Florence, replaced by copies three sculptures from Duomo facade

by Redazione , published on 14/07/2023
Categories: News / Disclaimer
Copies of three 19th-century statues removed in 2017 due to deterioration problems have been placed on the facade of Florence Cathedral. The copies were made in the Duomo's Restoration Workshop, in Carrara marble like the originals, using ancient techniques.

Copies of the 19th-century sculptures depicting Pope Leo the Great, Pope Celestine I, and Pope Gregory VII, made by Raffaello Romanelli, Fortunato Galli , and Dante Sodini, respectively, are being placed on the facade of Florence Cathedral. The original sculptures were removed from the facade in October 2017 due to severe deterioration. Upon completion of their restoration, the three statues will be placed in the new wing of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence, which is scheduled to open in the coming years. Work on the placement of the three sculptures is scheduled to be completed next week, when the specially built scaffolding will also be dismantled.

Today’s work is part of a larger project by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore to maintain and restore the 19th-century façade of Florence Cathedral and replace the degraded sculptures with artfully made copies. The copies were sculpted by Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore restorers inside the restoration workshop on Via dello Studio in Florence, which has a history of more than 700 years.

“It started with choosing three blocks of marble at the Carrara quarries,” explains Marcello del Colle, coordinator of the Restoration Workshop. “Once the marble arrived at our site, roughing is done and then the statues are carved in detail, in the same way as the sculptors of antiquity.”

The Restoration Workshop is part of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, the institution founded by the Florentine Republic in 1296 to oversee the construction of the new Cathedral and its bell tower. Like the Opera, the Bottega is 727 years old. In ancient times, the Bottega was responsible for carrying out the sculptural and architectural decoration of Giotto’s Cathedral and Bell Tower, while today it is mainly dedicated to the maintenance and preservation of the priceless heritage of the monumental complex of Florence Cathedral.

The façade of Florence Cathedral, which remained unfinished after the death of Arnolfo di Cambio in the early 1300s, was built between 1875 and 1887. Author of the overall design was Emilio Fabris, who sought an effect of continuity with the sides of the Cathedral and the Bell Tower through the use of both typical polychromy and Gothic forms. In the iconographic articulation of the façade De Fabris was assisted, from 1878, by the philosopher Augusto Conti, who elaborated a historicist and celebratory program in the spirit of the years that had seen Florence temporarily the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy (1865-1871). The rich decoration of the facade on which many artists worked was completed in 1887, and was unveiled to the public on May 12 of the same year, 130 years ago.

Placement of copies of 19th century statues on the facade of Florence Cathedral
Placement of copies of the nineteenth-century statues on the facade of Florence Cathedral
Placement of copies of 19th century statues on the facade of Florence Cathedral Placement of the copies of the nineteenth-century statues on the facade of
Florence Cathedral
Placement of copies of 19th century statues on the facade of Florence Cathedral Placement of the copies of the nineteenth-century statues on the facade of Florence
Cathedral
Placement of copies of 19th century statues on the facade of Florence Cathedral Placement of the copies of the nineteenth-century statues on the facade of
the
Florence Cathedral
Placement of copies of 19th century statues on the facade of Florence Cathedral Placement of the copies of the nineteenth-century statues on the facade of
the
Florence Cathedral
Placement of copies of 19th century statues on the facade of Florence Cathedral Placement of the copies of the nineteenth-century statues on the facade of
the
Florence Cathedral
Placement of copies of 19th century statues on the facade of Florence Cathedral Placement of the copies of the nineteenth-century statues on the facade of
the
Florence Cathedral
Placement of copies of 19th century statues on the facade of Florence Cathedral
Placement
of the copies of the nineteenth-century statues on the facade of Florence Cathedral

Florence, replaced by copies three sculptures from Duomo facade
Florence, replaced by copies three sculptures from Duomo facade


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