Turin, start of restoration of the facade of Palazzo Madama. The four statues will be musealized

A restoration and consolidation project for the facade of Turin’s Palazzo Madama is about to begin on the central forepart of Filippo Juvarra’s building, an architectural masterpiece of 18th-century Europe. The intervention, promoted by the Fondazione Torino Musei, will be fully financed with 2.4 million euros from Fondazione CRT, Palazzo Madama’s historic and main private supporter (16.6 million allocated in total). The restoration and structural consolidation project by architect Gianfranco Gritella (approved by the MIBACT and the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the metropolitan city of Turin) is the result of the first 360-degree investigation of the façade’s problems, including through the inspection of “hidden chambers” in the cornice.

The project builds on the outcomes of the site study, already funded by Fondazione CRT in 2018 and carried out by Fondazione Centro Conservazione e Restauro La Venaria Reale, to assess the state of conservation of the facade, designed between 1718 and 1722 by architect Filippo Juvarra. With the involvement also of the Polytechnic and the University of Turin, scientific investigations were conducted on the materials and alterations that have occurred over time. The construction characteristics of Palazzo Madama and the Foresto marble used (of simple workmanship, but affected by “an ancient evil” related to its own friability) immediately triggered conservation problems and structural failures, so much so that the first attempts to solve them date back as early as the late 18th century. The four giant columns of Foresto marble that characterize the facade support a monumental architrave crowned by four large statues: the individual columns are composed of several stone blocks and rest on brick bases covered with marble slabs, on which are carved monumental trophies of ancient weapons by the Carrarese sculptor Giovanni Baratta. The failure of the eighteenth-century load-bearing system (nine horizontal stone beams seven meters long and weighing two tons each) put the entire structural system in crisis, causing numerous cracks with detachments of large fragments. Above these lintels are three blind rooms, small chambers about 6 meters long and 1.20 meters high covered by large brick arches resembling three bridges that, resting on the columns, support the weight of the cornice, the balustrade above and the four gigantic statues. Through the opening of some trapdoors drilled in the cornice, it was possible to inspect these “hidden chambers” for the first time and verify the extent of the injuries, in order to plan the recovery and consolidation of the entire structure.

The phases of the intervention

The intervention, which will begin before the summer and will last about a year and a half to be completed in 2022, includes the restoration of the architectural and decorative apparatus; the structural consolidation of the ceilings and stone lintels of the three intercolumniums of the central pronaos; the lifting, transporting and restoration of the four monumental allegorical crowning statues of the pronaos, which will be musealized and replaced by identical copies on the top of the building; the restoration, overhaul and structural consolidation of the wooden window and door frames; the overhaul and adaptation of the roof’s stormwater drainage systems; and, finally, the restoration of the basement surrounding the building. By spring, the Turin Museums Foundation will issue a call for bids for the work on the central forepart.

Consolidation represents the most delicate and innovative phase of the project in terms of the methodologies applied, with the construction of three steel trusses with a curvilinear profile within each bay or hidden chamber. These horizontal trusses will have to support the cracked stone lintels and, most importantly, keep suspended from special vertical pivots the hundreds of marble slabs of the ceilings, to prevent their sagging, preserve and make visible the bas-reliefs. Therefore, the intervention involves making and bringing up large steel plates shaped and cut according to the shapes and decorations on the ceilings.

The facade shows degradation and disruption on the entire stone surface. Weathering and urban pollution are the main cause of the disintegration of the stone, which is full of small cavities. Therefore, a long and delicate consolidation and grouting work is planned to make the surface of the stones used to construct the building as waterproof, uniform and free of micro-cavities as possible. A targeted intervention using carbon fibers and resin and stainless steel micro bars will prevent further detachment of fragments and make the most degraded sculptural decorations, such as the large capitals of the main columns, stable. Recovering ancient craftsmanship techniques, the main gaps will be restored by inserting dowels and remaking parts in marble identical to the original, using the same Foresto stone recovered specifically for this specific restoration.

Work will also be carried out on the four monumental allegorical statues: above the balustrade are in fact four marble sculptures of three tons each, 4 meters high, representing the Allegories of the Virtues of Good Government or Cardinal Virtues (Justice, Prudence, Temperance and Fortitude), carved by Giovanni Baratta (Carrara, 1670 - 1747) in 1726. Due to the degradation affecting the surface of the statues but, more importantly, in light of the fragmentation into several parts of the blocks that compose them, the project involves the removal of the four large statues. The intervention will include sectioning off the supporting surface of each statue’s base on the balustrade (through a special technique that employs a steel wire similar to the system used to extract marble blocks from quarries), placing the statues inside special steel cages, and lifting and transporting them to the base of the building. Here each statue will be restored and musealized. Four identical copies will be inserted in place of the originals. In addition, to prevent the eighteenth-century cornice and balustrade, deprived of the centuries-old weight constituted by the statues, from being deformed or triggering further static problems in the building, each sculpture will be temporarily replaced on site by temporary elements of the same weight during the restorations.

Then the eleven glazed windows of 50 square meters each, the largest Baroque window frames made in Piedmont, will be recovered and restored: special steel frames, duly designed and shaped, applied in contact with the wooden window frame and partially hidden by the silhouettes that characterize them, will be made directly on site. These metal frames will have the purpose of making the windows non-deformable, guaranteeing their structural stability and transferring the stresses caused by wind thrust directly on the wall structure, also averting dangerous water infiltration on the internal staircase.

