DOCSLIB.ORG

An Italy Alive Again in Maps in a Vatican Museums Cleanup, the Glue

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
An Italy Alive Again in Maps in a Vatican Museums Cleanup, the Glue Review http://ereader.wsj.net/ee/_nmum/_default_bb_include_inframe.php?TO... An Italy Alive Again in Maps In a Vatican Museums cleanup, the glue is gone and old details are back BY LIAM MOLONEY IN THE DAYS when pontiffs rarely left Rome, Pope Gregory XIII commissioned giant maps depicting all of Italy—so that he could explore the peninsula without leaving the city’s safety. By 1582, a team of top artists had painted and illustrated 40 meticulous maps, most of them measuring some 15 feet by 16 feet, onto the walls of a vast gallery. In their original form, the paintings had an almost 3-D effect, with city landmarks, mountain valleys and the white crests of ocean waves clearly visible. But the centuries were not kind to the Vatican’s Gallery of Maps, which stretches the length of a football field and is the world’s largest series of painted maps. The works were gravely damaged by dust and water over the years. Botched restorations erased or covered up key features, and a glue used in a 19th-century effort left the maps dulled by a yellow patina. In recent years, most visitors to the gallery—part of the Vatican Museums —simply ignored the maps as they rushed to the Sistine Chapel near the gallery’s far end. Some of those tourists now may start slowing down on their way to Michelangelo Sistine masterpieces. A four-year restoration by a team of more than a dozen experts has returned the gallery to something close to its original grandeur, with an inauguration set for Saturday. In the 16th century, Pope Gregory assigned the monk and geographer Ignazio Danti to carry out the project. In turn, Danti hired several artistic stars of the day and up-andcomers as well to illustrate the maps, including Girolamo Muziano, Cesare Nebbia and the Flemish brothers Matthijs and Paul Bril. The Brils excelled at landscape paintings— an essential skill for the work. “The maps had no mistakes,” said Maria Ludmila Pustka, head of restoration at the Vatican Museums—at least based on what was known of Italian geography at the time. “Danti did an excellent job. [The artists] omitted what they didn’t know for sure or didn’t have details—they didn’t bluff.” But a few decades after the maps’ creation, things began to go downhill. Pope Urban VIII’s restoration of 1630 omitted some details that had blurred, such as a hamlet on a lake. Urban—a scion of the Barberini family, whose symbol is a bee—had a map representing the papal territories reworked so that it was filled with bees. He also placed bees above the golden-colored dragon that symbolized the family of Gregory XIII. (The bees are still there.) Separately, an image of the Brenner Pass between Italy and Aus- tria disappeared, apparently painted over because its position high on a gallery wall made it hard to reach. In 2011, the Vatican decided to restore the maps and turned to the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, made up mainly of artloving Catholics. Among other projects, the group has funded restorations in the Sistine Chapel and the Pauline Chapel, which is the private chapel of the pope and features frescoes by Michelangelo. The Patrons’ California chapter, of about 300 members, jumped at the maps project, which cost around $2.3 million. It was an obvious choice for those of Italian descent, many with special links to the maps, said Michael Feeley, chairman of the chapter. One family “paid for the map of Umbria because [family members were] devoted to St. Francis of Assisi,” a town in the Umbria region, Mr. Feeley said. The chapter eventually raised 25% more than needed. 1 of 3 4/23/2016 1:52 PM Review http://ereader.wsj.net/ee/_nmum/_default_bb_include_inframe.php?TO... In the restoration, experts injected organic glue into the plaster holding the artworks in place to anchor them, then divided each of the 40 maps into 64 sections—roughly the size of a sheet of typewriter paper— just as the original artists had. The restorers then laid special paper over each section to absorb the yellow glue from the 19th-century restoration that had blurred the colors, removed the paper and spread a special glue made from seaweed onto the maps to hold the original colors in place. The restorers colored or redrew any missing details. The restoration tried to reproduce the original techniques of the map artists by adopting chemical-free color pigments and by using an ancient recipe for the Roman stucco. Visitors to the restored galleries will be able to identify street names in Bologna that still exist 500 years later and can make out the arcades in St. Mark’s Square in Venice. Some visitors of Italian descent often linger in search of their ancestors’ village, said Romina Cometti, restorations project manager at the Patrons of the Arts. The restoration has brought a new clarity to the depiction of Lepanto, the naval battle in which Catholic states defeated the Ottoman fleet in 1571. The gallery also depicts Julius Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon River and Hannibal with his elephants ready to fight the Roman legions, as well as St. Leo I, who persuaded Attila the Hun not to sack Rome. “The paintings are so precise in their details,” added Mrs. Pustka. “I challenge Google Maps to be so accurate.” VATICAN MUSEUMS For accuracy, a challenge to Google Maps. 2 of 3 4/23/2016 1:52 PM Review http://ereader.wsj.net/ee/_nmum/_default_bb_include_inframe.php?TO... THE VATICAN’S Gallery of Maps, photographed before the restoration that is being unveiled Saturday. Saturday, 04/23/2016 Pag.C014 Copyright (c)2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 4/23/2016 3 of 3 4/23/2016 1:52 PM.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Girolamo Muziano, Scipione Pulzone, and the First Generation of Jesuit Art
