Restorers rejuvenate Filippo Lippi’s pivotal Martelli Annunciation

Florence. The solemn annunciation executed by Filippo Lippi around 1440 for the Martelli Chapel in the Church of Saint Lawrence was re-positioned last Monday in its original location and presented yesterday to the public. During the last two years, thanks to the kind support of Friends of Florence, it was refreshed by restorers Lucia Biondi – who worked on the panting -, and Roberto Buda, who took care of the wooden parts. Now its brand new brightness and recovered high definition colours make it look even more solemn; as solemn as only an image with such a sophisticated background can be.

 

“Along with the San Marco Altarpiece by Beato Agelico – says Biondi, who had the chance to carry on in-depth studies on the piece having it in permanent residency at her studio for the last two years – the Martelli Annunciation is one of the first paintings in the history of art that was composed following the rules provided by Leon Battista Alberti’s seminal studies on perspective”. But it was dirty, and the layer of protective varnish applied on the painted surface between 1911 and 1916 by restorer Fabrizio Lucarini had turned yellow, altering the original chromatic values. Also the many retouches Lucarini executed at that time to complete the missing parts were in very bad conditions.

 

“Probably due to the fire of the candles, or to hot wax that had most likely fallen on the painting, the piece has many gaps” continues Biondi. She replaced the XIX century spoiled retouches with new ones, that she executed scrupulously following the sophisticated technique used by Lippi himself. “He was used to paint by adding layer on layer, and carefully coordinating the different tones of colour between them step by step. The outstanding Holy Mary’s robe, for instance, was painted over a red preparatory layer in order to obtain a shimmering blue that may look violet or baby blue depending on the light”. Just as if it were made of the most precious silk.

 

Gaps in the paintings affect all the surface, but according to Biondi they don’t count more than a 10% of the whole image. Most of them are to be spotted on the face of the angel on the left, and the biggest one is a rectangle measuring 10 x 20 centimetres located on the ceiling. But now they can be noticed only by standing very close to the painting, while the varnish applied by Lucarini has been cleaned and worn thin. “Today’s varnish would have been more stable and easier to be removed” explains the restorer.

 

The wooden structure also had some issues. Metal crossbeams, possibly too stiff, applied on the backside of the board during Lucarini’s restoration were causing small cracks in the painting. They have been substituted with new wooden ones, in order to keep the structure stable, but less rigid. In this regard, Biondi points out that as art historian Jeffrey Ruda noticed in 1978 (A building program for S. Lorenzo in Florence, “The Burlington Magazine”, CXX, 1978, pp.358-361) the piece’s “Instagram” format and its quite simple frame are due to standard decided by Filippo Brunelleschi himself, who at that time was in charge of the Cathedral’s refurbishment. As stated by a document dated back to June 1434, the altar pieces decorating the new chapels should have been “tabula quadrata et sine civoriis, picta honorabiliter”; that is to say without Gothic pinnacles (minimal) and squared – that same “perfect” format making Instagram so successful, also among the art community. And by looking down from the small balcony on the top of the central nave it looks clear that, as in the case of Santo Spirito (the other Brunelleschi Church in town), the square’s visual power was at the core of the architect’s innovative approach.

 

Later this year an international symposium dedicated to this painting will take place in Florence, in order to present to the art community the ongoing studies about this pivotal piece of art. At this point scholars and restores will finally be able to say whether the piece, painted on two separate boards, was originally intended to be something else – doors for an organ, for instance, or for an armoire. In the meantime it has been proved that the “predella”, clearly painted by the Lippi’s workshop, was part of the original project – and not a piece added later, as some scholars wrongly believed.

June 10, 2016