Turin, major operation to move statues at Palazzo Madama to the ground kicks off

The operation to move to the ground the four monumental marble statues from Brossasco, which crown the balustrade of the central body of the Palazzo Madama in Turin and depict hermetic allegories of “Good Government,” will begin today, Tuesday, July 12. The statues representing Justice, Liberality, Magnanimity and Abundance are more than 4 meters high and weighing more than 3 tons each.

After an innovative sectioning operation, the statues will be caged and lowered with an exceptional crane system from a height of 27 meters into Piazza Castello, where they will be restored “live” in a special transparent pavilion that can be visited by the public. The ’intervention, conducted by Cooperativa Archeologia of Florence and Arte Restauro Conservazione di Arlotto Cristina Maria, under the direction of arch. Gianfranco Gritella, represents a decisive moment in the large-scale restoration and structural consolidation of the building’s Juvarra façade, thanks to the synergy between Fondazione Torino Musei, which has always been committed to the protection, conservation and enhancement of museum assets, and Fondazione CRT, Palazzo Madama’s historic and main private supporter (17.5 million euros allocated in total), which is fully financing this latest intervention with a commitment of 2.4 million.

The statues, each consisting of four carved and overlapping marble blocks and weighing about 3,200 kilograms, are the work of Carrarese sculptor Giovanni Baratta (1670-1747), who was called to Turin by Filippo Juvarra on several occasions between 1721 and 1730 to complete these sculptures and other works in Superga, Venaria Reale and the Turin church of S. Filippo. They were rough-hewn in the sculptor’s workshop in Carrara, then transported in separate pieces by ship to Savona, and finally driven on wagons drawn by oxen and mules to Turin, where they were mounted in place and brought to completion.

The conservative state of the statues

The state of preservation of the statues today is very compromised and very heterogeneous. The one that shows the most degradation, including structural deterioration, is the statue of Justice (the first one facing north). The work was already disassembled and lowered to the ground a first time between 1846 and 1847, during the consolidation works of the foundations of the palace, directed by architect Ernesto Melano and carried out for the settlement in the building of the Subalpine Senate. The aggression of atmospheric agents, war damage, incongruous ancient restorations, oxidation of the metal pins holding the individual stone blocks and nineteenth-century reconstructions in different marbles have caused widespread degradation and conservation problems that are also evident in the construction technique used by the eighteenth-century sculptor. In fact, Baratta, adopting a technique of ancient tradition, in order to lighten the weight and facilitate the transportation and assembly in place of the sculptures, had a large part of the unseen back side of each figure emptied out. The resulting deep hollow was then filled in with brick and lime masonry, into which an iron bar is embedded, ensuring the stability of the statues to the balustrade below, which is about 2 meters high. A complex system of iron and bronze pins and brackets, some visible, others hidden inside the statues but identified through specialized investigations with magnetoscopes and georadar, reveals the construction technique employed to ensure stability of the works by retaining entire stone parts, carved separately and then applied to the main body of the statue.

The sectioning

The detachment and relocation of the four Allegories from the base on which they rest will be made possible by the setting up at height, 27 meters above the ground, of special operating machines, which use the technique of masonry cutting by sliding a water-lubricated diamond wire, a technology traditionally used in marble quarries. The cutting process takes place by means of an electric motor-driven machine equipped with pulleys on which runs at high speed a special ring-shaped metal cable, equipped with hooks consisting of artificial diamonds, which advances on a carriage placed on steel guides: these are positioned on a base plate that ensures an absolutely linear and continuous guided advance. The operator acts through a remote electronic control unit.

Caging, “the flight” and “live” restoration.

At the same time as the progression of the cut, which will take place in two opposing directions and in two operational phases, two duly shaped and reinforced steel plates will be inserted into the slots thus obtained. A “cage,” also made of steel, will be attached to these plates, which will in turn contain a partly open wooden case that will encase and stabilize the previously pre-consolidated and protected statues. In order not to compromise the static balance of the marble architecture, in place of the removed statues, reinforced concrete ballasts of equivalent weight to the statues will be placed on the balustrade, ballasts to which the last structures of the upper scaffolding and the temporary roofing above will be tied. Lifted by a crane, the statues and their harnesses, weighing a total of 6,000 kilograms, will be lowered to the ground and placed on temporary plinths, waiting to be placed in an ad hoc pavilion that will be set up in front of Palazzo Madama, where the entire restoration process will take place, visible directly to the public in Piazza Castello, including through guided tours.

The statements

“Four masterpieces, witnesses of the history and role of Turin in the European eighteenth century, which for the first time, thanks to the enlightened patronage of the CRT Foundation, we will be able to admire up close, in a restoration site offered to the attention and reflection of citizens on the floor of Piazza Castello. A unique opportunity to encounter not only the art of one of the greatest protagonists of late Baroque sculpture, and the mechanisms of creation, but also to regain awareness of the values for centuries advocated by our capital city,” says Fondazione Torino Musei President Maurizio Cibrario.

“It is certainly a more unique than rare event to see the statues flying: this is not a movie set, but a futuristic and spectacular historic-artistic recovery operation that combines the most innovative technology and the best craftsmen to save the great beauty of culture. A result made possible by the public-private synergy between Fondazione Torino Musei and Fondazione CRT, which has always been committed to the rebirth and enhancement of Palazzo Madama,” says Fondazione CRT President Giovanni Quaglia.

Turin, major operation to move statues at Palazzo Madama to the ground kicks off

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