Reconstructing the Past, Enhancing the Traces from Frescos

Online Proceedings of the Conference BUILT HERITAGE 2013 Monitoring Conservation and Management, 2013

The character of Roman church building was established once and for all in the second half of the fourth century, as the architectural legacy of Constantine was embraced by his imperial successors, and at the same time reduced to a type that was easily reproducible by patrons of lesser means. The emergence and persistence of this type suggest that the papal administration actively participated in church building even before the pope became the leading sponsor of new ecclesiastical construction in the fifth century. As patrons, popes inherited the duty of secular rulers to embellish their capital with opulent, showy buildings, but initially they were without the technical, material, and creative resources that had migrated to the chief sites of imperial activity: Milansucceeded in 402 by Ravennaand Constantinople. Thus the colonnaded thin-walled construction introduced by Constantinian architects became an invariable norm, as it was conducive to relatively simple designs that could be realized with either new or reused materials and made to look splendid by surface coatings of marble and mosaic. In the fourth century papal patronage favored consistency over variety and invention, as a means of asserting institutional identity and a connection with authoritative models of the past. Like Greek temples, therefore, church basilicas of this period tend to be fundamentally the same; yet they are also all individually different, as deliberate or accidental variations in site, size, proportions, and ornament precluded identical repetition.

RILEM Bookseries, 2019

The paper illustrates the damages occurred to masonry buildings due to incorrect consolidation interventions dated back to the 1980s that, according to the culture of the time, were oriented to the replacement of structural elements with new heavy ones, thus changing the static scheme. The case study concerns the seventeenth century church of Saint Mary of Itria in Piazza Armerina, affected in 2007 by the collapse of the one side wall of the apse. After illustrating the historical evolution and the actual state of the building, the investigations carried out to identify the causes of collapse and provide for appropriate reconstruction interventions are reported. The results of hydro-geological and geotechnical surveys lead to exclude foundations subsidence from the causes of the collapse. The study is focused on the analysis of the interventions carried out between 1980 and 1985 for the replacement of the existing wooden covering with girder and hollow block floors, connected with R...

Journal of Civil Engineering and Construction, 2018

Built at the end of XV century and re-built in XVIII, as a consequence of many earthquakes, englobing the precious portal of a previous church of XIII, the complex set up by the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli and the Friary of Minor Friars, expropriated by the unitary Italian State after 1860 and sold to private peoples, had a destiny common to many similar buildings in the south of Italy, becoming farm and agricultural products’ warehouse. Struck again by the earthquake of 1980, it has been the object of partial safeguard works, but is now abandoned and in ruin. Because of its strategic position, in a context very rich of environmental and historical-cultural goods, it could be easily restored and intended to be a youth hotel, fulfilling an investment of great value for the development of the regional culture and economy. Research done through the careful architectural and technological survey of existing building and the design of low-technology works of conservational reconst...

Proceedings of Science and Technology, 2020

At the beginning of the first half of the twentieth century the bond between ars-venustas and cultus-pietas has produced many churches of Roman Catholic cult. It's between the 20s and 60s of the twentieth century that the experiments of the Liturgical Movement in Germany lead to the evolution of the liturgical space, which, even today, we see engraving in modern churches in Rome (Italy). The Council of Trent (1545-1563) constitutes the precedent historical moment, in which the Church recognised the need for major liturgical renovation of its churches. In comparison with this, the Second Vatican Council (1959-65) introduced some radical changes within the church architectural spaces. The observations come from the direct reading of the present architectural space and the interventions already realised in modern churches in Rome. The most significant churches from an historical-artistic point of view were selected (1924-1965). Significantly, although every single architecture is unique for dimensions, architectural language and used materials, a comparison, in order to gather the discovered characteristics and to compare the restrictions regarding the different operations, would extremely effective, as demonstrated below. Since the matter is considerably vast, in this work, only some brief notes regarding the liturgical renovation of the Presbytery area will be outlined.

Spoletium, 2017

In an important new study published in 2012 by the Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo researchers claimed that San Salvatore had two major building phases, one in the mid 5th century when a three-aisled basilica rose in an early Christian cemetery on the Colle Ciciano outside Spoleto's city walls, and a second designed to repair and magnify the earlier building after its partial destruction during the Byzantine-Gothic wars in the mid 6th century. The researchers announced that they had been able to date this second phase by the Carbon-14 method sometime during a 110-year span running from A.D. 531 to 641. In this essay I report on my long study of San Salvatore which I began with yearly campaigns on site between 1978 and 1984 to measure and survey the building. I argue that the basilica had **one great historic phase** and that that must be the church that the C-14 evidence applies to. This building with its elaborate east end---with a domed presbytery on giant columns---was damaged by fire and repaired, then damaged by fire or earthquake and again repaired, then reduced to an Augustinian monastery in modern times. San Salvatore does not appear to be the product of any Umbrian early Christian culture, but instead, fruit of an early medieval civilization in the Longobard Duchy of Spoleto. Its scenic columnar displays, presented in 2012 as a pastiche (as the result of an awkward phase-two repair), now emerge as the product of careful planning. I argue that the design forms part of a long Hellenistic and ancient Roman tradition that only now do we begin to understand.

