Casa Buonarroti turns the spotlight on Tiberio Titi with the restoration of a masterpiece

The exhibition, curated by Cristina Acidini, president of the Foundation, and Alessandro Cecchi, director of the same institution, is produced by the Foundation with Opera Laboratori, which also took care of the installation. The restoration project was made possible thanks to the support of the Friends of Florence, through the contribution of Donna Malin, and carried out by the restorers Elizabeth Wicks and Lorenzo Conti. The graphic design of the exhibition is signed by Sillabe.

“For the first time – declared Cristina Acidini – you can closely observe a singular work, unique in its subject: no other painting represents the final arrangement of a funerary monument dedicated to Michelangelo. The restoration also enhances a little-known but very talented artist, such as Tiberio Titi”.

The painting, part of the decoration of the Gallery of Casa Buonarroti, documents the celebratory program created by Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger to honor the memory of the great ancestor. The canvas, dated between 14 August 1618 and 29 August 1620 thanks to the payments recorded in the young Michelangelo’s notebooks, depicts the placement of the artist’s marble bust on his burial in the Basilica of Santa Croce, which took place in 1574. The scene shows the craftsmen lifting the bust, observed by Leonardo Buonarroti and his family, and is characterized by contrasts of light and shadow that recall suggestions Caravaggesque. The restoration has returned the painting to its original chromatic brilliance and has allowed us to delve deeper into Titi’s painting technique through diagnostic investigations and scientific analyzes of the pigments. For over four hundred years the painting had remained fixed face down on the ceiling of the Gallery, causing widespread deformation and cracking. The removal of the yellowed paints brought to light previously invisible details, including the artist’s signature, and allowed the canvas to be consolidated with a natural adhesive based on purified Japanese algae.

“Friends of Florence is pleased to contribute to the restoration of this fundamental painting – underlined Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda, president of the association –. We thank the Casa Buonarroti Foundation and the restorers for their excellent work and the donor Donna Malin for her constant commitment to supporting the Florentine artistic heritage”. The exhibition also documents the historical and cultural context of the commission, through paintings, archive documents and preparatory materials such as Titi’s sketch and the autograph sheets with the design of the subject. Videos and panels illustrate the phases of the restoration, offering the public a new reading of a central work in the Casa Buonarroti collection.

Tiberio Titi, son of the painter Santi di Tito, was active in religious painting and court portraits, inheriting from his father the role of painter of the Medici family. In addition to the painting in the Galleria Buonarrotiana, his best-known works include the Self-Portrait in the Uffizi and several portraits of members of the Medici, including that of Vittoria della Rovere as a child.