|
A long-awaited event, indeed a momentous occasion in
the panorama of Italian Cultural Affairs, marking the
completion of a great visionary process: the Palazzo
Madama in Turin is one of the most representative
buildings in the city's thousand-year-old history, and
the imposing and spectacular home of the Municipal
Museum of Ancient Art. And it has just re-opened its
doors after being closed for eighteen years, during
which time it has been subjected to investigations and
surveys, restorations and renovations to a degree that
has rarely, if ever, been seen before. Hundreds of
people have been involved in the undertaking, which
could not have been achieved without the commitment and
support, in conjunction with Turin's City Council, of
the sole private financer, the Fondazione CRT.
Days before Christmas the doors re-open again on a
building that has been completely restored at a
historic, artistic and functional level, including the
complete reorganization of the museum's collection to
show it to best advantage - a vast and heterogeneous
collection that Palazzo Madama has housed since 1934.
Visitors may once again climb the grand Staircase by
Juvarra, wander through the archaeological area of the
Mediaeval Court to the magnificent baroque rooms of the
piano nobile and the apartments of the two dowager
queens (Christine of France and Maria Giovanna Battista
Savoy-Nemours), visit the Senate Room, where the
business of the chamber was conducted just after the
Unification of Italy, and the large rooms on the second
floor where the museum's important collection of
decorative arts is housed, and from where stunning views
of the city are to be had.
The approval of the "Palazzo Madama Project" in 1998,
after a difficult and uncertain period, marked the
beginning of a new energetic phase, the aim of which was
to combine architectural restoration and the
reconstruction of past features with the requirements of
a modern museum in terms of how works are displayed, use
of space and services, that is, to reorganize the museum
proper at the same time. Since then, the following work
has been undertaken: an architectural survey of the
building, using modern computer technology, and an
archaeological survey; a series of rigorous
stratigraphic tests on decorative surfaces and stucchi;
a study of the buildings artefacts; and several studies
regarding the history and archives. More than 40
scientists were involved in the work, which helped to
shed light on how the building and various uses of the
Palace evolved and the changing function of various
areas over time.
The walls, ceilings and decoration of the building were
restored, the baroque aspects in particular (plaster and
stucco decoration, wood panelling and stone or glass
artefacts, transoms and floors, mirrors and frescoes),
bringing to light original colours and decorations that
had been completely obscured. A case in point is the
façade and Filippo Juvarra's Staircase, where the great
architect's original spectacular decoration re-emerged,
another example is the restored nineteenth-century
display in the upper registers of the walls and in the
Senate Room ceiling.
Parallel to this, work was also carried out on creating
a more functional exhibition space and completely
restoring the collections in preparation for their new
displays, an undertaking that also included
computerizing the entire catalogue: circa 70.000 works
-- such is the extent of the imposing collection of
Turin's Museum of Ancient Art, with works from the
Middle Ages to the Baroque -- and more than 10,000
digital images. Altogether more than 150 restorers
worked on various stages of the restoration, while 71
firms were involved in the architectural restoration and
the conservation of the museum's collections. The range
of mediums – painting, sculpture, illuminations,
maiolica and porcelain, gold and silver, textiles and
furnishings – testifies to the wealth and complexity of
ten centuries of Italian and European artistic output.
|
 |
|
While the new arrangement of the museum closely
follows the historic line of the building, the
display focuses on the dialogue between ancient and
modern. |
|
|
 |
|
Palazzo Madama in Turin is one of the most
representative buildings in the city's
thousand-year-old history, and the imposing and
spectacular home of the Municipal Museum of Ancient
Art. |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Days before Christmas the doors re-open again on a
building that has been completely restored at a
historic, artistic and functional level, including
the complete reorganization of the museum's
collection to show it to best advantage - a vast and
heterogeneous collection that Palazzo Madama has
housed since 1934. |
|
|
The idea underpinning the new lay-out of the museum, which
extends over four floors corresponding to four historic
periods, was to set up a constant dialogue between the
setting and the works, the technical descriptions of which
have been rationalized and updated, not to mention the more
than 900 works purchased since 1988 (testifying to the
museum's continuing vitality), accompanied by completely new
commentary comprising more than 3000 legends, 35
descriptions, and 150 in-depth multimedia displays.
The Mediaeval Lapidarium, at moat level, contains exhibits
from the early Middle Ages: sculpture, mosaics and jewellery
(including the valuable Desena Treasure) dating from late
Antiquity to the Romanesque period. The fifteenth-century
rooms of the ground floor are given over to a period that
goes from the Gothic to the Renaissance, with paintings,
sculptures, illuminated manuscripts and other valuable
pieces (such as the thirteenth-century Guala Bicchieri
casket), most of which are from Piedmont and date from the
thirteenth-sixteenth century. In the circular room in the
Treasure Tower, one of the fifteenth-century towers in the
old castle, selected masterpieces are to be found, including
the famous Portrait of a Man by Antonella da Messina, the
codex of the Très belles Heures de Notre Dame de Jean de
Berry, illuminated by Jan Van Eyck, and a series of objets
d'art from the late sixteenth-early seventeenth century,
from Carlo Emanuele's "cabinet of wonder".
The first floor houses the modern picture gallery, with
works from the Savoy collections (such as The Assumption and
Saint Jerome by Orazio Gentileschi, landscapes by Vittorio
Amedeo Cignaroli, and work by Jean Miel and Bartolomeo
Guidobono) and a major selection of furniture by skilled
Piedmontese, Italian and French cabinet-makers. Finally on
the top floor is the museum's core decorative arts
collection of maiolica and porcelain, glass and ivory,
textiles and lace, gold and metal work and the stunning
collection of graffito-gilded and painted glass, a unique
collection, in terms of size and quality, donated to the
Museum by Marchese Emanuele Tapparelli d'Azeglio in 1890.
In reinterpreting the museum two notable decisions have been
taken: one, to use the Senate Room for temporary
exhibitions, access to which is at the top of the monumental
staircase, and two, to allow access – almost an integral
part of a stroll through the Piazza Castello – to Filippo
Juvarra's avant-corps and the great hall in the Mediaeval
Court on the ground floor, where the archaeological
excavations and glassed-in walkway offer a fascinating
glimpse of the many layers and various building phases.
While the new arrangement of the museum closely follows the
historic line of the building, the display focuses on the
dialogue between ancient and modern. Therefore alongside
planning new structures to show off the collections to best
advantage, it has been decided to maintain the 73 display
cabinets in the Decorative Arts Rooms, which were built by
Fontana Arte of Milan in the 1930s (in Giò Ponti's day). The
wooden frames have been restored; the lights, the generously
curved glass fronts, the mirrors and shelves have been
replaced and their functionality restored.
Finally, in the spirit of its new relationship with the
public, the Museum offers the following services: a
specialized bookshop and a general interest bookshop; the
Caffé Madama in the Camera della Galleria hung with
paintings by Cignaroli, and in the beautiful setting of the
North Verandah, designed by Filippo Juvarra; there is a
separate seating area for relaxing; audio guides – also
available for the partially sighted; archives can be
accessed by the public; and a panoramic glass lift installed
in one of the old towers offers views of the changing face
of Turin.
|
|
|
|