    journal of jesuit studies 6 (2019) 196-212 brill.com/jjs Girolamo Muziano, Scipione Pulzone, and the First Generation of Jesuit Art John Marciari The Morgan Library & Museum, New York [email protected] Abstract While Bernini and other artists of his generation would be responsible for much of the decoration at the Chiesa del Gesù and other Jesuit churches, there was more than half a century of art commissioned by the Jesuits before Bernini came to the attention of the order. Many of the early works painted in the 1580s and 90s are no longer in the church, and some do not even survive; even a major monument like Girolamo Muzia- no’s Circumcision, the original high altarpiece, is neglected in scholarship on Jesuit art. This paper turns to the early altarpieces painted for the Gesù by Muziano and Scipione Pulzone, to discuss the pictorial and intellectual concerns that seem to have guided the painters, and also to some extent to speculate on why their works are no longer at the Gesù, and why these artists are so unfamiliar today. Keywords Jesuit art – Il Gesù – Girolamo Muziano – Scipione Pulzone – Federico Zuccaro – Counter-Reformation – Gianlorenzo Bernini Visitors to the Chiesa del Gesù in Rome, or to the recent exhibition of Jesuit art at Fairfield University,1 might naturally be led to conclude that Gianlorenzo 1 Linda Wolk-Simon, ed., The Holy Name: Art of the Gesù; Bernini and His Age, Exh. cat., Fair- field University Art Museum, Early Modern Catholicism and the Visual Arts 17 (Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2018).
    [Show full text]
  • Preliminary Inventory to the David Coffin Papers, 1918-2003
    Preliminary Inventory to the David Coffin Papers, 1918-2003 Collection includes: 11 boxes of notebooks; 3 boxes of offprints; 3 boxes of catalog cards; 7 boxes of negatives; 3 boxes of slides; 11 boxes of unprocessed materials, papers and photographs. The collection has not been processed and is only partially rehoused. Biographical note: David Coffin (1918-2003) was an American historian of Renaissance gardens and landscape architecture. Coffin taught at Princeton University from 1949-1988, serving as chair of the art and archaeology department from 1964-1970. In addition, Coffin was the first chairman of the Garden Advisory Committee for Dumbarton Oaks, which led to the establishment of a scholarly program for garden and landscape studies in 1971. Coffin also organized the first garden symposium at Dumbarton Oaks in 1971, which focused on his métier, Italian gardens. Scope and Content: The collection consists of Coffin's personal papers and materials relating to his teaching career at Princeton University and his scholarly research interests in Renaissance architecture and garden history. Materials include notebooks, index cards, correspondence, typescripts, course syllabi, class and lecture notes, and offprints. Of particular note are Coffin's notebooks, which contain extensive research notes on English, French, and Italian gardens. There is also a significant amount of visual material, including photographs, slides, microfilm, and negatives. Inventory of Notebook Boxes: Box #1: Notebooks #1 – 13 + one unidentified Notebook #1 (brown):
    [Show full text]
  • SS History.Pages
    History Sancta Sanctorum The chapel now known as the Sancta Sanctorum was the original private papal chapel of the mediaeval Lateran Palace, and as such was the predecessor of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. The popes made the Lateran their residence in the early 4th century as soon as the emperor Constantine had built the basilica, but the first reference to a private palace chapel dedicated to St Lawrence is in the entry in the Liber Pontificalis for Pope Stephen III (768-72). Pope Gregory IV (827-44) is recorded as having refitted the papal apartment next to the chapel. The entry for Pope Leo III (795-816) shows the chapel becoming a major store of relics. It describes a chest of cypress wood (arca cypressina) being kept here, containing "many precious relics" used in liturgical processions. The famous full-length icon of Christ Santissimo Salvatore acheropita was one of the treasures, first mentioned in the reign of Pope Stephen II (752-7) but probably executed in the 5th century. The name acheropita is from the Greek acheiropoieta, meaning "made without hands" because its legend alleges that St Luke began painting it and an angel finished it for him. The name of the chapel became the Sancta Sanctorum in the early 13th century because of these relics. Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) provided bronze reliquaries for the heads of SS Peter and Paul which were kept here then (they are now in the basilica), and also a silver-gilt covering for the Acheropita icon. The next pope, Honorius III, executed a major restoration of the chapel.
