Restoration at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure for Gian Francesco dalle Croci's high goldsmith's processional cross


The precious processional cross made by Gian Francesco dalle Croci for the church of San Francesco will undergo careful restoration at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence.

The precious processional cross made in 1501 by Gian Francesco dalle Croci for the church of San Francesco will be transferred to Florence on July 29, where it will undergo a thorough restoration at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, a renowned institute of the Ministry of Culture that specializes in the conservation of works of art.

This artifact of high goldsmithing came into being through the testamentary bequest of Brother Francesco Sansone de Brixia, minister general of the Franciscan Order from 1475 to 1499. The patron provided precise iconographic indications for the creation of the work, conceived as a sort of Franciscan shrine, in which the main representatives of the Order are arranged along the arms of the cross, converging around the central figures of Christ crucified and St. Francis, depicted at the moment he receives the stigmata.

Gian Francesco dalle Croci, a member of a famous family of Brescian goldsmiths and silversmiths, made this liturgical work in cast, embossed and gilded silver, embellishing it with polychrome enamels and niello reliefs, a refined technique he employed to depict with extreme finesse the scenes of Christ’s passion and resurrection, inserted between the figures of the Franciscan saints. Decorated on both sides, the cross symbolically celebrates the profound bond between St. Francis and Christ, reflecting the saint’s conception as “alter Christus,” the one who more than any other embodied Christian values, in suffering as in mercy. The decorative elements reveal an original synthesis of Gothic and old-fashioned forms, fully in tune with the figurative culture of early Renaissance Italy.

The processional cross
The processional cross

The cross will remain for the whole of 2026 at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, where it will be the subject of an important restoration, study and research project, thanks to an agreement signed with the Soprintendenza archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio for the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia, which will closely follow every phase of the intervention.

Once restored, the cross will return to the sacristy of the church of St. Francis, where it will be kept in a specially designed shrine, the result of the commitment of the Franciscan community and the will of the guardian friar Alberto Tortelli, promoter of the entire project.

The beginning of the restoration takes place in a particularly symbolic year: in fact, 2025 marks the eighth centenary of the Canticle of the Creatures, the famous composition by St. Francis written in 1225.

Restoration at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure for Gian Francesco dalle Croci's high goldsmith's processional cross
Restoration at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure for Gian Francesco dalle Croci's high goldsmith's processional cross


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