In Fonderia 3 2023

ARTE E FONDERIA
Interno della Fonderia Lucenti a Borgo Pio, Roma (fotografia di Mario
Micheli, 1971).
Interior of the Lucenti foundry in Borgo Pio, Rome (photograph by Mario
Micheli, 1971).
ma memorabile Conferenza Internazionale Le
prove non distruttive nella conservazione delle
opere d’arte, la cui prossima edizione, ben
quarant’anni dopo, è prevista per il mese di
novembre di quest’anno.
Ancora negli ultimi decenni sono stati rilevanti
gli studi compiuti da Edilberto Formigli sulla
statuaria greco-romana e le diverse edizioni
dei suoi laboratori sperimentali a Murlo che
vedevano la partecipazione di fonditori, archeologi
e studiosi di metallurgia artistica provenienti
da paesi diversi. Poi non devono essere
dimenticati i fondamentali contributi dello
storico dell’arte statunitense Richard E. Stone
(1939-2021), Conservatore Emerito del Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Ho un ricordo diretto
di “Dick” Stone risalente al 1985 quando egli
studiava i procedimenti di fusione dei bronzetti
italiani del grande museo di New York ed era in
grado di radiografarli senza l’aiuto dei tecnici.
In Italia, a partire dagli anni ’70, si sviluppava
una nuova impostazione metodologica nel
campo dello studio della statuaria in bronzo
antica, con la duplice finalità di contribuire alla
conservazione delle opere e per ricostruirne i
procedimenti metallurgici di produzione. I casi
di studio più rilevanti degli ultimi cinquant’anni
sono la quadriga marciana di Venezia, il monumento
equestre del Marco Aurelio a Roma,
i Bronzi di Riace, il Satiro di Mazara del Vallo
e più recentemente, con la sola finalità storico-tecnica,
i ritratti in bronzo di Michelangelo,
holes. The missing parts were integrated with
new cast bronze elements by Cavallari and attached
to the panels with pins. The brand new
concept of “reversible” restoration of ancient
metals was thus born. After the interlude with
Cesare Brandi, Cavallari would continue to run
the family foundry which would later be managed
by his son Carlo until its closure in 2020.
In Italy, of the first academics involved in archaeo-metallurgic
research, was the founder
and restorer Bruno Bearzi (1894-1983) who
already from the 1940s examined almost all
of the bronze sculpture in our country. Another
very important person was definitely the
chemist Massimo Leoni (1926-2000), active at
the “Guido Donegani” Experimental Institute of
Light Metals in Novara and who represents the
first union between the Italian metallurgy industry
and the conservation of ancient metals.
The great metals chemist Maurizio Marabelli
(1934-2017), who worked at the Central Institute
for Restoration, can be credited with having
made a decisive contribution to the application
in the ancient metals field of what are
called “nondestructive testing”, fundamental
methods for the quality control of industrial
metallurgy products. In 1983, together with
the Italian Nondestructive Testing Association,
Marabelli organised the first memorable international
conference Nondestructive testing in
the conservation of artworks, whose next edition,
no fewer than forty years later, is planned
for November this year.
Again in recent decades the studies conducted
by Edilberto Formigli of Greek and Roman
statuary and the different editions of his experimental
workshops in Murlo which saw the
participation of founders, archaeologists and
artistic metallurgy academics from different
countries. Not to be forgotten then are the
fundamental contributions of the art historian
Richard E. Stone (1939-2021), Conservator
Emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I
have a personal memory of “Dick” Stone dating
back to 1985 when I was studying the casting
procedures of the Italian bronze statues in the
great museum in New York and he was able to
x-ray them without the help of technicians.
In Italy, from the 1970s, a new methodological
approach was developed in the study of ancient
bronze statuary, with the dual purpose
of contributing to the conservation of works
and to reconstruct their metallurgic production
108 In Fonderia