Restoration of Donatello’s David Florence Italy

Here in Firenze (Florence, Italy), the Museo Nazionale del Bargello is conducting a thorough cleaning and restoration of Donatello’s most famous sculpture “David” (of the Bible story with Goliath) and they are doing it right inside the museum for visitors to see! It is happening upstairs immediately next to the place where the “David” is normally exhibited. The “David,” a bronze measuring 158 cm high x 51 cm wide, is the most well-known and admired of works by Donatello and was created sometime between 1427 and 1443.




I hope you enjoy my little images of the restorer at work. Note the microscope. The restorer is also using a scalpel to scrape away encrusted materials on the bronze. To quote the brochure:

“The previous maintenance work [done more than 100 years ago] has been carried out using unsuitable methods and materials which have caused uneven and quite large encrustations, to be formed on the surface. This has been caused because of ‘waxings’ mineralized and mixed with dust, forming layers over the numerous dark glazes which it was customary to apply to sculpture during the 18th and 19th centuries.”

“. . . Furthermore, localized use of the special laser, constantly readjusted as necessary (by consultancy with scientific experts) will be made to clean the gilded parts.”

I saw the restorer scraping at the metal with a scalpel and then daubing a cotton ball dipped in what was labelled as “White Spirit.” [yes, in English] This laborious work is expected to take 18 months, from June 2007 through all of 2008.

My friends and I also visited the Museo dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure (Museum of the Factory of the Hard Stone) on Via Alfani. One can see around town, especially near the Pitti Palace, images that look like paintings but in fact are a stone mosaic of sorts. In-laid stones of the most amazing colors and patterns and fantastically well done.

The most fascinating pieces to me were the flower petals with gradated colors. They were probably hand-chosen and very carefully cut. They make the subject (often flowers or birds) look surprisingly 3-dimensional. They also showed some landscapes and sea scapes, with people and animals. Our favorites were waves made of what looked like petrified wood with tails and other body parts of sea creatures penetrating the ocean’s surfaces.

I hope you enjoy these images – remember, there is no painting done on these and I never noticed any kind of rock filler. They are quite lovely to behold and I recommend everyone visit this museum when you can. One of my clear favorites was the table with the sea shell patterns. I cannot image the time an artisan would have taken to even choose the stone!