Protecting antiquities in early modern Rome: the papal edicts as paradigms for the heritage safeguard in Europe

The edicts issued in Rome between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries are the earliest legislation conceived for the preservation and supervision of heritage in Europe. Not only did such regulations aim to protect monuments, antiquities, and – at a later stage – paintings from the risks of damage and deterioration, but also established a legal framework against their illegal exportation and excavation. In this study the gradual development of this vast corpus of legislation is considered within the variations of artistic scholarship, legal knowledge, artistic taste, and the art market in Europe between 1400s and 1700s. The mutual implications of juridical constructs and practices of supervision are evaluated together with interdisciplinary factors – such as the rise of collections and museums – to shed light on the development of the concepts of ‘heritage protection’ in early modern Rome. Specific analysis will also involve the gradual expansion of the definition of ‘antiquity’ and ‘artefact’ in papal legislation, as well as the establishment of innovative instruments to prevent and circumvent misdemeanours. One final consideration is given to the launch of local procedures of heritage protection in other states in Europe. Considering the cultural and historical backgrounds of each individual place, this study will demonstrate that the idea of safeguarding what was thought of as ‘collective heritage’ emerged consistently in eighteenth-century Europe following the paradigms of the papal edicts

Sculture nei Musei Capitolini. Note per una storia del restauro tra il 1830 e l’Unità d’Italia / Sculptures in the Capitoline Museums. Notes for a history of restoration between 1830 and the Unification of Italy

La ricostruzione della storia e delle vicende collezionistiche dei Musei Capitolini presenta una sostanziale lacuna che va all’incirca dagli anni ’20 dell’Ottocento agli eventi immediatamente successivi all’elezione di Roma a capitale d’Italia. Nella prospettiva di colmare parzialmente tale vuoto storiografico, il presente contributo propone una lettura delle campagne di restauro e conservazione operate sul materiale scultoreo della collezione in questi anni, attraverso l’analisi dei documenti conservati presso l’Archivio Capitolino, fondi Presidenze e Deputazioni e Commissione Archeologica Municipale. In questo contesto l’analisi dei carteggi restituisce, da un lato, la presenza di una fitta rete di personaggi attivi nel museo, dal presidente ai restauratori agli scalpellini, dall’altra evidenzia il graduale emergere di nuovi modelli nelle prassi del restauro scultoreo e nell’approccio alla comprensione della storia di Roma antica.The reconstruction of the history and the events that involve the collections in the Capitoline Museums shows a substantial gap in the years between 1820s and the election of Rome as the capital of Italy in the early 1870s. In the perspective to bridge such a historiographical gap, this paper offers an interpretation of the campaigns of restoration and conservation that were carried out on the sculptures of the museum in these years, through the analysis of the documents which are kept in the Capitoline Archive, files Presidencies and Deputations and Archeological Municipal Commission. In this context, the investigation of the original records will demonstrate, on the one hand, the presence of several people working in the museum, from the president to the restorers to the stonecutters, as well as, on the other hand, the gradual emerging of new standards in the restoration of sculpture and the approach to the understanding of the history of ancient Rome

"Anastilosi". Un dibattito fondativo per il restauro dei monumenti antichi nell’Atene di fine Ottocento

The debate on the anastylosis, which is still alive nowadays, met fundamental points within the Athens Charter of Restoration of 1931 and the Venice Charter of Restoration of 1964. However, the earlier use of this term in connection to restoration is to be found in the late Nineteenth century. In this study the origin of the concept and the practice of anastylosis is contextualized within the discussions that arose on the restoration of the Parthenon of Athens between 1890 and 1905. The conflicts on the works to carry out on the ancient temple are connected to the conceptual ambiguities, the misinterpretations and the inconsistent uses of ‘restoration’, ‘reconstruction’ and ‘anastylosis’ within the international debate. The earlier equivocal understanding of these terms is explained in relation to their different understanding by scholars with diverse background and provenance in Europe

Sculture nei Musei Capitolini. Note per una storia del restauro tra il 1830 e l’Unità d’Italia.

La ricostruzione della storia e delle vicende collezionistiche dei Musei Capitolini presenta una sostanziale lacuna che va all’incirca dagli anni ’20 dell’Ottocento agli eventi immediatamente successivi all’elezione di Roma a capitale d’Italia. Nella prospettiva di colmare parzialmente tale vuoto storiografico, il presente contributo propone una lettura delle campagne di restauro e conservazione operate sul materiale scultoreo della collezione in questi anni, attraverso l’analisi dei documenti conservati presso l’Archivio Capitolino, fondi Presidenze e Deputazioni e Commissione Archeologica Municipale. In questo contesto l’analisi dei carteggi restituisce, da un lato, la presenza di una fitta rete di personaggi attivi nel museo, dal presidente ai restauratori agli scalpellini, dall’altra evidenzia il graduale emergere di nuovi modelli nelle prassi del restauro scultoreo e nell’approccio alla comprensione della storia di Roma antica

Arte, legge, restauro. L’Europa e le prime prassi per la protezione del patrimonio

Questo volume pone in dialogo discipline e contesti geografici diversi con lo scopo di confrontare pratiche e teorie della storia della tutela e del restauro tra il XVI e il XIX secolo in una nuova prospettiva europea. Gli strumenti messi in campo in età moderna per la salvaguardia del patrimonio sono indagati secondo molteplici punti di vista – storico-artistico, giuridico, museografico, archeologico e sociale – per riflettere su attività e modelli elaborati in Europa nei diversi Stati, tra cui Regno di Napoli, Spagna, Gran Ducato di Toscana, Grecia, Prussia, Stato Pontificio, Portogallo e Paesi Scandinavi

‘Ordinary’, ‘insignificant’ and ‘useless’ artefacts from Rome and Athens: Trading antiquities and reshaping scholarship in the long nineteenth century

The edicts relating to the protection of antiquities and works of art published in the Papal States and in Greece in the nineteenth century were the first inclusive regulations in the world on the management and supervision of cultural heritage. Their aim was to control and reduce the massive exportation of artefacts that had despoiled both countries. However, the continuing stream of exports that followed the issuing of these regulations shows that their impact was limited. Questions of taste and aesthetics were introduced that allowed the disposal of the ‘insignificant’, ‘useless’, ‘multiple’ and ‘ordinary’ pieces considered unworthy of protection. Analysis of several such cases approved for export from Rome and Athens identifies a number of legal loopholes and artistic formulae that were adduced in order to circumvent the edicts, and contributes to an understanding of the impact of new approaches to art history scholarship on both the law and the nineteenth-century art market

‘Marmi inutili da vendere o riutilizzare’. Le aporie di Leo Von Klenze per i restauri dell’Acropoli di Atene e la legge di tutela emanata in Grecia nel 1837

Le aporie di Leo von Klenze per i restauri dell’Acropoli di Atene e la legge di tutela emanata in Grecia nel 183