The Opificio delle Pietre Dure and Restoration Laboratories in Firenze. Its Activity and the Restoration of Giotto's Ognissanti Cross

Abstract

The Opificio delle Pietre Dure and the Restauration Laboratories in Florence, depending from the Ministry for Cultural Goods and Activities, acts on a national level. However, it is deeply rooted in the Florentine tradition of conservation and directly linked to Medicean artistic production and colectionism. In our days, the institution devotes itself not only to conservation and restauration, but also to teaching and research, through its School of High Studies. The author of this article provides an example of those activities through a description of the study, restauration, preventive conservation and placement of the gret Cross painted by Giotto in the Ognissanti church, Florence. This inter- vention demanded several techniques and subjects, as well as careful planning. Ciatti, director of the Opificio, considers that restauration requires manual refinement, but must also be organized as a project of historic, artistic, material and conservatory knowledge of the work of art. Preventive conservation, restauration and maintenance must be applied logically and sistematically together.