Historical research attempted, over the last decades, to close some of the gaps created between artworks and their provenance to enable a complete sense of the original context, which new 3D technology allows us to visualize, going well beyond written description or simple graphic recreation, and leaving future generations with a memory of culturally complex systems, now fragmented and often no longer accessible, while the interaction between the Humanities and Digital Heritage continues to solicit more profound reflections and new knowledge. Among the 438 artworks presented by Lionello Venturi in Pitture italiane in America (1931), are two detached frescoes preserved at the Worcester Art Museum, originally part of a series of sacred frescoes painted at the end of the XIII century in a Clarissan convent located not far from Spoleto, called Le Palazze. The frescoes of complex and articulated iconography, painted by an anonymous Maestro, are of such high quality that Roberto Longhi described it as «the splendid series of the Palazze in Spoleto» (1957). In the 1920s, most of the frescoes were removed, and some fragments and entire scenes were purchased by five museums in the American cities of Boston, Bryn Athyn, Cambridge, Hartford, and Worcester. In 1964, another scene and the remaining sinopias were detached and, together with other frescoes found later in another room, are now exhibited in the National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto. Through the analysis of the case study involving the frescoes of the Palazze, the article aims to be a reflection, on the one hand, on the destiny of works that are musealized but invisible because in storage, then on the Art Restitution, on the other hand, on the relationship between scientific research, also aimed at the production of digital tools to make accessible and understandable the cultural heritage, and museum communication, which does not always resort to the use of such tools adequately.
«Hanno attraversato l'Atlantico e sono adesso in mani sicure»: gli affreschi del monastero di S. Maria inter Angelos di Spoleto tra anastilosi virtuale e fruizione museale negata.
Fachechi, Grazia Maria
2025
Abstract
Historical research attempted, over the last decades, to close some of the gaps created between artworks and their provenance to enable a complete sense of the original context, which new 3D technology allows us to visualize, going well beyond written description or simple graphic recreation, and leaving future generations with a memory of culturally complex systems, now fragmented and often no longer accessible, while the interaction between the Humanities and Digital Heritage continues to solicit more profound reflections and new knowledge. Among the 438 artworks presented by Lionello Venturi in Pitture italiane in America (1931), are two detached frescoes preserved at the Worcester Art Museum, originally part of a series of sacred frescoes painted at the end of the XIII century in a Clarissan convent located not far from Spoleto, called Le Palazze. The frescoes of complex and articulated iconography, painted by an anonymous Maestro, are of such high quality that Roberto Longhi described it as «the splendid series of the Palazze in Spoleto» (1957). In the 1920s, most of the frescoes were removed, and some fragments and entire scenes were purchased by five museums in the American cities of Boston, Bryn Athyn, Cambridge, Hartford, and Worcester. In 1964, another scene and the remaining sinopias were detached and, together with other frescoes found later in another room, are now exhibited in the National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto. Through the analysis of the case study involving the frescoes of the Palazze, the article aims to be a reflection, on the one hand, on the destiny of works that are musealized but invisible because in storage, then on the Art Restitution, on the other hand, on the relationship between scientific research, also aimed at the production of digital tools to make accessible and understandable the cultural heritage, and museum communication, which does not always resort to the use of such tools adequately.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
