

One year after the conclusion of the restoration of the marble sculpture depicting St. Mark, an early masterpiece by Donatello kept in the Orsanmichele Museum, the Bargello Museums and the Friends of Florence association, in collaboration with theOpificio delle Pietre Dure, present the documentary video that recounts the main moments of the work’s restoration. The restoration of Donatello’s San Marco, this is the title of the documentary, was carried out by architect and videomaker Vincenzo Capalbo.

It was a long and delicate restoration, made possible thanks to the fundamental support of the Friends of Florence association, which also oversaw the making of the video: the film lasts about twenty minutes and carefully recounts the complex intervention in detail, involving its main actors; Vincenzo Capalbo combines evocative close-up shots of the sculpture (which allow us to admire even all the details imperceptible at a distance) and 3D animations with interviews with the director of the Bargello Museums Paola D’Agostino, the president of Friends of Florence Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda, the superintendent of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure Marco Ciatti, the director of the Opificio’s Stone Sector Riccardo Gennaioli, the curator of the Orsanmichele Complex Benedetta Matucci, the restorers of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure Camilla Mancini and Franca Sorella, and Matteo Ceriana, former curator of the Orsanmichele Museum.

“I would like to express my gratitude,” said Paola D’Agostino, “to Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda, the Friends of Florence, Marco Ciatti, Vincenzo Capalbo and all those who made possible the production of this documentary video, which has the merit of making accessible to Italian and foreign visitors the salient phases of a complex restoration, carried out largely at a critical time, due to the prolonged health emergency. The youthful statues sculpted by Donatello for the tabernacles of Orsanmichele are among the most revolutionary works by the sculptor, from his earliest days a master of masters.”

“After supporting the intervention on Donatello’s San Marco statue, which was fundamental both for its preservation and for the advancement of knowledge about the work, Friends of Florence is now pleased to present the video dedicated to the restoration made by Art Media Studio that summarizes the highlights of this extraordinary experience as told by the protagonists who experienced it firsthand,” added Simonetta Brandolini D’Adda, president of Friends of Florence. “Since its inception, our Foundation has been at the side of the owners and preservation bodies to help not only preserve, but also disseminate and enhance the important achievements so that the cultural heritage of Florence and Tuscany can be handed down to future generations.”

“The Opificio delle Pietre Dure was pleased to be able to contribute not only to the restoration, but also to the dissemination of the new knowledge acquired as a result of the intervention, according to its own methodology that constantly combines operation, research and enhancement, and is grateful to the Bargello Museums and Friends of Florence for the important involvement,” said Marco Ciatti, superintendent of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure.

The video will be visible directly at the Orsanmichele Museum through the QRcode placed on the plaque at the base of the sculpture, but it will also be possible to view it remotely, through the Bargello Museums’ YouTube channel and on the Friends of Florence website.

Donatello’s statue of St. Mark for the Tabernacle of the Art of Rigattieri and Linaioli in Orsanmichele is considered among the artist’s early masterpieces, as well as a highly innovative work in the history of early Renaissance sculpture. Its execution, dated between c. 1411 and 1413, documented in the pages of the Account Book of the Art, is placed chronologically between two other famous Donatello undertakings for the external aediculae of Orsanmichele, namely St. Peter for the Arte dei Beccai (1410-1412) and St. George for the Arte dei Corazzai e Spadai (1416-1417). The statue of the Evangelist was commissioned from Donatello on April 3, 1411, the date on which the Guild assigned a block of Carrara marble to the artist to give body to its patron saint; the statue was nearly finished in April 1413. This one lacked only the ornaments and the widespread gilding that can be reread today with greater definition, thanks to the recent restoration supported by extensive diagnostic investigations on the evangelarium cover, among the disheveled locks of the hair and beard, along the borders of the tunic, on the cuffs of the sleeves and on the bangs of the drapes that encircle the waist and shoulders.

Giorgio Vasari relates in Lives that the Consuls of the Art, initially dissatisfied at the close-up view of the statue, almost completed and laid on the ground in the artist’s workshop, radically changed their judgment as soon as Donatello, who deceptively made them believe that he had continued to work on it, unveiled the work in the niche at a height of more than five feet above the ground. The Vasarian anecdote introduces a central theme in Donatello’s poetics, very evident in the San Marco, namely the recourse to apparent forcing of proportions and different degrees of finish for those works that, intended for elevated placements, would have implied a lowered viewpoint for the viewer.

The restoration work was conducted under the scientific supervision of Matteo Ceriana, formerly curator of the Museum of Orsanmichele, and Riccardo Gennaioli, director of the Restoration of Stone Materials Sector of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, with the collaboration of Francesca de Luca and Benedetta Matucci, and with the advice of a technical-scientific committee consisting of Lorenzo Lazzarini (IUAV), Marisa Laurenzi Tabasso (Central Institute for Restoration) and Daniela Pinna (University of Bologna).

Three Sundays of extraordinary openings are planned at the Orsanmichele Complex: June 5, 12 and 19, 2022, in addition to the usual Tuesday and Saturday openings. In fact, the museum can usually be visited on Tuesdays and Saturdays with accompanied tours at 10:30 a.m., 11:40 a.m., 12:50 p.m., 2:15 p.m., 3:25 p.m. and 4:35 p.m. On June 5, 12 and 19, it will also be accessible on Sundays with four rounds of tours in the morning, at 8:45 a.m., 10 a.m., 11:15 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Visitors will be gathered in groups of up to 30 people for each tour and will enter the church first and then enter the museum.

A video of the restoration of Donatello’s San Marco is on the YouTube channel.

Photos by Mauro and Marco Furio Magliani

The restoration of Donatello's San Marco, one year after its completion, told in a documentary

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