    [Show full text]
  • Pappagallo Fall 2017
    PAPPAGALLOPPAPPAGALLOAPP ’17AGALLOPAPPAGALLO ’17 Funded by the Greater Rockford Italian American Association - GRIAA Fall 2017 P.O. Box 1915 • Rockford, Illinois 61110-0415 A Tribute to Our Veterans Sam Caruana, Carlo Rossi, Benny Frisella awed constructed to replace the bombed out Ramagen Bridge. The by Vets Roll trip that was ‘absolutely amazing’ 104th liberated the Nordhausen Concentration Camp on April 12, 1945. Carlo served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War with the 301st Air Police Squadron at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana. Not surprisingly, the site that had the greatest impact on him was the Korean War Memorial. “I was really set off by that,” he said. “It has life-size statues walking through the swamps of Korea, and it’s like you are walking with them.” Benny served in a heavy artillery unit at a missile site in Ne- braska from 1961-64. “Shortly after I got out, President Johnson Carlo Rossi (left), Benny Frisella and Sam Caurana visited Washington, closed up all the missile sites and a lot of guys I was stationed D.C., and other places with ended up in Vietnam,” he said. “I lost quite a few friends.” By Mike Doyle He was impressed by all the sites they visited and singled They numbered 200, representing 12 states, and they were out the Lincoln Memorial and the U.S. Air Force Museum at awed by how they were honored for their service and contribu- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, the first stop on tions. On May 21, 2017, Vets Roll 8 took to the road as part of the tour.
    [Show full text]
  • Our Excursion to Rome "Cape Bona Esperanca"
    MAPS IN September 2016 Newsletter No HISTORY 56 "Cape Bona Esperanca" Our Excursion to Rome Conference Programme Origin of portolans ISSN 1379-3306 www.bimcc.org 2 SPONSORS Paulus Swaen Internet Map Auctions March - May - September - November Maps, Globes, Views, Atlases, Prints SCANNING - GEOREFERENCING Catalogue on: AND DIGITISING OF OLD MAPS www.swaen.com [email protected] Tel: +1 727 687 32 98 IJzerweglaan 48 I 9050 Gent Belgium [email protected] I www.aquaterra.be T +32 (0)9 230 55 15 I F +32 (0)9 230 21 10 Henri Godts Avenue Louise 230/6 1050 Brussels Tel: +32 (0)2 647 85 48 Fax: +32 (0)2 640 73 32 Dealer and Auctioneer of rare books, manuscripts, maps and atlases Info from: [email protected] Catalogue on: www.godts.com SEPTEMBER 2016 – MAPS IN HISTORY NO 56 EDITORIAL 3 Contents Intro Dear Map Friends, Looks at Books Our excursion to Rome last May was certainly the most Hautes-Fagnes .....................................................................................................................4 extraordinary we have had in the life of the Brussels Mapping the roads - building modern Britain .......................... 6 Map Circle. For that we must thank our President, Abraham Ortelius - Life · Work · Sources and Friends . 10 Caroline De Candt, and, first and foremost, Wouter Bracke, Director of the Academia Belgica (among The Pre-Siege Maps of Malta ......................................................................... 12 many titles). Not only did he make all the practical arrangements to host us at the Academia, but he also History and Cartography organised a programme of visits and lectures, taking advantage of his many contacts in Rome, to allow First International Workshop on the origin and us to discover the most exceptional cartographical evolution of portolan charts .........................................................................14 treasures of the city.
