Eighty-five years after its last “descent,” Erasmus of Narni, known as Gattamelata, and his horse leave the churchyard of St. Anthony’s Basilica in Padua. In early October, at the end of about three years during which the statue has remained shrouded by scaffolding, the famous equestrian monument will be lifted and lowered to the ground to undergo new preliminary checks in preparation for its restoration made possible thanks to the contribution of the American nonprofit associations Friends of Florence and Save Venice, which will also support the next phase of the restoration proper.
The complex separation operations from the base are scheduled for Wednesday, October 8 and Thursday, October 9, weather permitting. Once this phase is completed, the two parts of the monument will be placed inside theformer Civic Museum in Piazzetta Kolbe.
The schedule calls for slinging, lifting and lowering to the ground and moving the statue of the condottiero to the hallway of the former Civic Museum on the morning of Wednesday, October 8. The following day, Thursday, Oct. 9, from the early morning hours until the afternoon, the operations of separating the horse from the stone base and transporting it to the same location will instead be accomplished.
This year’s will be the third “descent” of the bronze group from its original 1457 location. The first occurred in November 1917, when the work was taken to Palazzo Venezia, Rome, for safekeeping until the end of World War I and returned to its place in July 1919. The second was on October 1, 1940, coinciding with the start of World War II, when the monument was dismantled and transferred to the Abbey of Carceri d’Este (Padua), where it remained until June 6, 1945.
The masterpiece, created by Donatello between 1447 and 1453 on commission from the condottiero’s family and with the approval of the Senate of the Venetian Republic, was designed to celebrate the memory of Erasmo da Narni. Only a few years later the monument was placed in front of the Basilica of St. Anthony.
Photo by Nicola Salvioli.
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| Padua, 85 years after the last "descent" the Gattamelata will be lowered to the ground and leave the Basilica's churchyard |
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