Restoration of Domenichino's Death of Adonis at Palazzo Farnese concluded

The restoration of Domenichino ’sfresco depicting the Death of Adonis has been completed thanks to a long-standing collaboration between theFrench Embassy in Rome and theCentral Institute for Restoration. The work is part of a cycle of three frescoes painted between 1603 and 1604 in the Casino della Morte, commissioned by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese between the family palace and the bank of the Tiber, accessible directly from the palace through the archway that still bypasses Via Giulia. The decoration of the building was carried out by the team of artists directed by Annibale Carracci, who commissioned the young Domenichino to execute the three frescoes. The subjects, taken from classical myths and narrated by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, are Narcissus at the Fountain, Apollo and Hyacinthus, and the Death of Adonis. The latter depicts the moment when Venus, disembarking from the golden chariot drawn by two swans, gives herself over to despair upon finding her beloved Adonis agonizing on the ground, mortally wounded by a wild boar. Among the tufts of grass in the foreground blooms the anemone, a flower spawned by Adonis’ blood.

Domenichino’s frescoes were detached in 1817, due to their poor state of preservation, by restorer Pietro Palmaroli and transferred to Palazzo Farnese where they are now kept on the piano nobile.

The restoration was entirely financed, designed and executed by theCentral Institute for Restoration, in agreement with the Soprintendenza Speciale Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio of Rome. The just-completed intervention follows the one carried out in 2019, also by the Central Institute for Restoration, on the Narcissus at the Fountain. Before the restoration, a thorough campaign of scientific investigations was conducted that supported the methodological choices adopted in the execution of the intervention. The Death of Adonis retains Palmaroli’s original support, maintained for its value as a historical testimony. The restoration focused on recovering the original color scheme, restoring its correct tonal values altered by darkened fixatives and extensive repainting. The main criticality of the intervention was the presence of extensive repainting that affected a large part of the arboreal fifth: the cleaning of this area required the development of further selective and gradual methods to preserve the first dry pictorial phase. As for the operations of aesthetic presentation, it was decided to follow a conservative approach in the execution of the plastering of the non-reconstructible gaps and, through a punctual and light pictorial reintegration, to stitch up the pictorial fabric to restore full legibility to the text of the Bolognese artist.

Restoration of Domenichino's Death of Adonis at Palazzo Farnese concluded

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.