Renaissance 1/2018 - 1 Vasily Rastorgue# !rancesco .el ;ero The "rt of Multi&lication The Italian Courtyard of the Moscow State Pushkin “I saw Exellenz Bode in the Museum today. His ener- Museum of !ine "rts has for any years conserved gy is no way diminished by the rheumatism having af- the sa e outlook$ fa iliar to visitors over the world fected his feet nor by the jealous treatment that the and to %enerations of art history students and &upils. country’s scholars and museum men are giving him. Under the staircase leading up$ itself a free co&y of its However, much they beat him in the #ress he is as vi- ore fa ous counterpart in the !lorentine )argello$ a gorous, bold and active as ever”. dark &laster cast of a *ronze *ust re&resenting a an in his sixties, dra&ed in an i &osing cloak$ is &laced =r, in a later letter fro 1911: casually *etween the life-size &laster co&ies of Michelangelo’s .avid and Verrochio’s Equestrian stat- “%&' (he Kaiser-Friedrich Museum. I felt so good ue of )artolo eo Colleoni 2!ig' 2)' 4hile it would &er- there and I believe that even in many years we will ha&s *e unfair to &retend that the nondescript figure not reach the same #otential for ac+uisition that their of the sitter attracts any kind of e,traordinary atten- museum administration possesses$.5 tion to itself$ the story *ehind it$ upon closer scrutiny, is linked to several dra atic events that *ear retelling The afore entioned &laster cast in Moscow is a &al- in the following article'1 &a*le testa ent to the i ediacy of this cultural e,- The &resent-day interiors of this and other halls of change' The original of the &ortrait 2!ig' 1) entered the the useum continue to reflect the dee& reverence )erlin collections in 1895, and only four years later, in that Ivan Tsvetaje#$ the driving force and astermind 1899, Ivan Tsvetaje# ade his first visit to the )erlin *ehind the Moscow useum’s o&ening in 1912, felt 7ipsformerei, which subse1uently &rovided him with towards the &redo inantly 7erman-langua%e arthis- a co&y of then-recent )erlin ac1uisition, alon% with torical scholarship of the &rewar era'2 More than half any other ite s.6 =f course Tsvetaje#$ who died *e- of all the casts of &ortrait *usts and reliefs in the Ital- fore the )olshevist Re#olution and so ewhat luckily ian Renaissance hall, for e,a &le$ have *een created for hi self did not live up to see all the subse1uent in )erlin *y artisans of its fa ous 7ipsfor erei, while transformations of his useum$ could not foresee the the %eneral idea of the &laster cast useum ca e to &erple,ed story that would connect the two *usts, the Tsvetaje# with a ready prototype in the sha&e of .res- original and the co&y, once more' den’s Albertinum'3 In a co &letely unpredicta*le se1uence of events, 8uite often it was no other than 4ilhelm von )ode the )erlin *ust fro which the &laster cast was taken, himself$ considered *y any as the ost influential inventory no 2261, was placed in the special re&osito- useum figure of the time$ who Tsvetaje# et in ry in the ill-fated !riedrichshain anti-aerial *unker in )erlin in his new useum of Renaissance art o&ened )erlin on the outset of 4orld 4ar II'7 It was subse- in 1904, reco ending and presenting ite s fro the 1uently considered a wartime loss after a fire oc- e,tensive )erlin collections to his Russian collea%ue curred there in May 1945.8 In reality, however, it was for co&ying and display &urposes.4 These eetings evacuated to Moscow in 1946 in a da a%ed state sure have left a lasting im&ression, and the e inent and ke&t there in secret for so e 70 years.9 =nly in 7erman is &ortrayed vividly in Tsvetajev’s letters ad- recent times was the veil of secrecy lifted$ causing dressed to :uri Nechaev-Maltso#$ Moscow useum’s )ode’s ac1uistion to rea&&ear in the re&ositories of ain mecenate and sup&orter: the very sa e Moscow useum that Tsvetaje# creat- /asily Rastor%ue# !rancesco .el ;ero' The "rt of Multi&lication kunstte,te'de 1/2018 - 2 ed'10 4e have covered the intricacies and &erple,ities %ether in the Italian Hall see ed like a %ood idea 2!i%' of this story elsewhere'11 93. !i%' 2: Plaster cast of )erlin SDS 2261, 1899-1912, Moscow$ Pushkin !i%' 1: 7iulio Ma++oni 2A3' Bust of !rancesco del ;ero$ *ronze$ Berlin. State Museum of !ine "rts. The 