Background detail from this glorious exhibition by Patricia Cleveland-Peck
At the National Gallery in London from 8th March until 22nd June 2025 it will be possible to see paintings and artefacts which influenced the development of art in the western world. The exhibition Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350 comes to us from the Met in New York, where it was hailed as, “a visual event of pure 24-karat gold,” brings together around 100 important works from all round the world including panels from Duccio’s de Buoninsegna’s double-sided masterpiece the Maestà. There are also works by many other influential Sienese artists including Simone Martini, and the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio.
This first half of the 1300s marks a very important transition from Byzantine to Renaissance art and the exhibition includes some very early works which influenced the Sienese painters. One of these is a small icon, Madonna del Carmine and I was fortunate enough to meet the art restorer couple who did analytical work on this icon prior to the exhibition.
It has been suggested that the icon, which dates from around 1260, is of Greek origin and possibly the work of the Evangelist Luke. It represents the Mother of God pointing to the baby Jesus with a gesture which traditionally indicates salvation. It was previously to be found in the convent of San Niccolò and could have been brought to Siena by the Carmelites who had a special commitment to Mary, hence its name.
Such an early work was obviously fragile and when I met Nadia Presenti and Mario Verdelli who carried out analytical work on the icon at the Episcopal Curia of Siena to which all the scientific equipment necessary for the investigations was transferred, I was able to ask about the project.
Patricia Cleveland-Peck Was this the oldest piece you have worked on?
Nadia Presenti Yes, it is certainly one of the oldest, as the work is thought to be slightly earlier than Duccio’s works and even to have influenced his artistic technique. However, it is not the only one, as we have carried out diagnostic, restoration and maintenance work on, important ancient crosses which are very close in age to the Icon: works also such as ones by Coppo di Marcovaldo and Rinaldo da Siena as well as the medieval painting of the Madonna del Soccorso.
PCP How did it feel to handle such an old and fragile piece of art?
NP It is certainly a job of great responsibility, you move very calmly and almost in slow motion, always trying to foresee any potential danger in operations in which you come into direct contact with the work of art, but also indirectly: such as control of the microclimate and environmental location.
PCP How long did it take?
NP The measurement and data acquisition phase, through scientific equipment for X rays, highly magnified and which were superior in quality even to the images that could be acquired with the binocular microscope, required a relatively short time of a few days of work, but the biggest work was the subsequent phase of data processing and their interpretation, an operation that required almost two months of studies
PCP What sort of techniques were required?
NP Visible Light, Grazing Light, Microphotographs, Infrared, Infrared-False Color (for the preliminary identification of pigments), UV, UV-False Color (again for the study of pigments and paints), RX (they investigated the internal structure of the work), finally the XRFs (they serve to identify the atomic component of the elements of the various materials constituting the work)
PCP So a good few! What further work was carried out?
NP Monica Mancini was responsible for carrying out the cleaning of the work and the pictorial additions, while Raffaella Zurlo restored the silver cover and gold (Riza) that covered the icon but today it is presented and preserved separately.
Thanking Nadia and Mario for giving me this glimpse into their world, I realized how as well as the enormous task of negotiating the international loans, insuring and transporting them, much effort unseen by the public goes into preparing the exhibitions for us to enjoy.
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/siena-the-rise-of-painting
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