Giotto restored in Florence, Biennale de Lyon, Remedios Varo

The Week in Art

This episode of The Week in Art explores the recent reopening of Giotto's Bardi Chapel in Florence following a significant four-year restora

Key takeaways

• The restoration of the Bardi Chapel revealed previously obscured architectural details and the vibrant colors of Giotto's frescoes.
• Catherine Nichols' curation for the Biennale de Lyon uses an 'expanded sense of economy' to explore political and social entanglements.
• Remedios Varo's painting 'The Juggler (The Magician)' incorporates alchemical symbolism, tarot references, and potential use of crystals in its creation.
• UNESCO has honored Gazan heritage professionals for their vital work in digitizing and rescuing Palestinian historical documents.
• The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza is set to expand with a second space housing a massive contemporary art donation.

Main topics

• Giotto's Bardi Chapel Restoration
• Biennale de Lyon 18th Edition
• Remedios Varo Retrospective

Notable quotes

Every epoch not only dreams the one to follow, but in this dreaming precipitates its awakening.

Conclusion

The episode provides a profound look at how restoration and curation b

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:02) This podcast is brought to you with sponsorship from Getty and crafted for those who see the world through art. For you who look closer, feel deeper and discover more. Getty is all for you. Getty is all for art. Learn more at getty.edu. Speaker 1 (0:22) Hello, it's the Week in Art. I'm Ben Luke. This week, Giotto's Bardi Chapel in Florence reopens after a four-year restoration, the latest edition of the Biennale de Lyon, and Remedios Faro in Denmark. Speaker 1 (0:40) After a period of conservation, the Bardi Chapel in the Church of Santa Croce in Florence, in which Giotto depicted scenes from the life of St Francis of Assisi in the early 14th century, has reopened. I talked to Emanuela D'Affra, superintendent of the Officio delle Pietre Dure, which conserves Italian heritage, and Donata Grossoni, art historian at the Opera di Santa Croce, about the work and the project to restore it. The 18th edition of the Biennale de Lyon, called To Pass from One Dream to Another, opens on Saturday across France's third largest city. This edition has been devised by the Australian-born Berlin-based curator Catherine Nichols and I speak to her about the show. And this episode's work of the week is The Juggler, The Magician by Remedios Varo, made in Mexico City in 1956. The painting is one of more than 70 works by the Spanish-born surrealist in the first major survey of her work in Europe, which begins this week at the Louisiana Museum in Hammelbach in Denmark and travels to the Moderna Museet in Stockholm next year. I speak to Tere Ark, the co-curator of the exhibition, about the painting. Don't forget you can subscribe to The Art Newspaper on our website or app, and we've just launched our new app for Android. Download the Android app and enjoy a free one-week trial. Do also subscribe to this podcast and to our sister podcast, A Brush With, wherever you're listening. There are now more than 140 episodes of A Brush With in the archive, the latest of which is a conversation with Sunil Gupta. Visit the YouTube channel of The Art Newspaper to see a video of that discussion. Please also leave us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts. Now, in his mature period in Florence in the 1310s and early 1320s, Giotto painted the frescoes for the Bardi Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Croce with his workshop. The key elements of the chapel are seven works depicting episodes from the life of St Francis of Assisi, a subject which most scholars agree Giotto had tackled earlier in his career in the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi. By the time he made the Bardi Chapel, Giotto was among the most highly regarded artists in Italy. Since he completed it in the 1320s, the chapel's had a checkered life, including being covered by lime wash at some point in the 18th century. Two cenotaphs were constructed on the lime-washed walls and therefore on top of the Giotto frescoes, which account for the big losses sustained by two of the frescoes when they were restored in the 19th century. They were conserved again by Leonetto Tintori in the late 1950s before a new conservation project was begun. four years ago. The restored chapel opened to the public at the end of last week and I spoke to Emanuela D'Affra, superintendent of the Officio delle Pietre Dure, which conserves Italian heritage, and Donata Grossogne, art historian at the Opera di Santa Croce, about the work and this latest project. Speaker 1 (3:25) Donato, I'm going to start with you. Can you tell us a little bit more about the commission for the Bardi Chapel? Because the Bardi were a very powerful family in Florence, right? And they commissioned Giotto to do the chapel. Speaker 4 (3:38) Yes, the Bardi were one of the most powerful family in Florence, but not only. The fortune and the power went beyond. the city enclosures. The Badi were a very powerful family of bankers and merchants who throughout their business almost linked together the major countries at that time in Europe and not only. They were bankers for the Pope, for the King of Naples, they were bankers for the King of England and their fortune was something at the time considered beyond what was normal and achievable for normal people, let's say. Even the chronicles of that time remarked the incredible power and financial power of this family who happened to act in a city that in the moment was one of the most important centers for financial activities. Florence back in the 1300s was one of the most powerful cities in Europe. And that has to be