Unusual incident yesterday afternoon, Nov. 12, inside the Piacentini Vaccaro Palace, headquarters of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy in Rome. The councilor for Industry of the Region of Sardinia, Emanuele Cani, slipped on the staircase of honor, ending up against the lower right side of the monumental stained glass window La Carta del Lavoro, created by Mario Sironi (Sassari, 1885 - Milan 1961)(here is an in-depth article on the master) in 1932. The collision caused the breakage of a section of the work, which occupies the entire wall of the main staircase and represents one of the greatest examples of monumental art of the Italian 20th century.
According to the Adnkronos news agency, the alderman allegedly slipped on the steps and fell, hitting the stained glass window, causing some panels to fracture. He was immediately rescued by 118 personnel present at the ministry headquarters and treated on the spot for minor bruises. The regional administrator reportedly expressed deep sorrow for the incident and the damage done to the work, stressing that he was fine despite the slight injuries sustained. The artist’s granddaughter, Romana Sironi, who for years has been involved in the preservation and enhancement of the archive dedicated to the master, also expressed deep regret for the incident. She also wished Councillor Cani a speedy recovery and hoped that restoration work, deemed necessary to preserve one of Sironi’s most important works of monumental art, could be carried out as soon as possible.
The incident occurred around 3 p.m. in the building designed by architects Marcello Piacentini and Giuseppe Vaccaro between 1928 and 1932 to house the Ministry of Corporations. After World War II, the building was used for various institutional functions, becoming home to the Ministry of Industry, then the Ministry of Productive Activities, and later the Ministry of Economic Development. Since 2022 it has housed the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy. As Adnkronos writes, Mario Sironi’s La Carta del Lavoro was commissioned in 1932 by Corporations Minister Giuseppe Bottai to celebrate the 1927 labor reform, one of the main laws of the Fascist period. The 75-square-foot stained-glass window depicts a vast figurative cycle dedicated to arts and crafts, with monumental figures symbolizing the productive force and dignity of labor. Also appearing in the compositions are industrial elements such as smokestacks, propellers and flocks of airplanes, emblems of the modernity and technical power that characterized the imagery of the regime.
The work, placed in the grand staircase of Palazzo Piacentini Vaccaro, is part of the Sardinian painter’s artistic journey within the twentieth-century movement, with a language that blends classical rigor of forms with an intense idealization of work and industry. In 2014 La Carta del Lavoro also underwent a thorough restoration, financed by Acea on the occasion of the major monographic exhibition dedicated to Sironi at the Complesso del Vittoriano. The intervention made it possible to recover the original chromatics and to consolidate the damaged surfaces with advanced techniques, including sponging, resin infiltration and silicate-based protections. The restoration project restored the work’s original luminosity and expressive power, making it visible to the public once again after decades of alteration due to time and weathering. On that same occasion, the public had also been able to admire the preparatory cartoons and correspondence between Sironi and Bottai, documents that testify to the speed of the commission and the complexity of the work. The work represents one of the peaks of the monumental production of Sironi, one of the most influential interpreters of the Italian twentieth century and a leading figure in the search for a public art capable of dialoguing with architecture.
|
|
| Rome, an alderman slips on ministry staircase and breaks Mario Sironi's stained glass window |
Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.
