The case of Capogrossi in Rome: criteria and limits in the retouching process of a contemporary mural painting

Paola Mezzadri; Giancarlo  Sidoti

doi:10.37558/gec.v18i1.829

Paola Mezzadri ICR - Istituto Centrale per il Restauro
Giancarlo Sidoti Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Rome, Italy

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37558/gec.v18i1.829

Keywords: Capogrossi, contemporary mural painting, retouching techniques, synthetic polymers, natural polymers, pilot methodology

Abstract

This paper focuses on the reintegration treatments studied for a contemporary mural painting, which was designed and carried out by the Italian artist Giuseppe Capogrossi in 1954. This forgotten masterpiece is located on the ceilings of the main double staircase at the entrance of the Airone, an ex-cinema theatre in Rome, which was designed and planned during the Fifties by the famous architects Adalberto Libera, Eugenio Montuori and by the engineer Leo Calini. After a brief introduction based on the conservation history of the building and on the painting itself, it will be described criteria and limits in the reintegration process of a sample area of this highly degraded polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) based mural. The materials selected in the reintegration project, based on natural polymers and synthetic polymers, will be theoretically compared with one another and it will be explained why some of these could be appropriate and effective, while others could not chromatically work in this particular case.

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Author Biographies

Paola Mezzadri, ICR - Istituto Centrale per il Restauro

Paola Mezzadri holds degrees in “History of Art and Conservation of Cultural Heritage”(BA) from RomaTre University and in “Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage”(MA) from Istituto Centrale per il Restauro (ICR) of Rome, Italy. She has worked, as a Professional, on all the works of art executed in natural and artificial stones: mural paintings, mosaics, and all the decoration applied to the architectural field collaborating with several Institutions such as The Vatican Museums, The Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, The International Institute for Restoration and Preservation Studies. She has made also experiences abroad in Portugal in the retouching field of oil paints materials both on wall and on canvas but now she focused her research on conservation projects of synthetic paints on wall. At the moment she is Conservator-Restorer for the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro in Rome, Italy, doing conservation projects and teaching on wall paintings most of the time, improving her knowledge in the restoration field of contemporary art applied in the architectural field.

Giancarlo Sidoti, Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Rome, Italy

Giancarlo Sidoti holds a degree in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Messina (MA) and obtained a master specialization in Polymer Science at the Polytechnic of Milan. He was Visiting Researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign focusing on issues related to the polymeric crystal structure characterizations. Now he is Head of the “Materials Testing Laboratory” at the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro (ICR) in Rome, Italy. His main research field concerns the conservation of wall painting and of natural and porous building materials, as well as the characterisation of modern and contemporary art materials. He writes and teaches on these research fields at the ICR since 2001.

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