FLORENCE, ITALY.- The experts reveal plans for a detailed scrutiny of damages and phases of restoration work, among them the complicated logistics involved in transporting the painting to a laboratory.
Georgio Vasari’s (1511-1574) painting “Last Supper” will be restored in a process that technicians foresee as highly difficult, due to the damages caused by the long time it remained covered in mud during the flood the city of Florence in underwent in 1996. Painted by the artist in mid 16th century , it is one of the largest interpretations of the subject of the last supper of Christ. It is currently stored in the depository of the Florentine Pitti palace.
Vasari, son of a minor painter, studied under Luca Signoreli and Andrea del Santo. An excellent architect, he designed the Palazzo degli Afizzio . His intricate way of painting helped usher in the style of the Baroque. Today, Vasari is best known as a writer. He wrote a summary and a classified list of all the artists of his time, whose two volumes contain 133 biographies of the life of excellent painters, sculptors and architects. When residing in Rome, he made contact with Cardinal Alessandro Farnesio’s art circle, and received from him the support needed to undertake his first significant work, the ornamental series of the Chancery palace. He was acknowledged as a great artist and connoisseur of art history in his time.
In 1560 he returned to Florence, where he planned the structure of the present Ufizi museum, and restructured the Palazzo Vecchio (today’s City Hall) in 1561, as a protégé of Cosme I. Back in Rome and under the auspices of popes Pius V and Gregory XIII, he decorated the Regal salon of the Vatican.
Florentine experts announced that this coming Friday they will carry out a detailed review of the damages suffered by Vasari’s Last Supper painting. Restoration plans will get underway, among them the complexities involved in transporting the painting to a lab. Measuring 6 x 2.5 meters, and containing several depictions, it underwent critical restoration after the 1966 flood that damaged the Santa Croce basilica where the work was at the time. However, that restoration was not enough to remove the mud adhered on the painting, so that task will be undertaken now.