“Villages et quartiers à risque d'abandon; Stratégies pour la connaissance, la valorisation et la restauration” . In “ Études Euroméditerranéennes”. Edizioni Dida (dipartimento di Architettura dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze). , 2021

The Church of S. Giovanni Battista Decollato at Mensano (Siena), has a basilica plan with a central nave and two side-aisles, each terminating in an apse. Inside there are eight massive monolithic columns, with classicizing capitals carved with allegorical subjects. The building has undergone several transformations over the years of building activity. Traditionally ascribed to Maestro Bonamico Pisano, who was involved in the actual construction of Pisa Cathedral, and in the execution of the pulpit of Volterra Cathedral, the capitals are without doubt the most interesting decorative elements in the Church: a rare, if not unique, example of Pisan Romanesque sculpture in the Elsa Valley. The church is an emblematic example of minor (secondary) historical heritage, and is a key representative of religious architecture of the time. It is even more significant in view of its proximity to the old Via Francigena. The church is on the small hilltop town of Mensano, a medieval Senese outpost in the far western sector of the Upper Elsa Valley. Geological studies identified an active landslip affecting the slope immediately behind the apse section, while suggesting deep-lying damage and cracks in the ground, which indeed can be seen in the walls of the building. An accurate investigation was carried out on Pieve, which consisted of classic metric, material and morphological phases. In particular attention was taken to the survey of the cracking framework, which has highlighted a serious cinematism in progress. At the same time a numerical analysis was carried out which confirmed the low degree of seismic vulnerability of the monument. The case of the Mensano’s Pieve is an emblematic example of minor (secondary) historical heritage, and it is a key representative of ancient religious architecture. The countless medieval baptistery churches across Italy are increasingly suffering from gradual abandonment. The causes of this are to be found in the recent global economic crisis, which, in Italy, have led to a drastic cut in the resources normally set aside for basic maintenance, at least. But “minor” does not mean “less important”, because, as in the case of Mensano, these works are often true architectural and artistic jewels. Not protecting them, or doing only little to protect them, is a very serious mistake, especially in view of the high degree of seismic activity in Italy, specifically in areas close to the monument in question.

Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture

The case in analysis is Santa Maria di Collemaggio, the church symbol of the town of L'Aquila and the most important example of Romanesque style in Abruzzi, tragically damaged by the earthquake in 2009. The following paper starts with an accurate analysis of the Basilica, whose historical, stylistical cultural characteristics make it an unicum in the whole urban environment. The authors tried to identify in which way these values have been compromised or altered after the earthquake through several analysis (surveys, historical researches etc.) aiming at the recognition of collapses, the cracks profile, the structural transformations caused by the provisional measures: the goal is to provide a kind of Basilica "cognitive manual" that will be useful for the future interventions. This first analysis allowed to understand many aspects: on the one hand, the constructive phases and which damages were caused by past careless interventions of restoration, drawing attention to the vulnerability elements of the Basilica; on the other hand, the innovative technologies and materials of the post-seismic provisional measures and their exact location.

Renaissance Studies, 2010

In 1864 the V&A (then the South Kensington Museum) purchased a large marble altar frame from a dealer in Florence. The quality of the frame identifies it as the product of a leading Florentine sculpture workshop, possibly that of Giuliano da Sangallo at the end of the fifteenth century. Its dimensions indicate that it would have housed a large altarpiece in one of the city's churches. The frame's provenance remains obscure, but this article offers the first critical evaluation of the object based on first-hand examination. Comparisons with similar frames in Florentine churches (surviving and documented) suggest that the V&A frame can be identified as an example of a particular category of monumental altar that was popular in the city in the decades around 1500. This type combined painted panel altarpieces with sculpture, integrating both within impressive architectural superstructures comprising lateral columns, elaborate entablatures, and arched lunettes. Identifiable examples housed altarpieces by Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi, Piero di Cosimo, and Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, each juxtaposed with tin-glazed terracotta reliefs by the Della Robbia shop. The popularity of these arched frames was relatively short-lived, but their brief heyday provides important evidence for the gathering appreciation of aesthetic integration, formal order and spatial symmetry within Italian church interiors in the years around 1500.

Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 58 (2013), 115-142, 2013