From May 29 to September 14, 2025, in the Ballroom on the ground floor of the Casino Nobile of theVilla Torlonia Museums , the work Tappezzamento a pezzi by Renato Mambor (Rome, 1936 - 2014) returns to public view, exhibited after careful restoration. The rearrangement of the large painting by the Roman artist is part of a project promoted byRomaCapitale, Assessorato alla Cultura - Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, in collaboration with the Paola Droghetti Onlus Foundation andICR - Istituto Centrale per il Restauro. Museum services are provided by Zètema Progetto Cultura.
The work, created in 1993 using a mixed-media painting technique on a wooden support, consists of seven irregular elements that together reach a total size of 250 x 350 cm. Becoming part of the Capitoline collections of contemporary art in 1999, Tappezzamento a pezzi was acquired following the artist’s participation in the seventh edition of the exhibition Lavori In Corso, hosted in the spaces of the former Birra Peroni in via Reggio Emilia.
The recent conservation work was carried out at the ICR thanks to a grant supported by the Paola Droghetti Onlus Foundation. It is yet another piece in a multi-year collaboration between the Capitoline Superintendency and the Foundation, which has enabled the enhancement of numerous works in Rome’s public collections over time. Previous restorations include Goldfinger Miss by Mario Ceroli, Two Colossal Heads and the Mosaic of the Real Casa in the Capitoline Museums, the sculptural portrait of Donna Franca Florio in the Pietro Canonica Museum, the wooden model of the Trevi Fountain preserved in Palazzo Braschi, the Urania Pendola in the Napoleonic Museum, and Arturo Martini’s terracotta Shepherd, part of the Gallery of Modern Art. The work on Pieced Tapestry also involved ICR’s School of Higher Education, helping to frame the complexity of the work within the contemporary debate on restoration. The work allowed an in-depth study of the painting technique adopted by Mambor in the 1990s, with particular attention to the choice of materials and the assembly of the wooden panels. At the same time, the project offered insights into the method and critical issues related to conservation intervention on works made with unconventional techniques. A distinctive element of the entire journey was the recovery of the work’s original installation mode. Thanks to the documentation provided by the Mambor Archive and the direct testimony of Patrizia Speciale, the artist’s wife, it was possible to accurately reconstruct the compositional scheme that Mambor himself had indicated when the work entered the Capitoline collections. The reconstruction was achieved through an interdisciplinary synergy involving the Capitoline Superintendency, the ICR, the historic firm Cantagalli, already active alongside the Roman artists in making frames and frames, and Biagio Fersini, Mambor’s assistant during the 1990s.
The result is a rearrangement that allows the work to be observed while respecting the authorial intention, offering the public a close-up and philologically accurate view. The seven panels, differing from each other in form and treatment of the wooden surface, appear as fragments of a visual discourse that requires the viewer to engage in an active process of recomposition. The irregular arrangement suggests a tension between unity and multiplicity, reflecting one of the central tenets of the artist’s work during that period. Parallel to the exhibition, the public will be able to view a documentary video made by Edoardo Mariani and Francesco Scognamiglio, produced by the Paola Droghetti Onlus Foundation. The film documents the stages of the restoration and explores its methodological and artistic implications. Completing the journey is the volume Carpeted in Pieces. A Work by Renato Mambor. Studies and Restoration, published by Gangemi Editore, edited by Federica Pirani and Angelandreina Rorro, collects essays by the editors together with contributions by Antonia Rita Arconti, Annapaola Agati, Valentina Rossi, Alice Salvetti, Miriam Pitocco, Barbara Lavorini and Claudio Santangelo. The book is part of the series dedicated to restorations promoted by the Foundation.
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| Renato Mambor at Villa Torlonia: the return of "Carpeted in Pieces" after restoration |
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