2015 )erlin e,hibition The Lost Museum / .as Restoration of the *ronze *ust was co issioned to Verschwundene Museum$ dedicated to these ost Mikhail Tulubenski, an e,&erienced useum restorer unfortunate events, ade it a special case to &resent working with etal o*jects e,clusively.16 Even if uch a newly- ade &laster cast of the .el Nero *ust as a of the fire da a%e to the *ronze was irreversible in its re e *rance and a testimony to 4ilhelm #on )ode’s essence$ so e things could *e done' Surface con- fascination for Renaissance *ronzes 2!ig' C3'12 /olker ta inations were cleaned$ crum*ling layers of o,ide Krahn’s short note in the e,hibition catalo%ue &oints sta*ilized$ so e cosmetic defects filled in, and a new out that a special display was &rovided for the .el ounting syste with a s all circular arble base re- Nero *ust in the halls of the Kaiser-!riedrich-Muse- &laced the missing original one (!ig. 5)' um'13 It stood on an Istrian arble chimneypiece in a hall imitating the interiors of a rich Venetian &ala++o$ 4hat could *e ore instructive than a co &arison of the *ust formed a 1uasi-pair with another large-scale a co&y with the original? Details invisible in the plaster *ronze bust of po&e Gre%ory XIII'14 cast should have e erged' The real outlook of a 16th century *ronze original should have enriched our un- In a ste& forward$ after any years of unco forta*le derstanding of this sculpture$ &roviding an im&ression silence a 5oint &roject *etween the Moscow and the of life$ %enuineness and displaying the original te,ture )erlin useum e erged$ aking the e,istence of the that even the best plaster co&y cannot transmit' fire-da a%ed original &ublic knowled%e once a%ain.15 In reality, however, *oth the restorer and the author In Moscow$ e,hibiting the co&y and the ori%inal to- of this te,t were ore than slightly disa&&ointed *y /asily Rastor%ue# !rancesco .el ;ero' The "rt of Multi&lication kunstte,te'de 1/2018 - C what *efell their eyes 2!ig' ?3' Inferior, shoddy work- anship during the *ronze casting &rocess 2and not the subse1uent fire da a%e3$ leading to holes and other defects everywhere in the sculpture$ was detected' Visible sea s fro a ulti-&art old used for the casting &rocess, ost evident around the eyes and ears of the odel, spoil the *ust and ake the &laster co&y with its uted contours so ewhat &refe- ra*le aesthetically. Re%ardless of whether these de- fects were caused *y the im&erfect *ronze casting technique availa*le to the craftsmen in the 16th cen- tury, or just e,acerbated as a result of heat and war da a%e$ the afore entioned co &arison has otiva- ted us to &ut the attribution of the *ronze *ust under closer scrutinity. !i%' 9< )ust of !rancesco del ;ero$ SDS 2261/GH-224, *efore the restoration, 2015. 4ho is the author of the *ronze *ust and what is itA The answer should of course to *e found in three subse1uent editions of the )erlin catalo%ues of the Italian *ronze sculptures. "ccording to )ode’s 1904 first edition, and the 1930 &osthumously &ublished last &re-war edition, as well as in !rit+ 7oldschmidt’s 1914 interim rendition of the sa e$ the *ust is re&re- senting !rancesco .el Nero$ &a&al treasurer to &o&e Cle ent VII Medici, and co es fro the Pala++o .el Nero 2Torrigiani) in !lorence$ *eing ac1uired in 1895.17 This last &rovenance detail is e,tre ely im&ortant in itself' Torrigiani &alace$ e,&anded and re*uilt in the 19th century, has incorporated the older Pala++o del Nero dating *ack to 1530’s, thus allowin% *oth )ode and &resent-day scholars to identify the )erlin *ust with a documented &ortrait of the sitter that stood in his fa ily ho e'18 "ccording to the 1914 catalo%ue of 7oldschmidt$ a reworked arble version, ade later !i%' C< Modern &laster cast in the halls of the Bode-Museum$ 2015. and lower in 1uality, was &ut on the %rave of !rancesco del Nero in the Santa Maria Minerva church in Ro e'19 Interestingly, the 1930 )ode cata- lo%ue dro&s this Ilower in 1uality” definition co - &letely. /asily Rastor%ue# !rancesco .el ;ero' The "rt of Multi&lication kunstte,te'de 1/2018 - 9 nal Ca#odiferro, producing admirable works there not in stucco only but in #ainting also stories namely both in oil and fresco6 and these have #rocured him high commendations which are fully merited.