Five years of restoration for Raphael’s Loggia at the Vatican Museums

65 meters long and 4 meters wide, it is divided into thirteen bays, each decorated with four biblical episodes on the vault. The first twelve bays present episodes from the Old Testament, while the last is dedicated to the New. The chief decorators were Giulio Romano for the biblical scenes on the vaults and Giovanni da Udine for the botanical elements, part of the grotesques (others can be attributed to Perin del Vaga) and the ancient stuccoes.

“Always visited by cardinals, high prelates, and ambassadors visiting the Pope – explains the director of the Vatican Museums, Barbara Jatta – admired and copied by the greatest Italian and foreign artists and an essential destination on the Grand Tour, the Loggia is located in the rooms of the Holy See and the Secretariat of State. The conservative intervention of Raphael’s masterpiece – thanks to the agreement with the WMF, made possible by the precious support of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation – will mark a defining moment in the history of restoration as well as in the history of Italian Renaissance art. We are grateful to the WMF and the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation for the generous support of $5.5 million for this Vatican Museums project. The restoration project also benefits from the support of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, who have been supporters of the Vatican Museums for over 40 years.”

“Raphael’s Loggia is one of the most important and delicate artistic complexes in the world. It is a place where you can admire, in magnificent detail, all the creative ambition of the Renaissance, the genius of Raphael and his workshop – declares Bénédicte de Montlaur, president and CEO of the World Monuments Fund – Together with the Governorate of the Vatican City State and the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation, the WMF wants to share this extraordinary work with the world legacy through an innovative conservation intervention, an extensive documentation activity for the general public and an educational program on the conservation of mural paintings aimed at cultural heritage professionals from all over the world. Vatican, is made possible thanks to a generous donation of $14.275 million from the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation.”

Adds Stephen Schwarzman, president of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation: “The most lasting legacy of this project will not only be the restored masterpieces, but also the restorers who will be trained along the way. The Raphael Loggia belongs to all of humanity, and by investing in the people who will learn the scientific methodologies of conservation at the Vatican and the Villa Imperiale in Pesaro, we are helping to protect not only this work, but also countless other artistic treasures around the world for generations future. The training of these skills represents one of the most lasting investments we can make for our common cultural heritage”.

In 1813-1814 the arches on the east side of the Loggia were closed by windows, with work supervised by Antonio Canova. The closure, by modifying the microclimate of the Loggia, has prevented air exchange over the years and caused the humidity coming from the upper floor to stagnate. The plurality and particularity of the executive pictorial techniques used (delicate dry laying on Roman stucco for the grotesques, tempera or lime finishes applied on fresco bases for the festoons and azurite backgrounds), together with the typical microclimate of an environment exposed for centuries to the direct action of atmospheric agents, have determined an extremely precarious state of conservation. About half a century after the last partial restoration, a “pilot” study site was undertaken on the sixth span of the Loggia. Divided into two phases, from January 2019 to September 2020 and from January 2023 to December 2024, it allowed the development of a suitable intervention methodology.

«The observation of the surface – explains Paolo Violini, head restorer of the Laboratory for the Restoration of Paintings and Wooden Materials of the Vatican Museums – highlighted the need to adopt a “dry” cleaning methodology, in order to preserve the delicate original layers and their labile remains, which are extremely sensitive to the action of chemical procedures. Laser technology has responded admirably to this need. After a series of tests with various types and with different methods, an “active fiber” model was chosen, which is very versatile in managing the cleaning level, allowing accurate and detailed control”.

Using this methodology, a team of over twenty restorers from the Vatican Museums – thanks to the agreement with the World Monuments Fund, made possible by the precious support of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation – will intervene on the delicate and admirable decorated surface (approximately 1,300 square metres) of the Raphaelesque Loggia: a choral work in close synergy with the Management of the Vatican Museums, the Department for the Art of the 15th and 16th centuries, the Cabinet of Scientific Research and the Office of the Conservator of the Vatican Museums.

To complete the restoration, it is planned – thanks to the precious support of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums – the construction of a new lighting system and the installation of new windows which will guarantee adequate conservation of the spaces, filtering ultraviolet rays and ensuring the reduction of incoming heat, while at the same time guaranteeing excellent quality from an optical and aesthetic point of view. (by Paolo Martini)