Pilotta, Luigi Amidani's Madonna and Child restored. Full legibility of the work recovered

Restored Madonna and Child with Saints Francis of Assisi, Agnes and Genesius, painted around 1619 by Luigi Amidani and kept at the Pilotta Monumental Complex in Parma. The scene depicts the Madonna seated on a throne with the Child; above them, three intertwined putti emerge from a curtain, forming the apex of the compositional triangle. Below can be seen kneeling Saint Francis and, a little further back, Saint Genesius with a violin. On the left appears Saint Agnes, elegantly draped, caressing a lamb and displaying a palm tree with her right hand; behind her is a glimpse of a column that is lost behind the curtain.

The main purpose of the restoration intervention was to recover the full legibility of the work, which had been compromised by various rehashes layered over time, particularly during a 19th-century restoration. Preliminary diagnostic investigations made it possible to plan targeted operations in the various areas of the painting, so as to restore coherence to the composition and harmony to the original chromatic values. The old frame, previously altered and no longer suitable to adequately support the canvas, was also replaced with a new wooden support designed to ensure better conservation conditions. The wooden frame also underwent intervention: dust deposits were removed, the gilding cleaned and an anti-wormwoodworm treatment applied.

According to some scholars, the work originally came from the Parma church of Santa Maria in Borgo Taschieri; in the 18th century it is documented on the second altar to the left of the Church of Santa Maria del Quartiere. Already mentioned in the earliest eighteenth-century city guides, during the Napoleonic suppressions it was transferred in 1816 to the Accademia and later joined the collections of the National Gallery of Parma. Today, after restoration, it is again on display in the section devoted to Emilian artists of the 16th and 17th centuries, alongside three other works by Amidani.

Speakers at the presentation included Stefano L’Occaso, director of the Complesso della Pilotta; art historian Carla Campanini, who coordinated the proceedings; restorers from the Opificio in Modena; and Alberto Crispo of the University of Parma, author of a monograph on the artist that reconstructed his profile in the context of his coeval production.

“We are particularly pleased with the conclusion of this significant intervention on the altarpiece by Luigi Amidani,” said director Stefano L’Occaso, “a protagonist among the early 17th-century Parmesan painters linked to the Farnese court. Although influenced by Antonio da Correggio, Bartolomeo Schedoni and the Annibale Carracci, Amidani was able to develop a personal and recognizable expressive language over time.”

Pilotta, Luigi Amidani's Madonna and Child restored. Full legibility of the work recovered

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