    [Show full text]
  • Through the Eye of the Dragon: an Examination of the Artistic Patronage of Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585)
    Through the eye of the Dragon: An Examination of the Artistic Patronage of Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585). Vol.1 Title of Degree: PhD Date of Submission: August 2019 Name: Jacqueline Christine Carey I declare that this thesis has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other University and it is entirely my own work. I agree to deposit this thesis in the University’s open access institutional repository or allow the library to do so on my behalf, subject to Irish Copyright Legislation and Trinity College Library conditions of use and acknowledgement. For Sadie and Lilly Summary This subject of this thesis is the artistic patronage of Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585). It examines the contribution of the individual patron to his patronage with a view to providing a more intense reading of his artistic programmes. This approach is derived from the individual interests, influences, and ambitions of Gregory XIII. It contrasts with periodization approaches that employ ‘Counter Reformation’ ideas to interpret his patronage. This thesis uses archival materials, contemporaneous primary sources, modern specialist literature, and multi-disciplinary sources in combination with a visual and iconographic analysis of Gregory XIII’s artistic programmes to develop and understanding of its subject. Chapter one examines the efficacy and impact of employing a ‘Counter-Reformation’ approach to interpret Gregory XIII’s artistic patronage. It finds this approach to be too general, ill defined, and reductionist to provide an intense reading of his artistic programmes. Chapter two explores the antecedent influences that determined Gregory XIII’s approach to his papal patronage and an overview of this patronage.
    [Show full text]
  • Completed Dissertations
    Completed Dissertations Yale University Department of the History of Art 1942 TO PRESENT 190 York Street PO Box 208272 New Haven, CT 06520 203-432-2668 Completed Dissertations YALE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF THE HISTORY OF ART Completed Dissertations from 1942 - Present Listed are the completed dissertations by Yale History of Art graduate students from 1942 to present day. 1942 Hamilton, George Heard, “Delacroix and the Orient” Studies in the Iconography of the Romantic Experience” 1945 Frisch, Teresa Grace, “A Study in Nomadic Art with Emphasis on Early Sythian Conventions and Motifs” 1948 Hamilton, Florence Wiggin, “The Early Work of Paul Gaugin: From Impressionism to Synthetism” Smith, Helen Wade, “Ptolemaic Heads: An Investigation of Sculptural Style” 1949 Averill, Louise Hunt, “John Vanderlyn: American Painter 1775-1852” Danes, Gibson A., “William Morris Hunt: A Biographical and Critical Study of 1824-1879” Newman, Jr., Richard King, “Yankee Gothic: Medieval Architectural Forms in Protestant Church Building of 19th Century New England” Peirson, Jr., William Harvey, “Industrial Architecture in the Berkshires” Scully, Jr., Vincent J., “The Cottage Style: An Organic Development in Later 19th Century Wooden Domestic Architecture in the Eastern United States” 1951 Davidson, J. LeRoy, “The Lotus Sutra in Chinese Art to the Year One Thousand” 1953 Branner, Robert J., “The Construction of the Chevet of Bourges Cathedral and its Place in Gothic Architecture” FORM013 8-JUN-2021 Page 1 Completed Dissertations Spencer, John R., “Leon Battista Alberti on Painting” Wu, Nelson Ikon, “T’and Ch’i-ch’ang and His Landscape Paintings” 1955 Spievogel, Rosalind Brueck, “Wari: A Study in Tiahuanaco Style” 1956 Donnelly, Marian Card, “New England Meeting Houses in the 17th Century” Hadzi, Martha Leeb, “The Portraiture of Gallienus (A.D.
    [Show full text]
  • The Vatican Library Alphabets, Luca Orfei, and Graphic Media in Sistine Rome
    chapter 26 The Vatican Library Alphabets, Luca Orfei, and Graphic Media in Sistine Rome Paul Nelles* Upon completion in 1590, the new quarters for the Vatican Library in the Cortile del Belvedere were among the largest and most lavishly decorated library rooms in Europe. Intended to serve as a bulwark of Catholic orthodoxy, the new library was part of the vast cultural program of Pope Sixtus v. Executed under the oversight of the artists Cesare Nebbia and Giovanni Guerra, four pic- torial cycles meet the gaze of readers in the massive central room, now known as the salone sistino: the great libraries of antiquity are depicted on the south wall; scenes from the ecumenical councils of the church run opposite; portraits of the “inventors of letters” are located on the pillars in the middle of the room; and Sixtus’s campaign of urban and architectural renewal in Rome is cele- brated on the ceiling in a cycle depicting the opere of the ambitious Counter- Reformation pope. In addition to these scenes in the salone sistino, the cycle of frescoes continues in the adjacent sala dei scrittori with depictions of the book arts (papermaking, printing, and so on) and in the nearby bibliotheca secreta with portraits of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers.1 The frescoes are busy and full of movement. Books are present everywhere. Pamphilus is portrayed copying codices in the library at Caesarea while Eusebius studiously prepares his Ecclesiastical History. The censure of Arius at the First Council of Nicaea is accompanied by a burning pyre of condemned writings.
