Restored the two pinnacles of the Ardinghelli Polyptych purchased by the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence

Restored are the two precious pinnacles of the Ardinghelli Polyptych depicting the AnnouncingAngel and the Virgin Annunciate by Giovanni di Francesco Toscani, purchased by the Florence Academy Gallery in 2021. The restoration will be presented on Monday, Oct. 24, at 5 p.m. in the presence of Cecilie Hollberg director of the Gallery, Professor Andrea De Marchi of the University of Florence, and Rossella Lari, who was in charge of the restoration of the cusps. Admission is free while places last.

The two works by the Florentine painter recompose part of the 15th-century polyptych that was placed on the altar of the Ardinghelli Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Trinita in Florence, which was dismembered over time.

“Parts of the Polyptych are already in the Gallery,” explains Cecilie Hollberg. "The central pinnacle with the Crucifixion has been in our collections since 1855, while one of the predella compartments, depicting the Stigmata of St. Francis and a miracle of St. Nicholas of Bari, has been since 1933. The central compartment, with theAdoration of the Magi, is kept, from what we know, in a private collection. It would be nice to bring them all together. Researching the dispersed artistic heritage, I think, is one of the important tasks of a museum, especially if it is under the MiC - Ministry of Culture, either through the antiquarian market or, as on this occasion, thanks to private individuals."

The Florentine painter Giovanni di Francesco Toscani (1370/80 - 1430) was also responsible, in collaboration with his brother Domenico, for the frescoes depicting the stories of St. Nicholas that decorated the patronage chapel of the Ardinghelli family in the Church of Santa Trinita, and the polyptych is his only documented painting on panel. It was commissioned in 1423 for the marriage of Piero di Neri Ardinghelli to Caterina, niece of Palla Strozzi, then the richest man in Florence, who already owned a magnificent chapel in the same basilica. Strozzi had provided Caterina with a dowry of about 2,000 florins, part of which was used to renovate the Ardinghelli Chapel. In the center of the altarpiece made by Toscani, a wooden crucifix was placed in place of the traditional Madonna and Child, which served as a reliquary and, at certain times of the year, was displayed for public devotion through a grille on Via del Parione.

The polyptych was dismembered in the second half of the 18th century, and the various panels reappeared, in different years and places, only beginning in the mid-19th century. In 1966, with the critical contribution of Luciano Bellosi, it was possible to identify Giovanni di Francesco Toscani as the author of the work, as well as to clarify what its original structure was. Of the paintings that made up this masterpiece, in addition to the four panels now in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, the right compartment of the predella with The Baptism of Christ and the Martyrdom of St. James the Greater is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, while the main right side panel with Saints John the Baptist and James the Greater is in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Still missing from the roll call are the main left side panel, in which Saints Francis and Nicholas were depicted, and the three roundels, below the three pinnacles.

The AnnouncingAngel and the Virgin Annunciate “reported many conservation issues,” says Rossella Lari. “Both had uneven yellowed varnishes, stains, abrasions, scratches, lifts, altered pictorial restorations, and deficiencies in the preparation-color-gold layers. The intervention unearthed what remained of the original, performed the necessary stopping and plastering. In particular, the Madonna’s mantle, which had been totally repainted, was restored with a selection matching the intensity of the original blue. In all likelihood, as inferred from small remnants, the frame had also been repainted and, in the past, a mechanical means had been used to recover the gold, which damaged it. The pictorial restoration on the frame affected only the plastered shortcomings, while the abrasions were not restored.”

Restored the two pinnacles of the Ardinghelli Polyptych purchased by the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence

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