The restored polyptych of Santa Chiara by Paolo Veneziano

The polyptych of Santa Chiara by Paolo Veneziano, an absolute masterpiece of lagoon and Italian painting of the fourteenth century, has recovered its colors and shine: after a long and complex restoration lasting over four years, financed by Save Venice with the support of the patron Randolph H. Guthrie, the The Accademia Galleries of Venice are exhibiting it from today in a dedicated room of the museum’s Palladian loggia.

It is a work of extraordinary quality, an exceptionally intact example of a fourteenth-century Venetian altarpiece in multiple registers, with narrative scenes arranged around a central episode – the Coronation of the Virgin – and a sumptuous carved and gilded wooden frame, which frames twenty-five parts painted in a splendid combination of gold and color. Created for the disappeared female monastery of Santa Chiara, in Venice, it was jealously preserved for centuries within the cloistered walls until the advent of the Napoleonic suppressions, reaching the Gallerie dell’Accademia only in 1812 – with the exception of the central panel, sent to the Pinacoteca of Brera in Milan and replaced by a painting by Stefano di Sant’Agnese until 1950, the year in which the work was recomposed with its original parts.

The conservative intervention – works directed by Valeria Poletto, with the technical direction of Maria Chiara Maida and Francesca Bartolomeoli – has restored the highly refined chromatic range of the polyptych, the warmth of the golden surfaces and the full legibility of the iconographic programme, revealing technical-executive aspects precious and unpublished. Among these, in particular, the sketches, color tests and preparatory drawings that Paolo Veneziano had created in the non-visible parts of the polyptych. The cleaning of the frame, for which innovative and highly selective laser technology was used, made it possible to remove the most recent stratifications, recovering the nineteenth-century gilding, which is in an excellent state of preservation. Furthermore, to respond to current conservation needs, a new support and support structure was specifically designed.

The morphology of the artefact was also mapped via photogrammetric scanning and the acquisition of images at very high resolution and detail, with the Hirox 3D digital microscope, on loan to the Gallerie dell’Accademia thanks to the Venice International Foundation committee, allowed us to observe details of the work in unpublished enlargements.

“The exceptional restoration campaign of the polyptych – comments the director of the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Giulio Manieri Elia – crowns a long process of acquisition, preliminary studies, cleaning and pictorial reintegrations. The valorisation of the artistic heritage is the result of the intense and constant research activities of the museum, which today we are also telling the general public, presenting a multimedia installation that describes the restoration in its various stages. We are already working on the preparation of an important study conference, in order to share the results of this operation with the scientific community”.

The extraordinary study and research work carried out with the most advanced technologies is told to visitors thanks to an important and detailed multimedia presentation, which can be consulted via a touch screen, created by Culturanuova srl ​​of Arezzo. Through photos, details, texts, historical-artistic focuses, videos, it will be possible to “navigate” inside the polyptych, delve into its historical events, investigate the phases of the restoration and the different diagnostic techniques, compare the final result with the conservation conditions initials, discover the areas of the work that are not normally visible, and even know the original appearance that the work probably had before the nineteenth-century interventions.

The sumptuousness of the artefact, for which precious materials such as gold and blue lapis lazuli were used, makes us understand the importance of the client who turned to the most important Venetian painter of the fourteenth century, whose works are today preserved in the most prestigious museums around the world, from the Frick Collection in New York, to the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, to the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The learned iconographic program is explicitly aimed at the sensitivity of a female community. The central panel depicts the subject of the Coronation of the Virgin, a theme of Western origin which enjoyed great success in the lagoon throughout the 14th century. The celestial event is described within an elaborate scenic machine of great ostentation and decoration: a large throne, surrounded by a starry sky, welcomes Christ and Mary cloaked in silk drapes, while a choir of musician angels dominates the scene. In the side compartments there are eight scenes with episodes from the life of Christ, in particular: Nativity and Adoration of the Magi; Baptism of Christ; Last Supper; Prayer in the Garden and Capture; Gone to Mount Calvary; Crucifixion; Resurrection and Noli me tangere; Ascension. In the upper register the stories of Saint Francis and Saint Clare are told. In the upper part, the figures of King David and the prophet Isaiah, the four evangelists, as well as Pentecost and the Last Judgment complete the rich narrative. Finally, four small angelic images, namely Dominations with the globe and the scepter, symbol of authority, are visible on the intrados of the main compartment.

The work, which is part of the permanent collection of the Gallerie dell’Accademia, is exhibited next to a small and precious polylobed processional cross painted on both sides, of the highest pictorial quality, coming from a private collection and granted on loan to ‘use at the museum. A rare example of early fourteenth-century Venetian painting, attributed to the Master of the Coronation of the Virgin of Washington of 1324, a figure still in many ways little known, but who could be identified with Paolo Veneziano’s brother, Marco, or with his father Martino, both documented as painters.