    [Show full text]
  • Barocci's Immacolata Within 'Franciscan' Umbria
    IAN VERSTEGEN Barocci’s Immacolata within ‘Franciscan’ Umbria Abstract This article addresses the iconography of Federico Barocci's Immaculate Conception by inves- tigating local customs. Seeing Urbino and greater Umbria as a region of semiofficial Franciscan belief makes it is possible to understand how Barocci was able to reflect in a precocious way on this venerable subject. Because the belief in Mary's immaculacy was taken for granted, it was possible for an audience to work with a more abbreviated iconography, which became a model for seventeenth century art. The model of sectarian belief is useful for understanding the uni- versality of counterreformation belief and its enforcement in post-Tridentine Italy. Fig. 1: Federico Barocci, Immaculate Conception, c. 1577, Oil on canvas, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino 1. Introduction <1> Rome and province, center-periphery, Catholic rite and local custom, have been at the center of definitions of Catholic reform.1 After exchanging the monolithic “counter-reformation” for a more flexible concept of Catholic reform, historians have sought to define how and when canonical teachings and edicts of the pope were actually observed in Italy. One way to discern regularity without demanding the full uniformity of a classic counter-reformation definition of Catholicism is to study the sectarian beliefs that were allowed to be practiced within those same sects. For example, the powerful Franciscans held to aggressive beliefs about Mary that were contrary to accepted church doctrine yet were allowed to use their own breviary, even after Pius V’s reform of the liturgy. <2> This article examines such a case of regional belief that was allowed to seep even into the met- ropolitan structure of a city – Urbino – where the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was celebrated in the conventual church of San Francesco via Federico Barocci’s precocious paint- ing (Fig.
    [Show full text]
  • Speakers and Abstracts by Panel
    Speakers and Abstracts by Panel Contents (please click the panel title to go straight there) 1) End of an era: the final days and death of Augustus .......................................... 2 2a) Becoming a god ................................................................................................ 3 2b) Historiography and scholarship ........................................................................ 5 3a) The Tiberian response ...................................................................................... 7 3b) Text and Persausion ......................................................................................... 9 4a) Neronians to Flavians ..................................................................................... 10 4b) Monuments and architecture .......................................................................... 12 5a) Late antiquity .................................................................................................. 14 5b) Tacitus, Suetonius and Augustus ................................................................... 17 6a) Byzantine politics and literature ...................................................................... 19 6b) The power of images ...................................................................................... 21 7a) Augustus in the novel ..................................................................................... 22 7b) Bridging the gap: towards the Middle Ages .................................................... 24 8a) Augustus
    [Show full text]
  • Girolamo Muziano and Cesare Nebbia at Orvieto Author(S): Rosamond E
    Girolamo Muziano and Cesare Nebbia at Orvieto Author(s): Rosamond E. Mack Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 56, No. 3, (Sep., 1974), pp. 410-413 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3049266 Accessed: 27/04/2008 23:56 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=caa. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We enable the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org Girolamo Muziano and Cesare Nebbia at Orvieto* RosamondE. Mack The late sixteenth-century redecoration of the Cathedral of and some of their altarpieces. Others were painted by Muzi- Orvieto witnessed both the beginning and the end of the ano in Rome at the peak of his career.
    [Show full text]
  • The Courtyard of Honour the Courtyard
    The Courtyard of Honour The Courtyard of Honour of the Quirinale Palace appears to be a large arcaded piazza, unified and harmonious in shape, but it is in fact the result of four separate phases of construction which were carried out between the end of the 1500s and next century. The oldest and most easily distinguishable section forms the backdrop to the courtyard with the tower rising above it. This part of the palace was originally an isolated villa, whose construction was begun in 1583 by Pope Gregory XIII who wished to pass the hot Roman summers on the Quirinal Hill, a fresher and airier location than the Vatican. The architect who designed this first building was Ottaviano Mascarino, from Bologna. The next pope, Sixtus V, decided to enlarge the structure with a long wing running down the piazza and a second building directly in front of the older villa; Domenico Fontana was in charge of these projects. The palace and the Courtyard were completed under Pope Paul V by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, who designed the wing on the side of the gardens, and Carlo Maderno, who rebuilt the Sixtus V structure in order that it could accommodate larger and more solemn ceremonial spaces. The clock-tower was originally a simple viewing tower crowning the 16th Century villa. At the beginning of the 17th Century it was fitted with a clock and bell, and towards the end of that century a mosaic of the Madonna and Child was carried out, based on a design by Carlo Maratta. Above the tower fly the Italian and European flags as well as the presidential standard, which is lowered when the Head of State is not in Rome.
    [Show full text]