FLORENCE.- Yesterday morning, at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and Restoration Laboratories in the Fortezza da Basso in Florence, the results of the first stage of the restoration work of Leonardo da Vinci’s Adoration of the Magi were presented with the attendance of Cristina Acidini, superintendent for the Historical, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Heritage and for the Museums of the City of Florence, Marco Ciatti, superintendent of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Antonio Natali, director of the Uffizi Gallery and Maria Vittoria Rimbotti, presidentof the Amici degli Uffizi association.

In November 2011, thanks to the support of the Amici degli Uffizi, Leonardo’s masterpiece, panel painting depicting the Adoration of the Magi (246x243 cm), begun in 1481 for the monastery of San Donato in Scopeto and then left unfinished, had been moved to the restoration Laboratories of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure at the Fortezza da Basso.

During the first year the artwork has been subjected to a comprehensive series of diagnostic tests to fully understand the conservation state of the wooden support (that has undergone dimensional changes over time) and of the preliminary painted surface that Leonardo had begun to compose.

The subsequent first stage of the restoration intervention, focusing on the painted area, will be completed within the summer of next year.

This will be followed by the restoration of the wooden support, which is necessary in order to ensure its solidity and to avoid negative repercussions on the painting itself.

The painting will presumably be returned to the Uffizi by the end of 2015, showcased in the newly refurbised Room 15 of the Gallery.

“This is another very important moment in the history of the restoration of the masterpiece by Leonardo – said Cristina Acidini, superintendent for the Museums of the City of Florence – with the Opificio delle Pietre Dure showing the results of the intervention on the painted surface: a decisive contribution to the advancement of our knowledge of the painting, with regard to both the materials present on the table and their different layering, and its original execution. This provides new opportunities for interpreting the Adoration of the Magi as a whole as well as in its details.”

According to Antonio Natali, director of the Uffizi Gallery, “The cleaning, where it is complete, has appreciably revealed what had only been possible to infer by reading the infrared results. We can now assert with absolute certainty that upon completion of the restoration, the eyes of all Uffizi visitors will be convincend of a theological unfolding that so far had been reconstructed only through investigation. Thus turning into reality our aspiration of making the museum a place of education rather than amazement.”

On her part, President of the Amici degli Uffizi, Maria Vittoria Rimbotti, has underlined that “it is two years since the restoration started, a long and extremely delicate process undertaken by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence with the professionalism and outstanding expertise that have made it a world-renowned benchmark for art restoration”.

“Right form the beginning – continued Maria Vittoria Rimbotti – the Amici degli Uffizi have closely followed this restoration works. In 2012, in view of the upcoming celebrations for our twentieth anniversary, we sustained the expenses for the diagnostic tests. It then seemed only befitting that the Association I am honored to chair should go on to financially support the continuation of the task”.

In more technical terms, Marco Ciatti, superintendent of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, said that “in this second press conference dedicated to the restoration of Leonardo da Vinci’s Adoration of the Magi from the Uffizi Gallery, we can confirm that the issues and the hoped-for results, anticipated and suggested in the previous conference based on the results of the diagnostic tests on the artwork, have been fully realized over time, also revealing at the same time interesting new aspect. We can now clearly and uncontrovertedly see that the cleaning intervention, through a light, gradual and differentiated thinning out of the various materials superimposed on the surface over the centuries by different maintainers and restorers of the Gallery, was absolutely necessary and technically possible.”