The Secret Life of Art Restoration in Via Margutta
Art restoration is a tricky business. A balancing act between the artist’s original intent and the interpretation of that effort by the restorer tasked to repair damage to canvas, wood, and stone, often centuries old.
Max Friedlander (1867-1958), a German museum curator and art historian, put it this way, “A restorer does the most ungrateful of tasks. Performed at his best, his work is totally invisible. If he gets good results, he risks being considered dubious, like a forger, and if he fails, he is added to the ranks of art profaners. His experience is invaluable, his shortcomings far too obvious.”
How Art Restoration Works
First, it is essential to note that art restoration is necessary, despite the potential minefield it presents to those who enter the profession. No matter how permanent the medium, art is subject
to the ravages of time. Everything from humidity to air pollution, UV rays, the chemical composition of materials used, and even human respiration can become its Achilles Heel.Second, just as there’s no single methodology for creating a particular piece of art, there are no one-size-fits-all techniques for restoring it. For example, rehabilitating paintings in the Sistine Chapel was a mammoth undertaking, not simply due to the project’s scope but also for the immense cultural and historical cost to humanity if Michelangelo’s work was damaged in any way during the process. In the same way, restoring a Botticelli might seem more straightforward, but the same risk-reward applies though the work is limited to a canvas.
The truth is that restoring the entirety of the Sistine Chapel is just as complex as a Botticelli. They are worlds unto themselves, comprised of thousands of individual brushstrokes made with various instruments at specific pressures using unique pigments only available at certain historical times on completely different surfaces.
You’re pretty close if this sounds more like the work you’d expect to find in an FBI forensics lab. Rehabilitating cultural treasures is highly technical and requires combining science and artistic practices with a vast array of tools and techniques, both ancient and modern. This dichotomy is the first thing that strikes you as you enter the offices of Studi Patrizi, at 54 in Via Margutta, the oldest restoration studio in Rome.
Art Restoration in Via Margutta
Via Margutta is a narrow, enchanted street where artists live and work amongst quaint cafes and tucked-away galleries. Made famous as the apartment location in “Roman Holiday” where Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn took refuge, it’s also where film director Federico Fellini and his Giulietta Masina lived.
It’s a fitting location for a family restoration business, or “restauratore,” entrusted with some of the most priceless Italian masterpieces ever created, from Caravaggio to Michelangelo. Tourists are generally not allowed to visit Studi Patrizi due to the high value of the artwork inside and the need for a controlled, immaculately clean work environment.
The Restauratore: Alessandro Pavia
The owner, Alessandro Pavia, is Rome-born. Trim and youthful with an intense gaze, Alessandro could be mistaken for a doctor or surgeon. He’s the third generation of art restorers in the family and, though he doesn’t look it, has been working the craft for 37 years.
Studi Patrizi specializes in paintings on canvas and wood, with an exceptional talent for ancient and modern polychrome and multi-material works. His grandfather opened the studio in the early 1900s, and has remained in the same location for 70 years.
“In Italy we have a great tradition in the field of art,” Alessandro explains, “We live inside art, it’s everywhere and especially here in the historic city center where we walk around fabled monuments everyday.”
Via Margutta has always been a nexus for the artist community in Rome. “Everytime we take a painting into our hands we always try to understand how it was created, to study echoes of the artist’s technique and intent before we ever touch the canvas.”
One of Alessandro’s great thrills is to participate in protecting paintings by his favorite artists from history. He becomes genuinely emotional when he describes this experience. “Many paintings have touched me, but perhaps working with Caravaggio is the most resonant.”
Walking around the studio truly boggles the mind. The works of Caravaggio, Botticelli, and even Michaelangelo are arranged around the cozy space in various stages of restoration. The setting is so intimate, and the restorers’ interactions with these works are so personal that it reminds us of just how human these masterpieces really are; created one stroke at a time in tiny studios by artists who could never have conceived of their eventual preeminence.
Watching Alessandro and his assistants work is fascinating because you witness the absolute precision in what they do and the myriad of methods they must master to do it. Everything from IR scans to vacuum and low-pressure techniques to actually suturing damaged pieces-like a surgeon. The studio even spearheaded a collaboration with IFAC-CNR of Florence and is developing a specialized tool designed to clean painted surfaces by laser ablation.
Preserving precious artworks is a noble profession, and studios like Studi Patrizi are the magicians who reverse the ravages of time and unveil vibrant colors from ancient pieces muted by time. In this way, they safeguard the eyes, and perhaps a bit of soul, of artists long gone.
