International Studies Conference “The history of the restoration of painting in Naples and in the Kingdom during the XIX century” Napoli, 14-16 ottobre 1999
The conference addressed the inedited theme of the history of the restoration of paintings in Naples and the Kingdom in the nineteenth century, sharing a horizon of research that the most careful thought today indicates as an indispensable prerequisite for correctly setting the problems of the protection of the cultural heritage.
Cross historical nodes that see in the background the institutional organization of the Farnese and then Bourbon collections, the formation and evolution of different museum models, up to the establishment of the National Museum of Naples, as well as the relationship with the surrounding territory, from archaeological excavations to churches, to the suppressed monasteries, it meant trying to connect the acquisitions, rearrangements and restorations of an immense patrimony of works of art in a new historiographical angle.
In the slow evolution of the techniques one often finds the repetition of the procedures handed down, while in the transformation of the figure of the restorer a different evolutionary movement is outlined. From the archive searches carried out, unknown names emerge and topics that have never before been addressed. The variety of cases in question aims to use the work as a primary source of knowledge, a point of observation and a privileged object of verification to grasp the meanings of a history of conservation which is also, inevitably, a history of taste. The nineteenth century, also in this field of study, offers itself in the multiplicity of its aspects: a century full of possibilities for different interpretations, which also constitute the background of our current history, taking the form of a historical place “of all our yesterdays”.
The Conference Proceedings were collected in the special volume of the Art Bulletin of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, edited by Maria Ida Catalano and Gabriella Prisco.
Promoters
Associazione Giovanni Secco Suardo
Istituto Centrale per il Restauro
Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici di Napoli
Participant Institutions
Associazione Giovanni Secco Suardo
Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici, Napoli
Istituto Universitario “Suor Orsola Benincasa”, Napoli
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Escuela Oficial de Artes Plasticas y Diseno “La Palma”, Madrid
Donors
Regione Campania, Assessorato all’Istruzione e Cultura
Comune di Napoli, Assessorato all’Identità, Cultura e Promozione dell’Immagine
Scientific Committee
Paolo Bensi (Accademia Lingustica di Genova)
Giuseppe Basile (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro)
Maria Ida Catalano (Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici, Napoli)
Michele Cordaro (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro)
Michele D’Elia (former direttore Istituto Centrale per il Restauro)
Marisa Dalai Emiliani (Università La Sapienza di Roma)
Stefano De Caro (Soprintendenza Archeologica di Napoli)
Felicita De Negri (Archivio di Stato di Napoli)
Arturo Fittipaldi (Università di Napoli)
Pietro Giovanni Guzzo (Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei)
Luisa Melillo (Soprintendenza Archeologica di Napoli)
Denise Pagano (Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici di Napoli)
Regina Poso (Università di Lecce)
Gabriella Prisco (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro)
Lanfranco Secco Suardo (Associazione Giovanni Secco Suardo)
Nicola Spinosa (Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici, Napoli)
Fiorella Sricchia Santoro (Università di Napoli)