Raphael’s epic fresco cycle, the Loggias, is getting a makeover.
The Vatican Museums launched a restoration of the Renaissance masterpiece this week, unprecedented in scale: more than 20 experts are set to clean the artwork spanning 65 meters (nearly 215 feet) in the Apostolic Palace, also known as the Pope’s residence. The project will last five years, addressing a slew of restoration concerns accrued over the centuries, the weather being chief among them. According to Italian media, windows will be installed to stabilize the corridors’ climate.
Created between 1517 and 1519 by Raphael for Pope Leo X, the Loggias are divided into 13 bays on the second floor of the Apostolic Palace, overlooking a central covered promenade. Scenes from the Old and New Testaments unfold across its length, set within an elaborate decorative scheme inspired by Roman ornamentation.
The conservation team has noted numerous spots of deterioration in the paint, likely a consequence of the microclimate created by the glass windows surrounding the Loggias, which, ironically, were installed in the 19th century to shield the artwork from the elements.
The intentions were pure: for roughly 400 years, the Loggias were fully exposed to rain, sunlight, snow, and humidity. Il Messaggero reports that preliminary analysis of the frescoes found that two decorated sections on an angled portion of the wall were inadvertently sheltered from light, preserving the chromatic brilliance of their original state.
Angela Cerreta, deputy head restorer for paintings and wooden materials, told the Art Newspaper that restorers will first attend to unstable paint before cleaning the frescoes with fiber lasers. After that, the team will color-match sections needing retouching using techniques that keep original passages visually distinct from restorations. Work is currently concentrated on four bays, before moving to the rest of the gallery.
“These adhesives shrink and peel off the paint,” Cerreta said. “If you don’t remove these adhesives and protective films, they’ll keep stripping the color.”
The restoration is supported by $5.5 million from the “Legacy of Raphael: The Vatican and Beyond” initiative, a World Monuments Fund project including restoration, training, and digital documentation, itself funded by a $14.3 million donation from the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation. The Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums also funded the installation of the new windows, among other contributions.
