Art: Long After the Flood

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The work of Florence's art hospital represents a change in the philosophy of art restoration. "Up to the 1940s," Baldini points out, "restoration consisted primarily of repainting." After the ravages of World War II, the emphasis shifted to removing damaged art works from their environment and repainting them in spots. Now Baldini and a growing number of restorers are wary of removing a fresco from a deteriorating wall. Whenever possible, they instead treat the wall or panel and then do an absolute minimum of repainting. The restoration of Fra Angelico's Crucifixion in San Marco neither altered the work significantly nor added anything to it. Instead, it was a singular act of clarification. Meanwhile, the restorations go on: in the workshop of the Fortezza da Basso, there are still more than 100 panel paintings awaiting treatment. Placed immediately after the flood in a long lemon-storage shed in the Boboli Gardens, where the air was kept at 90% relative humidity, they have been slowly exposed to drier air in order to keep them from warping. In the Fortezza the humidity is now 60%, and the panels are still not fully dry. Says Restorer Vittorio Granchi: "We will still be treating art works damaged by the flood for another ten or even 15 years."

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