At Gallerie d'Italia in Naples an exhibition of 200 works restored by Intesa Sanpaolo

From May 21 to September 25, 2022, the Gallerie d’Italia in Naples will present the final exhibition of the 19th edition of Restituzioni, a two-year program to safeguard and enhance the national artistic heritage curated and promoted by Intesa Sanpaolo. The exhibition, which will inaugurate the new Neapolitan exhibition venue of the Gallerie d’Italia, presents the result of the restorations of eighty-seven nuclei of works for a total of more than two hundred artifacts, selected by the banking institution together with fifty-four tutelary bodies and belonging to eighty proprietary entities, including public and diocesan museums, churches and places of worship and archaeological sites. The scientific curatorship is by Carlo Bertelli, Giorgio Bonsanti and, from this edition, Carla Di Francesco.

For the first time the 19th edition involves all Italian regions, thus testifying to its national dimension; Restituzioni, however, also extends to a European and a non-European reality. Representing Europe this year will be France, with a masterpiece by Vittore Carpaccio from the Jacquemart-André Museum in Paris. Brazil, on the other hand, will give the project a global scope, in an important effort to save a Pompeian fresco that was badly damaged in the fire that devastated the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro in 2018.

This edition of Restitutions will cover a chronological span of twenty-six centuries, ranging from ancient to contemporary. Among the works being restored are a group of 6th-5th century bronze mirrors from the National Archaeological Museum in Locri; the Kouros of Rhegion from the National Archaeological Museum in Reggio Calabria; the now charred wooden Lararium from Herculaneum; the three early Christian floor mosaics from the great baths of Aquileia; the Giusto de’ Menabuoi Polyptych from the Baptistery of Padua; and the large silver ante-reliquary pieces from the 1570s from the Diocesan Museum of Andria; Antonello da Messina ’s St. Jerome Penitent and The Visit of the Three Angels to Abraham from the Pinacoteca Civica in Reggio Calabria; the Triptych of St. Lawrence by Giovanni Bellini and workshop from the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice; and Giovanni Bellini’s Transfiguration from the Capodimonte Museum, from which Agnolo Bronzino’s Madonna and Child with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist by Agnolo Bronzino also arrives; the Polyptych of St. Anne of Capodistria by Cima da Conegliano from the Museum of the Ducal Palace in Mantua; Giulio Romano’s preparatory cartoon, The Battle of Constantine against Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge, from the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan; Tapestries with episodes from the Trojan War from the Museum of the University of Bologna; and Romanino’s Altarpiece known as the San Domenico Altarpiece from the Tosio-Martinengo Gallery in Brescia; the canopy with the Virgin and Child from Predazzo; processional Crosses from the Museum of Sacred Art of Marsica in Celano; paintings of Saint Cecilia and Saint Apollonia from Tolve; Pellizza da Volpedo’s Sun from the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome; Umberto Boccioni ’s painting Dynamism of a Human Body from the Museum of the Twentieth Century in Milan; and Luigi Mainolfi’s Bell from the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Turin. There is no shortage of special objects such as the 15th-century paper-membranaceous codices of the Divine Comedy from the Library of the University of Bologna; the Missal of Bishop François de Prez, a manuscript dating from about 1464-1470 from the Cathedral of Aosta; and Cardinal Branda Castiglioni’s funeral veil from the Museum of the Collegiate Church of Castiglione Olona; the 17th-century Ottoman-made linen Talismanic Shirt from the Museum of Civilizations in Rome; the cloak worn by Napoleon for his coronation as King of Italy, along with his crown, staff of command, scepter and hand of justice, all from the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. The historic Nativity scene from the parish church of Santa Caterina di Cardè from the Palace of the Bishops of Saluzzo will stand alongside Francesco Londonio’s Nativity scene from the Diocesan Museum in Milan.

Also part of this edition of Restituzioni is the restoration of the Supper of St. Gregory the Great, sponsored by the Municipality of Vicenza and the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio of Verona, Rovigo and Vicenza, supported by Intesa Sanpaolo on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Restituzioni program. The monumental painting on canvas by Paolo Veronese, commissioned for the Sanctuary of Monte Berico in Vicenza and immovable from the site for which it was created for conservation reasons, will be narrated in the exhibition through videos that will allow visitors to follow the salient stages of the restoration of a wide selection of works.

The general catalog with art-historical files and restoration reports on each work, published online and downloadable free of charge from www.restituzioni.com, is accompanied by an easy-to-use and informative printed guide to the exhibition.

For more info you can visit www.restituzioni.com

Image: Regional Directorate Museums of Friuli Venezia Giulia - National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia. © Marco Santi - Mosaicists Group Ravenna

At Gallerie d'Italia in Naples an exhibition of 200 works restored by Intesa Sanpaolo

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