taken into consideration in order to understand why we have such buildings with such great works of art. And the commissioner probably was Ridolfo de Bardi. And he went straight to Giotto, who was at that time one of the most important painters. You Speaker 1 (4:57) say he went straight to Giotto. Are there documents that tell us about the commission and the nature of the commission? Speaker 4 (5:03) Well, that is one of the big problems with Giotto is that we don't have many records or documents that can help us with his artistic activities. We know better the business side of Giotto. But what is important to remind is that we can assume throughout the culture of the moment is the reason why such families make such commissions. And that was a very... fascinating mix of different elements. There was devotion, for sure. There was self-prestige. And there was the idea also of giving back something to the city. So the main purpose was what was called pro remedio anime, that it means for the salvation of the soul. And that because this kind of works of art were considered works of charity. And there were... Very good to reach heaven, consider safe. But at the same time, it was an important way for the family to be part of this incredible artistic situation that was happening in Florence, to be part of the culture. And then it was also a way to be remembered by, also for prayers. And that, I think, has to be kept in mind, that when a family like the Bardi in the past used to put a lot of good money in order to do such works, it was for many different reasons. And the first one was for the salvation of their soul and to praise God in the highest way that they knew. Speaker 1 (6:32) And of course it wasn't the only chapel decorated by Giotto in Santa Croce, was it? No. Emanuela, we have quite a lot of remaining frescoes from two of the chapels, one fragment of another, but one is completely lost to us, isn't it? Speaker 3 (6:47) Vasari wrote that Giotto decorated three chapels in Santa Croce. The cycle of Peruzzi, Bardi, and another unknown chapel. The cycle of the life of St. Francis is closely tied to the completion and decoration of Basilica di Santa Croce, that was the primary church of the Franciscan Order in Florence. As you can imagine, this is one of the most important chapels in the building dedicated to the life of the Order's founder. Speaker 1 (7:39) Of course. We Speaker 3 (7:40) don't know the exact dates of its creation, the art history and all different views. However, we can safely say it was painted. after 1317. That's because on the back wall Giotto depicted the St. Louis of Toulouse, the Angevin royal who renounced the throne of France to become Franciscan and was canonized in that very year. At the time Giotto was a at the peak of his artistic maturity. He was born around 1276. Yes. Beyond this famous cycle in Assisi, he worked in Rome, in Vaticano, and for the King of Naples. The story of St Francis in Santa Croce demonstrates his... unmatched ability to compose images world space. Speaker 4 (8:57) Even Speaker 3 (8:57) complex space serves intensely expressive human figure. Speaker 1 (9:05) Yes. You Speaker 3 (9:06) only need look at the play of glances revealed by the restoration. It's impressive. Speaker 1 (9:17) I'm sure it is. And that's the fascinating thing, isn't it, Donato, about this commission is he's able, in a way that no other artist had before him, to animate the lives of these individuals that he's depicting. But of course, one thing to remember is that... the life of St. Francis was then relatively recent. You know, Giotto is making these frescoes less than 100 years after the death of St. Francis. So it is relatively recent history that's being told in this legend that he's working from, from the legend of Bonaventura. Speaker 4 (9:48) Yes, we have to remember that St. Francis died in 1226 and it was canonised in 1228. So when we think that the frescoes were completed, it was a little bit more than... one century after the life of St. Francis. And from the very beginning, he was a very central saint with a lot of devoted around him. And the order itself grew and grew and grew. And Giotto was one of the best interpreters of the message of St. Francis. It wasn't the first time it was told, that story, and I didn't buy Giotto, but... The way that Giotto developed the narration, the way that it makes it relatable, it's amazing. Even from the ground, you can feel all the expressions, all the... different connection between the characters that are inside, connection given by gestures, way of seeing each other, looking at each other, are very lively. And even how the figures have been created, and that was one of the other things that... recent restoration and Hansid was very lively, three-dimensional, even though it might seem strange to talk about three dimensions for these early years. But, you know, Dott is considered one of the great fathers, or better, the father of the Italian paintings, as well as Dante is for the Italian language. And that kind of emotion is something that talks right away to the people. Just to give you a hint of how it made it so lively, you know that he depicted a lot of... of course, and all of them have the area that is shaved over the head. And if you look at those heads, you will see that they have different shades of growing back hairs. Right. Speaker 1 (11:41) How wonderful. And that Speaker 4 (11:42) is simply amazing because it's something that you don't... recognised right away, but it makes real what you're looking at, even though it's not realistic paintings, of course. The life of Saint Francis was already been told, as I said before, several times before San Buenaventura, there was another source of inspiration that was the life's. written by Tommaso d'Acelano, that by the 1260s were destroyed