Florence celebrates Bardini Museum's 100th anniversary with restoration of Pollaiolo's San Michele

The Stefano Bardini Museum in Florence is preparing to celebrate its first 100 years with an extensive program of public initiatives that will run throughout 2025. The symbolic heart of the celebrations will be the restoration of St. Michael the Archangel Shoots Down the Dragon, a painting created by Piero del Pollaiolo (Florence, 1441/1442 - Rome, 1485-1496) between 1460 and 1465. The work, among the most important in the collection, will undergo a conservation intervention that will take place in a way that is fully visible to visitors, inside the museum’s rooms.

The intervention is part of a path of enhancement that aims to bring citizens and tourists closer to the history of one of Florence’s lesser-known but most fascinating civic museums, housed in the palace that was the residence and showroom of antiquarian Stefano Bardini. At a time when there is much discussion about accessibility and public involvement in museums, the Bardini project focuses on transparency of restoration, active participation and shared storytelling about heritage.

“We once again thank the Friends of Florence Foundation for its commitment to the art and culture of our city,” saidCouncillor for Culture Giovanni Bettarini. “The liberal donation of 20 thousand euros will be used to recover the painting, which will be restored under the eyes of visitors in a room of the museum so as not to deprive visitors of the enjoyment of the work during the work and to offer the public the opportunity to watch live as it is being carried out.”

“Muriel Vervat’s project for the restoration of the Pollaiolo, a candidate for the 2024 edition of the Friends of Florence Salone dell’Arte e del Restauro Prize, has found great approval from our donors,” stresses Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda President of Friends of Florence. “It will be an interesting opportunity to study and better understand the artist’s mastery, and with the restoration performed ”live,“ visitors to the Bardini Museum will not only be able to continue to see the work during the intervention, but will also have the opportunity to witness it live and discover how important it is to continue to preserve masterpieces that are significant to the history of world art.”

“This year marks the museum’s centennial, and we want to reintroduce a series of activities related to this important anniversary,” stressed Carlo Francini, director of the Civic Museums. “Visits for adults, families and children, then meetings and in-depth studies that from now will accompany us until May 2026 to deepen know and love even more this wonderful treasure chest donated to the city.”

The restoration: technologies, study and conservation under the eyes of the public

The restoration of the Saint Michael Archangel was approved by the city council and made possible thanks to a 20,000-euro donation from the Friends of Florence Foundation. The painting, originally part of a processional banner of the Compagnia di San Michele Arcangelo of Arezzo, was later cut down and transformed into an easel work. It entered Bardini’s collection after a passage through the Campana collection and the posthumous London auction of the Demidov collection. Responsible for the restoration will be Muriel Vervat, an accredited restorer at the Soprintendenza, who will conduct the operations together with a team of technicians and scholars. The work will have a strong diagnostic and scientific component, with the collaboration of institutions such as CNR-IFAC and CNR-ISPC in Florence, engaged in the analysis of materials and pictorial layering.

The painting has obvious conservation issues, particularly in the area of the sky, where the original brilliance has been compromised by alterations in the paint film and previous undocumented interventions. The goal of the restoration is to understand the painting techniques used by Pollaiolo, an artist best known for his work as a goldsmith and engraver, but here the author of a dynamic and theatrically composed scene.

A year-long program of walks, education and shared memory

To celebrate the centenary, the Florentine Civic Museums and the MUS.E Foundation have developed a calendar of activities that will run throughout 2025. The first events will kick off as early as May 2024. Every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday it will be possible to participate in thematic guided tours and activities for families, children and adults. Among the proposals, the so-called Bardini Walks will allow visitors to pass through places historically connected to the antiquarian: the Bardini Garden, Palazzo Mozzi, and finally the museum. The narrative will be built around the figure of Stefano Bardini, who was one of Europe’s leading art dealers between the 19th and 20th centuries, the creator of transactions that are still debated today between art history and the history of collecting.

The weekend of May 10 and 11 will see the museum’s two entrances decorated with ornamental plants and green arrangements, in homage to the garden that bears his name. On May 18, on the occasion of International Museum Day promoted by ICOM, a performance featuring Bardini’s historical “presence” will be staged: an actor, dressed in period clothing, will lead visitors along a narrative path centered on his life and the role of the museum.

Night at the museum, children protagonists and a collective storytelling project

On May 24, as part of the Firenze dei Bambini festival, the Bardini Museum will host a series of playful-educational activities aimed at young children. Children will be able to take an evening itinerary within the museum’s halls and symbolically stay overnight inside, transforming it into a space of exploration and play, but also of knowledge and memory.

Another initiative will be one entitled The History of the World in 100 Objects, inspired by the British Museum’s famous project and Neil MacGregor’s book. Visitors will be invited to choose an object from the exhibits, photograph it and tell in a few lines why that work has meant something to them. The contributions received (via email to mediazione@musefirenze.it) will form the basis for a group performance on Sunday, Oct. 5.

Florence celebrates Bardini Museum's 100th anniversary with restoration of Pollaiolo's San Michele

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