Bergamo, finishes the restoration of a monumental masterpiece by Sebastiano Ricci

In Bergamo , the restoration of a monumental painting by Sebastiano Ricci (Belluno, 1659 - Venice, 1734), St. Peter in Prison Freed by the Angel, is finished as part of the “Grandi Restauri” project of the Credito Bergamasco Foundation (Creberg). This restoration is part of a larger initiative to restore nine important works in the Bergamo area in 2024. The restoration of the work, entrusted to Antonio Zaccaria under the direction of Angelo Loda, was completed after six months of intensive work. The painting will be on display at Palazzo Creberg from June 13 to July 4, 2024, with free admission, before being relocated to the parish church of St. Peter the Apostle in Trescore Balneario, where the work has always been kept.

The painting St. Peter in Prison Freed by the Angel, a circa 1710 oil on canvas measuring about three meters by two meters, is one of three canvases commissioned from Ricci for the church of St. Peter the Apostle in Trescore Balneario. The other two works are Christ Handing the Keys to St. Peter and The Calling of St. Peter. The paintings were commissioned from Ricci during a period when the artist was returning from Florence and preparing to leave for England, and Bergamo was in short supply of local artists, forcing it to seek “foreign” talent. Originally, the paintings were placed on the chancel wall of the church, with Delivery of the Keys in the center and the other two on either side. St. Peter in Prison Freed by Angel depicts the scene described in the Acts of the Apostles, where St. Peter, imprisoned at Herod’s behest, is freed by an angel. The scene shows Peter seated, with a young angel in a red robe gliding in front of him, waking him and freeing his right hand from its chains, while his left hand still remains bound. One soldier lies asleep, while the other watches in amazement at the divine apparition. Ricci, known for his familiarity with opera theater (of which he had been a master having worked on sets for theaters in Parma and Venice) infuses the scene with a lively theatricality, using a rich, luminous brushstroke that creates an intense spatial dynamism. Particularly striking details emerge in the work, such as the angel’s hand gently holding Peter’s, with the thumbnail illuminated by a small white brushstroke, and the shadow on the saint’s lapis lazuli blue robe. To speed up the work, Ricci resorted to an element of his repertoire for the figure in the foreground, the one slumped down with his arms folded under his head, similar to a model used in Florence in the decoration of Palazzo Marucelli.

The restoration included consolidation of the pictorial material, selective cleaning, plastering and pictorial integration of the gaps, as well as the application of a new protective varnish. Technical investigations revealed the use of valuable pigments such as lapis lazuli blue and cinnabar, confirming the richness of Ricci’s palette. “The painting,” says restorer Zaccaria, “was fortunately spared, during the lining made in the 1960s by the Bergamasque Steffanoni workshop, from the insistent passage of irons over the surface. To the touch and in grazing light, in fact, the textural ridges of the pictorial drafting, so characteristic of the impetuous riccesco sign, are still clearly perceptible. However, it proved necessary to consolidate widespread uplifts of preparation and pictorial matter. A thick layer of darkened and yellowed vegetable varnish altered and obtunded not only the rich chromatic range but also the dramatic chiaroscuro highlights.” The intervention restored legibility conditions similar to those of the original work. In addition, technical and diagnostic investigations have revealed, the restorer explains, “the ingredients of a sumptuous palette that did not skimp on the use of expensive lapis lazuli blue, with which Ricci embellished St. Peter’s robe. Cinnabar, on the other hand, is the chief ingredient of the angel’s red mantle, shaded with glazes of the finest lacquer, who knows whether of the kind Ricci asked of our Fra Galgario, exchanging it for excellent Venetian white lead. Restored by the intervention to full legibility, today the Trescore painting is a significant synthesis of the creative flair and the great lesson in material and pictorial freedom that made the Belluno painter the acknowledged innovator of 18th-century Venetian painting, paving the way for the genius of Giambattista Tiepolo.”

“Our activity in this area,” says Angelo Piazzoli, President of Fondazione Creberg, “does not take the form of a simple ’sponsorship’ involving the disbursement to the recipient institutions of the funds made available. We take charge of the intervention ’in toto’: from support to requests for authorization to insurance coverage, from packaging to transportation, from logistics to the selection of the professional who will carry out the intervention, from inspections during the restoration phases to the relocation of the cultural asset, from the communication of the various phases of each intervention to the intense exhibition and dissemination activity towards the public, which has been following us for years with great attention and passion. This is a demanding work that involves a lot of commitment, a lot of time, and significant resources, but it offers us and those who follow us a much deeper awareness of what the preservation of cultural heritage for the purpose of public enjoyment is all about. Creberg Foundation is close to the Superintendencies and Institutions because it cares about ’protection,’ a key word already present in Article 9 of the Italian Constitution: ’The Republic promotes the development of culture and scientific and technical research. It protects the landscape and the historical and artistic heritage of the Nation’.”

Bergamo, finishes the restoration of a monumental masterpiece by Sebastiano Ricci

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