Samuel returns to the facade of Santa Maria del Fiore

This morning, with the help of two cranes, the marble statue depicting Samuel, one of theOld Testament characters, was reintroduced to the facade of Santa Maria del Fiore.
It is, however, a hand-carved replica by the workers of the Bottega dell’Opera del Duomo of the 19th-century sculpture made by Giovan Battista Tassara.

The original statue was removed from the facade for conservation reasons and, after being restored, became part of the Opera del Duomo Museum.

Three more sculptures, Pope Leo the Great, Pope Gregory VII and Pope Celestine, will be removed from the facade of Florence Cathedral in October; they will be restored and later replaced by marble replicas, as in the case of Samuel.

Today’s interventions are part of an extensive maintenance and restoration project for the cathedral’s facade that also includes the three bronze doors. “The intervention was necessary because of the conservative state of the doors, whose surface is completely covered with thick accumulations of dust and oxidation, hiding most of the details of the sculptural decoration,” said the Opera’s Head of Restoration and Maintenance of Monuments, Beatrice Agostini.

Source: Ansa - Here news Florence

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Samuel returns to the facade of Santa Maria del Fiore

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