During all phases of the restoration, inside a specially built pavilion near Palazzo Madama, the public will be able to watch the main stages of restoration of the four large allegorical statues. A system of video cameras will broadcast on several screens on the ground the main stages of work and the most significant interventions taking place on the scaffolding. A freight elevator will allow groups of visitors to be taken to certain areas of the construction site, up to the level of the summit balustrade. Upon completion of the work, an exhibition at Palazzo Madama will illustrate the building’s thousand-year history and restorations, and will provide insight into parts of the building now unknown to the general public.

Comments

“The restoration of Palazzo Madama,” says Fondazione CRT President Giovanni Quaglia, “is the first gift that Fondazione CRT makes to the city and the region in its 30th anniversary year, reinforcing its long tradition of solidarity with the historical and artistic heritage, starting with the Savoy Residences. We take care of an asset of national importance that belongs to everyone, with a commitment to collaborate with institutions for a new cultural renaissance, continuing to shine over time the ’great beauty’ spread throughout the territory that strengthens the sense of community.”

“The great construction site of Palazzo Madama,” says Fondazione CRT Secretary General Massimo Lapucci, “will activate a double virtuous circle for recovery: it will support activity and employment in the Northwest businesses involved in the works, and it will allow Fondazione CRT to make available 1.5 million euros in additional resources for the recovery of the artistic heritage thanks to the Art bonus. It is a strategic investment in a ’cultural recovery plan’ perspective, with the aim of protecting and enhancing art in the present and passing it on as a legacy to the next generations.”

“I don’t think there is another monument in Turin whose stones enclose 2,000 years of history, on a par with Palazzo Madama,” emphasizes the President of the Fondazione Torino Musei, Maurizio Cibrario. “From the Roman settlement to the Achaia, the Dukes of Savoy, the Royal Madames, all the way to the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy, an unparalleled roundup of the management of civic and state power. Three hundred years after its transformation from a fortress to a masterpiece of Baroque art, a grandiose restoration work is needed, enabled by the civic sense and the historical and artistic sensitivity of the CRT Foundation, to which goes our and the entire City’s deep gratitude. An intervention by the Ministry of Cultural Assets and Activities is also foretold, which, should it come to fruition, would admirably complete the work plan. For this reason, too, our gratitude goes to the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the Metropolitan City of Turin, for the advice, guidance and support offered in this essential introductory phase.”

“The project,” comments Superintendent Luisa Papotti, “is the result of an exemplary path, built on an in-depth study and matured in full knowledge of and respect for the exceptional nature of the Juvarra facade. In this very difficult period, the start of such a complex construction site gives hope and offers a new confirmation of the capacity and attention that the city’s institutions know how to reserve for the monumental heritage. An excellent custodian, the Fondazione Torino Musei has sought out and involved the best expertise to identify a decisive and harmonious design solution; the Fondazione CRT, whose liberality enables the first and most demanding phase of the intervention, proves once again capable not only of supporting, but of stimulating and promoting initiatives essential to the enhancement of the royal residences. The hope is that this phase, also thanks to the commitment of the Ministry, will be followed by others, until Palazzo Madama is restored to full functionality and a central role within the Turin museum district.”

The history of the facade of Palazzo Madama

The marble facade of Palazzo Madama, with its grand monumental staircase, is one of the architectural masterpieces of 18th-century Europe. It was designed by Filippo Juvarra between 1718 and 1722 at the behest of Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy Nemours, who made it her residence after her son Victor Amadeus II ascended the throne. Conceived according to a Roman-style classicism, the facade is the only completed part of a more grandiose project to erect an imposing palace that was to circumscribe the entirety of the ancient castle of the Acaja.

Juvarra’s facade is also the only building in Turin’s Baroque, besides the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, built almost entirely of stone, breaking with the tradition of Savoy building exclusively in brick. The marble used was Chianocco or Foresto stone, quarried since the 16th century in the eponymous localities in the lower Susa Valley. The decoration of the building was brought to completion after 1724, and, during the eighteenth century, there was a succession of different completion projects signed by leading Savoy architects, including Benedetto Alfieri, without, however, reaching any de facto realization. Juvarra is an architect who left us hundreds of autograph drawings and sketches, but, by a strange twist of fate, no drawings and no historical documents concerning this building have come down to us, beyond a single elevation and a few engravings.

Palazzo Madama and the monumental facade with its grand staircase were in danger of being demolished in 1802, when the governor of Turin, General Joubert, wanted to turn Piazza Castello into a gigantic parade ground. The project was personally opposed to him by Napoleon Bonaparte. The first documented structural consolidation work was designed by architect Ernesto Melano (the one who restored the Abbey of Altacomba, burial place of the Counts of Savoy) between 1846 and 1848, work done in anticipation of the settlement in Palazzo Madama of the Subalpine Senate. Other restoration work on the facade was carried out by engineer of the Royal House Luigi Tonta between 1867 and 1868. Between 1901 and 1902 it was the turn of Alfredo d’Andrade, the first Superintendent of Piedmont; to him we owe the demanding restoration and philological recovery of Palazzo Madama, which brought to light the hidden structures of the Roman period and the various medieval ages.

Turin, start of restoration of the facade of Palazzo Madama. The four statues will be musealized

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