and the only life that was admitted by the Order was the one by San Bonaventura. But even in the way to represent that, we can see how transformative was the way that Giotto followed. Even if you compare it with Assisi, you can see how throughout a few decades he matured somehow a variated vision, not different. Of course, the story is the same, but the way to build the scene, to put always everything in the center, you see that it was the kind of artist that never settled for the simple thing and always tried to experience better. Speaker 3 (12:47) In this cycle, we can appreciate the sense of synthesis. He summarized the life of St. Francis. and normalize because the church is the church of the conventuali, not reformati, the branch of the order, less rigorous. Speaker 1 (13:18) Right. Speaker 3 (13:19) Summarize the life of Francis across seven key signs. Seven, because the... entrance arc is dominated by the crucial episode of the saint reciting the stigmata. Speaker 1 (13:36) Yes. Speaker 3 (13:37) Egiotto organized these seven sign-placing, signs highlighting Francis' identification with Christ on the left wall and key moments in the history of the Order. on the right, is very, very clear for everybody. We should forget the vault which featured the Franciscan virtues, poverty, chastity, and obedience. Obedience, for instance, and now we can see her, hold the finger to her lips, whereas yoke. on their shoulder and support another double yoke with their left hand. Speaker 1 (14:32) Yes, that's one of the real revelations of the Restoration, isn't it? That the vaults have been given an attention that perhaps they hadn't been before because the scenes of the life of St Francis have been dominant in previous restorations and so on. And so the vault has been transformed in a way that is really quite revelatory. Speaker 3 (14:49) We can appreciate Jot Speaker 3 (15:00) Right. Speaker 3 (15:21) integrating in the clear, lighter tone so they remain distinguishable and we can understand the complexity of the construction architectonically. Speaker 1 (15:40) Yes, that's right, isn't it? Donata, the architecture is... So wonderful, because it's a fiction created by Giotto. We're looking at an architecture that is constructed through paint, through fresco, as well as a physical architecture of the chapel. So that's sort of absolutely central to the whole scheme, isn't it? It Speaker 4 (15:59) is, and it really shows the ability of Giotto to organise. There's seven seats, actually six within the chapel walls, in a way that... It's very harmonious. One of the important part of the restoration was to give back the aesthetic feeling without, of course, creating a fake. Because we haven't already mentioned this, but when the chapel was completed, it was considered a jewel. We know throughout many sources and documents that it was very dearly appreciated. But in the 1700s, they... felt that it was more fashionable to have something whitewashed, completely white, than the Jotters frescoes. So that's what they did. But in the mid of the 1800s, they find traces of the original Jotters frescoes and the time is ready again to try to restore it. Though they restore it... with the knowledge and the philosophy and the ethic and the static that they had back then. Speaker 1 (16:58) We are Speaker 4 (16:59) talking about the 19th century. We are talking about the huge discussion about how much had to be remade in order to make enjoyable again a work of art. So Gaetano Bianchi over there made large intervention and he repainted what he thought was missing. He repainted Overgiotto. That was considered problematic. a century after. And so with the new restoration that was led in the late 1950s, everything that wasn't Giotto was removed and in that place remain, I wouldn't say blank aria because they are quite natural as a tone, but there are a lot of arias that were done forever. And so with the current restoration, what... the committee decided to do was to try to give back the idea of how it originally was. So the area that allowed such treatment were repainted, undertone or in a recognisable way, you know, the two pillars, great two pillars of restoration, reversible and recognisable. Speaker 5 (18:00) And Speaker 4 (18:00) the area and this kind of integration has been made in the areas where this kind of integration was objective, not related to subjectivity. And that included the architectural structure because it became clear now that this kind of almost complier element were an important frame to keep everything all together. And even the corbels have been painted in order to... imitate a capital. Speaker 3 (18:30) And Speaker 4 (18:30) on the corners were painted columns in a kind of marble without recreating what was missing, of course, but it was suggested what was missing. And in this way, we can read it in a more, let's say, holistic way. Speaker 1 (18:46) So, Emanuela, we've heard from Donata there about the previous restorations. What did you have to do this time in relation to those? Obviously, we've heard that in 1950s there is a return to the creations of Giotto. What have you done this time that's different to the 1950s restoration? Speaker 3 (19:03) The most important difference is the consideration of the complex. In 1960, it was all about getting Giotto back to his pure, Giotto in purezza. Yeah. Pure painting, pure style. Now the main goal is to showcase the sheer richness of his mature work. and make that complexity accessible to a much broader audience. It's important to show the capacity of Giotto Romanziere, novelist. After 70 years, there are also risk factors that have been sorted out. crackle plaster, detachment, salt, and the lawyer of grime, smoke, dust, and aged protective coat. We have literally been lifted off. Speaker 1 (20:29) Right. We Speaker 3