Scientific analyses, restorations and preventative actions on the works of Antonello da Messina on the occasion of the exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale.

Edited by: Gianluca Poldi and Giovanni C. F. Villa

Published by: Silvana Editoriale

Text by: Alexandra Andresen, Simone Baiocco, Gioacchino Barbera, Giuseppe Basile, Roberto Bellucci, Roberto Boddi, Letizia Bonizzoni, Simone Caglio, Ciro Castelli, Marco Ciatti, Gian Luigi Colalucci, Jill Dunkerton, Susan Farnell, Fabio Frezzato, Cecilia Frosinini, Francesco Galletta, Marco Gargano, Ernesto Geraci, Elisabetta Giani, Vera Greco, Andreas Henning, Nicola Ludwig, Giovanni Molonia, Costanza Mora, Gianluca Poldi, Beatrice Provinciali, Albertina Soavi, Francesco Sondrio, Giovanni C. F. Villa and Isabella Villafranca Soissons

Organisational coordination: Graziella Gnozzi

Graphics plan: Italo Lupi and Marina Del Cinque

Art director: Giacomo Merli

Project plan and execution: Arti Grafiche Amilcare Pizzi Spa

Editorial Management: Dario Cimorelli

Editorial coordination: Anna Albano

Publication of the papers of the conference Indagini, restauri e prevenzione sulle opere di Antonello da Messina [Investigations, restorations and preventative actions on the works of Antonello da Messina] held on the occasion of the Antonello da Messina exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale (May 2006). The volume, edited by the Open Care Conservation and Restoration Department, contains a highly detailed study of the greater part of the master from Messina’s production, with a wide campaign of analysis in Italy and abroad and the main outcomes of the knowledge gaining analyses – almost exclusively of a non-invasive kind – carried out on the artist’s works. Some of the better known, recent restorations are viewed from an interdisciplinary perspective – those carried out, amongst others, by ICR, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure di Firenze and Open Care. These are equally compared to two future restorations: that of the beautiful Antwerp Crucifixion and of the Syracuse Annunciation. The volume also provides an opportunity to take stock of the high level restoration situation in Italy compared with the restoration theories and methodologies of the great European museums, including Dresden and the National Gallery in London.

The book, published by Silvana Editoriale and edited by Gianluca Poldi and Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa, is supported by the graphics of Italo Lupi.

Scuderie del Quirinale

Department of Conservation and Restoration