LOGGIA Nº17 ENGLISH VERSION or aesthetic merit of the winning projects The Europa Nostra / European Union and works. Their main value resides in the Awards for Cultural Heritage strive, then, to Alfredo Pérez de Armiñán constant encouragement they provide to preserve old works of our culture, and EUROPA NOSTRA / EUROPEAN perform exemplary interventions, which integrate them, while keeping their essential UNION AWARDS FOR CULTURAL will provide guidelines for many others in values intact, in the life of the successive HERITAGE AND THEIR IMPORTANCE a field like cultural heritage, where, generations. This is their main importance, unfortunately, there is more confusion than as an expression of the principles of Since 1978, the Europa Nostra Awards of clarity nowadays regarding the criteria for protecting the cultural legacy of our past, the European Union for works performed in intervention, the methods used and, worse which today constitute a fundamental part of Spain have been an important cultural event. still, the objectives to be achieved. a civilised view of the world, aware of the In the first place, for Hispania Nostra, which In the opinion of Hispania Nostra, there is a possibilities of human beings but also of co-operates in the organisation, but no less great risk all over Europe of trivialising or their limitations and obligations. for all those who strive to conserve, restore, exploiting the real deep historical and refurbish, manage and promote the cultural sometimes artistic meaning of the assets that heritage of Spain. constitute our heritage, above all when Of the Spanish works presented at each dealing with important monuments and Marco Dezzi Bardeschi edition, which are more and more historical buildings. CONSERVATION, NOT numerous each year –forty-seven in 2003– Spain is no exception. For that reason, it is RESTORATION. HUGO, RUSKIN, BOITO, DEHIO ET AL. the merit of only a few is acknowledged. worth rigorously re-formulating the A BRIEF HISTORY & However, although the competitors are current conditions of the development of CONSERVATION SUGGESTIONS aware beforehand that is very difficult to cultural tourism as a phenomenon of FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM win, because of the small number of growing social and economic importance. awards granted each year, they also know The aim would be to produce authentic, This article proposes a new, condensed that the fact that so many enter the lasting cultural gratification based on solid examination of International Restoration competition is a token of the abundance, information and education that would Charters from the point of view of Italy’s variety and quality of both public and become lodged in people’s memory rather contribution to the disciplines that have private works carried out in Spain in the than mere passing entertainment, which countered the unjustifiable correctness of field of restoration and refurbishment of requires constant renewal and change. so-called “restoration” practices with the monuments and scientific studies and We must not forget that the real value of alternative of a virtuous practice based on master plans concerning architectonic the assets that constitute our cultural respect and care for the heritage. Thus each edition of the Europa heritage resides in the fact that they are a monument/document. Camilo Boito’s Nostra Awards is a precise indication of the testimony of human memory, based on motto “Conservation, not restoration” goes activity in this sphere in Spain, and this in how they were created and how the a step further in the radical European line itself is one of its greatest achievements. generations that went before us saw and anticipated by Victor Hugo (“Guerre aux The solemn award-giving ceremony for mentally and emotionally recreated them. demolisseurs”, 1825-1832), John Ruskin Spanish projects and works in the last Knowledge of the history of monuments, (“so-called ‘restoration’ is the lowest form three editions, 2001, 2002 and 2003, took cities, artworks, the testimonies of of destruction accompanied by a false place under the presidency of Her Majesty civilisation, not to be confused with the description of the object destroyed”, 1849) Queen Sofía, Honorary President of aesthetic pleasure they arouse in us, is and William Morris’s Anti-Restoration Hispania Nostra, held at the Palacio Real therefore essential in order to conserve Movement crusade (from 1877 onwards). It del Pardo last June. A few days earlier, the and use them properly. is a motto taken over and invoked over a ceremony proclaiming the recipients of the A great thinker of the 20th century, unjustly century ago by Georg Gottfried Dehio awards in all European countries in the almost forgotten today, the Germano-Italian (“Conservieren, nicht Restauriren”, 1901) 2003 edition had been held in Munich, Romano Guardini, summed up the essential and value protection theory of Alois Riegl under the presidency of His Royal content of the modern notion of Cultural (“Denkmalkultus”, 1905) and his disciples highness Prince Henry of Denmark, Heritage when he said, “The