Florence cathedral, extensive traces of paint discovered on 14th-century sculptures in the Porta dei Cornacchini

During the restoration of the Porta dei Cornacchini in Florence Cathedral, which began in September 2021 and ended a few days ago, extensive traces of color were found on the marble sculptural group of the Madonna and Child and Adoring Angels, made between 1359 and 1360. The sculptural group was thus originally polychrome. This is the first time such extensive traces of color have been found on sculptures that decorate or adorned the exterior of Florence Cathedral. Previously, tiny signs of gilding and blue color had been found on other sculptures in the Cathedral.

Removing considerable deposits of surface dirt and degradation phenomena of various kinds, restorers discovered the precious damask decoration of the Child’s robe, lacking the now-lost metal blade, the pupil of the Virgin’s left eye, and, in circumscribed areas, the blue-green color of the interior of the Virgin’s mantle and traces of red on the exterior, as well as the cream-ivory tones of the left angel’s robe.

Presumably the Madonna and Child with Adoring Angels was not the only one of the polychrome sculptural decorations in the Florentine cathedral. Phenomena of decay but also aesthetic and conservative interventions made in the past have contributed to their loss. A Duomo in color, which together with the white, green and pink marbles of the exterior facades and the red and gold mosaics of the Arnolfiana Canonici facade was supposed to take one’s breath away in beauty.

The restoration of the Porta dei Cornacchini and the marble facing of the north side of Florence Cathedral, totaling more than 1,000 square meters, was commissioned and directed by theOpera di Santa Maria del Fiore with the contribution of the Fondazione CR Firenze under the high supervision of the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the metropolitan city of Florence and the provinces of Pistoia and Prato. The work was carried out by restorers from Leonardo s.r.l.

Not much remains of the polychromy of the Madonna and Child and Adoring Angels because on most of the surfaces of the sculptural group there is a compact brown oxalate layer, which diagnostic stratigraphic investigations have shown to be in direct contact with the marble, and above which another layer consisting of surface deposits and a fluorosilicate product, laid down in an intervention in the 1950s, stood out clearly. The brown layer is probably the final product of a protein-based glaze with a protective and at the same time aesthetic function that has undergone chromatic alteration by darkening over time. In agreement with the Superintendency, it was decided to remove the surface deposits and the fluorosilicate-based product and to leave the brown layer, which is a natural protector and has made it possible to preserve the marble of the sculpture, which is in good state of preservation. For the other sculptures on the door, laser ablation, localized compresses of reagents and solvents such as ammonium carbonate, and the use of biocides to remove the biological patina were used. Specific intervention required the two stylophorous lions at the base of the portal: particularly the one on the right missing its jaw but also the lioness on the left missing an ear, part of her jaw and front legs.

“It may seem strange that so much importance is given to a door of a church, but actually the door for a church is very important because it is the link between what is celebrated in the building and the normal life of people,” said Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, Metropolitan Archbishop of Florence. “So it’s nice that our Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore has been able to restore this door; among other things, it’s the door that faced the city walls and it’s the one through which the loads of wool entered and were then processed. It was a gate therefore linked to the economy, to civic life, to the life of the families of the city. So here we welcome this restoration and ask ourselves how we enter but also how we leave the doors of our churches.”

"The novelty we found in this restoration of the Cornacchini Door is a remarkable presence of polychromy on the statues of the Madonna and Child and Adoring Angels," continues Vincenzo Vaccaro, advisor to the Opera del Duomo. “This makes us understand how in the past all the sculptures in the cathedral were polychrome, but over time, perhaps in the 19th or early 20th century, the polychromy was lost due to restorations that did not take into account conservation as we do today.”

“The exciting discovery of polychromy on the figures of the Porta dei Cornacchini in Florence Cathedral,” comments Timothy Verdon, director of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence, “reminds us that Florence in the late 14th-early 15th century was a very colorful city, just think of the pavement of the Piazza del Duomo, which was made of terracotta and the white, green and pink marbles that stood out against this red backdrop. The cathedral also had statues painted with gilding on the wings of the angels and on the robes, so a celebration, a celebration that we have forgotten and are now beginning to rediscover.”

The Door of the Cornacchini

The Porta dei Cornacchini whose name derives from a family that owned some houses near the first section of the Via del Cocomero, today’s Via Ricasoli, is also known as Porta di Balla because of its proximity to the ancient city gate on Florence’s first circle of walls, through which bales of wool passed daily. The earliest historical record of the existence of the Porta dei Cornacchini dates back to January 4, 1358 when, during work on the construction of the Cathedral, a solution was studied to erect the outer walls “without touching the gate,” which therefore already existed.

The legend

And it is precisely to the statues of the two stylophoric lions that the legend of “Anselm and the dream” is linked, narrated in the 15th century by Giovanni Cavalcanti in his Istorie Fiorentine. A certain Anselmo, who lived in the early 15th century in Florence and lived in Via del Cocomero, dreamed one night that a lion bit his hand and because of that bite he died. The next morning as he left his house, greatly impressed by the dream, he noticed that there were two carved lions on the Porta dei Cornacchini of the Duomo. So he decided to put his hand in the mouth of one of them, saying to himself, “I want the dream to take its course, so that I will come out of such perverse imagining and be free from the sad annunciation.” Unfortunately, inside the lion’s mouth lurked a scorpion that stung Anselm in one finger of his hand and led to his death.

The decorations

The portal decorations, which are evidence of the modernization of the Cathedral in the sense of “exaggerated Gothicism,” would appear to date from three phases: the first framing dating from 1342-48, the second in 1353-64 in which, under the direction of Francesco Talenti, the splays, archivolt and cusp with the tondo in the center were made, and finally the last phase (c. 1380) in which the lioness with cubs and the stylophoric lion supporting the twisted columns and the tabernacle above the cusp were located. In addition to the sculptural group of the Madonna and Child and Adoring Angels (attributed to Zanobi di Bartolo and Simone Talenti respectively) on the portal are depicted, from bottom to top: Lion and Lioness with Cubs and Winged Putto (Jacopo di Piero Guidi ?), Christ Blessing (Master of Armor attr.), left Madonna Annunziata (Niccolò di Pietro Lamberti) and right Mary at the Announcement of Death (Alberto Arnoldi attr.); God the Father (Pietro di Giovanni Tedesco); above center Angel (anonymous 14th-century sculptor); left Prophet by Giovanni D’Ambrogio and right Prophet (anonymous sculptor of the second half of the 14th century); center Madonna Annunziata (Jacopo di Piero Guidi).

Pictured, Madonna and Child with Adoring Angels, Porta dei Cornacchini, Florence Cathedral (after restoration)
Courtesy of Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore. Photo by Antonio Quattrone

Florence cathedral, extensive traces of paint discovered on 14th-century sculptures in the Porta dei Cornacchini

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