Focus on Crucifix (Cimabue, Santa Croce) and explain the 1966 damage and restoration.
The crucifix was installed in the church of Santa Croce at the end of the thirteenth century. The church flooded in 1333 and 1557, but only experienced serious flood damage in 1966 when the banks of the Arno river burst and flooded Florence. During the event thousands of artworks were damaged or destroyed and the Crucifix lost 60% of its paint. By 1966 it was returned to display at the lower Museo dell' Opera, which is at a lower elevation and closer to the waterline than the Santa Croce church, where it had been located during earlier floods. The water level reached the height of Christ's halo and took large tracts of paint when it retreated. The water deposited oil, mud and naphtha on the wood frame, which further swelled from soakage, forcing the panel to expand and bend, cracking the paint-work.
A team of restorers led by conservators Umberto Baldini and Ornella Casazza at the "Laboratario del Restauro" in Florence spent ten years reapplying paint. Utilising computer modelling, they worked in an almost pointillist manner. The tiny specks of pigment floating around the piece were recovered with pliers by staff wading in the water after the torrents had subsided. The wooden frame had significantly weakened, and it was necessary to separate it from both the gesso and canvas to prevent buckling as the reapplied paint dried. The Crucifix was put back on public display in 1976. The restoration was covered by the international press.
Since restoration the work has been lent to galleries outside Italy, the first time it had left Florence since its creation. According to the critic Waldemar Januszczak, it was brought "around the globe in a curious, post-restoration state—part original artwork, part masterpiece of modern science... a thirteenth century—twentieth-century hybrid."
burst and flooded Florence Santa Croce Christ pointillist restorers Arno crucifix Florence gesso naphtha buckling flood damage Crucifix Umberto Baldini Waldemar Januszczak left halo