destruction of (Max Dvorak, Clemens), still valid today. President of Europa Nostra. At that an old work of culture is a crucial loss. Such This essay takes a special look at the first ceremony, it was announced that a medal a work is the expression and the life Italian Charter (Boito, 1883), the Athens of honour and six diplomas had been ambience of ‘human’ man and cannot be Charter (1931) and the text by Gustavo granted to Spanish projects, some of produced by those who came afterwards... Giovanonni (1931), an absolute must to which are analysed in detail in this issue this man needs the old works and forms. understand the evolution of the restoration of Loggia, published under the auspices of They bring back to him the memory of debate until the Venice Charter (Robert Hispania Nostra. himself. They help him to reach himself. If Pane, Ignazio Gazzola, 1964). However, the importance of these prizes they are spoiled, it not only means the loss A rereading of the discipline in Italy is transcends the acknowledgement by the of an aesthetic or ancient resource, but an extremely suggestive, if we examine it different juries of the scientific, technical existential loss.” carefully: 1) The ICOMOS-IFLA Florence 128 ENGLISH VERSION Charter (1981) with the Italian alternative at the beginning, “will not be turned into “patina” to be a really “precious” quality, a version of historic gardens; 2) the an object of desolation or extermination”. sign of the value of the antiquity and Declaration of Amsterdam (1975) and the This was in 1839 and we can already authenticity of the work, the result of the great restorations of European cities with the anticipate, after reading the battle against action of that “venerable old gentleman Neapolitan school’s insistent allusion to vandalistic restorers waged by Victor called Time, who works on it with very fine integrated conservation (Francesco Forte, Hugo in 1825, the solemn denouncement brushes at an incredibly slow pace” and Roberto Di Stefano); 3) the open formulated by the neophyte Ruskin ten who, “mixing the colours imperceptibly, declinations of the notion of “authenticity” years later (1849) in his Seven Lamps of makes them more muted and delicate”. And (material or formal) underlying the Nara Architecture: “So-called restoration is the in 1756, Luigi Crespi, the abbot from Document (Lemaire, 1994); 4) the objectives worst form of destruction, accompanied by Bologna, precisely in two of his letters to (and the subsequent putting into practice) a false description of the object Algarotti, actually speaks out for the justified by the Burra Charter (1979, 1999) destroyed.” And from that time forward, virtuous theory of non intervention without or the Cracow Charter (2000). It is very apt everyone who has wished to join the ranks making any fuss about it: to avoid the that the debate raised by ICOMOS about the of those who cry out against the perverse havoc wreaked by “restorations” of reasons (and methods) of CONSERVATION effects of the discipline will dismissively paintings, it is preferable to observe “intact should delve into these and other essential use the expression in inverted commas (so- the little that remains pure and immaculate matters, crucial for the future and urgent called “restoration”). rather than enjoy the discordance produced renovation of the discipline. by retouching.” To content oneself, as 1. The rejection by conservationists of the From Restoration to Conservation: The Vasari suggested, with preserving the work deceit involved in so-called “restoration”. Sensitive Thermometer of Quatremère “from the abuse of time (when it is The long, meandering road in defence of de Quincy feasible) or the weathering of the seasons the liberation (and ensuing autonomy) of If we wish to gather testimonies in favour [...], frost in winter, too much heat in CONSERVATION from the overwhelming of conservation (and against restoration), it summer” and prevent “damp from oozing spiral that represents the carefree might be useful to go back to the first half from the walls and vaults”, that is, rebuilding typical of the discipline of of the Age of Enlightenment in Italy. In effectively to avoid the causes of possible RESTORATION starts in Italy precisely 1728, Jonathan Richardson spoke out decay, watch over it carefully and, at the with the discovery of the betrayal of the against Maratta’s unfortunate interventions end of the day, appreciate “things created latter’s expectations and the need to on Raphael’s frescoes, because “instead of by excellent men,” in Crespi’s words, guarantee respect and protection of the restoring the work of Raphael, faded with “better half faded than touched up by material document (as opposed to the loss the passage of time, he did it more damage someone less knowledgeable”. With this we of identity and irreversible falsification). than time has done or could ever have have come, at least as far as pictorial For some time now, as we know, the done”, and criticised those gaudy colours documents are concerned (paintings, material document is the essential, “that hit one in the eye”.