Rome, Altemps Palace
Date
Monday April 18th, 2016
DATA SHEET
LOCATION:
Rome, Street of Sant’Apollinare
CUSTOMER:
Archaeological Superintendency of Rome – Arch. Francesco Scoppola
THE PROBLEM
The restoration of the wall painting which decorate the whole main floor of the Palace took place over several years in parallel with the construction work implemented to recover the rooms and the entire building bringing them back in their original status. The frescoes, dating in a time span ranging from the second half of the 400 until the first half of 600, were mostly concealed by layers of lime and superimposed plasters. The aim of our work was then directed to the recovery and the restitution of the important decorative cycles as well as their presentation even where there were found the most decorative superimposed phases or have been able to save ancient finishes, even if only in fragmentary form. A work which should have taken account of a decorative and environmental totality, which led to many choices in accord with the Work Management, considering the common desire to revive the Renaissance environments as close as possible to the original.
THE METHOD
First campaigns had the aim to identify the decorations below the paintwork and the plaster and to make a first quantification of the decorated surfaces. In the second phase it has favored the conservative aspect by removing the plaster from the surfaces and then consolidate them in order to avoid further losses. Coordinating the timing with the construction works, in the third phase – proceeding room by room – the actual restoration has been completed.